Journal of medical microbiology
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Owing to the difficulties in identifying anaerobic, non-sporulating, Gram-positive bacilli in clinical microbiology laboratories, the epidemiology and clinical spectrum of disease of many of these bacteria have been poorly understood. The application of 16S rRNA gene sequencing in characterizing bacteraemia due to anaerobic, non-sporulating Gram-positive bacilli during a 4-year period is described. The first case of Olsenella uli bacteraemia, in a patient with acute cholangitis, is also reported. ⋯ Immunocompromised patients with clinically significant bacteraemia due to anaerobic, non-sporulating, Gram-positive bacilli other than P. acnes should be treated with appropriate antibiotics. The unexpected frequency of isolation of Eggerthella from blood cultures and its association with clinically significant disease suggest that this genus is probably of high pathogenicity. Further studies to look for specific virulence factors are warranted.
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Chlamydia pneumoniae is a frequent causative agent of acute respiratory disease. To assess whether C. pneumoniae plays a role in persistent cough, the prevalence of C. pneumoniae infection in adult patients with persistent cough was investigated. Nasopharyngeal swabs and serology samples from 366 adult patients with a persistent cough lasting in excess of 2 weeks and 106 control subjects were analysed for bacterial isolation and by PCR. ⋯ However, when patients were treated with clarithromycin for 5-6 weeks, their symptoms disappeared completely and the results of their cultures and/or PCR for C. pneumoniae became negative. These data suggest that C. pneumoniae infection may cause persistent cough in adults. Furthermore, these data also indicate that it may be necessary to eradicate the organism when C. pneumoniae is detected by culture and/or PCR in patients with persistent cough.
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Letter Case Reports
Taenia infestation in the appendix: a report of two cases.
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A paleomicrobiological study was performed on 37 skeletal tissue specimens from cadavers in the necropolis of Thebes-West, Upper Egypt, (2120-500 BC) and four from the necropolis of Abydos (3000 BC). The subjects had typical macromorphological evidence of osseous tuberculosis (n = 3), morphological alterations that were not specific, but probably resulted from tuberculosis (n = 17), or were without morphological osseous changes (n = 21). DNA was extracted from these bone samples and amplified by PCR with a primer pair that recognised the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex insertion sequence IS6110. ⋯ A positive result for M. tuberculosis DNA was seen in two of the three cases with typical morphological signs of tuberculosis and amplifiable DNA, in five of 13 non-specific, but probable cases (including two cases from c. 3000 BC), but also in two of 14 cases without pathological bone changes. These observations confirm that tuberculosis may be diagnosed unequivocally in skeletal material from ancient Egypt, even dating back to c. 3000 BC. As a positive molecular reaction was observed in most of the typical cases of skeletal tuberculosis, in about one-third of non-specific, but probable tuberculous osseous changes and, surprisingly, in about one-seventh of unremarkable samples, this suggests that infection with M. tuberculosis was relatively frequent in ancient Egypt.