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CagA, vacA s1m1, and iceA1 genotypes are the predominant genotypes of H pylori isolated from the southeastern European pediatric population. CagA and vacA s1 are important virulence determinants of H pylori in children, but were not found associated with an increased incidence of precancerous gastric lesions.

In order to identify the main routes of hepatitis C (HCV) transmission and to determine the HCV genotype distribution and its dynamics during a 15-year period in Slovenia, HCV genotypes were detected using the INNO-LiPA HCV II (Innogenetics) test for serum samples obtained from 1,504 patients representing 72.6% of all patients with chronic hepatitis C diagnosed from 1993 to 2007. HCV genotype 1 was predominant (56%), followed by genotypes 3, 2, and 4, with a prevalence of 37.8%, 5%, and 1.2%, respectively. HCV genotypes 5 and 6 were not detected in any patient. Patients infected with HCV genotype 3 were significantly younger (mean age 28.9 +/- 8.5 years) than those infected with genotype 1 (mean age 38.9 +/- 14.8 years; P < 0.0001) and those infected with HCV genotype 2 (mean age 50.3 +/- 18.2 years; P < 0.0001). Intravenous drug use was identified as the most frequent possible HCV transmission route (34.3%), followed by medical-related transmission such as transfusion of HCV-contaminated blood or blood products, and hemodialysis (12.5%). Being an intravenous drug user was found to be strongly associated with HCV genotype 3 (OR, 3.71 [95% CI, 2.97-4.65]; P < 0.0001) and reporting infection by transfusion of blood or blood products was found to be strongly associated with HCV genotype 1 (OR, 3.28 [95% CI, 2.18-4.95]; P < 0.0001). During the 15-year period, the proportion of genotype 3 increased substantially, reflecting the fact that the HCV epidemic in Slovenia is driven mostly by intravenous drug use.

A prospective unblinded comparative evaluation of three assays for the detection of enteroviral RNA performed on 83 positive and 79 negative cerebrospinal fluid samples showed initial and resolved sensitivities of 90.4% and 98.8%, respectively, for the Cepheid GeneXpert enterovirus assay; 94.0% and 97.6%, respectively, for the Argene enterovirus consensus kit; and 100% and 100%, respectively, for an in-house real-time PCR. The initial and resolved specificities were 100% for all three assays.Enteroviruses comprise a large group of immunologically distinct serotypes of viruses belonging to the family Picornaviridae (18). Infection with enteroviruses is associated with protean clinical manifestations, ranging from asymptomatic or mild febrile illness to severe and potentially fatal syndromes, including paralysis, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis, and neonatal systemic infection (1). Enteroviruses are the most common cause of aseptic meningitis in both children and adults and may cause up to 90% of cases of aseptic meningitis for which an etiology is identified (1,14,18,19). The rapid detection and the rapid characterization of enteroviral meningitis are essential for making decisions for patient management and treatment (5,15,17,20). The provision of enterovirus test results on a daily basis can have a substantial impact on health care and has been shown to be highly cost-effective (9,12,17). Since the conventional means of diagnosis of enteroviral meningitis by cell culture from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is timeconsuming and expensive and lacks sensitivity, some commercial and several in-house PCR protocols as well as nucleic acid sequence-based amplification assays have been developed during the last 15 years in order to improve the ability to detect enterovirus from CSF (2-4, 6, 7, 11, 13, 16, 20-22, 24-26). The most widely used PCR-based assays for the routine diagnosis of enteroviral meningitis are those that detect PCR products in microtiter wells (6,21,22) and those that use the real-time PCR technology (2,3,13,(24)(25)(26). However, all of these approaches require specially trained laboratory staff, thus limiting the ability of the "real-time" technology to deliver patient results that would be most useful for making patient management decisions STAT.The latest development in the field of the molecular diagnosis of enteroviral meningitis is a fully automated real-time multiplex, reverse transcription-PCR assay, the GeneXpert enterovirus assay (GXEA; Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA) (10). GXEA is, at present, the only FDA-approved assay for the qualitative detection of enterovirus RNA in CSF. It combines automated nucleic acid sample preparation, amplification, and real-time detection of enteroviral RNA in a disposable, macro/microfluidic cartridge using the GeneXpert Dx system instrument. To date, only one evaluation of GXEA has been published in peer-reviewed journals. A multicenter beta trial with 102 CSF samples obtained from patients with suspected meningitis (34 of whom were enterovirus positive) ...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype 53 is classified taxonomically in alpha HPV genus-species 6, together with HPV-30, HPV-56, and HPV-66 and is considered to be one of three "probable high-risk" HPV genotypes. Recent worldwide comparison of 44 isolates of HPV-53 showed the existence of nine long control region (LCR) genomic variants, which formed a phylogenetic tree with two deep dichotomic branches. In order to investigate further the genomic diversity of HPV-53, a total of 94 isolates of HPV-53 obtained from an ethnogeographically closed cohort of 70 white European women was analyzed. The identification and characterization of HPV-53 genomic variants was based on analysis of three different HPV genomic regions: LCR, E6 and E7. A higher genomic diversity of HPV-53 was identified in the ethnogeographically closed cohort of white European women than has been reported previously on isolates collected worldwide. Altogether, 19 HPV-53 genomic variants, composed of 13 LCR, 13 E6, and 5 E7 genomic variants, were identified. Eleven out of 13 LCR, all E6, and four out of five E7 genomic variants were described for the first time. The present study confirmed dichotomic phylogeny of HPV-53 described previously and, in addition, showed for the first time that after a dichotomic split, both groups of HPV-53 genomic variants formed star-like phylogenetic clusters. In women with persistent HPV-53 infection, HPV-53 genomic variants remained unchanged for up to 51 months. In rare cases, infection with multiple HPV-53 genomic variants is possible. Taking into account the results of this and previous studies, at least 26 different HPV-53 genomic variants exist today.

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