Comparison of Rapid and Routine Methods of Identification and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing of Microorganisms from Blood Culture Bottles.

Reporting of the results of routine laboratory blood culture tests to clinicians is vital to the patients' early treatment. This study aimed to perform identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests of the blood cultures showing positive signals of microbial growth in the first 12 hours of incubation by using centrifugation and Gram staining of 5 ml of liquid from the vial, thus achieving faster results. This study included 152 consecutively incubated blood culture samples showing positive microbial growth signals in the first 12 hours. The samples were centrifuged and then categorized into two groups (Gram-positive and Gram-negative) using Gram staining. Identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using an automated culture antibiogram device. For routine processing, media inoculated with positive blood culture were kept in the incubator for at least 24 hours. To compare the two methods in terms of the bacteria identification, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) of the growing colony was studied. By Gram staining, the same bacterial strains were obtained for 138 (92%) of the 152 samples, similar to the results of the procedures mentioned earlier. With the samples tested with both methods, the antibiotic susceptibility profiles were compared using the antibiogram results for 1,984 samples that underwent the antibiotic testing. A 97.4% (for 1,934 antibiotic susceptibility assays) agreement was observed between the two methods. Comparing the results of the post-centrifugation Gram staining to those obtained for the specimens using routine procedures, the clinicians reported a high success rate (approximately 97%).Reporting of the results of routine laboratory blood culture tests to clinicians is vital to the patients' early treatment. This study aimed to perform identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests of the blood cultures showing positive signals of microbial growth in the first 12 hours of incubation by using centrifugation and Gram staining of 5 ml of liquid from the vial, thus achieving faster results. This study included 152 consecutively incubated blood culture samples showing positive microbial growth signals in the first 12 hours. The samples were centrifuged and then categorized into two groups (Gram-positive and Gram-negative) using Gram staining. Identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using an automated culture antibiogram device. For routine processing, media inoculated with positive blood culture were kept in the incubator for at least 24 hours. To compare the two methods in terms of the bacteria identification, matrix­assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI­TOF MS) of the growing colony was studied. By Gram staining, the same bacterial strains were obtained for 138 (92%) of the 152 samples, similar to the results of the procedures mentioned earlier. With the samples tested with both methods, the antibiotic susceptibility profiles were compared using the antibiogram results for 1,984 samples that underwent the antibiotic testing. A 97.4% (for 1,934 antibiotic susceptibility assays) agreement was observed between the two methods. Comparing the results of the post-centrifugation Gram staining to those obtained for the specimens using routine procedures, the clinicians reported a high success rate (approximately 97%).

Brucella and non-Brucella epididymo-orchitis: comparison of ultrasound findings.

AIM: In brucellosis the male genitourinary system can be affected in a small number of patients. In this study we aimed to identify, discuss and compare the radiologic findings of 24 cases with Brucella epididymo-orchitis (BEO) and 285 cases with non-Brucella epididymis orchitis (NBEO). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study had a retrospective design. The area of involvement, side of involvement (left, right or bilateral), presence of abscess, hydrocele and testicular involvement pattern were analyzed and compared between the BEO and NBEO cases. RESULTS: The median age of the included cases was 33 years, with a minimum of 0 and maximum of 89. Epididymo-orchitis and isolated orchitis were more frequent in BEO cases while isolated epididymis involvement was more common in patients with non-BEO (p=0.0117). Bilateral involvement was present in 20.8% and 4.6% cases in the BEO and non-BEO groups, respectively (p=0.008). The frequency of abscess was significantly higher in BEO cases (p=0.003). CONCLUSION: Although the radiological indications of BEO are similar to those of other types of epididymo-orchitis, abscess formation, bilateral involvement and testicular involvement contribute significantly to diagnosis.

Tuberculosis osteomyelitis of the tibia mimicking Brodie abscess: A case report and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis osteomyelitis is rarely seen in the diaphyseal bones. It may be confused with Brodie's abscess due to similar clinical, radiological and laboratory findings. Late diagnosis of the disease causes bone destruction. Tuberculosis osteomyelitis of the bone is a rare condition caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Its incidence has increased in Western countries in recent years due to HIV infection, increasing elderly population and emerging resistant strains. The slow progress of tuberculous osteomyelitis, due to lack of significant elevations in the laboratory values and changes in the radiographic appearance, often leads to confusion with the subtypes of subacute osteomyelitis, defined as Brodie's abscess. These two low-virulence clinical cases often lead to delays in diagnosis and progressive bone destruction. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a 65-year-old male patient who presented to our clinic with pain, swelling and sensitivity in the left leg. Diagnosed with infection in the tibia, the patient had undergone antibiotherapy. However, the patient's symptoms were not resolved and we performed bone curettage and cementation. M. tuberculosis-specific DNA was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction and the M. tuberculosis complex was produced from the perioperative samples. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, histopathological examination and polymerase chain reaction are essential before surgery of subacute and chronic osteomyelitis with atypical clinical, laboratory and radiological findings for early diagnosis and accurate treatment.

