Newly hospitalized patients with stroke treated by indwelling catheters were assigned randomly to 3 treatment groups. Group 1 (24 patients) received 3 gm. ampicillin intramuscularly in divided doses 1 hour before, at the time of and 6 hours after insertion of the catheter. Group 2 (28 patients) received daily 1 gm. ampicillin intramuscularly every 8 hours. Group 3 (26 patients) was not subjected to any antimicrobial prophylaxis. Within 1 week after catheter insertion significant bacteriuria developed in 12.5 per cent of the patients in group 1, 42.8 per cent in group 2 and 45.1 per cent in group 3. The difference in the incidence between group 1 and either group 2 or 3 was statistically significant (p less than 0.02 and p less than 0.01, respectively). The mean number of strains (plus or minus standard error of mean) isolated per case of bacteriuria in group 3 (1.25 plus or minus 0.18) was significantly lower (p less than 0.05) and antimicrobial resistant strains were fewer (4 of 15) than in group 2 (1.75 plus or minus 0.13 and 12 of 21, respectively).

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A simple enzyme immunoassay was developed and evaluated for serological diagnosis of brucellosis in 25 patients with various forms of brucellosis and 292 control patients with other conditions and disorders. All brucellosis patients gave a positive test with the initial sample. In 3 acute, febrile brucellosis patients with follow‐up sera taken during therapy a sharp drop in specific antibody was noted. There was a less pronounced antibody reduction in 1 chronic and 2 relapse patients and an antibody increase in 1 chronic and 1 relapse case. All control samples gave negative results. In addition, the assay was evaluated as a screening test with 315 sera from ‘healthy’ individuals living in a brucellosis focus and representing 15% of that population. 11.5% (34/293) of subjects with no reported history of brucellosis and 45% (10/22) of cases treated in the past gave a positive test result. The agreement in those samples between the assay and the serum agglutination test was 95.5%.