BACKGROUND: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be a major cause of nosocomial infection and a molecular typing is necessary for proper epidemiologic investigations of sources and moles of spread in an outbreak. An nosocomial outbreak of MRSA in a neonatal intensive care unit at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital was suspected. To investigate the clonality of isolates and control the spread of nosocomial outbreak, we performed plasmid restriction analysis of MRSA isolates from patients and medical staffs. METHODS: We studied 7 MRSA strains (umbilicus 4, blood 1, urine 1 and pus 1) from patients in a neonatal intensive care unit and the MRSA strains from nares and hands surveillance cultures of 26 medical staffs (4 medical doctors and 22 nurses). All MRSA strains were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and plasmic analysis after EcoRI restriction. We analyzed the plasmid patterns of MRSA isolated from patients and compared with those from medical staffs. RESULTS: Ten MRSA strains (from 7 nares and 3 hands) were isolated from surveillance cultures of 26 medical staffs. Seven out of 10 MRSA strains from medical staffs revealed identical pattern of antibiogram which was the same pattern in all 7 MRSA strains from seven patients. Plasmid restriction patterns were classified 6 groups from A to F showing 2-10 bands. Six out of 7 MRSA strains from the patients showed group A(A1 5, A31) and 5 out of 10 MRSA strains from the medical staffs showed group A(A1 1, A21, A32, A41) and remainders showed different plasmid restriction analysis patterns. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that plasmid restriction analysis is a rapid, inexpensive, and good discriminating molecular typing of MRSA outbreak and is useful for the epidemiologic investigation of MRSA outbreaks in the clinical laboratory.
Cross Infection ; Disease Outbreaks ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Medical Staff ; Methicillin Resistance* ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus* ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Molecular Epidemiology* ; Molecular Typing ; Plasmids* ; Suppuration

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Enterococci are a leading cause of nosocomial infection and the emergence of resistant strain to various antibiotics including vancomycin is increasingly serious problems among enterococci. And the risk of spread of glycopeptide genes to other Gram-positive cocci makes the problems more serious. To evaluate the presence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in Ewha Womans University Hospital (EWUH), we screened hospitalized patients for fecal colonization and clinical isolates. METHODS: We screened VRE in 574 stool specimens requested for routine cultures and 91 perirectal swabs or stool specimens from patients who reside in intensive care unit and hemato-oncologic ward in Mookdong and Tongdaemoon EWUH from December 1996 through April 1997. And 295 enterococcal species isolated from various clinical specimens were also included. To detect VRE, specimens were cultured in BHI agar medium including 6 g/mL of vancomycin and to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern, broth microdilution test using VITEK GPS-IZ, disk diffusion test and standard agar dilution test were performed. Multiplex PCR was done to determine the genotypes of VRE. RESULTS: Nine enterococci (0.9%) were interpreted as VRE in standard agar dilution method. Two (0.3%) out of 665 were from stool speciemens for surveillence cuture and 7 (2.3%) out of 295 were from various clinical specimens for ordinary cultures including 5 E. casseliflavus, 2 E. gallinarum, 1 E. flavescens and 1 Enterococcus species. All isolates showed low-level resistance against vancomycin (8-16 g/mL) by standard agar dilution. But both disk diffusion method and VITEK system demonstrated difficulties in detecting low-level resistance. The genotypes of VRE were classified as van C-1 in 2 isolates and as van C-2 in 6 isolates except 1 isolates, which was unclassifiable in our study. CONCLUSIONS: Even though VRE with high- or medium-level resistance against glycopeptide was not detected in EWUH from this period of investigation, the possibility of presence of VRE is impanding because several teaching hospitals already reported the presence of VRE in clinical isolates and fecal colonization. So continuous surveillence and strict infection control measures must be implemented to detect and prevent transmission of VRE infection.
Agar ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Colon ; Cross Infection ; Diffusion ; Enterococcus ; Female ; Genotype* ; Gram-Positive Cocci ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Intensive Care Units ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Prevalence* ; Vancomycin

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to predict subgroups of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-IV Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) by machine learning (ML). The secondary objective was to set up a ranking of Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) diagnostic algorithm items based on ML, and to confirm whether ML can sufficiently predict the diagnosis with these minimum items. Methods: In the first experiment, a multiclass decision forest algorithm was applied, and the diagnostic algorithm score value of 1,269 Korean ADI-R test data was used for prediction. In the second experiment, we used 539 Korean ADI-R case data (over 48 months with verbal language) to apply mutual information to rank items used in the ADI diagnostic algorithm. Results: In the first experiment, the results of predicting in the case of pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified as “ASD” were almost three times higher than predicting it as “No diagnosis.” In the second experiment, the top 10 ranking items of ADI-R were mainly related to the quality abnormality of communication. Conclusion In conclusion, we verified the applicability of ML in diagnosis and found that the application of artificial intelligence for rapid diagnosis or screening of ASD patients may be useful.

