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...

TGF-β plays an important role in a myriad of cell activities including differentiation, proliferation, and growth arrest. These effects are influenced by the concentration of TGF-β in the surrounding milieu, which is interpreted by mammalian cells and subsequently translated into meaningful signals that guide their proliferation, survival, or death. To predict cellular responses to TGF-ß signal...

Hayato Fujii*, Hiroshi Takahashi, Takaaki Ohyama, Kinuyo Hattori and Shigeto Suzuki Field Epidemiology Training Program and Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Tokyo Metropolitan Research Laboratory and Public Health, Hyakunin-cho 3-24-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-1173, Reimeikai-Minamidai Hospital, Ogawa-ma...

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...

Recovery of group B streptococci (GBS) was assessed in 1,204 vaginorectal swabs stored in Amies transport medium at 4 or 21 degrees C for 1 to 4 days either by direct inoculation onto Granada agar (GA) or by culture in blood agar (BA) and GA after a selective broth enrichment (SBE) step. Following storage at 4 degrees C, GBS detection in GA was not affected after 72 h by either direct inoculati...

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...

Eighty-four pneumococci with various MICs of penicillin (38 with MICs of less than or equal to 0.06 micrograms/ml [susceptible], 35 with MICs of 0.12 to 1.0 micrograms/ml [relatively resistant], and 11 with MICs of greater than 1.0 micrograms/ml [resistant] ) were screened by a disk diffusion test using oxacillin and methicillin to see how well they distinguished penicillin-susceptible strains ...