St. Petri Cathedral Schleswig: non-destructive geophysical damage analysis of medieval plaster

Non-destructive geophysical methods were applied to detect moisture at the St. Petri Cathedral in Schleswig. One of them is thermography, which allows to distinguish between intact and defective medieval plaster. Additionally, thesuccess of a restoration can be determined by ultrasonic surface measurements

Serratia marcescens internalization and replication in human bladder epithelial cells

BACKGROUND: Serratia marcescens, a frequent agent of catheterization-associated bacteriuria, strongly adheres to human bladder epithelial cells in culture. The epithelium normally provides a barrier between lumal organisms and the interstitium; the tight adhesion of bacteria to the epithelial cells can lead to internalization and subsequent lysis. However, internalisation was not shown yet for S. marcescens strains. METHODS: Elektronmicroscopy and the common gentamycin protection assay was used to assess intracellular bacteria. Via site directed mutagenesis, an hemolytic negative isogenic Serratia strain was generated to point out the importance of hemolysin production. RESULTS: We identified an important bacterial factor mediating the internalization of S. marcescens, and lysis of epithelial cells, as the secreted cytolysin ShlA. Microtubule filaments and actin filaments were shown to be involved in internalization. However, cytolysis of eukaryotic cells by ShlA was an interfering factor, and therefore hemolytic-negative mutants were used in subsequent experiments. Isogenic hemolysin-negative mutant strains were still adhesive, but were no longer cytotoxic, did not disrupt the cell culture monolayer, and were no longer internalized by HEp-2 and RT112 bladder epithelial cells under the conditions used for the wild-type strain. After wild-type S. marcescens became intracellular, the infected epithelial cells were lysed by extended vacuolation induced by ShlA. In late stages of vacuolation, highly motile S. marcescens cells were observed in the vacuoles. S. marcescens was also able to replicate in cultured HEp-2 cells, and replication was not dependent on hemolysin production. CONCLUSION: The results reported here showed that the pore-forming toxin ShlA triggers microtubule-dependent invasion and is the main factor inducing lysis of the epithelial cells to release the bacteria, and therefore plays a major role in the development of S. marcescens infections

Prospective evaluation of blood cultures in a Turkish university hospital: epidemiology, microbiology and patient outcome

The aims of this prospective study were to: (1) determine the rate of blood culture contamination; (2) describe and compare the epidemiologic, clinical and microbiological characteristics of hospital- and community-acquired bloodstream infections; and (3) determine the mortality resulting from bloodstream infections. The rate of true bacteremia was 12.1%, and 10.7% of cultures were contaminated. Of the 567 episodes of bloodstream infection, 73.4% were hospital-acquired, and 26.6% were community-acquired. The most commonly isolated microorganisms were staphylococci (44%, methicillin resistant 69.4%), enterococci (15%) and Escherichia coli (12.5%) in hospital-acquired episodes, and Brucella spp. (21.9%), E. coli (19.2%) and Staphylococcus aureus (14.6%, methicillin resistant 9.1%) in community-acquired episodes. While the overall mortality rate was 25.4%, death attributable to bloodstream infections was 16.6% in hospital-acquired episodes and 13.9% in community-acquired episodes. The highest mortality occurred in patients with bacteremia due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (37.5%) in hospital-acquired episodes, and in patients with bacteremia due to Streptococcus pneumoniae (50%) in community-acquired episodes. Underlying diseases, severity of illness, presence of bladder catheter, previous use of antibiotics, tracheal intubation and adequacy of treatment were found to be significantly associated with death

A Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT study of regional cerebral blood flow in drug-free schizophrenic patients with deficit and non-deficit syndrome

WOS: 000184973700006PubMed ID: 12928108Twenty-nine patients with DSM-IV diagnoses of schizophrenia were categorized into deficit syndrome (n = 14) and non-deficit syndrome (n = 15) subgroups on the basis of the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome. The patients, who had all been free of antipsychotic medication for at least 3 weeks, and 17 sex- and age-matched normal controls were studied with single-photon emission computed tomography with Tc-99m HMPAO. Age at onset, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) total scores, BPRS positive symptom subscores and duration of illness were similar between the two schizophrenic subgroups. As expected, the deficit patients had more negative symptoms than the non-deficit patients. There were no statistically significant correlations between clinical parameters and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) values. The deficit syndrome subgroup showed diminished rCBF in the frontal regions bilaterally, right parietal regions and right superior temporal region compared with the control groups. Deficit patients showed significantly lower rCBF perfusion ratios in the right superior and inferior frontal cortex than did the non-deficit patients. No differences were detected between the controls and the non-deficit schizophrenic patients in terms of rCBF perfusion indices. The results of the present study confirm previous reports of different patterns of rCBF in deficit vs. non-deficit schizophrenic subgroups. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Tc-99 HMPAO SPECT study of regional cerebral blood flow in olanzapine-treated schizophrenic patients

12th Annual Meeting of the European-College-of-Neuropsychopharmacology -- SEP 21-25, 1999 -- LONDON, ENGLANDWOS: 000182368700005PubMed ID: 12664310Dopamine D-2 blocking typical antipsychotic drugs are known to change the cerebral perfusion patterns of schizophrenic patients, especially in the frontal cortex and basal ganglia. In recent years atypical antipsychotics such as olanzapine, which have high serotonin 5-HT2A/dopamine D-2 occupation ratios, have been shown to be more effective in the treatment of schizophrenia symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) of the schizophrenic patients treated with olanzapine in a within-subject design. Twenty-four patients with schizophrenia participated as subjects in the study. Each subject was scanned in a medication-free state and after 6 weeks of 10 mg/day fixed dose olanzapine treatment. Despite the clinical improvement seen in the patients, repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that olanzapine produced no significant changes in cortical rCBF after the six-week treatment. This finding indicates that unlike typical antipsychotics olanzapine has no negative effect on cortical cerebral perfusion patterns of schizophrenic patients.Euorpean Coll Neuropsychopharmaco

P300 changes in major depressive disorders with and without psychotic features

Background: Although there are many P300 studies in depressive patients, only a few studies have focused on the effects of psychotic features in depression and of response to antidepressant treatment on P300. This study was designed to investigate possible differences in the P300 component of event-related potentials in depressed patients with and without psychotic features and if any, to see whether these changes altered with treatment of depression. Methods: Thirty-six patients with major depressive disorder diagnosed according to DSM-IV, and 20 healthy control subjects were involved in the study. Sixteen of the patients had psychotic features. Auditory P300 was recorded before treatment and after remission. Results: Pretreatment P300 latencies were significantly prolonged both in patients with and without psychotic features compared to controls. Pretreatment P300 amplitudes were significantly decreased only in the patients with psychotic features. After treatment of depression, delayed P300 latencies in both patient groups and decreased P300 amplitude in the patient group with psychotic features were normalized. Limitations: The medication status of the patient was heterogeneous. Conclusion: Since the impairment seems to be improved by drug treatment, prolonged P300 latency might be a state marker for a major depressive episode, and decreased P300 amplitude which is correlated with paranoid ideation might be more associated with psychotic subtype. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved