Antiseptic Compounds Still Active Against Bacterial Strains Isolated from Surgical Wound Infections Despite Increasing Antibiotic Resistance

The in vitro activities of povidone iodine, potassium peroxymonosulfate, and dimethyldidecylammonium chloride were investigated against 379 nosocomial isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa responsible for surgical wound infections in patients operated on between July 1995 and June 2001. Overall, the isolates were inhibited by the antiseptics at concentrations below those used routinely. In spite of increasing resistance to the various antibiotics used to treat surgical wound infections, no significant variation in the susceptibility to antiseptics was demonstrated during this 6-year study. Electronic Publication     

Hypernephroma associated with multiple endocrine neoplasia type I: a case report

We report a case of multiple endocrine neoplasia type I and hypernephroma. Parathyroid hyperplasia, adrenocortical hyperplasia, a nodular goiter, multiple lipomas, a chromophobe adenoma of the pituitary and hypernephroma had all been diagnosed previously. All but the last are features consistent with the diagnosis of multiple endocrine neoplasia type I (Wermer's syndrome). The association of multiple endocrine neoplasia type I and hypernephroma may represent a new manifestation of this pleiotropic syndrome.     

Lanthanides stimulate [3H]tyramine binding in the rat striatum

Low (up to 100 nM) and high (approximately 100 microM) concentrations of lanthanides and Ca2+-ions, respectively, stimulated [3H]tyramine binding ([3H]TY) to rat striatal membranes, a putative marker for the vesicular transporter of dopamine. On the other hand, lanthanides (approximately 100 microM) inhibited or stimulated TY binding in striatal and extrastriatal (cortex, cerebellum) tissues, respectively. The binding increases by lanthanum (La3+) appeared to depend on endogenous Ca2+, whereas, those induced in EDTA-pretreated membranes were Ca2+-independent. The La3+-induced, apparent increase in the Bmax for [3H]TY binding seemed to reflect a retarded rate of dissociation of the ligand from its targets, rather than a larger availability of functionally-relevant, vesicular transport-related TY sites. This indicates uncertain mechanisms of present La3+ effects.     

IL-1 and TNF independent pathways mediate ICAM-1/VCAM-1 up-regulation in ischemia reperfusion injury

In vitro studies have suggested that targeting interleukin (IL)-1 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) can be used to regulate intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and potentially treat kidney inflammation. We therefore evaluated ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 regulation in knockout (KO) mice deficient in both IL-1 receptor 1 (R1) and TNF-R1 during renal ischemia reperfusion injury. ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 mRNA expression was measured with specific murine probes and Northern blotting (n =4/group). Protein expression was measured using immunohistochemistry. Serum creatinine (SCr), tubular histology, and neutrophil infiltration into postischemic kidneys were also quantified. ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 mRNA expression increased in both wild-type (WT) and KO mice at 2, 6, and 24 h. Protein expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 was also increased at 24 h postischemia. SCr levels and tubular necrosis scores were comparable in WT and KO mice at 24 and 48 h. Neutrophil migration in KO mice was decreased at 24 h but comparable to WT at 48 h. These data demonstrate that IL-1 and TNF are not essential for postischemic increases in ICAM-1 and VCAM-1.     

Vascular graft infection by Staphylococcus epidermidis: efficacy of various perioperative prophylaxis protocols in an animal model

A rat model was used to investigate the efficacy of levofloxacin, cefazolin and teicoplanin in the prevention of vascular prosthetic graft infection. Graft infections were established in the subcutaneous tissue of 300 male Wistar rats by implantation of Dacron prostheses followed by topical inoculation with methicillin-susceptible and methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis. The study included a group without contamination, two contaminated groups without prophylaxis, two contaminated groups with intraperitoneal levofloxacin prophylaxis (10 mg/kg), two contaminated groups with intraperitoneal cefazolin prophylaxis (30 mg/kg), two contaminated groups with intraperitoneal teicoplanin prophylaxis (10 mg/kg) and six contaminated groups with rifampin-soaked graft and intraperitoneal levofloxacin, cefazolin or te- icoplanin prophylaxis. The grafts were removed after 7 days and evaluated by quantitative culture. The efficacy of levofloxacin against the methicillin- susceptible strain did not differ from that of cefazolin or teicoplanin. Levofloxacin showed slight less efficacy than teicoplanin against the methicillin-resistant strain. The levofloxacin-rifampin combination proved to be similarly effective to the rifampin-teicoplanin combination and more effective than the rifampin-cefazolin combination against both strains. The rifampin-levofloxacin combination may be useful for the prevention of late-appearing vascular graft infections caused by S. epidermidis because it takes advantage of the good anti-staphylococcal activity of both drugs.     