Analysis of DNA protection, interaction and antimicrobial activity of isatin derivatives.

Isatin, thiosemicarbazone and their derivatives have been widely used in biological applications such as antimicrobial, antiviral and anticancer therapies. Herein, eight isatin and thiosemicarbazone derivative compounds were re-synthesized and evaluated for DNA binding analysis including DNA protection studies using plasmid DNA (pUC19) and DNA interaction experiments using calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA). All compounds were also utilized in vitro assay to assess the antimicrobial activity of compounds against different pathogenic bacterial strains. All isatin and thiosemicarbazone derivative compounds exhibited DNA protection activity which ranged from 23.5 to 59.5%. Among them, I3-(N-2-MP)-TSC had the greatest DNA protective activity. For DNA binding analysis, all compounds had the same constant concentration (40 µM), which interacts with CT-DNA. It was also observed that DNA interactions gave a high intrinsic binding constant (Kb = 1.72 × 104 M-1-9.73 × 105 M-1). Besides, several derivatives of isatin thiosemicarbazone exhibited significant and selective antibacterial activity with low concentration. These compounds primarily affected Gram-positive bacteria, but were not effective against P. vulgaris and E. coli. The Gram-positive methicillin-resistant S. aureus ATCC 43300 (MRSA) was the most influenced strain by these compounds. It was found that methyphenyl group at isatin was essential for its antibacterial activity for MRSA.

The Quantum Chemical and QSAR Studies on Acinetobacter Baumannii Oxphos Inhibitors.

BACKGROUND: Acinetobacter is a Gram-negative, catalase-positive, oxidase-negative, non-motile, and no fermenting bacteria. OBJECTIVE: In this study, some of the electronic and molecular properties, such as the highest occupied molecular orbital energy (EHOMO), lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy (ELUMO), the energy gap between EHOMO and ELUMO, Mulliken atomic charges, bond lengths, of molecules having impact on antibacterial activity against A. baumannii were studied. In addition, calculations of some QSAR descriptors such as global hardness, softness, electronegativity, chemical potential, global electrophilicity, nucleofugality, electrofugality were performed. METHOD: The descriptors having impact on antibacterial activity against A. baumannii have been investigated based on the usage of 29 compounds employing two statistical methods called Linear Regression and Artificial Neural Networks. RESULTS: Artificial Neural Networks obtained accuracies in the range of 83-100% (for active/inactive classifications) and q2=0.63 for regression. CONCLUSION: Three ANN models were built using various types of descriptors with publicly available structurally diverse data set. QSAR methodologies used Artificial Neural Networks. The predictive ability of the models was tested with cross-validation procedure, giving a q2=0.62 for regression model and overall accuracy 70-95 % for classification models.

Bilateral parotitis in a patient under continuous positive airway pressure treatment / Parotidite bilateral em paciente sob tratamento com pressão positiva contínua das vias aéreas

Abstract Background and objectives: Many conditions such as bacterial and viral infectious diseases, mechanical obstruction due to air and calculi and drugs can cause parotitis. We present a case of unusual bilateral parotitis in a patient under non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation in intensive care unit. Case report: A 36-year-old patient was admitted to intensive care unit with the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation. Antibiotherapy, bronchodilator therapy and non-invasive positive pressure ventilation were applied as treatment regimen. Painless swellings developed on the 3rd day of admission on the right and a day after this on the left parotid glands. Amylase levels were increased and ultrasonographic evaluation revealed bilateral parotitis. No intervention was made and the therapy was continued. The patient was discharged on the 6th day with clinical improvement and regression of parotid swellings without any complications. Conclusions: Parotitis may have occurred after retrograde air flow in the Stensen duct during CPAP application. After the exclusion of possible viral and bacteriological etiologies and possible drug reactions we can focus on this diagnosis.

