Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a cause of infectious diarrhea successfully treated with oral ciprofloxacin

OBJECTIVE: To describe an immunocompromised patient (without AIDS) with nosocomial infectious diarrhea caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Oral ciprofloxacin therapy proved to be effective. CASE SUMMARY: An 80-year-old woman with type II diabetes mellitus and hypertension developed progressive renal insufficiency, was hospitalized because of uremia, and underwent hemodialysis. When the patient developed hematochezia, Duke's C sigmoid colon cancer was detected and successfully resected. She received broad-spectrum antibiotics in the perioperative period. The patient then developed profuse diarrhea associated with abdominal cramping, a low-grade fever, prostration, and headache. The patient then started to received vancomycin 500 mg po qid empirically. Four days later, the diarrhea continued unabated, the Clostridium difficile titer was negative, and the vancomycin therapy was stopped. However, the stool culture was positive for heavy growth of P. aeruginosa sensitive to ciprofloxacin. The patient then began to receive ciprofloxacin 500 mg po bid. Within 3 days the diarrhea stopped. Oral ciprofloxacin therapy was continued for 10 days and the patient remained free of symptoms with formed stools thereafter. DISCUSSION: Diarrhea following the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics implicates pseudomembranous colitis as the cause. The patient did not respond to oral vancomycin therapy and had a negative stool assay for C. difficile toxin. This patient was believed to have Pseudomonas enteritis, which was confirmed by 2 positive stool cultures. The administration of oral ciprofloxacin therapy stopped her diarrhea with a rapid resolution of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: P. aeruginosa as a cause of infectious diarrhea is unusual. When it occurs, it usually represents a nosocomial infection in an immunocompromised host. This report illustrates that oral ciprofloxacin therapy is effective for Pseudomonas enteritis, with rapid resolution of symptoms.     

Probabilistic linear models for multiresolution estimation in gray-level images

A multiresolution analysis of digital gray-level images is presented. A gray-level multi-scale framework is determined from two main assumptions: the gray scale is binary at the finest spatial resolution, and the gray levels of composed regions are obtained additively. In order to interrelate the gray-level histograms of the same image at different resolutions, probabilistic linear models are developed, which are then applied for estimation. Linear-optimization theory is used as a way of constructing such models. A general procedure for image processing is sketched, based on gray-level estimation. A versatile algorithm for nonlinear filtering is derived. Some examples of prospective applications are given.This work was partially supported by grant TIC91-646 from the DGYCIT of the Spanish Government.     

Complement resistance of capsulated strains of Aeromonas salmonicida

1. We investigated the effect of exercise on plasma adrenomedullin, atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentrations and studied the relationship between these peptides and haemodynamic parameters in nine patients with old myocardial infarction (MI) and in eight normal subjects. 2. The exercise protocol consisted of two fixed work loads (40 and 80 W) for 4 min each and venous blood samples were taken at rest, during each exercise stage and after exercise while monitoring the mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR). In MI, pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and cardiac output (CO) were measured throughout exercise. 3. Adrenomedullin levels did not significantly increase with exercise. Adrenomedullin levels correlated with PAP and PCWP at rest (P < 0.05). Atrial natriuretic peptide levels correlated with PAP, PCWP and LVEDP throughout exercise (P < 0.05) but, on multiple regression analysis, PCWP correlated only with ANP (P < 0.01). Brain natriuretic peptide levels correlated with LVEDP throughout exercise (P < 0.01) and its increment correlated closely with basal BNP levels at rest (P < 0.01). 4. These results suggest that adrenomedullin does not respond to the acute haemodynamic changes of exercise, whereas ANP responds to it and PCWP is the major stimulus factor. Brain natriuretic peptide responds to exercise in proportion to the basal synthesis of BNP in patients with left ventricular dysfunction and LVEDP may play a role in increasing BNP during exercise.     

Nucleation and growth of nickel by electrodeposition under galvanostatic conditions

The first stages of nickel electrodeposition on amorphous carbon and polycrystalline silver substrates have been studied under galvanostatic conditions. An island growth mode is observed on the two types of substrate. For equivalent conditions the cluster density is higher on silver substrates than on carbon substrates. Dissolution of some nickel clusters is observed a short time after the onset of electrolysis on carbon substrates. This is confirmed by the evolution of the current efficiency and the evolution of the metal surface cluster density as a function of the quantity of electricity.