Assessment of Etest as an alternative to agar dilution for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

We studied whether the Etest can be used as an alternative to dilution in order to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefpodoxime in the supervision of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. One hundred fifteen clinical and laboratory Caprine Clia Kitsisolates of N. gonorrhoeae were tested following the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) approved CLSI standard dilution methods to ensure and, separately, with Etest according to the manufacturer's recommendations. The MIC is determined and compared.

 The resulting mutant laboratory used to simulate ten specimens substantially nonsusceptible. The Etest and agar dilution method were well correlated. The resulting statistical test regression R2 values ​​of 88%, 82%, and 85% and the Pearson correlation coefficient of 92%, 91%, and 92% for ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefpodoxime, respectively. When pairwise comparisons were made, two tests were 88.7%, 80%, and 87% within 1 log2 dilution of each other to ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefpodoxime, respectively. 

Agreement in 2-log 2 was 99.1%, 98.3%, and 94.8% for ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefpodoxime, respectively. Despite the good correlation and general agreement in 2-log 2, manufactured Etest MIC results slightly lower than the agar dilution. In conclusion, we found that the Etest can be effectively used as an alternative to testing the dilution in order to determine the susceptibility of N. gonorrhoeae to ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefpodoxime, although we recommend further studies are highly resistant isolates. To isolate the typical range of clinical MIC, a re-examination of the interpretation Etest susceptible and nonsusceptible category will likely allow for the successful transition of that dilution to Etest.

A seroprevalence surveys on varicella among adults in the era of vaccination in Apulia (Italy).

In 2006, the Apulia Region (Italy) to introduce routine vaccination universal (URV) against varicella disease. Coverage for one dose of varicella vaccine at 24 months of age reached 91.1% in 2010, birth-cohorts. vaccination coverage for the second dose at 5-6 years was 64.8% for the group in 2005, and 28.8% for teenager who was born in 1997. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pattern of immunity / susceptibility to varicella in adults Apulian by seroprevalence survey conducted six years after the introduction of the URV. 

This study was conducted from May 2011 to June 2012 among Cavia Clia Kits blood donors the Department of Transfusion Medicine General Hospital Policlinico di Bari. Subjects recorded by a convenience sample. For each patient enrolled we collected serum samples of 5 ml. Anti-VZV IgG in the serum were collected and analyzed by chemiluminescence (CLIA). We enrolled 1769 subjects; 1365 (77.2%) were male with a mean age of 38.4 ± 11.7 years.