In 29 patients with community-acquired pneumonia, 24 patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia and 35 patients with pneumonia in the immunocompromised host the diagnostic value of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) with quantitative bacterial and fungal cultures was studied; 32 patients with noninfectious pulmonary diseases and 14 healthy volunteers served as controls. An infectious etiology could be established in 81% of the pneumonia patients without differences between the three groups; significant infection was associated with colony counts of > or = 10(4) cfu/ml. Prior antibiotic therapy lowered the yield of BAL culture only in community-acquired pneumonia (94% vs 55% positive cultures in untreated vs pretreated patients, p < 0.02). Furthermore the culture results were related to the radiographic extension of pulmonary infiltrates (92% positive cultures in multilobar vs 54% in lobar or segmental infiltrates, p < 0.001). Therapeutic consequences of BAL were shown by resistance of the isolated organisms to predefined empiric treatment regimens in 41% community-acquired pneumonia, 43% pneumonia in the immunocompromised host and 67% hospital-acquired pneumonia patients.

The isolation of an unspecific carboxylesterase from rat liver microsomes is reported. The purification is 66‐fold at a yield of about 20%. The enzyme is one of 5 esterase/amidase variants recently separated and corresponds to the fraction designated E1. The enzyme is homogeneous in disc electrophoresis, dodecylsulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and in analytical ultracentrifugation, but exhibits slight heterogeneity in isoelectric focusing. Its amino acid composition is presented. The molecular weight of rat liver esterase E1 is 177000 (equilibrium sedimentation), the subunit weight 61 500 (dodecylsulfate disc electrophoresis), and the equivalent weight 66000 (titration with bis[p‐nitrophenyl]phosphate). After cross‐linking of the enzyme by dimethyl suberimidate and dodecylsulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis three principal bands are observed. Therefore, a trimeric structure in which each subunit possesses one active site is proposed.

Properties of calf thymus chromatin, prepared by mild procedures, have been studied in various solvents. In 0.2 mM EDTA s-values ranged from 20 to 30 S and intrinsic viscosities from 5 to 24 dl/g. Dialysis against 0.15 M NaCl or 0.2 mM MgCl2 changed these values to 80 to 100 S and 0.2 to 5 dl/g, respectively, indicating an essentially more compact structure. In 0.2 mM EDTA X-ray scattering yielded a cross section diameter of 9 nm, which is associated with the tertiary structure of chromatin fiber (M/L = 21200 Dalton/nm). By dialysis against 0.15 M NaCl or 0.2 mM MgCl2 part of the material spontaneously formed quarterny structures (cross section diameters 25-29 nm). The rest of the material with cross section diameters less than 9 nm is supposed to be more strongly sheared tertiary structure which seems to be unable to form quarterny structure due to artificial conformational changes.

No abstract

No abstract

Using sedimentation equilibrium studies, the molecular weight of pig liver esterase was found to be 163000. Sedimentation velocity experiments yielded a sedimentation coefficient s020,w of 7.9 S; the diffusion coefficient was found to be 40.7 μm2· s–1 by ultracentrifugation and 40.3 μm2· s–1 by analytical gel filtration. From these data a molecular weight of 181 000 was calculated. By analytical disc electrophoresis a molecular weight of 183000 was estimated. Disc electrophoresis of ox liver esterase revealed three enzymatically active bands. The molecular weight of two of them was 54500 and that of the third 187000. Extrapolation of the sedimentation coefficients measured at very low enzyme concentrations to infinite dilution yielded a minimum value of S020,w= 4.0 S. Based on gel filtration results a diffusion coefficient of 66.0 μm2· s–1 was calculated. From these data a molecular weight of 57300 was obtained. Sedimentation equilibrium experiments of the ox enzyme showed a non‐linear plot of In absorbance versus r2 indicating heterogeneity with respect to molecular weight. The smallest species present had a molecular weight of 59000. By sedimentation equilibrium experiments in the presence of 6 M guanidine‐HCl and 0.1 M 2‐mercaptoethanol, the subunit weight of pig liver esterase was found to be 58000. For the maleylated enzyme, values of 52500 (sedimentation equilibrium) and 56500 (from S20,w and D20,w) were obtained. By covalent cross linking of the subunits with dimethyl suberimidate and subsequent polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfate, three bands of molecular weights 60000, 120000 and 180000 were found. All these results give strong evidence for a three subunit structure of pig liver carboxylesterase.

No abstract

Vincent's angina (Plaut-Vincent) is the most prominent disease caused by coinciding infections from fusibacteria and spirochaeta both belonging to obligate anaerobic bacteria. A possible symbiotic infection of both anaerobics may become manifest on the mucous membranes of the oral cavity and the oropharynx beside the tonsillas. The clinical outcome may be different and pose difficulties in the differential diagnosis. We report the case of a 29 year old female patient with necrotizing ulcera of the soft palate suspicious for stomatitis ulceromembranacea. In case necrotizing inflammations of the oral cavity area were to be found infections due to anaerobic bacteria should be considered mostly occurring as mixed infections. The correct identification by cultivation turns out to be difficult in that it requires special conditions. Furthermore, reliable detection of these bacteria necessitates careful collection and transport of patients specimens. In case of Fusospirochaetosis (Fusotreponematose) a specimen should be prepared for microscopic examination beside setting up a special culture. This is because the staining is the most suitable procedure for bacteril identification to support the clinical diagnosis of stomatitis ulceromembranacea.