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Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a potentially fatal viral disease. In this study, the aim was to investigate the prognostic factors affecting the patient's survival and risk factors to fatality. At Ondokuz Mayis University Faculty of Medicine, a tertiary referral centre near the CCHF epidemic region, patients with typical clinical findings and indicative microbiological results for IgM and/or reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction of CCHF virus were enrolled in the study, from 2004 to 2007. Patients were divided into two subgroups according to their survival outcomes; group I (n = 44) survived patients and group II (n = 6) consisted of fatal cases. The median platelet count was significantly lower in the fatal group (11000/mm(3)) when compared to the survived group (49500/mm(3)). Aspartate transferase and alanine transferase (ALT) levels were significantly higher in group II, when compared to group I. Also, the median range of serum lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) levels were much more elevated, and prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) were prolonged in fatal cases. There was also a significant difference in median age of these two groups. Advanced age, late admission, low platelet count, increased AST, ALT, CPK and LDH levels, and prolonged PT and aPTT could be an early indicator of poor prognosis in patients with CCHF.

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Recently there has been an increasing interest in studying arthropods that live close to humans, such as cockroaches and mites, for their potential as vectors. Gregarines observed under light microscopy in intestinal extracts of house dust mites (Dermatophagoides spp.) are described for the first time in scientific literature.

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Although the pathology of Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is mainly related to a haemorrhagic process with secondary cytokine storm, there have been no published reports of this fatal disease being a cause of diffuse alveolar haemorrhage (DAH). There are many aetiological factors emphasizing the direct role of endothelial injury on DAH. We present the case of a young adult Turkish man with diffuse bilateral alveolar haemorrhage without an episode of gross haemoptysis caused by the CCHF virus. Successful clinical results and a rapid clinical and radiological clearance were obtained within few days after starting daily oral ribavirin treatment. This fatal infection should be considered to exist in any patient presenting with DAH, and should rapidly be treated with ribavirin. Another very important factor which should always be borne in mind is the contagious character of the CCHF virus. It is one of the most dangerous microorganisms transmitted from person to person. Even the bronchoscopes contaminated with patient blood carry a high risk for nosocomial spread to medical staff and other patients.

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In daily medical practice, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome is an infrequent clinical entity which carry a very high risk of fatality. Early recognition of this toxin mediated immunopathological disease is very important to apply necessary invasive procedures such as an prompt amputation of the effected areas to save the patient. Here, we report a 47 year-old male farmer with a fatal streptococcal toxic shock syndrome to highlight the importance of emergency care and aggresive surgical intervention in similar situations.

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Here, we describe a 38-year-old male with an abrupt manifestation acute panniculitis as unusual presentation of brucellosis. Brucellosis is a reemerging disease in Turkey, and the disease is primarily transmitted from farm animals to humans. Farmers and shepherds are the major risk groups for brucellosis in Anatolia. Brucellosis may involve almost all systems and organs, including the skin, and may mimic a wide range of illness and syndromes. Although the cutaneous manifestation of brucellosis is not disease specific, but it occurs in about 6%-13% of patients with brucellosis. Some of these lesions including rashes, papules, ulcers, abscess, erythema nodosum, ecchymosed skin rash, purpura, and vasculitis may be seen frequently in brucellosis, but panniculitis is rarely described. The case confirmed by positive blood culture had manifest skin lesion as an initial finding represented by lobular panniculitis with vasculitis.

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Three pediatric and two adult Turkish patients with Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) induced hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS) were admitted to Ondokuz Mayis University Hospital, which is in the Middle Black Sea Region of Turkey. All of them had remarkable hemophagocytosis in the bone marrow with severe bleeding symptoms along with the other known clinical and laboratory findings of CCHF. We would like to present these patients and to discuss the pathophysiology and the effect of acquired HPS on the severity of the disease.

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Genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from infected individuals can play an important role in tracking the source of infection and unraveling the epidemiology of a tuberculosis pandemic. A total of 114 M. tuberculosis isolates were genotyped by spoligotyping and results were compared with an international spoligotype database (SpoIDB4). Twenty-one spoligotyping-defined clusters including 97 patients were established, and an additional 17 unique patterns were found. Ninety-eight (85.9%) isolates belonged to previously defined shared types (STs). The ST53 (ill-defined T1 superfamily, n=31), ST41 (LAM7-TUR family, n=9), ST118 (T undefined, n=8) and ST50 (Haarlem 3, n=6) were four major clusters of our isolates. After comparison with the international SpoIDB4 database, two new intrafile clusters, ST2136 and ST2139, were created and two new interfile clusters, ST2135 and ST2140, were defined. Eight (7%) of the 17 isolates with unique patterns were found to be orphans, whereas the STs of 9 isolates had previously been deposited in the international SpoIDB4 database. In addition, two isolates with an ST pattern characteristic of the Beijing family of M. tuberculosis were found. This study shows that, although ubiquitous spoligotypes are common, several spoligotypes specific to Turkey also exist. Thus, our study may help us to better understand the spread of M. tuberculosis genotypes to Turkey.

