| 1. |
- Broman, T., et al.
(author)
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Campylobacter jejuni in black-headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) : prevalence, genotypes, and influence on C. jejuni epidemiology
- 2002
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 40:12, s. 4594-4602
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Campylobacteriosis is a zoonotic disease in which birds have been suggested to play an important role as a reservoir. We investigated the prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni subsp. jejuni in black-headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) in southern Sweden with the aim of examining the nature of C. jejuni infection in this bird species. Birds were sampled in four sampling series each year during 1999 (n = 419) and 2000 (n = 365). Longitudinally sampled C. jejuni isolates from individual gulls were subjected to macrorestriction profiling (MRP) by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to investigate the genotypical stability during the natural course of infection. Furthermore, a subset (n = 76) of black-headed gull isolates was compared to isolates from broiler chickens (n = 38) and humans (n = 56) originating from the same geographic area. We found a pronounced seasonal variation in C. jejuni carriage, with the highest rates found in late autumn. MRP similarities were higher between isolates of human and broiler chicken origin, than between those of wild bird origin and either of the other two hosts. However, identical MRPs were found in two gull isolates and one human isolate after digestion with two restriction enzymes, strongly indicating that they may have been colonized by the same clone of C. jejuni. The MRPs most prevalent in gull isolates did not occur among isolates from humans and broiler chickens, suggesting the existence of a subpopulation of C. jejuni adapted to species-specific colonization or environmental survival.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Gisselsson-Solén, Marie, et al.
(author)
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The Binax NOW test as a tool for diagnosis of severe acute otitis media and associated complications
- 2007
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 45:9, s. 3003-3007
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The diagnosis of acute otitis media (AOM) is often difficult, depending heavily on the experience and skills of the examiner. However, it is important to identify episodes of AOM that involve the risk of complications and to treat these episodes appropriately. The present study was performed in order to evaluate the use of a rapid antigen assay for Streptococcus pneumoniae, the Binax NOW test, as a diagnostic tool in patients with severe AOM and associated complications. The study included 70 patients with 74 episodes of AOM, 18 of them with complications. Cultures, Binax NOW tests, and a PCR assay were performed on nasopharyngeal secretions, middle ear fluid, and in some cases mastoid bone, cerebrospinal fluid, and urine. According to culture and PCR of the middle ear fluid, 30 (41%) of the episodes were caused by S. pneumoniae. The Binax NOW test was positive in 24 of these episodes (80%). It identified pneumococcal AOM independent of antibiotic treatment, and it was easily adapted to bone tissue. The test yielded sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for middle ear specimens of 85%, 100%, 100%, and 89%, respectively. The corresponding positive and negative values for predicting the bacterial etiology with nasopharyngeal secretions were 51% and 75%. This study showed that the Binax NOW test is a useful diagnostic tool for patients with severe AOM with or without complications.
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| 4. |
- Hogberg, Liselotte, et al.
(author)
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Age- and serogroup-related differences in observed durations of nasopharyngeal carriage of penicillin-resistant pneumococci
- 2007
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 45:3, s. 948-952
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Using data from an ongoing Swedish intervention project, the observed durations of nasopharyngeal carriage of penicillin-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae (PNSP) (MIC of penicillin G of >= 0.5 mu g/ml) stratified by both pneumococcal serogroup and age of the carrier were compared. The means and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by fitting a gamma distribution to the observed duration of carriage for each age and serogroup stratum. The mean observed duration of carriage for all cases was 37 days (95% CI, 35 to 38 days). Children below the age of 5 years carried PNSP for significantly longer periods (43 days; 95% CI, 41 to 45 days) compared with older individuals (25 days; 95% CI, 24 to 27 days). There were also differences within the group of cases below the age of 5 years, as the duration of carriage became significantly shorter for each increasing age step: < 1, 1 to 2, and 3 to 4 years. In addition, patients < 5 years of age carried serogroups 9 and 14 for significantly shorter periods than groups 6 and 23. Serogroup 9 was also carried for significantly shorter periods than group 19. For patients aged 5 years or older, no significant difference in carriage duration for different ages or serogroups could be noted. As young children have the longest duration of PNSP carriage, interventions aiming to reduce the prevalence in this group are of great importance. The results highlight the importance of taking both serogroup and age of the carriers into account when studying the dynamics of pneumococcal transmission in young children.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Juréen, P., et al.
(author)
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Wild-type MIC distributions for aminoglycoside and cyclic polypeptide antibiotics used for treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections
- 2010
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - : American Society for Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 48:5, s. 1853-1858
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aminoglycosides and cyclic polypeptides are essential drugs in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, underscoring the need for accurate and reproducible drug susceptibility testing (DST). The epidemiological cutoff value (ECOFF) separating wild-type susceptible strains from non-wild-type strains is an important but rarely used tool for indicating susceptibility breakpoints against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In this study, we established wild-type MIC distributions on Middlebrook 7H10 medium for amikacin, kanamycin, streptomycin, capreomycin, and viomycin using 90 consecutive clinical isolates and 21 resistant strains. Overall, the MIC variation between and within runs did not exceed +/-1 MIC dilution step, and validation of MIC values in Bactec 960 MGIT demonstrated good agreement. Tentative ECOFFs defining the wild type were established for all investigated drugs, including amikacin and viomycin, which currently lack susceptibility breakpoints for 7H10. Five out of seven amikacin- and kanamycin-resistant isolates were classified as susceptible to capreomycin according to the current critical concentration (10 mg/liter) but were non-wild type according to the ECOFF (4 mg/liter), suggesting that the critical concentration may be too high. All amikacin- and kanamycin-resistant isolates were clearly below the ECOFF for viomycin, and two of them were below the ECOFF for streptomycin, indicating that these two drugs may be considered for treatment of amikacin-resistant strains. Pharmacodynamic indices (peak serum concentration [Cmax]/MIC) were more favorable for amikacin and viomycin compared to kanamycin and capreomycin. In conclusion, our data emphasize the importance of establishing wild-type MIC distributions for improving the quality of drug susceptibility testing against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
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| 7. |
- Jurstrand, Margaretha, et al.
