Apmis

JENSEN, H. E.; BLOCH, B.; HENRIKSEN, P.; DIETZ, H. H.; SCHØNHEYDER, H.; KAUFMAN, L.

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03970.xpmid: 1642845

We report the first case of disseminated histoplasmosis in an animal in Scandinavia. Yeast cells compatible with those of Histoplasma capsulatum var. capsulatum were found in the skin, liver, spleen, a kidney, and a lymph node of a wild badger (Meles meles). The diagnosis was confirmed by electron microscopy and immunofluorescence staining of the yeast cells in tissue sections.

TOFT, P.; TØNNESEN, E.; SVENDSEN, P.; RASMUSSEN, J. W.; CHRISTENSEN, N. J.

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03971.xpmid: N/A

Adrenergic activation is known to occur in sepsis and after major surgery or trauma. An elevated serum concentration of adrenaline is followed by lymphocytosis in peripheral blood even in splenectomized patients. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the redistribution of lymphocytes in the tissues during adrenaline infusion. Lymphocytes were isolated from 24 rabbits, labelled with indium‐111‐tropolone and reinjected into the rabbits. The next day the rabbits were anaesthetized. Eight rabbits received 3 μg of adrenaline i.v. followed by 0.2 μg/min, eight received 300 μg of adrenaline i.v. followed by 20 μg/min, while eight received a saline infusion and served as a control group. The activity of labelled cells was imaged with a gamma camera and computer before, during and after adrenaline infusion. The activity of the spleen decreased to 90% and 94% of initial values during low and high doses of adrenaline. The activity of the bone marrow decreased to 91% and 96%, respectively, while the activity of the heart/lung and the liver increased to 107% and 106% with the high dose of adrenaline. In peripheral blood the lymphocytes increased 10%. It is concluded that lymphocytes are redistributed from spleen and bone marrow to peripheral blood, lungs and liver during adrenaline infusion in this animal model.

GUPTA, MADAN M.; JAIN, RENU; PARASHARI, ADITYA; SINGH, V.; SATYANARAYANA, L.

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03972.xpmid: 1322678

Class‐specific IgG and IgA antibodies to HSV were assayed in women with CIN (76), invasive cancer (52) (histological diagnosis) and age‐matched controls (119), employing HSV‐2‐infected HEp‐2 cells as antigen during IFA assay. We observed an elevated geometric mean titre (GMT) of serum antibody (IgG five‐to eight‐fold and IgA four‐to five‐fold) for the entire spectrum of cervical lesions, as compared to controls. The odds of finding HSV‐IgA antibodies were highest with CIN III (OR = 22.0), followed by invasive carcinoma, and CIN I & II (OR = 9.5 and 5.2), respectively. Furthermore, the investigations with respect to married couples (husbands and wives) who volunteered to participate in this study (33 cases and 47 control group) also indicated relatively high antibody titres and increased frequency of HSV sero positivity amongst husbands of cases as compared to their wives, as well as the control group males and females. The contribution of HSV infection in women and/or their husbands to the risk of developing abnormal cervical lesions was analysed after adjusting for the same in respective counterparts. It was observed that the risk was increased 14‐fold with HSV‐IgA positivity of women, and that HSV‐IgA positivity of husbands (male partners) further increased the risk 16‐fold. This preliminary observation shows the importance of serum HSV‐IgA antibodies as a risk indicator in cervical precancer and cancer lesions in women without a history of recent genital herpes lesions. The serum HSV‐IgA may also be taken as an indicator of “high risk” males.

SCHØNHEYDER, HENRIK; HOFFMANN, STEEN; JENSEN, HENRIK ELVANG; HANSEN, BIRGIT FISCHER; FRANZMANN, MARIA‐B.

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03973.xpmid: 1642847

Necrotizing myocarditis due to Aspergillus fumigatus was a contributory cause of death in a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and non‐Hodgkin lymphoblastic malignant lymphoma of the Burkitt type. A transient remission of the lymphoma had been obtained by cytostatic treatment. A. fumigatus was isolated from blood two weeks before death, but myocarditis was not diagnosed until autopsy.

ASKGAARD, DORTHE; FUURSTED, KURT; GOTTSCHAU, ADAM; BENNEDSEN, JØRGEN

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03974.xpmid: 1642848

This study reports our experience with methods used at our department from 1981 through 1990 for detection of mycobacteria in blood and bone marrow specimens. Direct inoculation on Lowenstein Jensen media was replaced by Isolator® lysis‐centrifugation followed by inoculation on conventional solid media, and the Bactec 12B and Bactec 13A systems. A total of 3033 specimens were analyzed. A total of 137 mycobacterial isolates were obtained from 42 patients, all HIV‐positive except one. Mycobacteremia caused by M. avium‐intracellulare (83%), M. tuberculosis, M. scrofulaceum and M. kansasii was found. Of 680 blood specimens tested by the last three methods, 7.6% were found to be positive by at least one method and revealed recovery rates of 6.8% for the Isolator®‐solid media system, 3.4% for the Isolator®‐12B system and 6.9% for the 13A system (all isolates MOTT). Mean detection times for 21 cultures found positive by all three methods were 23.6, 23.3 and 17.7 days for the Isolator®‐solid media, Isolator®‐12B and 13A systems, respectively, with a significantly shorter detection time for the 13A system. Low degree (< 1 cfu/ml) mycobacteremia (MOTT) caused delay in the Isolator®‐solid media and the 13A systems and no detection in the Isolator®‐12B system. Antituberculous therapy significantly prolonged the detection times for MOTT in the 13A system in contrast to the other systems.

