Trends and clinical features of intentional and accidental adult foreign body ingestions in the United States, 2000 to 2017.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Foreign body ingestions (FoBIs) are a common cause for medical attention. However, trends and patterns of adult FoBIs as well as associations with clinical comorbidities and behavioral attributes have not been elucidated beyond single institutional experiences. METHODS: We utilized survey data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to examine fundamental characteristics of adult FoBIs involving consumer products between 2000 and 2017 across the United States. Data regarding the circumstances of FoBIs were abstracted from narrative data. Relationships among time, intent, demographics, and behavioral attributes were assessed using regression analyses, accounting for survey structure. RESULTS: Adult FoBIs have increased in incidence over the past 2 decades from 3 to 5.3 per 100,000 persons. Examination of consumer products revealed that jewelry (15.4%), nails (7.2%), and toothpicks (6.9%) were the most commonly ingested products. The most common products ingested varied over time, and the number of unique consumer product categories ingested increased from 103 to 143 in the time period studied. Intentional ingestions accounted for 14% of adult FoBIs and frequently involved plastic bagging (13.6%), batteries (13%), nails (10.1%), and desk supplies (6.8%). Adjusted regression analyses demonstrated that compared with accidental FoBIs, intentional FoBIs have increased over time. Intentional FoBIs were more frequently associated with younger age, substance abuse, police custody, and mental and cognitive illnesses relative to accidental FoBIs. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that adult FoBIs are an increasing burden of disease in the United States with social, psychiatric, and behavioral contributors to this trend.

Molecular origin of endemic leprosy in New York City.

We report an indigenous case of leprosy in New York City in an immunocompetent patient who was infected with a Mycobacterium leprae genotype that is consistent with an exogenous origin. Physicians in the eastern United States should be alerted that, although most patients who develop leprosy in the United States are foreign born, native-born Americans are also susceptible to the infection.

Esophageal food impaction during cultural holidays and national athletic events.

BACKGROUND: Although intrinsic risk factors contributing to esophageal food impaction are well established, whether social behavior affects its occurrence has not yet been examined. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of the gastroenterology endoscopy procedural documentation software for the period of 2001-2012 to identify all patients who presented to our emergency department for esophageal foreign-body removal at the time of national athletic events and holidays associated with dietary indiscretions. RESULTS: We found that adults undergoing emergent esophagogastroduodenoscopy during periods celebrating cultural holidays and national athletic events were more likely to experience esophageal food impaction compared with those undergoing emergent endoscopy during periods not associated with these events (36.8% vs 3.6%; P < 0.001): a 10-fold increase. During a national holiday/athletic event period, the most common impacted food item was turkey (50%) followed by chicken (29%) and beef (21%). CONCLUSIONS: Esophageal food impaction is more likely to occur on American holidays and national athletic events and is associated with large meals. Patients with intrinsic risk factors should be advised to modify their diet during cultural events associated with tachyphagia and large meals to prevent esophageal food impaction.

Campylobacter capsule and lipooligosaccharide confer resistance to serum and cationic antimicrobials.

The innate immune system plays a critical role in host defense against mucosal bacteria. Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of human gastroenteritis that usually resolves spontaneously within several days, suggesting that innate mechanisms are important to control the infection. However, the specific means by which this occurs is not well understood. While diarrheal isolates of C. jejuni usually are susceptible to human serum, we found that a systemic strain of C. jejuni, isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of an infant with meningitis, is relatively more resistant to human serum, the Bactericidal/Permeability-Increasing Protein (BPI), an endogenous cationic antimicrobial protein, and the cationic peptide antibiotic polymyxin B. To test the hypothesis that the surface properties of this strain contributed to its ability to withstand these innate host defenses, we constructed isogenic mutants in capsule (kpsM) and lipooligosaccharide (waaF) and complemented these mutants by insertion of the complementation construct in trans into hipO, a chromosomal locus. We found that capsule expression was essential for serum resistance, whereas lipooligosaccharide played no substantial role. In contrast, the lipooligosaccharide mutant showed increased sensitivity to polymyxin B, α-defensins, cathelicidins, and BPI. These findings suggest that the polysaccharides of C. jejuni strains contribute differently to resistance against host innate immunity; whereby capsule is more important for resisting human complement and lipooligosaccharide is more important for protection against killing mediated by cationic antimicrobial peptides and proteins.

Role of the small Rho GTPases Rac1 and Cdc42 in host cell invasion of Campylobacter jejuni.

Host cell invasion of the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is one of the primary reasons of tissue damage in humans but molecular mechanisms are widely unclear. Here, we show that C. jejuni triggers membrane ruffling in the eukaryotic cell followed by invasion in a very specific manner first with its tip followed by the flagellar end. To pinpoint important signalling events involved in the C. jejuni invasion process, we examined the role of small Rho family GTPases. Using specific GTPase-modifying toxins, inhibitors and GTPase expression constructs we show that Rac1 and Cdc42, but not RhoA, are involved in C. jejuni invasion. In agreement with these observations, we found that internalization of C. jejuni is accompanied by a time-dependent activation of both Rac1 and Cdc42. Finally, we show that the activation of these GTPases involves different host cell kinases and the bacterial fibronectin-binding protein CadF. Thus, CadF is a bifunctional protein which triggers bacterial binding to host cells as well as signalling leading to GTPase activation. Collectively, our results suggest that C. jejuni invade host target cells by a unique mechanism and the activation of the Rho GTPase members Rac1 and Cdc42 plays a crucial role in this entry process.

Campylobacter fetus of reptile origin as a human pathogen.

A Campylobacter species was isolated from blood from a febrile patient with precursor T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and after antibiotic treatment, a similar bacterium was isolated from blood 37 days later. Although phenotypic testing did not definitively identify the organisms, molecular analysis indicated that they were the same strain of Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus and were of reptile origin.