BackgroundEpidemic outbreaks of multi-drug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii (AB) in intensive care units (ICUs) are increasing. The incidence of MDR AB bacteremia, which develops as a result of colonization, is increasing through widespread dissemination of the pathogen, and further colonization. We sought to determine risk factors for MDR AB bacteremia in patients colonized with MDR AB in the ICU.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective, observational study of 200 patients colonized with MDR AB in the ICU at Severance Hospital, South Korea during the outbreak period between January 2008 and December 2009.ResultsOf the 200 patients colonized with MDR AB, 108 developed MDR AB bacteremia, and 92 did not. APACHE II scores were higher in bacteremic than non-bacteremic patients at the time of ICU admission and colonization (24.0 vs. 21.6; P = 0.035, 22.9 vs. 16.8; P < 0.001, respectively). There was no difference between the two groups in the duration of time from ICU admission to colonization (7.1 vs. 7.2 days; P = 0.923), but the duration of time at risk was shorter in bacteremic patients (12.1 vs. 6.0 days; P = 0.016). A recent invasive procedure was a significant risk factor for development of bacteremia (odds ratio = 3.85; 95% CI 1.45-10.24; P = 0.007). Multivariate analysis indicated infection and respiratory failure at the time of ICU admission, maintenance of mechanical ventilation, maintenance of endotracheal tube instead of switching to a tracheostomy, recent central venous catheter insertion, bacteremia caused by other microorganism after colonization by MDR AB, and prior antimicrobial therapy, were significant risk factors for MDR AB bacteremia.ConclusionsPatients in the ICU, colonized with MDR AB, should be considered for minimizing invasive procedures and early removal of the invasive devices to prevent development of MDR AB bacteremia.

The visual prognosis in pediatric open globe injury is poor. The zone of injury may correlate with poor final visual acuity, risk of retinal detachment, and subsequent need for an enucleation. The final predicted visual acuity correlated well with the observed final visual acuity in these patients.

Work-related injuries were noted to have a much higher incidence of IOFBs and cataracts compared to non-work-related OGIs. Zone 3 injuries, rupture injuries, and a presenting VA of NLP were found to be significant predictors for a final VA of NLP. Zone 3 injury, APD, and endophthalmitis were found to be significant predictors for enucleation.

Species of the genus Lilium are well known for their large genomes. Although expansion of noncoding repeated DNA is believed to account for this genome size, retroelement del Ty3-gypsy is the only one described so far in the genus Lilium. We isolated Ty1-copia elements from Lilium longiflorum and named them LIREs (lily retrotransposons). The long terminal repeats, primer binding site, and polypurine tract sequences are highly similar among the LIRE elements, indicating that they are in the same lineage. Although the protein-coding regions were highly decayed, the sequence motifs of the integrase, reverse transcriptase, and RNase H domains were identifiable as belonging to the order of Ty1-copia elements. Phylogenetic analysis and primer binding site sequences revealed that these elements belonged to the Ale lineage among the six lineages of plant Ty1-copia elements. Base substitutions in the long terminal repeats estimated that the integration times of the LIRE Ty1-copia elements were between 0.7 and 5.5 mya. In situ hybridization showed that the LIRE elements were present in all the chromosomes of L. longiflorum and L. lancifolium, but absent in centromeres, telomeres, and 45S rRNA sites in both species. The LIRE elements were present very abundantly in species of the genus Lilium, but absent in other genera of the family Liliaceae, implying that the LIRE elements might have contributed to the expansion of the genome in the genus Lilium.

Although lily is the second largest flower crop in cutting flower commodity, only six simple sequence repeats SSRs have been reported. Thus, we developed expressed sequence tag derived-SSRs (EST-SSRs) for the Lilium genus. Among 2,235 unique ESTs, 754 ESTs contained SSR motifs, among which 165 ESTs were amenable to primer design. Among these 165 EST-SSRs, 131 EST-SSRs showed amplification in at least one Lilium species, and 76 EST-SSRs showed amplification in at least nine species. Of the 76 EST-SSRs, 47 showed amplification in all Lilium species analyzed. Using 10 breeding lines, we selected 19 EST-SSRs that had the highest number of alleles and polymorphism information content. The polymorphism information content values of these selected EST-SSRs ranged from 0.49 to 0.94 with an average of 0.76, which are higher than other plant species. The phylogenetic dendrogram derived from the amplification profiles of the 19 high polymorphic EST-SSRs was congruent with the genetic background of the 84 selected lily accessions and hybrids, which are available in commerce. Thus, the developed EST-SSRs will be very useful in germplasm management, genetic diversity analysis, cultivar finger printing, and molecular breeding in the lily.