Absceso hepático por Arcanobacterium haemolyticum

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Liver abscess caused by Arcanobacterium haemolyticum.

We report the case of a 90-year-old female who was admitted to our hospital due to a three-day history of right abdominal pain and fever of 39 °C (102 °F). The patient's blood pressure was low, with good blood perfusion and no jaundice, and her abdomen was soft and tender in the right hypochondriac and lateral region, with no guarding. Laboratory tests showed: blood glucose level of 201 mg/dl, 362 U/l AST, 237 U/l ALT, 2.5 mg/dl bilirubin, 237 U/l alkaline phosphatase and leukocytosis associated with a left shift. An abdominal ultrasound scan showed a collection of echogenic material and a shadow suggestive of air in hepatic segment 3. Meropenem and metronidazole treatment was started after taking blood cultures, which were negative. A computed tomography (CT) scan confirmed the presence of a liver abscess in segment 3, containing a high-density linear image.

Automated Flow Cytometry: An Alternative to Urine Culture in a Routine Clinical Microbiology Laboratory?

The urine culture is the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of urinary tract infections (UTI) but constitutes a significant workload in the routine clinical laboratory. Due to the high percentage of negative results, there is a need for an efficient screening method, with a high negative predictive value (NPV) that could reduce the number of unnecessary culture tests. With the purpose of improving the efficiency of laboratory work, several methods for screening out the culture-negative samples have been developed, but none of them has shown adequate sensitivity (SE) and high NPV. Many authors show data about the efficacy of flow cytometry in the routine clinical laboratory. The aim of this article is to review and discuss the current literature on the feasibility of urine flow cytometry (UFC) and its utility as an alternative analytical technique in urinalysis.

Serological screening of Chagas disease in an immigrant population in Asturias, Spain proceeding from Chagas-endemic areas.

Population movements from Chagas disease-endemic areas to non-endemic countries due to immigration make the occurrence of this disease in these latter areas possible. We describe the results of a screening programme conducted in an immigrant population from endemic areas, attending the Tropical Medicine Unit of the Hospital Central de Asturias between June 2006 and June 2008. The ID-Chagas antibody test (particle gel immunoassay (PaGIA); DiaMed-ID) was used as a screening assay. We analysed 64 patients, 9 of whom (14%) tested positive for Chagas disease antibodies, a diagnosis that was confirmed in all cases. Six patients came from Bolivia, 2 from Paraguay and 1 from Brazil. Chagas disease is of increasing importance, even in areas with low migratory flows; hence screening programmes for this population group are especially important.

Role of plant enemies in the forestry of indigenous vs. nonindigenous pines.

Plantations of rapidly growing trees are becoming increasingly common because the high productivity can enhance local economies, support improvements in educational systems, and generally improve the quality of life in rural communities. Landowners frequently choose to plant nonindigenous species; one rationalization has been that silvicultural productivity is enhanced when trees are separated from their native herbivores and pathogens. The expectation of enemy reduction in nonindigenous species has theoretical and empirical support from studies of the enemy release hypothesis (ERH) in the context of invasion ecology, but its relevance to forestry has not been evaluated. We evaluated ERH in the productive forests of Galicia, Spain, where there has been a profusion of pine plantations, some with the indigenous Pinus pinaster, but increasingly with the nonindigenous P. radiata. Here, one of the most important pests of pines is the indigenous bark beetle, Tomicus piniperda. In support of ERH, attacks by T. piniperda were more than twice as great in stands of P. pinaster compared to P. radiata. This differential held across a range of tree ages and beetle abundance. However, this extension of ERH to forestry failed in the broader sense because beetle attacks, although fewer on P. radiata, reduced productivity of P. radiata more than that of P. pinaster (probably because more photosynthetic tissue is lost per beetle attack in P. radiata). Productivity of the nonindigenous pine was further reduced by the pathogen, Sphaeropsis sapinea, which infected up to 28% of P. radiata but was absent in P. pinaster. This was consistent with the forestry axiom (antithetical to ERH) that trees planted "off-site" are more susceptible to pathogens. Fungal infections were positively correlated with beetle attacks; apparently T. piniperda facilitates S. sapinea infections by creating wounds and by carrying fungal propagules. A globally important component in the diminution of indigenous flora has been the deliberate large-scale propagation of nonnative trees for silviculture. At least for Pinus forestry in Spain, reduced losses to pests did not rationalize the planting of nonindigenous trees. There would be value in further exploration of relations between invasion ecology and the forestry of nonindigenous trees.