Sheehan et al. (3) and Pikula (Z. P. Pikula, Letter, J. Clin. Microbiol. 25:1581, 1987) bear witness to the fact that Blastocystis hominis is a common inhabitant of the human intestinal tract. These authors, like those they cite, have found B. hominis in some persons in whom they identified none of the commonly recognized pathogens, and in others in association with recognized pathogenic protoz...

In order to compare the diagnostic efficacy of microscopy of fecal concentrates and real-time PCR for the detection of intestinal parasites in Danish patients, a total of 889 fresh fecal samples were chosen randomly over a period of 6 months (November 2007 to May 2008) among fecal samples submitted for general parasitological examination (n 122), persistent diarrhea (n 362), travel-associated d...

Paired specimens of serum from patients from whom Bacteroides fragilis had been isolated were tested by complement fixation against a crude B. fragilis antigen. A high titre or a rise in titre to B. fragilis was obtained in each of five patients with infection after abdominal surgery but in none of 11 patients with postpartum pyrexia nor in nine with vaginitis.

Bacteroides fragilis constitutes about 1% of the bacterial flora in intestines of normal humans. Enterotoxigenic strains of B. fragilis have been associated with diarrheal diseases in humans and animals. The enterotoxin produced by these isolates induces fluid changes in ligated intestinal loops and an in vitro cytotoxic response in HT-29 cells. We developed a nested PCR to detect the enterotox...

Moxifloxacin has been suggested as an option for monotherapy of intra-abdominal infections. Recent data support the use of a once-daily metronidazole regimen. The purpose of this study was to investigate the activity of levofloxacin (750 mg every 24 h [q24h]) plus metronidazole (1,500 mg q24h) compared with that of moxifloxacin (400 mg q24h) monotherapy in a mixed-infection model. By using an i...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess the epidemiology of intestinal parasitoses during a 5-year period in patients attending a tertiary-care hospital in a non-endemic setting. METHODS In the period 2006-2010, 15,752 samples from 8,886 patients with clinically suspected parasitosis were subjected to macroscopic and microscopic examination, to parasitic antigen detection assays, and t...

Blastocystis is a protistan parasite living in the digestive tract of many animals, including humans. This highly prevalent intestinal parasite is suspected to be linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a chronic functional bowel disorder. Here, we first compared the prevalence of Blastocystis among 56 IBS patients (40 IBS with constipation (IBS-C), 9 IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D), 4 mixed IBS (I...

Trichomonas vaginalis infection is the most prevalent nonviral sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the world. A PCR test using vaginal swab samples for the detection of T. vaginalis was developed to add T. vaginalis infection to the growing list of STDs that can be detected by DNA amplification techniques. A primer set, BTUB 9/2, was designed to target a well-conserved region in the beta-tubu...

conclusions the presence of bft gene in b. fragilis isolates wouldnot certainly result in diarrheaamong patients. there is not enough accordance between ddm and swedish e tests for antimicrobial susceptibility of b. fragilis for some antibiotics, although in other cases a good agreement was observed. background enterotoxigenic bacteroides fragilis (etbf) are one of the most important anaerobic ...

The in vitro susceptibility of 157 anaerobic bacteria to imipenem was compared with that to cefoxitin, latamoxef (moxalactam) and clindamycin. The isolates were cultured from clinical specimens submitted to Tufts Anaerobic Laboratory between January 1981 and March 1983. Two strains of Bacteroides fragilis only, were highly resistant to imipenem. The incidence of cefoxitin resistance in the Bact...