Differences in regional wash-in and wash-out time constants for xenon-CT ventilation studies

Xenon-enhanced computed tomography (Xe-CT) has been used to measure regional ventilation by determining the wash-in (WI) and wash-out (WO) rates of stable Xe. We tested the common assumption that WI and WO rates are equal by measuring WO-WI in different anatomic lung regions of six anesthetized, supine sheep scanned using multi-detector-row computed tomography (MDCT). We further investigated the effect of tidal volume, image gating (end-expiratory EE versus end-inspiratory EI), local perfusion, and inspired Xe concentration on this phenomenon. RESULTS: WO time constant was greater than WI in all lung regions, with the greatest differences observed in dependent base regions. WO-WI time constant difference was greater during EE imaging, smaller tidal volumes, and with higher Xe concentrations. Regional perfusion did not correlate with WI-WO. We conclude that Xe-WI rate can be significantly different from the WO rate, and the data suggest that this effect may be due to a combination of anatomic and fluid mechanical factors such as Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities set up at interfaces between two gases of different densities.     

Osteolytic potential of triphenyl bismuth as an alternative contrast medium in acrylic bone cement

Radiopaque cement containing barium sulfate causes significantly more bone resorption in vivo and in vitro than radiolucent cement. The aim of this study was to investigate the osteolytic potential of an alternative radiopaque agent, triphenyl bismuth (TPB). Bone cement particles containing various concentration of TPB (15 and 25 wt %) prepared by two methods, blending and dissolution, were added to monocytes in a bone resorption assay and the extent of lacunar resorption on dentine slices was determined. The results clearly show that cement particles containing TPB cause less bone resorption than cement particles containing barium sulfate. In addition, our results suggest that TPB prepared by dissolution in bone cement induces less osteolytic response than TPB-cement prepared by blending. The osteolysis in response to bone cement wear particles may therefore be reduced with TPB prepared using the blending technique.     

Novel sequence variants in the TMC1 gene in Pakistani families with autosomal recessive hearing impairment

Though many hearing impairment genes have been identified, only a few of these genes have been screened in population studies. For this study, 168 Pakistani families with autosomal recessive hearing impairment not due to mutations in the GJB2 (Cx26) gene underwent a genome scan. Two-point and multipoint parametric linkage analyses were carried out. Twelve families had two-point or multipoint LOD scores of 1.4 or greater within the transmembrane cochlear expressed gene 1 (TMC1) region and were subjected to further screening with direct DNA sequencing. Five novel putatively functional non-synonymous sequence variants, c.830A>G (p.Y277C), c.1114G>A (p.V372M), c.1334G>A (p.R445H), c.2004T>G (p.S668R), and c.2035G>A (p.E679K), were found to segregate within seven families, but were not observed in 234 Pakistani control chromosomes. The variants c.830A>G (p.Y277C), c.1114G>A (p.V372M), and c.1334G>A (p.R445H) occurred at highly conserved regions and were predicted to lie within hydrophobic transmembrane domains, while non-synonymous variants c.2004T>G (p.S668R) and c.2035G>A (p.E679K) occurred in extracellular regions that were not highly conserved. There is evidence that the c.2004T>G (p.S668R) variant may have occurred at a phosphorylation site. One family has the known splice site mutation c.536 -8T>A. The prevalence of non-syndromic hearing impairment due to TMC1 in this Pakistani population is 4.4% (95%CI: 1.9, 8.6%). The TMC1 protein might have an important function in K(+) channels of inner hair cells, which would be consistent with the hypothetical structure of protein domains in which sequence variants were identified.