A novel method for determining viable bacteria from a mixture of dead and viable bacteria: Delayed real-time PCR (DR-PCR) method.

Aspiration pneumonia can occur in perioperative and older patients, and various oral care methods have been used to prevent it. To validate the effective oral care methods, measuring bacterial counts before and after oral care is necessary. However, isolating and quantifying viable bacteria from those that are inactivated by agents used in oral care is not possible. In this study, we developed a novel method, Delayed real-time PCR (DR-PCR), that can quantify only viable bacteria from mixed samples of viable and dead bacteria. This method takes advantage of the fact that dead bacteria do not grow but viable bacteria do. When the samples were incubated in a liquid medium for 4 hours, the higher the percentage of viable bacteria, the higher the rate of increase in the number of bacteria. This method showed that povidone­iodine mouthwashing reduced the number of viable bacteria to approximately 1/4 of that before mouthwashing. Although DR-PCR is slightly more time consuming than real-time PCR, it is effective for studying changes in bacterial counts before and after oral care.

Vascular leiomyosarcoma originating from the right ovarian vein: a case report and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Primary leiomyosarcoma (LMS) of vascular origin is a rare lesion, and patients with LMS of vascular origin have poorer prognoses than patients with LMS of other origins. The inferior vena cava is the most commonly affected vessel and accounts for 60% of all vascular cases. However, LMS originating from the ovarian vein is extremely rare, and we are only aware of 15 reported cases. Therefore, we report our experience with a case of LMS originating from the right ovarian vein and review the related literature. CASE PRESENTATION: A 71-year-old Japanese woman with no symptoms was admitted to our hospital because of abnormal findings in a routine abdominal ultrasonography check-up. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography of the abdomen revealed a well-defined, lobulated solid mass with a diameter of 5.5 cm in the right retroperitoneal space. The mass exhibited relatively low uptake during 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. Based on these findings, the differential diagnosis included a retroperitoneal tumor, such as a desmoid tumor, leiomyoma, LMS, and malignant mesothelioma. Operative findings confirmed that the mass had originated from the right ovarian vessels, and en bloc excision was performed for the mass and the right ovarian vessels. The final pathological diagnosis was LMS originating from the right ovarian vein, and the surgical resection margins were free from tumor cells. After histological findings confirmed the LMS diagnosis, the patient underwent adjuvant radiation therapy and has not exhibited signs of local recurrence or metastasis in the 6 months after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: We encountered a 71-year-old woman with LMS originating from her right ovarian vein. The prognosis of vascular LMS is generally poor. Therefore, careful follow-up will be required for our patient.