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Although the availability of effective antimicrobial therapy, both otitis media with effusion (OME) and acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) are still important infections for children, leading serious health problems. The most frequently isolated bacteria from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of ABM patients are Haemophilus influenzae type b, Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae, and middle ear effusion (MEE) samples of OME patients are H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, respectively. Since they are fastidious bacteria, various problems may arise in the rapid diagnosis in both ABM and OME settings. In this study, the diagnostic value of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been searched for the detection of bacterial DNA in CSF and MEE specimens and evaluated in comparison to conventional culture method accepted as the "gold standard". A total of 75 samples (53 CSF, 22 MEE) collected from meningitis and OME suspected children were included in the study. With the conventional culture method, one S. pneumoniae strain was isolated from a CSF sample, and one H. influenzae (non-type b) and two M. catarrhalis strains were isolated from three of MEE samples (total isolation rate: %5.3; 4/75). Standard PCR protocol was applied for the detection of H. influenzae, while multiplex PCR protocol was used for M. catarrhalis and S. pneumoniae, since H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae amplification products were of similar size. PCR revealed genomic DNA sequences of S. pneumoniae from five of the CSF samples, while three H. influenzae, three M. catarrhalis and two S. pneumoniae+M. catarrhalis were detected from MEE samples (total detection rate: %17.3; 13/75). Sensitivity and specificity rates of PCR method were found as 100% and 92.3% for CSF samples, and 100% and 73.7% for MEE samples, respectively, with a total sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 87.3%, positive predictive value of 30.8%, and negative predictive value of 100%. As a result it was concluded that PCR method could be considered as a rapid, reliable and feasible method for the detection of the most common fastidious bacteria that lead to meningitis and OME.

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BACKGROUND: The isolation of Brucella species from blood may be achieved by using classic culture techniques, but detection of the organism is difficult due to its slow growth. The time-to-detection of Brucella can take up to 30 days using the Castaneda blood culture method. Automated blood culture systems have reduced the growth time of Brucella. MATERIAL/METHODS: In this report we would like to contribute our experience on detection time in the isolation of Brucella species from 33,039 blood culture sets using BacT/ALERT between 1995 and 2000 (13 isolates) and thereafter using both the BACTEC and BacT/ALERT systems (17 isolates). RESULTS: Thirty Brucella spp. (17 by both systems and 13 by BacT/ALERT only) were isolated from 33,039 blood culture sets between 1995 and 2002. Brucellae were recovered between 1.8 and 3.7 days (mean: 2.5 days) in the BacT/ALERT blood culture system and between 2.1 and 3.8 days (mean: 2.8 days) in BACTEC 9240 system. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the mean time-to-detection could be

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The aim of our prospective study was to evaluate the predictive value of serum procalcitonin (PCT) level in comparison with C-reactive protein level and erythrocyte sedimentation rate for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) on admission and 6 months after the administration of anti-tuberculous chemotherapy (ATCT). Seventy-five adult male patients with active PTB who were mycobacteriologically diagnosed (smear and culture positivity) were examined in this study. As a control group, 75 healthy adult males were enrolled. The measured serum PCT levels were within the normal range both in healthy individuals and in patients 6 months after ATCT. Serum PCT levels had been slightly high on admission in patients with PTB in comparison with controls (P = 0.01) and patients who had ATCT (P = 0.001), and this difference was statistically significant, but the PCT levels of most cases with PTB (58.7%) were below the usual cut-off level (0.5 ng/mL). We conclude from this study that the serum PCT level was not a reliable indicator in the diagnosis of active PTB because of its low sensitivity (41.3%), and in most cases it was not capable of overcoming the cut-off level even if statistically meaningful results were obtained. The PCT test for the presumptive diagnosis of PTB cannot be substituted for microbiological, epidemiological, clinical and radiological data.

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The purpose of this study was to describe a patient, 7-month-old child with ventriculoperitoneal shunts for hydrocephalus with ventriculitis caused by vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium. Two ventriculoperitoneal shunts were inserted just after birth and on the second month. On the sixth month, both shunts were removed because of dysfunction, and external drainage was inserted. The child developed fever, and lumbar puncture revealed a high leukocyte count and protein concentration after external drainage. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures yielded E. faecium, which was resistant to ampicillin, erythromycin, gentamicin, penicillin G, vancomycin, and teicoplanin and was susceptible to chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, levofloxacin, and rifampin, as determined by the disk diffusion method. As a result of the antimicrobial susceptibility tests, multidrug antibiotic therapy was changed from vancomycin and ceftazidime to chloramphenicol, rifampin, and meropenem. In addition, a rifampin-clindamycin-impregnated shunt (The Codman Hakim Bactiseal, Raynham, MA) was inserted. The patient became afebrile, and CSF cultures were sterile after 15 days of yielding E. faecium. Implantation of the rifampin-clindamycin-impregnated shunt and timely use of appropriate antibiotics for 10 days according to antimicrobial susceptibility testing seem to be important in the resolution of vancomycin-resistant enterococci infections, especially in countries where linezolid and quinupristin-dalfopristin are not in use yet.

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