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Bacillus cereus is widely distributed in different food products and can cause a variety of symptoms associated with food poisoning. Since ready-to-eat (RTE) foods are not commonly sterilized by heat treatment before consumption, B. cereus contamination may cause severe food safety problems. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of B. cereus in RTE food samples from different regions of China and evaluated the levels of bacterial contamination, antibiotic resistance, virulence gene distribution, and genetic polymorphisms of these isolates. Of the tested retail RTE foods, 35% were positive for B. cereus, with 39 and 83% of the isolated strains harboring the enterotoxin-encoding hblACD and nheABC gene clusters, respectively. The entFM gene was detected in all B. cereus strains. The cytK gene was present in 68% of isolates, but only 7% harbored the emetic toxin-encoding gene cesB. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that the majority of the isolates were resistant not only to most β-lactam antibiotics, but also to rifamycin. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) revealed that the 368 isolates belonged to 192 different sequence types (STs) including 93 new STs, the most prevalent of which was ST26. Collectively, our study indicates the prevalence, bacterial contamination levels, and biological characteristics of B. cereus isolated from RTE foods in China and demonstrates the potential hazards of B. cereus in RTE foods.

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PurposeTo describe the clinical imaging and pathological features of invasive micropapillary breast carcinoma (IMPC), including breast mammography, sonography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and molecular imaging findings.Patients and methodsWe retrospectively reviewed our institution's surgical pathology database and identified 65 patients with pathologically proven IMBC; 63/65 patients had available imaging results. Two radiologists retrospectively reviewed all imaging evaluations according to the Breast Imaging Reporting / Data System (BI-RADS) Lexicon. Clinical and histopathologic features, receptor statuses, and clinical follow-up data were recorded.ResultsSixty-three patients were admitted with palpable abnormalities; one patient's mammogram revealed no abnormality (3.3%, 1/32), whereas 31 had abnormal mammograms (31/32, 96.8%) demonstrating 37 lesions. Twenty-four had irregular, spiculated masses, 12 had microcalcifications, and 19 had architectural distortion. Sonography detected 69 masses (54 patients), characterized by irregular shapes (61/69, 88.4%), hypoechoic structures (50/69, 72.4%), angular or spiculated margins (38/69, 55.1%; 30/69, 43.4%), echogenic halo (8/69, 11.5%), and abnormal vascularity (52/69, 75.3%). MRI detected 68 lesions (52 patients); 59/68 (86.8%) appeared as masses with angular or spiculated margins (32/68, 47.1%; 35/68, 51.4%), 58 exhibited irregular or lobulated shapes (58/68, 89.7%), 29 displayed heterogeneous internal enhancement (29/68, 42.5%), and 64 demonstrated type II or III washout kinetic curves (37/68, 55%; 27/68, 40%). Breast molecular imaging showed mild-to-moderate radiotracer uptake in 15 focal areas among 13 patients. Thirty-two, 38, and 43 patients had abnormal lymph nodes identified mammographically, by breast sonography, and by MRI, respectively. Immunohistochemistry revealed high estrogen receptor (90.5%), high progesterone receptor (71.6%), and low HER-2 (26.4%) positivity.ConclusionIMPC mammography, sonography, and MRI clinical imaging features highly suggest malignancy. Breast molecular imaging also contributed to the diagnosis. IMPC's invasiveness correlated well with regional lymph node metastasis. Radiologists and surgeons should be more attentive to these imaging findings and additional clinical and pathological IMPC features.