Unicornuate uterus with a rudimentary horn hematometra and bicornuate uterus with unilateral hematometra is rare congenital anatomic anomalys of the female genital system. these patients present with dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, pelvic mass, urinary tract anomalies and pelvic endometriosis. We have experienced a case of rudimentary uterine horn hematometra with agenesis of ipsilateral kidney and pelvic endometriosis in a 18 years old girl and a case of bicornuate uterus with unilateral hematometra associated with agenesis of ipsilateral kidney and pelvic endometriosis in a 14 years old girl. and we treated by laparoscopic management. So we report two cases with a brief review of literatures.
Adolescent ; Animals ; Dysmenorrhea ; Dyspareunia ; Endometriosis* ; Female ; Hematometra ; Horns ; Humans ; Kidney* ; Urinary Tract ; Uterus

PURPOSE: A large number of studies have demonstrated that bronchiolitis by RSV can develop into recurrent wheezing or asthma in infancy. The severity on first attack, atopic finding and evironmental factors can be a risk factors for this recurrent wheezing but not yet defined clearly. We studied to know the risk factors to cause recurrent wheezing after bronchiolitis by RSV. METHODS: Sixty three children who were hospitalized for bronchiolitis by RSV from June 1996 through May 1997 were followed-up. They were classified into recurrent group with wheezing of more than 3 times and no-recurrent group and compared. RESULTS: 1) The recurrent group was 46%(29 of 63 cases) and was higher in both male and whom first wheezing occured in less than 6 months of age. 2) On the first admission, the degree of respiratory distress was more severe in recurrent group. 3) On the first admission, serum ECP was more higher in the recurrent group. And during follow-up, frequency of increased serum IgE and positive skin test to D.p, D.f was higher in the recurrent group. 4) The household environment, personal history of patients and familial history of atopy did not affect on recurrence of wheezing. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that younger age of lesser than 6 month of age and severity of respiratory distress on the first admission and positive skin test to D.p, D.f and higher serum IgE during follow-up had significant association with recurrent wheezing.
Asthma ; Bronchiolitis* ; Child ; Family Characteristics ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Male ; Recurrence ; Respiratory Sounds ; Risk Factors ; Skin Tests

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the value of colonoscopy for Salmonella-Shigella culture of biopsy specimen and intraluminal fluid during colonoscopy in patients with acute diarrhea. METHODS: From March 2001 to August 2001, sixty-six patients with watery or bloody diarrhea lasting less than 15 days were participated after exclusion of the patients with previous history or presumption of inflammatory bowel disease, radiation colitis, ischemic colitis, or pseudomembranous colitis. The biopsy specimen was taken and colonic luminal fluid was aspirated during colonoscopy for Salmonella-Shigella cultures. RESULTS: Male and female ratio was 1:1.3 and mean age was 45 17 years. The normal colonoscopic finding was showed in twelve cases (18.2%). The severity of acute colitis was mild in 25 cases (25/54, 46.3%), moderate in 9 cases (9/54, 16.7%), and severe in 20 cases (20/54, 37.0%). The extent of acute colitis was as followed: involvement of one segment in 9 cases (16.7%), involvement of two or more segments in 26 cases (48.1%), pancolitis in 7 cases (13.0%), and pancolitis with involved terminal ileum in 12 cases (22.2%). In culture study, identification of Salmonella species was in 11 cases (16.7%). Salmonella species were identified in 6.0% (3/50) with stool specimen, 18.0% (9/50) with biopsy specimen, and 4.0% (2/50) with intraluminal fluid, but without statistical significance. CONCLUSION: The culture using biopsy specimens and intraluminal fluid obtained during colonoscopy may be helpful in diagnosis of cases of suggesting Salmonella-Shigella infection.
Biopsy* ; Colitis ; Colitis, Ischemic ; Colon ; Colonoscopy* ; Diagnosis ; Diarrhea* ; Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous ; Female ; Humans ; Ileum ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Male ; Phenobarbital ; Salmonella

Osteomesopyknosis is a rare sclerosing bone disorder of autosomal dominant inheritance. We report a first case of osteomesopyknosis in Korea. A 16-year old girl complained of diffuse back pain for 1 year. We performed physical examination, biochemical investigations and imaging studies. A radiograph of spine revealed rugger-jersey vertebra and sandwich vertebra. Bone specific alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin and C-terminal telopeptides of type I collagen were normal. Only an axial skeleton involvement was shown on the whole body bone scan. This patient was diagnosed to have osteomesopyknosis. Osteomesopyknosis is characterized by normal level of bone turnover marker and an axial bone involvement. Osteomesopyknosis can be occurred in Korea and needs to be considered when patients, especially young patients, suffer from back pain and have only axial osteosclerosis.
Alkaline Phosphatase ; Back Pain ; Bone Diseases ; Collagen Type I ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Osteocalcin ; Osteosclerosis ; Physical Examination ; Skeleton ; Spine ; Wills