Although it is unclear why the MicroScan results for clindamycin were often above the range within ± 2 log2 dilutions as revealed by the reference method, it may be associated with clindamycin acting bacteriostatically and the

MicroScan panel being read visually. Bacillus cereus BSIs were reported to be found in immunosuppressed patients, patients receiving continuous intravenous therapy, patients with underlying malignancy, and neonates (Drobniewski, 1993; Gaur et al., 2001). In this study, use of antimicrobials for more than 3 days during the 3-month period before isolation of B. cereus was significantly larger in the BSI group compared with the Selleck LY2157299 contaminated blood culture group. In conclusion, our results suggest that the virulence gene profiles may be indistinguishable between BSI isolates and isolates from contaminated

blood cultures. In each group, there was wide diversity in the patterns of the virulence genes examined. Compared with the reference MICs, some isolates showed discrepant MIC values determined by the MicroScan or the Etest method for some antimicrobials. We consider that antimicrobial susceptibility data are essential when selecting the treatment regimen for B. cereus infections, because of the existence of isolates showing higher MICs for antimicrobials such as β-lactams and quinolones as shown in this study. Therefore, it is important to characterize the clinical utility and the performance limitations of antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods routinely used for Trametinib price clinical B. cereus isolates. Our results also suggest that Tacrolimus (FK506) prior antimicrobial therapy may be a risk factor for BSIs due to B. cereus. To prevent BSIs caused

by B. cereus, therefore, clinicians should make efforts to improve the quality of antimicrobial therapy. T.H. was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (20790413) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. No conflict of interest to declare. “
“Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains produce a bundle-forming pilus (BFP) that mediates localized adherence (LA) to intestinal epithelial cells. The major structural subunit of the BFP is bundlin, which is encoded by the bfpA gene located on a large EAF plasmid. The perA gene has been shown to activate genes within the bfp operon. We analyzed perA gene polymorphism among typical (eae- and bfpA- positive) EPEC strains isolated from healthy and diarrheal persons in Japan (n= 27) and Thailand (n= 26) during the period 1995 to 2007 and compared this with virulence and phenotypic characteristics. Eight genotypes of perA were identified by heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA). The strains isolated in Thailand showed strong autoaggregation and had an intact perA, while most of those isolated in Japan showed weak or no autoaggregation, and had a truncated perA due to frameshift mutation.