bacteriology, medical Microbiology, Infectious diseases

STUDY AIM: Evaluation of detection and drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in patients from the Łódzkie Voivodship in the period 2009 - 2013. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data presented in the study include information obtained while diagnosing patients from the Łódzkie Voivodship in order to detect infections with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the period 2009-2013. RESULTS: In 2009-2013 we analyzed clinical specimens for the purpose of detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis...

Surveillance reports on infectious agents and their antibiotic resistance patterns as well as on the usage of antibiotics are now enforced by law for many medical institutions in Germany. However, specific practice-oriented recommendations concerning the appropriate extent and informative mode of presentation are lacking. This consensus statement resulted from the experience from five German university hospitals in handling data from infection epidemiology and in the various possibilities for the presentation of surveillance reports...

PATIENT: Male, 25 FINAL DIAGNOSIS: Lemierre's disease Symptoms: Back pain • fever • headache • tachycardia • tachypnoe MEDICATION: - Clinical Procedure: - Specialty: Infectious Diseases. OBJECTIVE: Rare disease. BACKGROUND: Lemierre's disease, also known as the forgotten disease, postanginal sepsis, or necrobacillosis, was first reported in 1890 by Courmont and Cade, but it was Dr. Andre Lemierre, a professor of microbiology, who described this disease in 1936...

OBJECTIVES: Culture positivity of percutaneous aspiration material" is not included in the current bacteriological criteria for diagnosis of pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) diseases, which were published by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)/American Thoracic Society (ATS) in 2007 or those released by the Japanese Society for Tuberculosis in 2008. However, percutaneous aspiration is a reliable technique for the detection of causative microorganisms isolated from the focus of infection...

The External Quality Control Program of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica [SEIMC]) includes controls for bacteriology, serology, mycology, parasitology, mycobacteria, virology, and molecular microbiology. This article presents the most relevant conclusions and lessons from the 2011 controls. Overall, the results obtained in 2011 confirm the excellent skill and good technical standards found in previous years...

BACKGROUND: Urogenital infections and inflammation are a significant etiologic factor in male infertility. METHODS: Data for this review were acquired by a systematic search of the medical literature. Relevant cross-references were also taken into account. RESULTS: We address infectious and inflammatory diseases of different compartments of the male genital tract and discuss their andrological sequelae. Chronic urethritis might be responsible for silent genital tract inflammation with negative impact on semen quality...

The search for the etiologic agents of periodontal diseases started in the Golden Era of medical bacteriology, when the etiologic agents of many bacterial infections were isolated and characterized. After the initial enthusiasm in establishing the infectious nature and the true agents of periodontal diseases, this concept was virtually ignored for the next four decades. Until the early 1970s treatment regimens based on the non-specific plaque hypothesis were directed towards a non-specific reduction in plaque amount...

Infective endocarditis is an infection of cardiovascular structures which is typically caused by bacteria. Despite recent medical advances mortality reaches up to 26% which is even higher with mortality rates of up to 84% in complex cases leading to admission to intensive care units. The diagnosis is based on positive blood culture results with identical microorganisms and the demonstration of endocardial involvement. A rapid initiation of an adequate therapeutic regimen is important to prevent the patients from severe complications such as heart failure, uncontrolled infection or septic embolism...

OBJECTIVE: To describe physician diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for pediatric nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lymphadenitis, a disease for which surgical excision is recommended. METHODS: We surveyed members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Emerging Infections Network (EIN) and the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ASPO). We asked them to report clinical and microbiologic details of recent cases of NTM lymphadenitis seen in their practices...

OBJECTIVES: To analyse the characteristic features of patients with coexistence of gouty arthritis and pyarthrosis at our university hospital in southern Taiwan, an area with high prevalence of hyperuricemia and gout. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed for patients who had concomitant gouty and septic arthritis from July 1998 to June 2008. Clinical and laboratory data of these patients were analysed. Furthermore, a comparison was made with published cases in English literature...

