We studied the prevalence of ceftazidime resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the rates of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL), AmpC β-lactamase (AmpC) and metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) production among the ceftazidime resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A very high rate of MBL production was observed, which suggested it to be an important contributing factor for ceftazidime resistance among Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

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Primary apical periodontitis occurs due to various insults to the dental pulp including microbial infections, physical and iatrogenic trauma, whereas inadequate elimination of intraradicular infection during root canal treatment may lead to secondary apical periodontitis. We explored the complex intra-radicular microbial communities and their functional potential through genome reconstruction. We applied shotgun metagenomic sequencing, binning and functional profiling to identify the significant contributors to infection at the acute and chronic apical periodontal lesions. Our analysis revealed the five classified clusters representing Enterobacter, Enterococcus, Lacticaseibacillus, Pseudomonas, Streptococcus and one unclassified cluster of contigs at the genus level. Of them, the major contributors were Pseudomonas, with 90.61% abundance in acute conditions, whereas Enterobacter followed by Enterococcus with 69.88% and 15.42% abundance, respectively, in chronic conditions. Enterobacter actively participated in antibiotic target alteration following multidrug efflux-mediated resistance mechanisms, predominant in the chronic stage. The prediction of pathways involved in the destruction of the supportive tissues of the tooth in Enterobacter and Pseudomonas support their crucial role in the manifestation of respective disease conditions. This study provides information about the differential composition of the microbiome in chronic and acute apical periodontitis. It takes a step to interpret the role of a single pathogen, solely or predominantly, in establishing endodontic infection types through genome reconstruction following high throughput metagenomic DNA analysis. The resistome prediction sheds a new light on the therapeutic treatment guidelines for endodontists. However, it needs further conclusive research to support this outcome using a larger number of samples with similar etiological conditions, but different demographic origin.

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Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of community-acquired pneumonia, otitis media, paranasal sinusitis, bacteremia and meningitis, as well as osteomyelitis and occasionally peritonitis. We report the case of a 25-year-old female who had stabbed herself with a kitchen knife above the umbilicus 10 days prior to admission. Subsequently, she developed an anterior abdominal wall abscess caused by S. pneumoniae. This case is unusual as the focus was distant from the respiratory tract, the usual primary site of infection caused by this organism. Furthermore, the case assumes significance because it occurred in the absence of any typical risk factors for S. pneumoniae.