OBJECTIVETo characterize the genetic background of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) from China, and the population structure of this pathogen.

METHODSA previously reported MLST scheme was applied to a collection of 33 multidrug-resistant strains of A. baumannii from China, and the data of all the strains in the A. baumannii MLST database were downloaded for the population structure analysis. The sequence types and clonal complexes were identified, the presence or absence of recombination was analyzed for each MLST locus, and the values of I(A)(S), and recombination/mutation ratio were calculated for the whole strain collection. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using all the allelic profiles in the database.

RESULTSA total of six sequence types were identified from the 33 Chinese strains tested, and 29 of these strains belonged to the CC92 clonal complex. Three (gdhB, gpi, and rpoD) of the seven MLST loci (gltA, gyrB, recA, cpn60, gdhB, gpi, rpoD) had undergone recombination with statistical evidence. For all allele profiles in the MLST database, the I(A)(S) value was 0.155 and the recombination/mutation ratio was 6.083. Sequence types from each clonal complex were grouped closely in the phylogenetic tree, which gave an overview of the microevolution of this pathogen.

CONCLUSIONThe spread of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii in China was closely related to the CC92 clonal complex. A. baumannii had an 'epidemic' population structure, i.e., a superficially clonal structure with high levels of recombination, in which successful epidemic clones arise especially including worldwide dissemination of the CC92 clonal complex to cause a widespread occurrence of multidrug-resistant infections.

Acinetobacter baumannii ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Bacterial Typing Techniques ; China ; Cluster Analysis ; DNA, Bacterial ; genetics ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; Genetic Variation ; Genetics, Population ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; Phylogeny

In 682 bacteriological specimens, the positives are 71.4%. Acute otitis media, chronic otitis media, chronic maxillary sinusitis, acute tonsillitis and chronic tonsillitis are the most positive specimens. In general, the most effective antibiotic are: augmentine, ceftriaxone in acute otitis media, and vancomycine, gentamycine in chronic otitis media, and augmentin, gentamycine in chronic maxillary sinusitis, cefortaxime, ceftriaxone in acute tonsillitis, and augmentin cefotaxime in chronic tonsillitis
Bacteriological Techniques ; Spectrum Analysis ; bacteria

BACKGROUNDStreptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) is a major causative agent of severe infections, including sepsis, pneumonia, meningitis, and otitis media, and has become a major public health concern. We report the pneumococcal serotype and sequence type (ST) distribution, and antimicrobial resistance of 39 S. pneumoniae strains from seven hospitals in China.

METHODSBlood/cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and sputum isolates from patients were analyzed to determine S. pneumoniae serotypes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the Neufeld Quellung reaction, the multilocus sequence types (MLST) by PCR and sequencing, and susceptibility to antimicrobial agents by the VITEK Gram Positive Susceptibility Card.

RESULTSA total of 39 isolates were collected including 21 blood/CSF and 18 sputum isolates. Conventional serotyping by the Quellung reaction required 749 reactions. In contrast, PCR based typing needed only 106 PCR reactions. The most frequent serotypes from the blood/CSF isolates were 14 (38.1%), 19A (14.3%), 23F (9.5%), and 18C (9.5%). In the sputum isolates the most frequent serotypes were 19F (33.3%), 23F (16.7%), 19A (11.1%), and 3 (11.1%). The incidence of penicillin resistance in the blood/CSF and sputum isolates was 66.7% and 55.6%, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that patients = 5 years old had a higher resistance to penicillin when they compared with the patients = 65 years old (P = 0.011). Serotypes 14, 19A and 19F were significantly associated with penicillin resistance (P < 0.001). ST320, ST271, and ST876 isolates showed high resistant rates to several antibiotics including penicillin (P = 0.006). All of the isolates of serotype 19A were resistant to both penicillin and erythromycin, and they were all multi-drug resistant (MDR) isolates.

CONCLUSIONSThe specificity and sensitivity of multiplex-PCR are good, and this method represents a substantial savings of time and money, and can be widely used in the laboratory and clinical practice. Data from this research showed an extremely high prevalence of penicillin resistance and an increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) rate in S. pneumoniae. A distinctive emergence of serotype 19A was observed which was also associated with the increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, nationwide surveillance of pneumococcal resistance and serotypes is strongly warranted.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; Humans ; Infant ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Typing ; methods ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; methods ; Pneumococcal Infections ; microbiology ; Serotyping ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; classification ; drug effects

Reliable transport of Campylobacter jejuni isolates is critical to microbial epidemiology research, especially in developing countries without a good temperature control mailing system. Various factors, including oxygen, temperature, transport medium composition, could affect the survival of C. jejuni. In this study, the protective effects of different ingredients in C. jejuni transport media at 4 °C and 25 °C and under aerobic condition were quantitatively evaluated respectively. The results showed that enriched medium, supplementation with 5% blood and being kept at 4 °C could improve the viability of different C. jejuni strains during transport. In addition, supplementation with 25 mmol/L L-fucose in Wang's transport medium could significantly improve the survival of C. jejuni at both 4 °C and 25 °C. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to evaluate the protective effect of L-fucose in enriched C. jejuni transport medium which is feasible in developing countries without an effective cold chain mailing system. These data will be good reference for C. jejuni transport medium improvement in future.
Bacteriological Techniques ; Campylobacter jejuni ; Culture Media

The first step of bacilli culture is inoculation bacteria on culture medium. Designing a device to increase efficiency of inoculation is significative. The new device is controlled by SCM. The stepper motor can drive the culture medium rotating, accelerating, decelerating, overturn and suspending. The device is high practicability and efficient, let inoculation easy for operator.
Bacteriological Techniques ; instrumentation ; Equipment Design ; Software Design

OBJECTIVETo analyze molecular and evolution characteristics of Salmonella Paratyphi A isolates from 2000 to 2008, China.

