Previous studies have demonstrated an association of osteopenia/osteoporosis with idiopathic benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). Since vitamin D takes part in the regulation of calcium and phosphorus found in the body and plays an important role in maintaining proper bone structure, decreased bone mineral density in patients with BPPV may be related to decreased serum vitamin D. We measured the serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in 100 patients (63 women and 37 men, mean age ± SD = 61.8 ± 11.6) with idiopathic BPPV and compared the data with those of 192 controls (101 women and 91 men, mean age ± SD = 60.3 ± 11.3) who had lived in the same community without dizziness or imbalance during the preceding year. The selection of the controls and acquisition of clinical information were done using the data from the Fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2008. The serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was lower in the patients with BPPV than in the controls (mean ± SD = 14.4 ± 8.4 versus 19.1 ± 6.8 ng/ml, p = 0.001). Furthermore, patients with BPPV showed a higher prevalence of decreased serum vitamin D (<20 ng/ml, 80.0 vs. 60.1 %, p < 0.001) than the controls. Multiple logistic regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, proteinuria, regular exercise and the existence of decreased bone mineral density demonstrated that vitamin D insufficiency (10-20 ng/ml) and deficiency (<10 ng/ml) were associated with BPPV with the odds ratios of 3.8 (95 % confidence interval = 1.51-9.38, p = 0.004) and 23.0 (95 % confidence interval = 6.88-77.05, p < 0.001). Our study demonstrated an association between idiopathic BPPV and decreased serum vitamin D. Decreased serum vitamin D may be a risk factor of BPPV.

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Background: Plasma NOx (nitrate and nitrite) is a stable end product of the vasodilator NO. Several polymorphisms in the endothelial constitutive NO synthase (ecNOS) gene have been reported, including the 4a/4b VNTR polymorphism in intron 4, the E298D mutation in exon 7, and the G10-T polymorphism in intron 23. The aims of this study were to examine plasma NOx in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and to assess the association between plasma NOx concentrations and the three ecNOS gene polymorphisms. Methods: Plasma NOx was measured in samples from 128 healthy controls and from 110 CAD patients at least 2 months after myocardial infarction. Three genetic polymorphisms that are known or have been suggested to be associated with plasma NOx concentration were also analyzed by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Results: Median plasma NOx was significantly higher (P &lt;0.001) in CAD patients (95.9 μmol/L) than in controls (73.8 μmol/L). Furthermore, the median plasma NOx was significantly higher (P &lt;0.001) in hypertensive CAD patients (116.0 μmol/L) than in controls and normotensive CAD patients (86.0 μmol/L). The G-allele frequency of the G10-T polymorphism in intron 23 was significantly higher in CAD patients than in controls. Other polymorphisms showed no differences in allelic frequencies among the control and CAD groups. In controls, individuals with the E298D mutation in exon 7 (136.1 μmol/L) showed significantly higher (P = 0.001) median plasma NOx than those without this mutation (64.5 μmol/L). Conclusions: Plasma NOx was higher in hypertensive CAD patients than in normotensive CAD patients and controls. The E298D polymorphism of the ecNOS gene was associated with increased plasma NOx. Further study is needed to understand the gene expression and enzyme activity of ecNOS and their association with genotypes.

We compared and analyzed 16S rRNA and tuf gene sequences for 97 clinical isolates of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) by use of the GenBank, MicroSeq, EzTaxon, and BIBI databases. Discordant results for definitive identification were observed and differed according to the different databases and target genes. Although higher percentages of sequence identity were obtained with GenBank and MicroSeq for 16S rRNA analysis, the BIBI and EzTaxon databases produced less ambiguous results. Greater discriminatory power and fewer multiple probable identifications were observed with tuf gene analysis than with 16S rRNA analysis. The most pertinent results for tuf gene analysis were obtained with the GenBank database when the cutoff values for the percentage of identity were adjusted to be greater than or equal to 98.0%, with >0.8% separation between species. Analysis of the tuf gene proved to be more discriminative for certain CNS species; further, this method exhibited better distinction in the identification of CNS clinical isolates.

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Raoultella spp. have recently been separated from the genus Klebsiella based on their molecular characteristics. It was discovered that Raoultella ornithinolytica can be misidentified as Klebsiella oxytoca by commonly used phenotypic identification systems. Therefore, this study evaluated the ability of three phenotypic systems to identify R. ornithinolytica compared with the genotypic methods sequence-specific primer PCR (SSP-PCR), 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis using the MicroSeq 500 system16S rDNA bacterial identification system or comparison with GenBank sequences using BLAST. The phenotypic systems examined in this study were the VITEK 2 GN ID card, the MicroScan Neg Combo 32 panel and API 20E. The SSP-PCR panel was able to distinguish the R. ornithinolytica reference strain from other Raoultella spp. and K. oxytoca. Of the 27 isolates identified as R. ornithinolytica by SSP-PCR, VITEK 2 identified all of them as R. ornithinolytica. MicroScan and API identified 25 isolates (92.6 %) and 24 isolates (88.9 %) as K. oxytoca, respectively. These isolates were ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) negative in all three phenotypic systems. MicroSeq 500 identified 24 isolates (88.9 %) as R. ornithinolytica, whereas GenBank identification was heterogeneous. Of the 68 isolates identified as K. oxytoca by SSP-PCR, 66 isolates (97.1 %) were identified as K. oxytoca by VITEK 2, MicroScan and API. MicroScan and API require additional biochemical tests to differentiate between ODC-negative R. ornithinolytica and K. oxytoca.

Background: Three phenotypic identification systems (MicroScan, VITEK 2, and Crystal GP) were evaluated for their accuracy to identify coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS). A total of 120 clinical isolates confirmed to be CNS via 16S rRNA sequencing and analysis with the MicroSeq 500 v2.0 database were assessed.

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