Susceptibilities to amphotericin B and fluconazole of 628 clinical yeast strains collected from 22 hospitals in Taiwan were determined. A total of 53 isolates (8.4%) were resistant to fluconazole. Each hospital had different resistance rate to fluconazole ranging from 0% to 24%. None of the 186 isolates from eight of the 22 hospitals was resistant to fluconazole. In contrast, isolates from nine...

An effective public health response to a deliberate release of Bacillus anthracis will require a rapid distribution of antimicrobial agents for postexposure prophylaxis and treatment. However, conventional antimicrobial susceptibility testing for B. anthracis requires a 16- to 20-h incubation period. To reduce this time, we have combined a modified broth microdilution (BMD) susceptibility testi...

OBJECTIVE To investigate rapid detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis using the genotypic Inno-LiPA Rif TB assay and a novel, low-cost, bacteriophage-based susceptibility assay. DESIGN The performance of the microwell phage replication assay (MPRA) on 18 isolates from suspected multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients was compared to the LiPA assay performed directly on sputum specimens. M...

Antiretroviral drug susceptibility tests facilitate therapeutic management of HIV-1-infected patients. Although genotyping systems are affordable, inaccuracy in the interpretation of complex mutational patterns may limit their usefulness. Currently available HIV-1 phenotypic assays are based on the generation of recombinant viruses in which the specific viral gene of interest, derived from a pa...

BACKGROUND Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important pathogens capable of colonization in burn patients, leading to drug-resistant wound infections. This study evaluated the distribution of the AdeABC efflux system genes and their relationship to ciprofloxacin resistance in A. baumannii isolates collected from burn patients. METHODS A total of 68 A. baumannii clinical strains were ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of SG17, an ophthalmic antimicrobial susceptibility measurement plate. DESIGN This was a multicenter, retrospective, observational study. PATIENTS AND METHODS Using clinical isolates from patients with ocular infections, drug susceptibility testing using the Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute standards was routi...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The relative contribution of nitric oxide (NO) to the killing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human tuberculosis (TB) is controversial, although this has been firmly established in rodents. Studies have demonstrated that clinical strains of M. tuberculosis differ in susceptibility to NO, but how this correlates to drug susceptibility and clinical outcome is not known. ...

Background A role for drug-specific T cells has been demonstrated in many instances of drug hypersensitivity. In the case of -lactam antibiotics, such as flucloxacillin, we have shown that drug-protein conjugates are present in the plasma of all patients treated with this antibiotic, however only a small subset of patients develop hypersensitivity. Similarly, when a strong HLA association to dr...

background: young people engage in risky behaviors unintentionally and these behaviors might be reduced or inhibited by preventative behaviors. although adolescents' risky behaviors are known as unplanned or unintentional, preventative behaviors are intentional. the aim of the present study was to assess students’ behavior intentions to avoid drug abuse. methods: this study was a cross sectio...

background: to determine the species distribution, updated drug susceptibility patterns and genes conferring resistance in clini­cal vancomycin resistant enterococcal (vre) isolates. methods: clinical enterococcal isolates collected during 7 months, from september 2005 to april 2006 from hos­pitalized pa­tients and outpatients were studied. twenty five vre were isolated from 450 enterococci sam...