Millions of patients in the world are being increasingly exposed to sepsis every year, and the rate of sepsis mortality remains high. If effective antibiotic therapy is started early, morbidity and mortality levels decrease in infections. Many previous studies indicated that the prohormone procalcitonin (PCT) is an excellent marker for sepsis and its related conditions. Procalcitonin is synthesized by a large number of tissues and organs in response to the invasion by pathogenic microorganisms and the use of PCT as a marker to improve the diagnosis of bacterial infections and guide antibiotic therapy. Procalcitonin also correlates with the extent and severity of infection, and it can be used for a prognostic marker. The aim of this review was to discuss whether serum PCT levels could be a diagnostic and/or prognostic marker in sepsis.
The treatment of implant-related infections is troublesome. This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of three different surgical modalities in the treatment of implant-related infection. A total of 32 Wistar albino rats were randomised into four groups after the establishment of implant-related infection: no treatment, surgical débridement, antibiotic-loaded bone cement and antibiotic-loaded autogenous bone. Microbiological colony counts were made at the sixth week in order to evaluate the effectiveness of of the treatments. The antibiotic-loaded bone cement group revealed superior results compared with the other groups in terms of reduction of microbiological colonies. Three animals in the bone cement group revealed extensive infection. Although antibiotic-loaded bone cement showed superiority over other treatment modalities, it should be employed after an unsuccessful trial of débride-ment because of the risk of extensive infection.
Objective: The presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA), directed against intracellular antigens, is a distinctive feature of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs). The standard test for antinuclear antibody screening is the indirect immunofluorescence (IIF). Anti-dense fine speckled 70 (anti-DFS70) antibodies were initially identified as an ANA IIF pattern from a patient with interstitial cystitis, but they were later associated with various other conditions. The objective of the study was to determine the frequency of anti-DFS70 antibodies in a cohort of patients undergoing routine ANA testing. Material and Methods:From January 2011 to January 2012, a total of 5800 serum samples were screened for ANA by IIF (Euroimmune AG, Lübeck, Germany). DFS pattern was searched.Results: ANA were present in 1302 (22.4%) of all patients. There were 16 (1.2%) anti-DFS70 antibody-positive patients. The number of females and males who have anti-DFS70 antibody was eleven and five, respectively. All of the samples presented a titer of ≥1/320. There was one patient with SARD from the rheumatology department. Another 15 patients were from gastroenterology, endocrinology, and general internal medicine. Conclusion:Although a distinctive clinical association has not been reported, anti-DFS70 have been proposed as a significant biomarker for the exclusion of SARD. The present study is a preliminary study. There is a need for a reliable assay to ensure reactivity to DFS70 and screening large populations.
Lupus vulgaris is the most common form of cutaneous tuberculosis which usually occurs in patients previously sensitized to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We present a case of a 10-year-old boy who was diagnosed as lupus vulgaris clinically and histopathologically. He had well demarcated, irregularly bordered, pink, infiltrated plaques on his left cheek showing apple-jelly appearance on diascopy. The histopathological examination showed tuberculoid granulomas with Langhans type giant cells. The Mantoux reactivity was in normal limits, and no acid-fast bacilli was found in the lesion, either by direct stained smears or by culture. The lesions showed marked improvement on anti-tuberculosis treatment. We want to emphasize that histopathological examination has diagnostic value in lupus vulgaris in correlation with clinical appearance, when direct analysis or culture is negative.
The mecA gene is responsible for the development of methicillin resistance in staphylococci however accurate detection of methicillin resistance is not feasible evermore because of heterogenous expression of mecA gene. Although mecA gene determination by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is considered as the gold standard method, molecular tests are not easily applied in all routine laboratories. Thus, for the rapid and accurate diagnosis of MRSA strains, easy and practical phenotypic tests are still required. This study was aimed to compare the performance of mecA gene analysis by gel bases multiplex PCR with dual primer (Seeplex, Seegene Inc, Korea), cefoxitin disc diffusion method (30 µg, Oxoid, UK), automated system (Phoenix 100, Becton Dickinson, USA) and chromogenic medium CHROMagar MRSA (CHROMagar Microbiology, Salubris, Turkey) for the detection of methicillin resistance in staphylococci. It was found that 60 of the 98 Staphylococcus aureus strains carried the mecA gene. Methicillin resistance was observed by cefoxitin disc diffusion test in 59 isolates, by automated system in 61 isolates, and by CHROMagar MRSA in 65 isolates. When mecA gene analysis was considered as the reference method, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the tests that were used for the detection of methicillin resistance were found as 98.3%, 100%, 100% and 97.4% for cefoxitin disc diffusion (CDD) method; 100%, 97.4%, 98.4% and 100% for automated system; 96.7%, 81.6%, 89.2% and 93.9% for chromogenic medium CHROMagar MRSA, respectively. The highest sensitivity and negative predictive values were obtained by the automated system, and the highest specificity and positive predictive values were obtained by the CDD test. Although the sensitivity of chromogenic medium was found to be similar with the CDD test at the end of 48 hours, the specificity of chromogenic medium was lower than the other tests at the end of each incubation period. Likewise, positive and negative predictive values of the chromogenic medium were determined low compared to other tests. In laboratories that cannot perform molecular analysis, the determination of methicillin resistance should be done by the CDD test which is known to be a better inducer of the mecA gene expression of staphylococci. Determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) with automated systems can be the second choice especially in laboratories with intensive work loads. As a result chromogenic media can be particularly used for screening in laboratories that have a heavy workload and insufficient personnel number. However, due to its low specificity and the possibility of false positive results, it was recommended that positive strains should be confirmed by other methods such as disc diffusion or microdilution.
Most infectious agents, such as viruses, bacteria and parasites, can trigger autoimmunity via different mechanisms. The development of an autoimmune disorder after infection tends to occur in genetically susceptible individuals. Some parameters, such as genetic predisposition, feature of the infectious agent and sometimes protective effect of the infections, have a significant role in this process. These parameters and various pathogens that could lead to enhancement or exacerbation of autoimmune disease were examined in this review. Recent studies were reviewed from a microbiological perspective.
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