We studied 204 women with acute pelvic inflammatory disease to delineate further the causes of that illness. Gonococci were recovered from 91. Gonococcal pili antibody rose or fell significantly in 12 of 18 patients with positive cultures and only two of 19 who had negative cultures and smears for Neisseria gonorrhaoea(P smaller than 0.005). N. gonorrhoeae was found in peritoneal exudate from eight of 21 patients with, and none of 33 without, cervical gonococcal infection. Among patients with severe disease, other bacteria were recovered from peritoneal exudates from five of 16 with, and 19 of 22 without, cervical gonococcal infection (P smaller than 0.025). Mixed anaerobic and aerobic bacterial peritoneal infection was common in nongonococcal pelvic disease. The most common species recovered were Bacteroides fragilis, peptostreptococci, and peptococci. Tuboperitoneal gonococcal infection probably causes pelvic inflammatory disease in most patients with cervical gonococcal infection, whereas polymicrobial tuboperitoneal infection probably causes most nongonococcal cases.

Our results suggest that the activated Syk-mediated TRAF6 pathway leads to aberrant activation of B cells in SLE, and also highlight Syk as a potential target for B-cell-mediated processes in SLE.

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Paired serum samples from six children with mild to fatal myocarditis have been studied in the microimmunofluorescence test for antibodies against Chlamydia trachomatis. Two patients with other known causes of myocarditis had no antibodies. The other four patients each had C trachomatis antibody. Two had high titer rises, and two with onset one to three months before the first serum sample was taken had level antibody titers. The study of serum from myocarditis patients was unplanned; they were part of a group of paired serum samples from children that had been submitted to the laboratory for viral diagnostic studies during a 16-month period. While the association of C trachomatis antibody with myocarditis was unexpected, it is consistent with the known etiologic role of C psittaci in myocarditis and the widening spectrum of systemic diseases caused by C trachomatis. Since Chlamydia can be treated with antibiotics, the possible etiologic association with myocarditis has important therapeutic ramifications.

Since the publication of the above article, the authors have noticed that the left panel of A549 cells from Figure 1d was inadvertently reproduced as the right panel of HOP62 cells of Figure 1d. The correct panels for Figure 1d (including both panels) are shown here.The results and conclusions put forth in this article remain unchanged.The authors would like to apologize to the readers for any inconvenience this may have caused.