Ecthyma gangrenosum is a characteristic skin lesion of systemic infection due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It has a high incidence in patients with chronic disease and impaired defense mechanisms. Early diagnosis and appropriate systemic antibiotic therapy is crucial since its mortality rate is very high. We report a case of ecthyma gangrenosum in aplastic anemia.
Adult ; Anemia, Aplastic/*complications/pathology ; Case Report ; Female ; Human ; Opportunistic Infections/microbiology/pathology ; Pseudomonas Infections/*complications/microbiology/pathology ; Skin Diseases, Bacterial/drug therapy/*etiology/pathology

PURPOSE: To report a case of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis complicated by Alcaligenes xylosoxidans. METHODS: A 37-year-old man suffered epidemic keratoconjunctivitis in both eyes. Eleven days later, he developed a corneal ulcer in his left eye. Bacterial staining, culture, and antibiotics sensitivity test were performed from a corneal scrape. RESULTS: The cultures revealed a growth of Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, and the patient was treated with ceftazidime and levofloxacin, based on the sensitivity test results. After 21 days of treatment, the infection was resolved with mild scaring and final vision in the left eye of 20/20. CONCLUSIONS: Alcaligenes xylosoxidans should be considered a rare but potential pathogen able to produce corneal ulcer complication in epidemic keratoconjunctivitis.
Male ; Keratoconjunctivitis/*complications/pathology ; Humans ; Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections/*complications/pathology ; Corneal Ulcer/*microbiology/pathology ; Adult ; *Achromobacter denitrificans

The severity of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with pulmonary bacterial infection varies widely. We investigated the significance of procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in evaluating the severity of pulmonary infection in SLE patients. This retrospective study contained a total of 117 patients (107 women and 10 men) with SLE from January 2010 to June 2011. Serum levels of PCT and CRP were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The severity of pulmonary bacterial infection (PBI) was evaluated using the pneumonia severity index (PSI). SLE patients with PBI, particularly those with bacterial isolates, had significantly higher levels of serum PCT and CRP than those without PBI. Serum PCT and CRP were not associated with SLE disease activity, but positively with the values of PSI in active SLE patients with PBI. Serum levels of PCT and CRP may be additional biomarkers in evaluating the severity of PBI in lupus patients.
Aged ; Bacterial Infections ; blood ; microbiology ; pathology ; C-Reactive Protein ; metabolism ; Calcitonin ; blood ; Female ; Humans ; Lung ; microbiology ; pathology ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic ; blood ; complications ; pathology ; Male ; Severity of Illness Index

This case report describes a case of self-inflicted chronic bacterial keratoconjunctivitis involving the patient's own semen. A 20-year-old male soldier was referred to our clinic for the evaluation of refractory chronic bacterial conjunctivitis. Over the previous 4 months, he had been treated for copious mucous discharge, conjunctival injection, and superficial punctate keratitis in both eyes at an army hospital and a local eye clinic. Despite the use of topical and systemic antibiotics according to the results of conjunctival swab culture, there was no improvement. During the repeated smear and culture of conjunctival swabs, surprisingly, a few sperm were detected on Gram staining, revealing that the condition was self-inflicted bacterial keratoconjunctivitis involving the patient's own semen. Thus, in cases of chronic keratoconjunctivitis that do not respond to appropriate antibiotic treatment, self-inflicted disease or malingering should be considered.
Chronic Disease ; Conjunctiva/*injuries/microbiology/pathology ; Cornea/microbiology/*pathology ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Eye Infections, Bacterial/diagnosis/*etiology/microbiology ; Eye Injuries/*complications/diagnosis ; Humans ; Keratoconjunctivitis/diagnosis/*etiology/microbiology ; Male ; Self Mutilation/*complications/diagnosis ; *Semen ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVEA systematic meta-analysis was performed to explore the role of cytotoxin-associated gene-A (CagA) seropositive strains of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic diseases. Data sources Data from Medline, EMBASE, CBMdisc, CNKI and the Cochrane Collaboration database were searched. Similar search strategies were applied to each of these databases. Study selection The review was restricted to the case-control studies on infective, chronic virulent CagA strains of H. pylori, involving the risk of ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease, ineligible studies were excluded. Two reviewers independently extracted the data and assessed study quality.

