BackgroundThere is little descriptive data on Stenotrophomonas maltophilia hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) in critically ill patients. The optimal modalities of antimicrobial therapy remain to be determined. Our objective was to describe the epidemiology and prognostic factors associated with S. maltophilia pneumonia, focusing on antimicrobial therapy.MethodsThis nationwide retrospective study included all patients admitted to 25 French mixed intensive care units between 2012 and 2017 with hospital-acquired S. maltophilia HAP during intensive care unit stay. Primary endpoint was time to in-hospital death. Secondary endpoints included microbiologic effectiveness and antimicrobial therapeutic modalities such as delay to appropriate antimicrobial treatment, mono versus combination therapy, and duration of antimicrobial therapy.ResultsOf the 282 patients included, 84% were intubated at S. maltophilia HAP diagnosis for duration of 11 [5–18] days. The Simplified Acute Physiology Score II was 47 [36–63], and the in-hospital mortality was 49.7%. Underlying chronic pulmonary comorbidities were present in 14.1% of cases. Empirical antimicrobial therapy was considered effective on S. maltophilia according to susceptibility patterns in only 30% of cases. Delay to appropriate antimicrobial treatment had, however, no significant impact on the primary endpoint. Survival analysis did not show any benefit from combination antimicrobial therapy (HR = 1.27, 95%CI [0.88; 1.83], p = 0.20) or prolonged antimicrobial therapy for more than 7 days (HR = 1.06, 95%CI [0.6; 1.86], p = 0.84). No differences were noted in in-hospital death irrespective of an appropriate and timely empiric antimicrobial therapy between mono- versus polymicrobial S. maltophilia HAP (p = 0.273). The duration of ventilation prior to S. maltophilia HAP diagnosis and ICU length of stay were shorter in patients with monomicrobial S. maltophilia HAP (p = 0.031 and p = 0.034 respectively).ConclusionsS. maltophilia HAP occurred in severe, long-stay intensive care patients who mainly required prolonged invasive ventilation. Empirical antimicrobial therapy was barely effective while antimicrobial treatment modalities had no significant impact on hospital survival.Trial registrationclinicaltrials.gov, NCT03506191

The article "Absolute quantification of free tumor cells in the peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients" by N. Bayat, M.M. Mokhtari, M. Rezaei-Tavirani, A. Baradaran-Rafii, S. Rahman Zadeh, S. Heidari-Keshel and F. Ghasemvand published in Genetics and Molecular Research vol. 13 (2), pp. 4425-4432 in 2014, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4238/2014.June.16.1, has been found to be substantially equal to the article "Quantitative analysis of TEM-8 and CEA tumor markers indicating free tumor cells in the peripheral blood of colorectal cancer patients". published in International Journal of Colorectal Disease vol. 26 (10), pp. 1265-1270 in 2011, DOI: 10.1007/s00384-011-1230-8, by other authors. The corresponding author of the article published in Genetics and Molecular Research, Saeed Heidari-keshel, alerted our editorial staff about this situation and requested that the article should be retracted. The results are surprisingly similar, with the number of positive patients being almost the same, for example. After review and after contacting the authors, the editors of Genetics and Molecular Research have decided to retract the article. The authors and their institutions have been advised of this serious breach of ethics.

No abstract

No abstract

The Min pig is indigenous to China. The genetic background of this breed was previously unclear, limiting the utility of the Min pig. In this study, the whole genomes of ten Min pigs and four Northeast wild boars were sequenced and the analysis yielded 8,988,338 non-redundant SNPs plus 1,231,680 InDels. A phylogenetic tree was constructed and a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed based on previously published SNP data from 66 individual pigs. Both analyses indicated the Min pig fell between the European and Asian pigs, while the Northeast wild boar was closely related to the Asian domestic and wild pig breeds. Selective sweep analysis indicated that 181 genes in the Min pig genome had been subjected to selection, including several genes encoding zinc finger proteins. Additional genes associated with myokinesis and lipid metabolism were also identified as under selection. Only SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors) interactions in the vesicular transport pathway were identified as under selection (P=0.0029). This study describes the genomic framework of the Min pig and identifies signatures of selection. These results provide a useful genomic background for further studies of the genetic mechanisms associated with important economic traits in the Min pig.