All Posts Tagged With: "gram-negative"

Excerpt:

A gram-negative, rod-shaped microorganism was detected in a
69-year-old man suffering from chronic back pain but otherwise
exhibiting no signs of infection.
The bacterium could not be identified using any routine
diagnostic modality. A research use only application utilizing
PCR and Mass Spectrometry was performed on nucleic acid extracted
from the tissue sample. These studies resulted in the implication
of Bartonella quintana as the underlying cause of the infection.
B.
quintana is not a well-known cause of an abdominal aortic mycotic
aneurysm. This article will discuss the B. quintana infection,
its diagnosis and treatment, and reinforce the potential of B.
quintana as a possible etiology in mycotic aneurysms that show no
apparent indications of infection. It will also explore the
potential use of polymerase chain reaction detected by
electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (PCR/ESI-MS) to help
identify B. quintana in a situation where other conventional
methods prove non-informative.

Excerpt:

A minor-league pitcher in his younger days, Richard Armbruster kept playing baseball recreationally into his 70s, until his right hip started bothering him. Last February he went to a St. Louis hospital for what was to be a routine hip replacement.

By late March, Mr. Armbruster, then 78, was dead. After a series of postsurgical complications, the final blow was a bloodstream infection that sent him into shock and resisted treatment with antibiotics.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think my dad would walk in for a hip replacement and be dead two months later,” said Amy Fix, one of his daughters.

Not until the day Mr. Armbruster died did a laboratory culture identify the organism that had infected him: Acinetobacter baumannii.

Full article: http://finance.yahoo.com/insurance/article/108931/rising-threat-of-infections-unfazed-by-antibiotics?mod=insurance-health