(author)
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Characterization of Chlamydia trachomatis omp1 genotypes among sexually transmitted disease patients in Sweden
- 2001
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 39:11, s. 3915-3919
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A method for detection and genotyping of genital Chlamydia trachomatis infections based on omp1 gene amplification and sequencing was developed. DNA was extracted from urogenital or urine samples using a Chelex-based method, and an approximately 1,100-bp-long fragment from the omp1 gene was directly amplified and sequenced. Genotyping was performed by BLAST similarity search, and phylogenetic tree analysis was used to illustrate the evolutionary relationships between clinical isolates and reference strains. The method was used to determine the genotypes of C. trachomatis in 237 positive urogenital and/or urine specimens collected at a Swedish sexually transmitted disease clinic during 1 year. The most common genotypes corresponded to serotypes E (47%) and F (17%). The omp1 gene was highly conserved for genotype E (106 of 112 samples without any mutation) and F (41 of 42 samples without any mutation) strains but appear slightly less conserved for genotypes G (n = 6) and H (n = 6), where the sequences displayed one to four nucleotide substitutions relative to the reference sequence. Genotyping of samples collected at the follow-up visit indicated that two patients had become reinfected, while three other patients suffered treatment failure or reinfection. One woman appeared to have a mixed infection with two different C. trachomatis strains. This omp1 genotyping method had a high reproducibility and could be used for epidemiological characterization of sexually transmitted Chlamydia infections.
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| 8. |
- Klint, Markus, et al.
(author)
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High-resolution genotyping of Chlamydia trachomatis strains by multilocus sequence analysis
- 2007
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 45:5, s. 1410-1414
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Genotyping of Chlamydia trachomatis is limited by the low sequence variation in the genome, and no adequatemethod is available for analysis of the spread of chlamydial infections in the community. We have developeda multilocus sequence typing (MLST) system based on five target regions and compared it with analysis ofompA, the single gene most extensively used for genotyping. Sequence determination of 16 reference strains,comprising all major serotypes, serotypes A to L3, showed that the number of genetic variants in the fiveseparate target regions ranged from 8 to 16. The genetic variation in 47 clinical C. trachomatis isolates ofrepresentative serotypes (14 serotype D, 12 serotype E, 11 serotype G, and 10 serotype K strains) was analyzed;and the MLST system detected 32 variants, whereas 12 variants were detected by using ompA analysis.Specimens of the predominant serotype, serotype E, were differentiated into seven genotypes by MLST but intoonly two by ompA analysis. The MLST system was applied to C. trachomatis specimens from a population ofmen who have sex with men and was able to differentiate 10 specimens of one predominant ompA genotype Gvariant into four distinct MLST variants. To conclude, our MLST system can be used to discriminate C.trachomatis strains and can be applied to high-resolution molecular epidemiology.
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| 9. |
- Knutsson, Rickard, et al.
(author)
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Modeling of 5′ nuclease real-time responses for optimization of a high-throughput enrichment PCR procedure for Salmonella enterica
- 2002
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 40:1, s. 52-60
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The performance of a 5′ nuclease real-time PCR assay was studied to optimize an automated method of detection of preenriched Salmonella enterica cells in buffered peptone water (BPW). The concentrations and interactions of the PCR reagents were evaluated on the basis of two detection responses, the threshold cycle (Cτ) and the fluorescence intensity by a normalized reporter value (ΔRn). The Cτ response was identified as the most suitable for detection modeling to describe the PCR performances of different samples. DNA extracted from S. enterica serovar Enteritidis was studied in double-distilled H2O (ddH2O) and in two different enrichment media (brain heart infusion and BPW) with two PCR mixtures based on AmpliTaq Gold or rTth. A descriptive model was proposed and fitted to the available experimental data. Equivalent PCR performances for the two PCR mixtures were obtained when DNA was diluted in ddH2O. However, the level of detection of DNA was affected when BPW was present during amplification. Use of the rTth mixture generated a 1-log-unit wider linear range of amplification, and the DNA detection levels were 2 × 10-12 g/microwell for the rTth mixture and 2 × 10-12 g/microwell for the AmpliTaq Gold mixture. To verify the improved amplification capacity of the rTth mixture, BPW was inoculated with 1 CFU of S. enterica serovar Enteritidis per ml and the mixture was incubated at 30°C. Samples for PCR were withdrawn every 4 h during a 36-h enrichment. Use of the rTth mixture resulted in an earlier PCR detection during enrichment than use of the AmpliTaq Gold mixture. For accurate detection (Cτ ≤ 30) of S. enterica serovar Enteritidis inoculated in BPW, the rTth mixture required 8.4 h of enrichment, while the AmpliTaq Gold mixture needed 11.6 h. In conclusion, the principle applied can improve the methodology of 5′ nuclease real-time PCR for numerical optimization of sample pretreatment strategies to provide automated diagnostic PCR procedures.
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| 10. |
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