Resumo Justificativa e objetivos: Muitas condições podem causar parotidite, incluindo doenças infecciosas virais e bacterianas, obstrução mecânica por causa da presença de ar, cálculos e medicamentos. Apresentamos um caso de parotidite bilateral incomum em um paciente sob tratamento com pressão positiva contínua não invasiva das vias aéreas (PPCVA) para exacerbação da doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica em unidade de terapia intensiva. Relato de caso: Paciente de 36 anos, internado em unidade de terapia intensiva com diagnóstico de exacerbação da doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica. Antibioterapia, terapia broncodilatadora e ventilação com pressão positiva não invasiva foram aplicadas como regime de tratamento. No terceiro dia de internação, inchaços indolores desenvolveram‐se à direita da glândula parótida e, depois, à esquerda. Os níveis de amilase aumentaram e o exame ultrassonográfico revelou parotidite bilateral. Nenhuma intervenção foi feita e o tratamento foi continuado. O paciente recebeu alta no sexto dia, com melhoria clínica e regressão do inchaço da parótida, sem complicações. Conclusões: A parotidite pode ter ocorrido após o fluxo retrógrado de ar do duto de Stensen durante a aplicação de PPCVA. Após a exclusão de possíveis etiologias virais e bacteriológicas e possíveis reações medicamentosas, podemos focar no diagnóstico.

Bilateral parotitis in a patient under continuous positive airway pressure treatment.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many conditions such as bacterial and viral infectious diseases, mechanical obstruction due to air and calculi and drugs can cause parotitis. We present a case of unusual bilateral parotitis in a patient under non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation in intensive care unit. CASE REPORT: A 36-year-old patient was admitted to intensive care unit with the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation. Antibiotherapy, bronchodilator therapy and non-invasive positive pressure ventilation were applied as treatment regimen. Painless swellings developed on the 3rd day of admission on the right and a day after this on the left parotid glands. Amylase levels were increased and ultrasonographic evaluation revealed bilateral parotitis. No intervention was made and the therapy was continued. The patient was discharged on the 6th day with clinical improvement and regression of parotid swellings without any complications. CONCLUSIONS: Parotitis may have occurred after retrograde air flow in the Stensen duct during CPAP application. After the exclusion of possible viral and bacteriological etiologies and possible drug reactions we can focus on this diagnosis.

[Bilateral parotitis in a patient under continuous positive airway pressure treatment]. / Parotidite bilateral em paciente sob tratamento com pressão positiva contínua das vias aéreas.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many conditions such as bacterial and viral infectious diseases, mechanical obstruction due to air and calculi and drugs can cause parotitis. We present a case of unusual bilateral parotitis in a patient under non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation in intensive care unit. CASE REPORT: A 36-year-old patient was admitted to intensive care unit with the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation. Antibiotherapy, bronchodilator therapy and non-invasive positive pressure ventilation were applied as treatment regimen. Painless swellings developed on the 3rd day of admission on the right and a day after this on the left parotid glands. Amylase levels were increased and ultrasonographic evaluation revealed bilateral parotitis. No intervention was made and the therapy was continued. The patient was discharged on the 6th day with clinical improvement and regression of parotid swellings without any complications. CONCLUSIONS: Parotitis may have occurred after retrograde air flow in the Stensen duct during CPAP application. After the exclusion of possible viral and bacteriological etiologies and possible drug reactions we can focus on this diagnosis.

Electronic-topological and neural network approaches to the structure- antimycobacterial activity relationships study on hydrazones derivatives.

That the implementation of Electronic-Topological Method and a variant of Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) called as the Associative Neural Network are applied to the compounds of Hydrazones derivatives have been employed in order to construct model which can be used in the prediction of antituberculosis activity. The supervised learning has been performed using (ASNN) and categorized correctly 84.4% of them, namely, 38 out of 45. Ph1 pharmacophore and Ph2 pharmacophore consisting of 6 and 7 atoms, respectively were found. Anti-pharmacophore features socalled "break of activity" have also been revealed, which means that APh1 is found in 22 inactive molecules. Statistical analyses have been carried out by using the descriptors, such as EHOMO, ELUMO, ΔE, hardness, softness, chemical potential, electrophilicity index, exact polarizibility, total of electronic and zero point energies, dipole moment as independent variables in order to account for the dependent variable called inhibition efficiency. Observing several complexities, namely, linearity, nonlinearity and multi-co linearity at the same time leads data to be modeled using two different techniques called multiple regression and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) after computing correlations among descriptors in order to compute QSAR. Computations resulting in determining some compounds with relatively high values of inhibition are presented.