[Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains isolated in Ile de France area during 2001]. / Epidémiologie et résistance aux antibiotiques de Streptococcus pneumoniae en Ile de France en 2001.

OBJECTIVE: The authors wanted to assess the level of Streptococcus pneumoniae antibiotic resistance in Ile de France. METHOD: In 2001, 637 clinical strains of S. pneumoniae were prospectively collected from 32 microbiology laboratories. RESULTS: Fifty one percent of strains were isolated from children under 15 years of age and 49% from adults. In children, 76% of strains came from otitis media, 20% from blood culture, in adults most strains (92%) came from blood culture. The overall prevalence of non-susceptible penicillin pneumococci was 61% higher in children (73%) than in adults (50%). Among the non-susceptible penicillin pneumococci 21.8% were resistant (CMI > 1 mg/l). Strains with decreased susceptibility to amoxicillin and cefotaxime were 38% and 17% respectively. Resistant strains to these two drugs (CMI > 2 mg/l) were rare 2.6% and 0.4% respectively. Among other antimicrobial agents, rate of resistance was 63% to erythromycin, 47% to cotrimoxazole, 40% to tetracycline, and 23% to chloramphenicol. The most frequent serogroups were serogroups 19 and 14, respectively 23% and 18%. Serotypes included in heptavalent vaccine covered 90% of children strains under 2 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of resistance to penicillin was high in children particularly in otitis media pus (76%).

[Use of HPLC in different stages of characterization of abnormal hemoglobin. Application to a case of hemoglobin Grady (alpha-118 [+Glu-Phe-Thr])]. / Utilisation de l'HPLC dans les différentes étapes de la caractérisation d'une hémoglobine anormale. Application à un cas d'hémoglobine Grady (alpha 118 [+Glu-Phe-Thr]).

In this work the structural abnormality of Hb Grady was determined using mainly the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technology. The methods described here are now easily available in an increasing number of laboratories. A small amount of the abnormal Hb (ca. 10 mg) was isolated by isoelectric focusing and its subunits fractionated by reversed phase HPLC. After tryptic or chymotryptic digestion the peptides were isolated by HPLC. Their amino-acid compositions were also determined by HPLC procedures following a precolumn derivatization.