RESULTSTotally 26 case-control studies (11 studies on ischemic stroke and 15 studies on coronary heart disease) were retrieved and considered. The combined data revealed that the chronic seropositive virulent strains of H. pylori infection had a trend of increasing the risk of ischemic strokes and coronary heart diseases, yielding pooled ORs of 2.68 (95% CI: 2.20, 3.27) and 2.11 (95% CI: 1.70, 2.62), respectively. We also performed subgroup analyses, dividing the total population into Caucasian and Chinese subgroups. Through the subgroup analysis, no significant difference was found between the subgroups.

CONCLUSIONSOur results support the hypothesis that CagA-seropositive strains infection is significantly associated with susceptibility to ischemic strokes and coronary heart diseases. The magnitude of the association with atherosclerotic diseases needs to be confirmed by prospective studies and the studies on CagA-seropositive strains eradication are more important.

Antibodies, Bacterial ; blood ; Antigens, Bacterial ; immunology ; Atherosclerosis ; etiology ; pathology ; Bacterial Proteins ; immunology ; Helicobacter Infections ; blood ; complications ; microbiology ; Helicobacter pylori ; immunology ; pathogenicity ; Virulence

No abstract available.
Adult ; Embolism/*complications/diagnosis/microbiology ; Eye Infections, Bacterial/*complications/diagnosis/microbiology ; Fluorescein Angiography ; Fundus Oculi ; Humans ; Macula Lutea/drug effects/*pathology ; Male ; Retinal Perforations/diagnosis/*etiology ; Sepsis/*complications/diagnosis ; Staphylococcal Infections/*complications/diagnosis ; Staphylococcus aureus/isolation & purification

OBJECTIVETo explore the penetrability and therapeutic effect of vancomycin to the prostates of rats with bacterial prostatitis (BP) or benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH)-BP.

METHODSThe experimental rats with BP or BPH-BP were injected with vancomycin through the tail vein. The prostate tissues and sera were isolated respectively from the rats at 10 min to approximately 24 h after treatment and the antibiotic activities of the samples were detected by serial dilution test and agar diffusion test. The rats with BP or BPH-BP were treated with vancomycin by intravenous injection daily for 5 days. The prostates were collected the second day after injection and bacteria were isolated and determined. One to five weeks after treatment, the prostates of the animals were isolated and pathologic tests were done.

RESULTSNo bacteria could be isolated from the prostates of the normal rats, but positive isolation was achieved from the prostates of the infected animals 28th day after infection. In the first 4 days after treatment, a decrease of bacteria could be detected in the prostate samples of the rats treated with BP or BPH-BP. After 5th day, no bacteria could be detected from 91.7% prostates of the treated groups. Obvious antibiotic activity in both sera and prostates could be detected 10 to approximately 150 min after the antibiotic injection. Antibiotic activity of the prostate tissues could be lower or higher than or equal to that of the sera in the same period. Pathologic tests detected obvious exudation and leukocyte invasion in the prostate tissues of the BP rats and gland proliferation in the BPH rats. Vancomycin treatment and the consequent reduction of bacteria obviously alleviated the inflammatory pathological changes in the prostates of the BP rats.

CONCLUSIONVancomycin given intravenously has more penetrability to the prostates of either BP or BPH-BP rats. The antibiotic concentration in the prostate tissues may be equal to or higher than that of the sera, so that the susceptive bacteria in the prostates will be killed and the alleviation of the inflammation and repair of the tissues accelerated effectively.

Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacokinetics ; therapeutic use ; Bacterial Infections ; complications ; drug therapy ; Male ; Prostate ; metabolism ; microbiology ; pathology ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; complications ; drug therapy ; Prostatitis ; complications ; drug therapy ; microbiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Vancomycin ; pharmacokinetics ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo study clinic character of liver failure complicated with bacterium and fungous infection.

METHODSThe patients with liver failure complicated with bacterial and fungous infection who were treated in our hospital from January 1986 to June 2006 were studied. All patients had clinical manifestation and positive of bacterium. The data were statistical analysis.

RESULTS507 patients diagnosed with fungous infection were found from January 1986 to June 2006 in which 132 patients were diagnosed with bacterial and fungous infection. There were 85 patients (64.39%) with chronic severe hepatitis and 40 patients (30.3%) with decompensation cirrhosis. Bacterial infection happened in 153 cases in which the rate of nosocomial infections was 54.90%. 204 bacterial strains were separated in which 143 strains (70.10%) were gram-negative bacterium and 61 (29.90%) strains were gram-positive bacterium. The main sites of bacterial infection were abdominal cavity (122 cases) and lung (30 cases). Fungous infection happened in 143 cases in which the rate of nosocomial infections was 86.71%. 155 fungous strains were separated in which 90 strains (58.06%) were Candida albicans, 17 strains (10.97%) were Aspergillus fumigatus and 25 (16.13%) strains were non-Candida albicans. The main sites of fouguns infection were lung (94 cases) and mouth (53 cases). 84 patients (63.64%) were ineffective and died after treatment.

