To identify the most rapid and reliable technique for recovery and identification of Staphylococcus aureus small-colony variants (SCVs), the colonial appearance of 106 isolates representing SCVs and the normal phenotype were evaluated on two newly described chromogenic agar media. Although almost all of the SCVs grew on the chromogenic agar media, they did not exhibit a change of color. In comp...

Simple methods to enhance the detection of pneumococci in respiratory secretions are needed. Sheep blood agar containing 5 mug of gentamicin per ml was more often positive (89%) than either standard sheep blood agar (54%) or mouse inoculation (65%) in recovering pneumococci from 62 adult and pediatric patients. In adults, the direct quellung test on sputum smear was a rapid, sensitive method fo...

Several chromogenic media have been developed to enhance the specificity of Salmonella detection. We compared the performance of four commercial chromogenic media-namely, ABC medium (Lab M. Ltd., Bury, United Kingdom), COMPASS Salmonella agar (Biokar Diagnostics, Beauvais, France), CHROMagar Salmonella agar (CHROMagar Company, Paris, France), and SM ID agar (bioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France)-...

Incidental blood agar-based recovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis led us to further investigate this routine medium for primary isolation and culture of M. tuberculosis. Fifteen respiratory tract and eight lymph node Ziehl-Neelsen-positive specimens were inoculated in parallel into tubes containing egg-based medium and 5% sheep blood agar. Colonies appeared sooner on this medium than on the eg...

OBJECTIVE to compare the effects of low intensity laser therapy on in vitro bacterial growth and in vivo in infected wounds, and to analyze the effectiveness of the AsGa Laser technology in in vivo wound infections. METHODS in vitro: Staphylococcus aureus were incubated on blood agar plates, half of them being irradiated with 904 nm wavelength laser and dose of 3J/cm² daily for seven days. In...

An otherwise healthy 43-year-old male complained of malaise, fever, dyspnea, and upper back pain. He was treated with nonsteroidal drugs. Twelve days later, he was found to have severe orthopnea. Electrocardiography revealed sinus tachycardia and a complete left bundle branch block. Finally, due to acute respiratory insufficiency, the patient was admitted to the hospital of the Justus-Liebig Un...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES With increasing use of soft contact lenses the incidence of contact lens induced infections is also increasing. This study was aimed to assess the knowledge of new and existing contact lens users about the risk of microbial contamination associated with improper use and maintenance of contact lenses, type of microbial flora involved and their potential to cause ophthalmi...

A commercial blood agar slide (Streptocult, Orion Diagnostica) was used for preliminary identification of beta-hemolytic streptococci of groups A, C, and G in throat swab specimens. The sensitivity of the test was 93.6% and the specificity was 94.7%, as judged from 580 specimens. A model is suggested for routine processing of throat swab specimens, involving inoculation and reading of the slide...

We compared the growth of Bordetella pertussis strains (n = 32) on antibiotic-free and cephalexin (40 micrograms/ml)-containing charcoal agar supplemented with 10% defibrinated horse blood, defibrinated sheep blood, or anticoagulant-containing human blood. Plates were incubated either in air or in an atmosphere with 5 to 10% CO2. As assessed by mean colony numbers and rapidity of growth, normal...

Sheep blood agar containing 23.75 microgram of sulfamethoxazole and 1.25 microgram of trimethoprim (SXT-BA) per ml was compared with conventional sheep blood agar (SBA) for isolating group A and B streptococci from throat cultures. This selective medium allowed much better recovery of group A and B streptococci and suppressed the growth of the normal flora, including "viridans" streptococci. In...