Detection and Prevalence of Penicillin-Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in the United States in 2013.

Using blaZ PCR as the "gold standard," the sensitivities of CLSI penicillin zone edge and nitrocefin-based tests for ß-lactamase production in Staphylococcus aureus were 64.5% and 35.5%, respectively, with specificity of 99.8% for both methods. In 2013, 13.5% of 3,083 S. aureus isolates from 31 U.S. centers were penicillin susceptible.

Evaluation of point mutation detection in Mycobacterium tuberculosis with isoniazid resistance using real-time PCR and TaqMan probe assay.

Rapid methods for diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) drug resistance and choosing appropriate antibiotic treatment are pivotal. Thirty isoniazid (INH)-resistant and 30 INH-susceptible Mtb isolates were evaluated using minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method followed by multiplex real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) for detection of mutation in 315 codon of katG gene and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for detection of mutation in -15 (C>T) in the regulatory zone of mabA-inhA were carried out using the TaqMan method. Primers and probe were used for IS6110 region of Mtb as an internal amplification control. The sensitivity and specificity of the RT-PCR TaqMan probe for detection of Mtb complex were 100 %. Detection of INH-resistant Mtb using the ARMS method for KatG had 69 % sensitivity and 100 % specificity. The sensitivity and specificity of SNP in mabA-inhA fragment for detection of INH-resistant Mtb were 53 and 100 %, respectively. Furthermore, considering both regions, the sensitivity of RT-PCR has increased to 75 %. This study revealed that the qPCR-TaqMan method can be used as a standard tool for diagnosis of Mtb. Moreover, ARMS and SNP RT-PCR TaqMan methods can be used as rapid screening methods for detection of INH-resistant Mtb.

A comparison of the effects of reboxetine and placebo on reaction time in adults with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

OBJECTIVE: Some studies have demonstrated that Reaction Time (RT) is longer in patients with ADHD which in turn may be associated with educational and occupational impairment and increased driving risks. Any alteration on RT which is induced by the treatment in this population may have great consequences positively or negatively. This study was designed to examine the effects of reboxetine on RT in adults with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). METHODS: A total of 30 adult patients with ADHD who did not suffer from any other major psychiatric disorder were eligible to participate in this double blind, placebo controlled study. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either reboxetine (4 mg/day for one week, then 8 mg/day) or placebo for 4 weeks. RT was assessed at baseline and after 4 weeks by validated software which collects and analyses the data for auditory and visual stimulants. Numbers of correct responses, omission and substitution errors for each stimulus were calculated. RESULTS: Regarding visual tasks and in comparison with baseline scores, the number of correct responses increased significantly and the number of omission errors decreased significantly after 4 weeks of treatment (P<0.05) in both groups. However, with regard to auditory tasks scores, no significant differences were found at the end of the study compared to the baseline in each of the two groups. Additionally, no significant differences were noted between the two groups when both visual and auditory tasks were considered. CONCLUSION: Results of this study showed that reboxetine did not affect the RT of the patients when both visual and auditory tasks were assessed. Further studies with larger number of patients and for a longer period of time are required to confirm the result of this study.

Improved correlation between scores on the expanded disability status scale and cerebral lesion load in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Results of the application of new imaging methods.

We hypothesized that a better correlation between MRI and clinical measures of neurological disability using the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) in multiple sclerosis could be obtained by assessing lesion load only in and around the corticospinal tracts, since the EDSS is weighted towards motor and ambulatory deficits. Multiple sclerosis lesions in cerebral MRIs from 39 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis were manually painted using a three-dimensional computer display tool and mapped into a standardized three-dimensional coordinate space. Total lesion load was then measured. A mask to expose only the corticospinal tract was extracted from an MRI atlas and used to measure lesion load in the corticospinal tract. To account for the residual anatomical variability among the different MRI volumes after stereotaxic transformation, the corticospinal tract mask was dilated to various degrees and the lesion load remeasured. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to calculate the correlation between the EDSS and total lesion load and corticospinal tract lesion load and between the EDSS subscores and total lesion load and corticospinal tract lesion load. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the EDSS and total lesion load was 0.6, probably reflecting the rather broad EDSS range represented in the study. The highest correlation of 0.67 was between the EDSS and corticospinal tract lesion load, dilated with a blurring kernel of 8-10 mm. The pyramidal subscore alone showed a weaker correlation with total lesion load, and with corticospinal tract lesion load, than did the overall EDSS, possibly reflecting the narrow range of disability in these subscores in patients with EDSS scores of 1-6.5. The imperfect correlation between the EDSS and corticospinal tract lesion load suggests that factors other than cerebral T2-weighted lesion volume are important determinants of disability.

[Basic health centers: a method of follow-up care after prenatal consultations]. / Centres de santé de base: pour une méthode de suivi des consultations prénatales.

PIP: Only 58% of women in Tunisia receive prenatal care, and it appears that basic health centers in particular have not sufficiently developed their capacity to offer this care. A method is proposed using Lexis diagrams to calculate the theoretical number of prenatal consultations that should take place each year in a given health facility. Under current conditions in the basic health centers, the minimum number of prenatal consultations considered acceptable is 3, 1 in the 1st trimester, 1 at the end of the 6th month, and 1 during the 9th month. The cohorts of conceptions and of prenatal consultations were estimated on a Lexis diagram for 3 years, A1, A2, A3 for a given health sector. Various demographic parameters, including the crude birth rate, pregnancy losses, and maternal mortality, were used to develop mathematical formulas to estimate the expected number of prenatal consultations of each type for a cohort of women in the health sector. The formulas for obtaining the theoretical number of examinations by month for the health sector are then presented in a table, which can be used to plan and evaluate the prenatal care activities of the health facility.^ieng