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A bacterium was isolated from the blood and empyema of a cirrhotic patient. The cells were facultatively anaerobic, nonsporulating, gram-negative, seagull shaped or spiral rods. The bacterium grows on sheep blood agar as nonhemolytic, gray colonies 1 mm in diameter after 24 h of incubation at 37°C in ambient air. Growth also occurs on MacConkey agar and at 25 and 42°C but not at 4, 44, and 50°C. The bacterium can grow in 1 or 2% but not 3, 4, or 5% NaCl. No enhancement of growth is observed with 5% CO 2 . The organism is aflagellated and nonmotile at both 25 and 37°C. It is oxidase, catalase, urease, and arginine dihydrolase positive, and it reduces nitrate. It does not ferment, oxidize, or assimilate any sugar tested. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that there are 91 base differences (6.2%), 112 base differences (7.7%), and 116 base differences (8.2%) between the bacterium and Microvirgula aerodenitrificans, Vogesella indigofera, and Chromobacterium species, respectively. The G؉C content (mean and standard deviation) is 68.0% ؎ 2.43%, and the genomic size is about 3 Mb. Based on phylogenetic affiliation, the bacterium belongs to the Neisseriaceae family of the ␤-subclass of Proteobacteria. For these reasons, a new genus and species, Laribacter hongkongensis gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed, for which HKU1 is the type strain. Further studies should be performed to ascertain the potential of this bacterium to become an emerging pathogen.Since the discovery of PCR and DNA sequencing, comparison of the gene sequences of bacterial species has shown that the 16S rRNA gene is highly conserved within a species and among species of the same genus and hence can be used as the new gold standard for the identification of bacteria to the species level. Using this new standard, phylogenetic trees based on base differences between species can be constructed, and bacteria can be classified and reclassified into new genera (7,8). Furthermore, noncultivable organisms and organisms with ambiguous biochemical profiles can be classified and identified (10, 11). Recently, this technique was used for the identification of a strain of Mycobacterium neoaurum with ambiguous biochemical and whole-cell fatty acid profiles isolated from a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (18), a strain of Escherichia coli with an ambiguous biochemical profile isolated from a bone marrow transplant recipient (16), a strain of Enterobacter cloacae with an ambiguous biochemical profile isolated from a renal transplant recipient (14), a strain of tube coagulase-negative Staphylococcus aureus isolated from a patient with refractory anemia with excessive blasts in transformation (19), a strain of Arcobacter cryaerophilus isolated from a traffic accident victim (13), and a noncultivable strain of Pseudomonas veronii from a patient with a pseudotumor (3).In this study, we report the isolation of a bacterial strain from the blood and empyema of a cirrhotic patient. The strain, named HKU1, exhibited phenotypic characteristics that do not fit into the patter...

Anesthesia in infancy impairs performance in recognition memory tasks in mammalian animals, but it is unknown if this occurs in humans. Successful recognition can be based on stimulus familiarity or recollection of event details. Several brain structures involved in recollection are affected by anesthesia-induced neurodegeneration in animals. Therefore, we hypothesized that anesthesia in infancy impairs recollection later in life in humans and rats. Twenty eight children ages 6-11 who had undergone a procedure requiring general anesthesia before age 1 were compared with 28 age-and gender-matched children who had not undergone anesthesia. Recollection and familiarity were assessed in an object recognition memory test using receiver operator characteristic analysis. In addition, IQ and Child Behavior Checklist scores were assessed. In parallel, thirty three 7-day-old rats were randomized to receive anesthesia or sham anesthesia. Over 10 months, recollection and familiarity were assessed using an odor recognition test. We found that anesthetized children had significantly lower recollection scores and were impaired at recollecting associative information compared with controls. Familiarity, IQ, and Child Behavior Checklist scores were not different between groups. In rats, anesthetized subjects had significantly lower recollection scores than controls while familiarity was unaffected. Rats that had undergone tissue injury during anesthesia had similar recollection indices as rats that had been anesthetized without tissue injury. These findings suggest that general anesthesia in infancy impairs recollection later in life in humans and rats. In rats, this effect is independent of underlying disease or tissue injury.