Tubo-ovarian abscess in a patient with cri du chat syndrome: A case report

A tubo-ovarian abscess is an infection that occurs as a sequela of pelvic inflammatory disease. There is no reported association between a tubo-ovarian abscess and cri du chat syndrome in the medical literature. Herein, we report the case of a 44-year-old woman with cri du chat syndrome who was subsequently diagnosed with a tubo-ovarian abscess. After emergent laparotomy, simple total hysterectomy, and bilateral adnexectomy, the patient was discharged 13 days postoperatively without complications

Maternal septic shock due to Acinetobacter lwoffii infection: a case report

The incidence of Acinetobacter infections has increased in recent years. Acinetobacter infections are resistant to most antibiotics and can be found in hospitalized patients. Pregnancies complicated by severe sepsis or septic shock are associated with a higher rate of preterm labor and delivery, fetal infection, and operative delivery. This case report describes septic shock due to Acinetobacter lwoffii infection in the 31st week of gestation. A 47-year-old woman, with a gestation of 31 weeks and one day, presented with a fever, and signs of bacterial infection on laboratory tests. Although the patient was started on tazobactam/piperacillin, she went into septic shock, and was transferred to our hospital. Cesarean section was performed at a gestation of 31 weeks and 4 days because of severe maternal pneumonia and non-reassuring fetal status. A. lwoffii was detected in blood cultures collected at the previous hospital, and susceptibility to piperacillin and meropenem to A. lwoffii was confirmed. The pneumonia responded to antibiotic treatment and there were no findings of infection in the neonate. Maternal sepsis is an infrequent but important complication, causing significant maternal and fetal morbidity and fetal and neonatal mortality; therefore, early antibiotic therapy is required to improve the clinical outcome

Multiplexed bioluminescence imaging of cancer cell response to hypoxia and inflammation in the caudal-artery injection model of bone metastasis during zoledronic acid treatment

Aim: Therapeutic agents suppressing bone remodeling have been clinically approved to delay metastatic progression and skeletal-related events in patients with bone metastasis. However, therapeutic agents including zoledronic acid (ZA) are insufficient to regress established bone metastasis. Therefore, new treatment strategies are desired, and unraveling the status of cancer cells during bone metastatic progression will help develop therapeutic strategies.Methods: We developed a unique multiplexed reporter system for bioluminescent imaging (MRS-BLI) using three luciferase reporter genes. This system allows for the noninvasive and quantitative monitoring of tumor growth and activities of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), which are the key transcriptional factors in response to inflammation and hypoxia, respectively. PC-3/MRS-BLI, a human prostate cancer cell line that stably retains the MRS-BLI reporter genes, was applied to the caudal-artery injection model of bone metastasis to observe the status of cancer cells during bone metastasis development and ZA treatment (< 1 month).Results: MRS-BLI reveals key events during the bone metastasis development: NF-κB and HIF are activated in cancer cells after migration to the bone marrow and are transiently reduced, followed by rapid activation before proliferation begins. ZA treatment suppresses the growth of metastasized cancer cells by suppressing NF-κB and HIF activities that may be indirectly induced by osteoclast activation.Conclusion: By visualizing the NF-κB and HIF activities of PC-3/MRS-BLI in bone, MRS-BLI has enabled new discoveries regarding the regulation of bone metastases. Further analysis of the progression of bone metastases using MRS-BLI may provide important information for developing new therapeutic strategies

Maternal septic shock due to Acinetobacter lwoffii infection: a case report

The incidence of Acinetobacter infections has increased in recent years. Acinetobacter infections are resistant to most antibiotics and can be found in hospitalized patients. Pregnancies complicated by severe sepsis or septic shock are associated with a higher rate of preterm labor and delivery, fetal infection, and operative delivery. This case report describes septic shock due to Acinetobacter lwoffii infection in the 31st week of gestation. A 47-year-old woman, with a gestation of 31 weeks and one day, presented with a fever, and signs of bacterial infection on laboratory tests. Although the patient was started on tazobactam/piperacillin, she went into septic shock, and was transferred to our hospital. Cesarean section was performed at a gestation of 31 weeks and 4 days because of severe maternal pneumonia and non-reassuring fetal status. A. lwoffii was detected in blood cultures collected at the previous hospital, and susceptibility to piperacillin and meropenem to A. lwoffii was confirmed. The pneumonia responded to antibiotic treatment and there were no findings of infection in the neonate. Maternal sepsis is an infrequent but important complication, causing significant maternal and fetal morbidity and fetal and neonatal mortality; therefore, early antibiotic therapy is required to improve the clinical outcome