METHODSUsing pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method with SpeI restriction enzyme, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method based on housekeeping genes (aroC, thrA, hisD, purE, sucA, dnaN, hemD, adk, and purA), the genomic variations of 118 Salmonella Paratyphi A isolates from 10 regions during 2000 to 2008 were analyzed.

RESULTSUsing PFGE method, 118 Salmonella Paratyphi A isolates were clustered into 32 PFGE patterns, and 5 patterns were predominant (5 isolates or above). However, only 2 MLST types were identified for all isolates with MLST method. Among all Salmonella Paratyphi A isolates, the sequences of housekeeping genes were highly conservative and showed a high degree of cloning.

CONCLUSIONFor Chinese epidemic Salmonella Paratyphi A isolates during 2000 - 2008, MLST method showed low discrimination power and the MLST method should not be applied to outbreak and epidemiological surveillance of Salmonella Paratyphi A. Currently, nationwide paratyphoid fever epidemics is caused by highly clonal isolates in China. As the time changes, these isolates also accumulate sporadic mutations.

Bacterial Typing Techniques ; China ; DNA, Bacterial ; genetics ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; methods ; Humans ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; Paratyphoid Fever ; epidemiology ; microbiology ; Salmonella paratyphi A ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Serotyping

PURPOSE: The increasing prevalence and global spread of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) has become a serious problem. The aim of this study was to investigate molecular and epidemiological characteristics of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates collected from Korean non-tertiary hospitals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty six non-duplicated carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates were collected from 17 non-tertiary hospitals in Korea between 2004 and 2006. Isolates were typed by multilocus sequence typing and repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR). Detection of genes encoding OXA carbapenemase and their relationship with ISAba1 was performed by PCR. RESULTS: Two clones were prevalent among 36 isolates: ST69 (17 isolates, 47.2%) and ST92 (19 isolates, 52.8%). Rep-PCR patterns were diverse and revealed that all isolates were clustered into eight band patterns. The ISAba1-activated blaOXA-23-like and ISAba1-activated blaOXA-51-like genes were prevalent among the carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates. CONCLUSION: The class D beta-lactamase genes of A. baumannii were distributed nationwide in non-tertiary Korean hospitals.
Acinetobacter Infections/epidemiology/*microbiology ; Acinetobacter baumannii/classification/*genetics ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Bacterial Typing Techniques ; Carbapenems/*therapeutic use ; DNA, Bacterial/analysis ; *Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea ; beta-Lactamases/genetics

The aim of this study was to develop and validate an oligonucleotide suspension array for rapid identification of 15 bacterial species responsible for bacteremia, particularly prevalent in Chinese hospitals. The multiplexed array, based on the QIAGEN LiquiChip Workstation, included 15 oligonucleotide probes which were covalently bound to different bead sets. PCR amplicons of a variable region of the bacterial 23S rRNA genes were hybridized to the bead-bound probes. Thirty-eight strains belonging to 15 species were correctly identified on the basis of their corresponding species-specific hybridization profiles. The results show that the suspension array, in a single assay, can differentiate isolates over a wide range of strains and species, and suggest the potential utility of suspension array system to clinical laboratory diagnosis.
Bacteremia ; diagnosis ; genetics ; Bacterial Typing Techniques ; Bacteriological Techniques ; DNA Probes ; Genetic Techniques ; Listeria monocytogenes ; metabolism ; Nucleic Acid Hybridization ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Oligonucleotides ; chemistry ; RNA, Ribosomal ; chemistry ; RNA, Ribosomal, 23S ; genetics ; Stem Cells

The optimal site for the isolation of beta-hemolytic streptococci (BHS) from throat cultures was investigated in 164 healthy elementary school children. All throat cultures were streaked onto duplicate blood agar plates (BAP), one of which was taken from the tonsillar fossae and the other from the posterior pharynx. BHS were isolated in cultures from 56 (34.2%) of the children. BHS were more frequently recovered from the tonsillar fossae than from the posterior pharynx (54 vs. 47; both sites, 45; tonsillar fossae only, 9; posterior pharynx only, 2; P<0.0001). There were significantly more numerous colonies in the tonsillar fossae than in the posterior pharynx (p<0.01). To conclude, the tonsillar fossae are more optimal sites of throat cultures to isolate BHS than the posterior pharynx.
Bacteriological Techniques ; Child ; Humans ; Pharynx/*microbiology ; Streptococcus/*isolation & purification

Although it is not rare to find sputum that is positive acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear but subsequent culture fails to isolate mycobacteria in clinical practice, the incidence and clinical implication of those sputa from new patients has not been clearly elucidated. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and clinical implication of sputum with positive AFB smear but negative in mycobacterial culture. All sputa that were positive AFB smear requested during diagnostic work up for new patients visiting Seoul National University Hospital from 1 January 2005 through 31 December 2006 were included. Sputa producing a positive AFB smear but negative mycobacterial culture were classified into one of four categories: laboratory failure to isolate mycobacteria, false positive AFB smear, pathogen may show a positive AFB smear other than mycobacteria, and indeterminate results. Out of 447 sputa with a positive AFB smear, 29 (6.5%) failed to culture any organism. Among these 29 sputa, 18 were caused by laboratory failure to isolate mycobacteria, six were false positive smears, and five indeterminate. Although most sputum with a positive AFB smear but negative culture could be classified as a laboratory failure, clinicians should consider the possibility of false positive AFB smear.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Bacterial Typing Techniques ; Bacteriological Techniques ; False Positive Reactions ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mycobacterium/*metabolism ; Retrospective Studies ; Sputum/*microbiology ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis/epidemiology/microbiology