Urinary tract infections in Bahrain: what is the drug of choice?

Choosing appropriate and cost effective antibiotics to treat common infections like those of the urinary tract is an important aspect of a Physician's work. Making the right choice requires knowledge of local isolates. In Bahrain, most urinary infections are due to gram negative organisms, mainly E. coli and klebsiella species. Resistance to ampicillin and carbenicillin is now so widespread as to make these agents useless for empiric therapy. Gentamicin, cotrimoxazole cephalosporins and quinolines are all useful in selected circumstances. For serious infections requiring parenteral therapy, gentamicin is preferred, with ampicillin added if enterococcal infection is likely. Cotrimoxazole or a quinolone is adequate for pyelonephritis if the patient can tolerate oral therapy; these oral agents are also excellent for lower tract disease

Cytogenetics of fetal wastage in Bahrain

A consecutive series of fifty couples with a history of fetal wastage was studied cytogenetically with current banding techniques. Fetal wastage was defined as occurring in couples who had more than two early abortions, still-birth[s] of live-birth[s] or both of infants with multiple congenital anomalies. One couple was found to be balanced reciprocal translocation carriers. One woman was found to have Robertsonian Translocation, another woman was found to be mosaic [46, XX, 47, XXX]; and one husband was found to have pericentric inversion of Y chromosome. We find that parental chromosome abnormalities account for fetal wastage in 8% of couples having such a history