CONCLUSIONThe patients with decompensation cirrhosis and chronic severe liver hepatitis were easy to be infected by bacterial and fungous. the rate of fungous nosocomial infections is higher than that of bacterium. The prognosis is bad in patients who had secondary fungous infection.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Bacteria ; isolation & purification ; Bacterial Infections ; complications ; microbiology ; Cross Infection ; microbiology ; Female ; Fungi ; isolation & purification ; Humans ; Liver Failure ; complications ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mycoses ; complications ; microbiology ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is an ascitic fluid infection as a complication of end stage liver disease. The outcome is related to the severity of hepatorenal function, gastrointestinal bleeding, and many others; however it is not well known whether the infection acquisition sites have an effect on the prognosis of SBP. In order to identify the prognostic significance of the acquisition sites, we studied 106 patients who were diagnosed as culture positive SBP between October 1998 and August 2003. Thirty-two episodes were nosocomial and 74 were community acquired. Gramnegative bacilli such as Escherichia coli were dominant in both of the nosocomial and community-acquired SBPs. Despite significantly higher resistance to cefotaxime in nosocomial isolates compared to community-acquired isolates (77.8% vs. 13.6%, p=0.001), no difference was found regarding short or long term prognosis. Infection acquisition sites were not related to short or long term prognosis either. Shock, gastrointestinal bleeding and renal dysfunction were related to short term prognosis. Only Child-Pugh class C was identified as an independent prognostic factor of long-term survival.
Time Factors ; Survival Rate ; Shock/etiology/mortality ; Prognosis ; Peritonitis/complications/microbiology/*pathology ; Multivariate Analysis ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Klebsiella pneumoniae/drug effects/growth & development ; Kidney Diseases/etiology/mortality ; Humans ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage/etiology/mortality ; Female ; Escherichia coli/drug effects/growth & development ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Cross Infection/complications/microbiology/pathology ; Community-Acquired Infections/complications/microbiology/pathology ; Ciprofloxacin/pharmacology ; Cefotaxime/pharmacology ; Bacterial Infections/complications/microbiology/*pathology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Aged

OBJECTIVETo investigate the impact of intrauterine infection induced by LPS injection on long-term brain development of premature rats.

METHODSEighteen day-gestation pregnant rats were randomly assigned to a control group receiving an intraperitoneal injection of normal saline, and two infection groups that were intraperitoneally injected with 0.3 mg/kg or 0.6 mg/kg LPS. Twenty-four hours after injection, 7 pregnant rats of each group were sacrificed. The pathological changes of the placenta after hematoxylin and eosin staining were observed under a light microscope. The neural cell apoptosis of fetal brains was examined by the TUNEL assay. The remained pregnant rats were induced to labour before 21 gestation days. The long-term brain development of premature rats was tested with the Y type electric maze on postnatal day 42.

RESULTSObvious pathological changes were observed in the placenta in the infection groups. The apoptotic neural cells in the fetal brain increased in the infection groups compared with that in the control group (32.41+/-5.36 in the 0.3 mg/kg infection group and 66.41+/-7.61 in the 0.6 mg/kg infection group vs 8.00+/-0.36 in the control group; P<0.01). The number of trials to criterion in the Y type maze test in the infection groups was much more than that in the control group [117.8+/-8.7 (0.3 mg/kg infection group) and 194.4+/-13.7 (0.6 mg/kg infection group) vs 56.8+/-3.7 (control group); P<0.01]. The number of correct reactions in memory retaining in the infection groups was lower than that in the control group (0.62+/-0.09 in the 0.3 mg/kg infection group and 0.37+/-0.09 in the 0.6 mg/kg infection group vs 0.92+/-0.06 in the control group; P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSIntrauterine infection can cause fetal rats' neural cell apoptosis and affect adversely long-term brain development of neonatal rats.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; Bacterial Infections ; physiopathology ; Blood-Brain Barrier ; Brain ; growth & development ; pathology ; Female ; Maze Learning ; Neurons ; pathology ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious ; physiopathology ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Uterus ; microbiology