Prof. Kazimierz Lachowicz, MD, Dipl. Medical Microbiology, was the founder and the first Director of the three regional branches of National Institute of Hygiene (NIH),--in Stanisławów (Eastern Poland) (1937-43), now in Ukrainian Ivano-Frankivsk, maritime in Gdynia (1945), now Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine, and in Gdańsk (1945-52). In NIH, Warsaw, 1953-75 he directed Intestinal Infection Laboratory of Bacteriological Dept., later founded and directed the National Shigella Centre as one of laboratories co-working with WHO for epidemiological and bacteriological surveillance of infectious diseases in Europe and in the some countries in the world...

The External Quality Control Program of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) includes controls for bacteriology, serology, mycology, parasitology, mycobacteria, virology and molecular microbiology. This article presents the most important conclusions and lessons drawn from the 2007 controls. As a whole, the results obtained in 2007 confirm the excellent skill and good technical standards found in previous years. However, erroneous results can be obtained in any laboratory and in clinically relevant determinations...

Direct detection technologies for pathogenic microorganisms are emerging to be applied in the diagnosis of serious bloodstream infections and infections at sterile body sites, as well as for quality control measures prior to the release of sterile blood products and to ascertain microbial safety of food. Standard blood cultures as the current gold standard for detection of bacteraemia/sepsis and other culture-based microbiological identification procedures are comparatively slow and have limited sensitivity for fastidious or slow-growing microorganisms...

PURPOSE: To assess age-related risk factors (RFs), microbiologic profile, and prognosis of infectious keratitis and create guidelines for prevention and treatment. METHODS: Retrospective review of patients with infectious keratitis admitted to 2 Dutch tertiary referral centers from January 2002 to December 2004. RESULTS: Forty-nine patients were admitted to the Academic Medical Center (Amsterdam) and 107 to the Rotterdam Eye Hospital. Mean age was 56...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the most successful bacterial parasites of humans, infecting over one-third of the population of the world as latent infection without clinical manifestations. Over 8.8 million new cases and nearly 2 million deaths by tuberculosis (TB) occur annually. TB poses a significant health threat to the world population. The goal of this symposium is to open new avenues for combating tuberculosis. The speakers have presented their data and provided control strategies against tuberculosis and pulmonary disease due to M...

Infectious diseases are common diseases all over the world. A recent World Health Organization report indicated that infectious diseases are now the world's biggest killer of children and young adults. Infectious diseases in non-industrialized countries caused 45% in all and 63% of death in early childhood. In developed countries, the emergence of new, rare or already-forgotten infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, Lyme disease and tuberculosis, has stimulated public interest and inspired commitments to surveillance and control...

Over the past few decades, transfusion medicine and haemotherapy have evolved into complex medical disciplines comprising a broad field of subspecialties such as immunohaematology, blood component production, haemapheresis and haemostaseology. Transfusion medicine is thus an important qualification at the interfaces of analytical laboratory medicine, pharmaceutical production and clinical disciplines such as internal medicine, anaesthesiology or surgery. Physicians specialising in transfusion medicine are valuable and competent partners for these related disciplines when it comes to safe, effective and tailored haemotherapy...

Quality assurance of the analytical processes performed at the clinical microbiology laboratory is mandatory and should be carried out by using external and internal quality control activities. External quality assessment programs allow intercomparison within laboratories, detection of errors, and evaluation of the suitability of some reagents or diagnostic kits for the purpose for which they were designed; these activities are also useful for continuous education. The program launched 15 years ago by the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology is based on sending typified materials along with a clinical and microbiological case related to these control materials...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk factors and the Candida species that cause candiduria in hospitalized patients via a case-control study. METHODS: We evaluated the results of the urine analysis of the specimens sent to the laboratories of Central Microbiology and the Department of Clinical Bacteriology and Infectious Diseases of Selcuk University Medical School, Konya, Turkey between January and December 2004. The urinary specimens, sent from hospitalized patients, obtained within 72 hours were evaluated...

Infectious diseases were rife during the early years of the Singapore Medical College, which was established in 1905. The current Department of Microbiology in the National University of Singapore (NUS) has its historical roots in the Departments of Bacteriology and Parasitology, which were established in 1925 and 1950 respectively. With the achievements since its inception, and with its present research focus on Infectious Diseases, Immunology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, it is poised to face the microbiological challenges of the 21st century...