BACKGROUND: To analyze the incidence and clinical-microbiological characteristics of osteomyelitis (OM) in a tertiary Spanish hospital. METHODS: All cases diagnosed with OM between January 2007 and December 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. The variables examined include epidemiological characteristics, risk factors, affected bone, radiographic changes, histology, microbiological culture results, antibiotic treatment, and the need for surgery. RESULTS: Sixty-three cases of OM were diagnosed. Twenty-six patients (41.3%) had acute OM whereas 37 patients (58.7%) were classified as chronic OM. OM may result from haematogenous or contiguous microbial seeding. In this group, 49 patients (77.8%) presented with OM secondary to a contiguous source of infection and 14 patients had hematogenous OM (22.2%). Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly found microorganism. CONCLUSIONS: OM mainly affected patients with risk factors related to the presence of vascular diseases. Antibiotic treatment must be guided by susceptibility patterns of individual microorganisms, although it must be performed together with surgery in most of the cases.
Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Chronic Disease ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Osteomyelitis/drug therapy/epidemiology/microbiology ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Spain/epidemiology ; Staphylococcal Infections ; Staphylococcus aureus/isolation & purification ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Young Adult

Ovarian stimulation with commercial preparations of equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) produces extremely variable responses in domestic animals, ranging from excessive stimulation to practically no stimulation, when applied on the basis of their declared unitage. This study was conducted to analyze four commercial preparations from different manufacturers via reversed-phase HPLC (RP-HPLC) in comparison with a reference preparation and an official International Standard from the World Health Organization. The peaks obtained by this qualitative and quantitative physical–chemical analysis were compared using an in vivo bioassay based on the ovarian weight gain of prepubertal female rats. The RP-HPLC data showed one or two peaks close to a main peak (t(R) = 27.9 min), which were related to the in vivo bioactivity. Commercial preparations that have this altered peak showed very little or no in vivo activity, as demonstrated by rat ovarian weight and in peripubertal gilts induced to ovulate. Overall, these findings indicate that RP-HPLC can be a rapid and reliable tool to reveal changes in the physicochemical profile of commercial eCG that is apparently related to decreased biological activity of this hormone.
Animals ; Animals, Domestic ; Biological Assay ; Chorion* ; Chorionic Gonadotropin* ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Humans ; Ovulation Induction ; Rats ; Weight Gain ; World Health Organization