No abstract

Electrocardiographic abnormalities were 2-fold more common in black than in white highly-trained male American football players, with race an independent determinant of ECG pattern. These findings have important implications for pre-participation cardiovascular screening of athletes with ECGs.

BackgroundBrucellosis is primarily a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella species. There are currently ten Brucella spp. including the recently identified novel B. inopinata sp. isolated from a wound associated with a breast implant infection. In this study we report on the identification of an unusual Brucella-like strain (BO2) isolated from a lung biopsy in a 52-year-old patient in Australia with a clinical history of chronic destructive pneumonia.ResultsStandard biochemical profiles confirmed that the unusual strain was a member of the Brucella genus and the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence was 100% identical to the recently identified B. inopinata sp. nov. (type strain BO1T). Additional sequence analysis of the recA, omp2a and 2b genes; and multiple locus sequence analysis (MLSA) demonstrated that strain BO2 exhibited significant similarity to the B. inopinata sp. compared to any of the other Brucella or Ochrobactrum species. Genotyping based on multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) established that the BO2 and BO1Tstrains form a distinct phylogenetic cluster separate from the other Brucella spp.ConclusionBased on these molecular and microbiological characterizations, we propose that the BO2 strain is a novel lineage of the newly described B. inopinata species.

The antibiotic resistance (AR) patterns of 462 Escherichia coli isolates from wastewater, surface waters, and oysters were determined. Rates of AR and multiple-AR among isolates from surface water sites adjacent to wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharge sites were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those among other isolates, whereas the rate of AR among isolates from oysters exposed to WWTP discharges was low (<10%).The aim of this study was to investigate the rates of antibiotic resistance among Escherichia coli isolates from a variety of sources, including wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), surface waters (including those directly influenced by WWTP discharges), and oysters affected by WWTP discharges. This information will contribute to our understanding of antibiotic resistance in the aquatic environment and the potential environmental and public health risks associated with exposure to aquatic bacteria.This study was conducted on the central east coast of Australia on the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers and Cabbage Tree Creek, which are subtropical city-dominated systems with both estuarine and freshwater regions. Samples from each stage of the treatment process at five regional WWTPs (42 samples) were collected (Table 1), as well as samples from surface waters in the Brisbane River, including waters at sites adjacent to the investigated WWTPs (five sites referred to as point sources [PS]) and waters at sites distant from PS (six sites referred to as nonpoint sources [NPS]) (Fig. 1). Approximately 30 native oysters (Saccostrea commercialis) were collected at low tide from a small estuarine creek (Cabbage Tree Creek), approximately 300 m downstream from a WWTP discharge site (Fig. 1).The isolation of E. coli from WWTP and surface water samples was performed using membrane filtration (20). Oysters were washed and scrubbed in 70% ethanol (ChromAR [purity, 99.9%]; Mallinckrodt Chemicals) before shucking. The isolation of E. coli from oysters was carried out using a standard food technique (21).A total of 462 isolates were tested for sensitivity to six antibiotics by using the CLSI disk susceptibility testing method (5). The antibiotics chosen were ampicillin (10 g; Oxoid), cephalothin (30 g; Oxoid), nalidixic acid (30 g; Oxoid), sulfafurazole (300 g; Oxoid), gentamicin (10 g; Oxoid), and tetracycline (30 g; Oxoid). A one-way analysis of variance followed by a posthoc Tukey honestly significant difference means test was used to determine significant differences (P Ͻ 0.05) among sources of E. coli isolates for each antibiotic and among multiple-antibiotic-resistance (MAR) indices based on zones of inhibition. For MAR patterns, data were converted into a binary code (resistant or nonresistant) and differences (P Ͻ 0.05) among sources for each of the resistance patterns were evaluated by paired t tests for all combinations.The observed level of antibiotic resistance among all investigated isolates, 59%, was markedly lower than those demonstrated previously in similar studies, typically around 90% (11,16). It ...

The Roche Cobas Amplicor system is widely used for the detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae but is known to cross react with some commensal Neisseria spp. Therefore, a confirmatory test is required. The most common target for confirmatory tests is the cppB gene of N. gonorrhoeae. However, the cppB gene is also present in other Neisseria spp. and is absent in some N. gonorrhoeae isolates. As a result, laboratories targeting this gene run the risk of obtaining both false-positive and false-negative results. In the study presented here, a newly developed N. gonorrhoeae LightCycler assay (NGpapLC) targeting the N. gonorrhoeae porA pseudogene was tested. The NGpapLC assay was used to test 282 clinical samples, and the results were compared to those obtained using a testing algorithm combining the Cobas Amplicor System (Roche Diagnostics, Sydney, Australia) and an in-house LightCycler assay targeting the cppB gene (cppB-LC). In addition, the specificity of the NGpapLC assay was investigated by testing a broad panel of bacteria including isolates of several Neisseria spp. The NGpapLC assay proved to have comparable clinical sensitivity to the cppB-LC assay. In addition, testing of the bacterial panel showed the NGpapLC assay to be highly specific for N. gonorrhoeae DNA. The results of this study show the NGpapLC assay is a suitable alternative to the cppB-LC assay for confirmation of N. gonorrhoeae-positive results obtained with Cobas Amplicor.