130 research outputs found
Molecular typing of multidrug-resistant Salmonella Blockley outbreak isolates from Greece.
During 1998, a marked increase (35 cases) in human gastroenteritis due to Salmonella Blockley, a serotype rarely isolated from humans in the Western Hemisphere, was noted in Greece. The two dominant multidrug-resistance phenotypes (23 of the 29 isolates studied) were associated with two distinct DNA fingerprints, obtained by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of genomic DNA
Susceptibility testing of Haemophilus influenzae— an international collaborative study in quality assessment
In order to compare the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in different geographical areas, it is necessary to ensure that agreement is achieved between laboratories on the assignment of strains to ‘susceptible' and ‘resistant' categories. An international quality assessment study, involving 15 laboratories in eight countries, was performed to investigate the standard of performance of the susceptibility testing of Haemophilus influenzae. One hundred and fifty strains of H. influenzae were distributed from the London Hospital Medical College (LHMC) to all laboratories who were asked to test the susceptibility of the strains to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, trimethoprim, cephalosporins and ciprofloxacin. Laboratories were also asked to provide the details of methodology to test the susceptibility. Significant discrepancy between the LHMC and the participating laboratories appeared in the detection of resistance to ampicillin (especially β-lactamase-negative strains resistant to ampicillin) as well as the assignment of susceptibility and resistance to chloramphenicol, tetracycline and trimethoprim. Often these reflected the use of inappropriate breakpoints which led to erroneous assignment of susceptibility. Other variations including disc content, medium and supplement, inoculum as well as failure to measure zone sizes properly also led to some repeating anomalie
VIM-1 Metallo-β-lactamase in Acinetobacter baumannii
In 2004 and 2005, 5 metallo-β-lactamase (MBL)-positive Acinetobacter baumannii isolates were found in 2 Greek hospitals. Isolates were unrelated and carried blaVIM-1 in a class 1 integron; blaOXA-51- and blaOXA-58-like carbapenemase genes were also detected. VIM-1 MBL in Acinetobacter spp. causes concern, given the increasing resistance of this species
Assessment of resolution and intercenter reproducibility of results of genotyping Staphylococcus aureus by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of SmaI macrorestriction fragments: a multicenter study
Twenty well-characterized isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus were used to study the optimal resolution and interlaboratory
reproducibility of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of DNA
macrorestriction fragments. Five identical isolates (one PFGE type), 5
isolates that produced related PFGE subtypes, and 10 isolates with unique
PFGE patterns were analyzed blindly in 12 different laboratories by
in-house protocols. In several laboratories a standardized PFGE protocol
with a commercial kit was applied successfully as well. Eight of the
centers correctly identified the genetic homogeneity of the identical
isolates by both the in-house and standard protocols. Four of 12
laboratories failed to produce interpretable data by the standardized
protocol, due to technical problems (primarily plug preparation). With the
five rel
Risk factors for infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales: an international matched case-control-control study (EURECA)
Cases were patients with complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), complicated intraabdominal (cIAI), pneumonia or bacteraemia from other sources (BSI-OS) due to CRE; control groups were patients with infection caused by carbapenem-susceptible Enterobacterales (CSE), and by non-infected patients, respectively. Matching criteria included type of infection for CSE group, ward and duration of hospital admission. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify risk factors. Findings Overall, 235 CRE case patients, 235 CSE controls and 705 non-infected controls were included. The CRE infections were cUTI (133, 56.7%), pneumonia (44, 18.7%), cIAI and BSI-OS (29, 12.3% each). Carbapenemase genes were found in 228 isolates: OXA-48/like, 112 (47.6%), KPC, 84 (35.7%), and metallo-beta-lactamases, 44 (18.7%); 13 produced two. The risk factors for CRE infection in both type of controls were (adjusted OR for CSE controls; 95% CI; p value) previous colonisation/infection by CRE (6.94; 2.74-15.53; <0.001), urinary catheter (1.78; 1.03-3.07; 0.038) and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics, as categorical (2.20; 1.25-3.88; 0.006) and time-dependent (1.04 per day; 1.00-1.07; 0.014); chronic renal failure (2.81; 1.40-5.64; 0.004) and admission from home (0.44; 0.23-0.85; 0.014) were significant only for CSE controls. Subgroup analyses provided similar results. Interpretation The main risk factors for CRE infections in hospitals with high incidence included previous coloni-zation, urinary catheter and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics
A Thin‐Layer Chromatographic Technique for Rapid Estimation of Bacterial Lipases
Summary. A thin‐layer chromatographic technique for the estimation of lipase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and staphylococci is described. The technique needs a short incubation period (4 h), while the subsequent procedure is quite simple and rapid. The validity of the technique was established by testing 56 strains of Ps. aeruginosa and 35 strains of staphylococci. The results strongly support the usefulness of the technique which can be quite easily applied to routine use. Copyright © 1974, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserve
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