We showed thatArthritis is a frequent and major complication of natural and experimental infection with Borrelia burgdorferi (1,5,30,34). Moreover, arthritis is induced following vaccination, with (14, 25) or without (28) challenge with B. burgdorferi. The immunologic events responsible for these B. burgdorferi-associated arthritides are poorly understood. We demonstrated that induction of chronic severe destructive arthritis following vaccination and challenge was dependent on B. burgdorferi-specific T lymphocytes (23). Treatment of vaccinated animals with anti-CD4 antibody prevented the development of severe destructive arthritis when the animals were challenged with the Lyme spirochete (24). Activated or primed CD4 ϩ T cells participated in the development of arthritis that included cartilage and bone erosion (24).Recently, we also showed that B. burgdorferi-vaccinated interferon gamma-deficient (IFN-␥ 0 ) mice challenged with B. burgdorferi developed a prominent chronic severe destructive osteoarthropathy (12). These results along with those of Brown and Reiner (6) present compelling evidence that interferon gamma (IFN-␥) does not play a major role in the induction or propagation of arthritis in the infection (6) or vaccinationchallenge (12) model of B. burgdorferi-associated arthritis. This suggests that other cytokines, chemokines, or other immune regulators are responsible for the induction of arthritis.

We found that

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Tuberculosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Susceptibility testing of the causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is critical for control of the disease. This study compared the flow cytometric susceptibility assay with the proportion method and the BACTEC TB-460 system. There was agreement between the flow cytometric and proportion methods for 73 (94%) of 78 isoniazid tests, and complete agreement for 26 ethambutol and rifampicin tests. In contrast, the proportion and BACTEC methods failed to agree for 22%, 15% and 8% of isoniazid, ethambutol and rifampicin tests, respectively. These findings indicated that susceptibility testing by the flow cytometric assay is accurate, with results available within 24 h of initiation of the testing procedure.