ROLSTAD, ANNA KRISTIN; MICHAELSEN, TERJE E.; KOLBERG, JAN

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03975.xpmid: 1379439

Two sets of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) probably reacting with two different epitopes in the CH3 domain of the human IgG4 molecule were studied. We observed that the commercially available mAb HP 6011 inhibited the antigen binding of the three mutually inhibitable mAbs, 40‐A2, 41‐E8 and 43‐F11 (40‐series), made by us. However, the 40‐series mAbs, including those with similar affinity such as mAb HP6011, were not able to inhibit mAb HP 6011. When the 40‐series mAbs were preincubated with IgG4, the mAb HP 6011 could partially displace these antibodies. This one‐way inhibition indicates that upon binding mAb HP 6011 changes the antigenic structure of the IgG4 molecule by disrupting the epitope for the 40‐series mAbs. A steric hindrance of this epitope by mAb HP 6011 is more unlikely, since the small Fab fragment of mAb HP 6011 also inhibited the reaction of the 40‐series mAbs.

AABO, S.; THOMAS, A.; HALL, M. L. M.; SMITH, H. R.; OLSEN, J. E.

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03976.xpmid: 1642849

A 2.3 kilobase (kb) Salmonella probe, JEO402‐1, and two subfragments, F1214 (1.3 kb) and F1217 (0.8 kb), have been evaluated by colony hybridization using pure cultures of Salmonella serovars and non‐salmonella bacteria. JEO402‐1, and its subfragments, F1214 and F1217, hybridized to all of 156 different Salmonella serovars tested, while there was no reaction to 112 non‐salmonella strains belonging to 19 genera and 37 species of Enterobacteriaceae. Together with previously published results, the JEO402‐1 probe has now been shown to detect a total of 396 Salmonella strains belonging to 214 serovars of Slamonella subspecies I‐VI. A total of 178 non‐salmonella strains representing 23 genera and 51 species of Enterobacteriaceae have all tested negative with JEO402‐1. The hybridization results obtained using a digoxigenin‐labeled probe were similar to those obtained with 35S isotopic labeling when complete colony lysis was ensured.

KARIUKI, SAMUEL; MIRZA, NAZIR BEGUM; WASTESON, YNGVILD; SENERWA, DANIEL; GATHUMA, JOSEPH M.; OLSVIK, ØRJAN

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03977.xpmid: 1642850

All 97 strains of Salmonella typhimurium isolated from patients at a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, during 1988‐90 were resistant to tetracycline. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) showed a large distribution range from 1 μg/ml to 128 μg/ml. The strains were heterogeneous with respect to plasmid content, but initially all strains possessed, in addition to other plasmids, a large 60‐, 63‐or 65‐MDa plasmid. The tetracycline resistance genes were characterized using oligonucleotide probes, and 20% of the resistant strains possessed tetracycline type A (tetrA), 6%tetr B, and 4%tetrC genes. Three strains possessed both type A and B tetracycline resistance determinants, which were shown to be located on the large 65‐MDa plasmid. There was no correlation between strains isolated from stools, blood, cerebrospinal or epidural fluids, pus, or urine, with respect to the tetracycline genotypes, MIC values or plasmid content.

URSI, JEAN‐PAUL; URSI, DOMINIQUE; IEVEN, MARGARETA; PATTYN, STEFAAN R.

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03978.xpmid: 1642851

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify a 209 base‐pair fragment of Mycoplasma pneumoniae DNA. The amplicon was transferred into a plasmid and a 680 base‐pair piece of foreign DNA was inserted between the two amplimer sites. Plasmid DNA was added to the reaction mixture as an internal control for the polymerase chain reaction. Since the original hybridization target sites were included in this construction, one pair of amplimers could be used to amplify both the target DNA and the internal control DNA. Separation of internal control from target DNA after amplification was easily obtained on agarose gel electrophoresis. For the analysis of clinical samples with the polymerase chain reaction, the addition of internal control DNA allowed monitoring of the overall effectiveness of the amplification in each tube. With this technique approximately one‐third of the tests were shown to be unsatisfactory due to technical errors or contaminating inhibitors. Adequate internal controls are necessary to avoid false‐negative results with the polymerase chain reaction.

KOHA, M.; BRISMAR, B.; WIKSTRÖM, B.

doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb03979.xpmid: 1642852

In 18 consecutive patients operated on for colorectal carcinoma of Dukes' stage C, the DNA patterns were determined in multiple samples of the primary tumours and in all detected lymph node metastases. Single‐cell microspectrophotometry on Feulgen‐stained smears of fine‐needle aspirates was used. When the most aggressive DNA pattern was considered representative, 12 primary tumours (67%) were designated as aneuploid. The frequency of aneuploidy among the metastases was almost the same (63%). In 15 cases (83%) the DNA patterns displayed by the metastatic lymph nodes were also found in the corresponding primary tumour, while in the remaining three cases (17%) the DNA pattern in the lymph node metastases was not seen in any of the multiple samples from the primary tumour. The observed tumour DNA heterogeneity may reflect either the multicellular origin of the tumour cells or the continuous evolution and progression of a neoplasm of unicellular origin, and may partly explain the dissimilarities between the DNA patterns of the primary tumour and the lymph node metastases. Biopsy samples from a number of metastatic lymph nodes are therefore required to ensure representativeness and to permit an adequate analysis of the prognostic role of the DNA ploidy status in lymph node metastases from colorectal cancer.