We evaluated the clinical usefulness of simultaneous LISS/Coombs and NaCl/Enzyme testing using the gel method for screening and identification of unexpected antibodies in 15,014 samples. When unexpected antibodies were detected by either screening test, those antibodies were identified using both the LISS/Coombs and the NaCl/Enzyme gel test. The positive screening rates of the LISS/Coombs, NaCl/Enzyme, and combined tests (excluding 25 autoantibody cases) were 0.48%, 1.29%, and 1.39%, respectively. Among the 57 samples positive by both screening methods, the antibodies in 19.3% could be identified only by the NaCl/Enzyme method. Among the 137 samples positive only by NaCl/Enzyme screening, 74.5% showed positive results in antibody identification only by the NaCl/Enzyme test, although 7.3% were also positive in the LISS/Coombs test. The NaCl/Enzyme method thus showed about threefold higher detection rates than the LISS/Coombs method, especially in screening for Rh antibodies, and higher exact identification rates and discriminatory power for identifying mixed antibodies. Addition of the NaCl/Enzyme method to routine laboratory procedures may detect and identify considerable numbers of significant antibodies that might be missed if only the LISS/Coombs method is used.

Staphylococcus lugdunensis is a member of the coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) first described by Freney et al. in 1988[1]. Although CNS have been considered part of the resident flora on the human skin, S. lugdunensis is unusually virulent and can cause many types of infection, ranging from superficial skin lesions to life-threatening endocarditis [2][3][4][5][6]. We report what appears to be very rare case of acute lymphadenitis with cellulitis in the right infraauricular region caused by S. lugdunensis, yielding a pure culture of the organism that was definitely identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. 196

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Background:We noticed a sudden increase in the isolation of Klebsiella oxytoca from bronchial washing specimens during May to June 2006. An epidemiological investigation was conducted to identify the cause of the outbreak and to implement appropriate infection control measures. Methods: A total of 18 isolates of K. oxytoca were found. The 14 bronchial washing specimens that yielded K. oxytoca were taken in the outpatient bronchoscopy suite, and the other 4 specimens were obtained by a portable bronchoscopy. The medical records and microbiologic findings of these patients were reviewed. Environmental samples from two bronchoscopes and the bronchoscopy suite were cultured. The relations between the available 10 isolates from bronchial washing fluid were investigated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Results: No patients were judged to have had true infections attributable to K. oxytoca either before or after bronchoscopy. Cultures of samples from two bronchoscopes and related environment did not grow K. oxytoca. The PFGE analysis showed that 8 of 10 isolates had a similar pattern of DNA fragments. An infection control strategy was implemented, including adequately cleaning and disinfecting the bronchoscopes, and a sharp reduction in the incidence of K. oxytoca from bronchial washing samples followed. Conclusion:The sudden increase of K. oxytoca from bronchial washing specimens was a pseudo-outbreak. We presumed that the bronchoscopes became contaminated during a procedure in a patient colonized with K. oxytoca in the upper-respiratory tract. (Korean