No abstract available.
Aged ; Aneurysm/surgery ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Brain Diseases/surgery ; Craniotomy/adverse effects ; DNA, Bacterial/chemistry/genetics/metabolism ; Female ; Flavobacteriaceae Infections/etiology/microbiology ; Flavobacterium/classification/drug effects/*isolation & purification ; Humans ; Meningitis/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Phylogeny ; Postoperative Complications ; Sequence Analysis, DNA

Automated blood culture systems are widely used in clinical microbiology laboratories to minimize the workload of laboratory personnel and permit fast turnaround times. However, sometimes false positive signals occur due to leukocytosis, presence of fastidious bacteria, or unexplained causes. We experienced false positive signal in a patient with hyperleukocytosis for the first time since the automated blood culture system was introduced in our hospital over 20 years ago. We present two case reports with literature review and describe the procedure for dealing with false-positive cases in our hospital.

Staphylococcus pettenkoferi is a coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) of growing concern. As CoNS could be an important cause of infections in hospitalized patients, especially in immunocompromised patients, accurate identification is critical to timely and effective treatment. In the past, S. pettenkoferi was not identifed by conventional methods or was misidentified as another Staphylococcus species or another genus. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of S. pettenkoferi identified using Vitek MS (bioMérieux, France). Two patients admitted to our hospital were confirmed to have bacteremia caused by S. pettenkoferi, which was identified in blood cultures using Vitek MS (bioMérieux). Therefore, we recommend using the Vitek MS (bioMérieux) for rapid and accurate identification of the pathogen causing bloodstream infection when CoNS is suspected.
Bacteremia ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Staphylococcus

Although Malassezia furfur is normal skin flora causing superficial skin diseases, cases of fungemia have been reported recently in premature newborns or immunocompromised patients related to prolonged central venous catheterization for lipid supplementation. We report a case of M. furfur fungemia in a premature infant receiving intravenous lipid supplementation through central venous circulation. She was treated only with antifungal agents without removal of the catheter or discontinuation of lipid supplementation. Soon after, symptoms and signs of the patient seemed to be improved. However, central venous catheter was removed because of recurrent septicemia of Staphylococcus aureus and the culture of central venous catheter tip showed colonization of M. furfur.
Antifungal Agents ; Catheterization, Central Venous ; Catheters ; Central Venous Catheters* ; Colon ; Fungemia* ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Malassezia* ; Sepsis ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Staphylococcus aureus

No abstract available.
Korea

The 5th year KONSAR surveillance in 2001 was based on routine test data at 30 participating hospitals. It was of particular interest to find a trend in the resistances of enterococci to vancomycin, of Enterobacteriaceae to the 3rd generation cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone, and of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and acinetobacters to carbapenem. Resistance rates of Gram-positive cocci were: 70% of Staphylococcus aureus to oxacillin; 88% and 16% of Enterococcus faecium to ampicillin and vancomycin, respectively. Seventy-two percent of pneumococci were nonsusceptible to penicillin. The resistance rates of Enterobacteriaceae were: Escherichia coli, 28% to fluoroquinolone; Klebsiella pneumoniae, 27% to ceftazidime, and 20% to cefoxitin; and Enterobacter cloacae, > or =40% to cefotaxime and ceftazidime. The resistance rates of P. aeruginosa were 21% to ceftazidime, 17% to imipenem, and those of the acinetobacters were > or =61% to ceftazidime, aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolone and cotrimoxazole. Thirty-five percent of non-typhoidal salmonellae were ampicillin resistant, and 66% of Haemophilus influenzae were -lactamase producers. Notable changes over the 1997-2001 period were: increases in vancomycin-resistant E. faecium, and amikacin- and fluoroquinolone-resistant acinetobacters. With the increasing prevalence of resistant bacteria, nationwide surveillance has become more important for optimal patient management, for the control of nosocomial infection, and for the conservation of the newer antimicrobial agents.
Anti-Bacterial Agents/*pharmacology ; Cephalosporins/pharmacology ; *Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Enterococcus faecium/metabolism ; Human ; Imipenem/pharmacology ; Klebsiella pneumoniae/metabolism ; Korea ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa/metabolism ; Time Factors ; Vancomycin/*pharmacology

The first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Korea was reported in January 2020.As the secondary transmissions accelerated within the country, the government revised the outbreak alert for COVID-19 from attention to caution. Mid-February, when a massive outbreak was reported from a church in Daegu, our institution initiated testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). More than 300 laboratory tests were performed within the first 2 months, before the number of cases began to decline. Here, we describe our experience of 4 months at the department of Laboratory Medicine, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, located in Daegu, where a massive COVID-19 outbreak occurred.

No abstract available.
Cannibalism ; Urinary Bladder

Plasma exchange performed with the aid of acid-citrate-dextrose formula A (ACD-A) is generally regarded as safe. However, unfractionated heparin (UFH) can serve as an anticoagulant for patients experiencing serious side effects such as anaphylaxis. No guidelines have currently been defined for the stand-alone UFH dosing during plasma exchange. We describe here two patients who developed anaphylaxis to ACD-A during plasma exchange, and we successfully used UFH as a standalone anticoagulant. The first patient was a 55-year-old man who required plasma exchange before ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation. During plasma exchange, he developed an allergic reaction. Thereafter, UFH was used as a standalone anticoagulant during four sessions of plasma exchange; the UFH (5,000 units) was added to a 500 mL normal saline bag and the UFH:whole blood ratio was maintained at 1:28. The second patient was an 80-year-old woman with steroid pulse-resistant neuromyelitis optica. She developed an allergic reaction during the first session of plasma exchange. The patient subsequently underwent five successful sessions of plasma exchange using UFH as a standalone anticoagulant. These findings may be useful when establishing a protocol for UFH as a standalone anticoagulant during plasma exchange in patients who develop an allergic reaction to citrate.

Background: Detection of anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies is important during the selection of an appropriate donor prior to organ transplantation and also for monitoring the patients after transplantation. In this study, we compared antibodies detected via C3d assays, which monitors C3d complement-binding activities of HLA antibodies with those detected via single antigen bead (SAB) assays. Methods: A total of 66 serum samples were tested in parallel by SAB assays (Immucor Transplant Diagnostics, USA) and C3d assays (Immucor) for the detection of HLA class II antibodies. The relationship between these two methods was analyzed based on the types, numbers, median fluorescent intensity (MFI) values, and positivity of the antibodies using MATCH IT! Antibody (Immucor) program. Results: The number of antibodies obtained based on SAB and C3d assays was the highest with 24 samples (36.4%) in the 11–20 range and 23 (34.8%) in the 2–5 range detected via each assay. Among the SAB-positive antibodies, only 28 (6.4%) of the 440 antibodies with MFI ≤3,000 were C3d-positive, and 341 (61.3%) of the 556 antibodies with MFI ≥3,001 were C3d-positive. Whereas, among the 442 C3d-positive antibodies, SAB assays were positive except for 32 (7.2%) and 41 (9.3%) antibodies in the sections of MFI ≤500 and 1,001 ≤MFI ≤10,000, respectively. C3d-positive samples had higher maximum MFI values based on SAB assays, compared with C3d-negative samples. Conclusions MFI values of HLA class II antibodies detected through SAB assays in C3d-positive samples were higher than those in C3d-negative samples.