Clinical Relevance of Positive NOW(TM) Legionella Urinary Antigen Test in a Tertiary-Care Hospital in Korea / 대한진단검사의학회지

BACKGROUND: The morbidity and mortality of Legionnaires' disease are not established in Korea, because patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) have rarely been investigated for Legionella. An assay for Legionella antigen in urine has been approved as one of the diagnostic criteria of Legionnaires' disease. Binax Now(TM) Legionella Urinary Antigen Test (LUA) was introduced in Asan Medical Center in July 2002. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of positive LUA. METHODS: During the 39-month period from July 2002 to September 2005, the medical records of LUA-positive patients were reviewed for demographic findings, laboratory findings, clinical diagnosis, antimicrobial treatment, outcome, and acquisition of infections. Diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease was based on National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) criteria for defining nosocomial pneumonia. RESULTS: Seven (0.3%) of the 2443 patients tested for LUA were positive. All 7 patients were consistent with the diagnostic criteria of Legionnaires' disease; six patients were diagnosed with CAP and one patient was admitted due to nosocomial pneumonia. Six patients were treated with azithromycin or ciprofloxacin but one patient was not treated for Legionella infection. With the report of LUApositive results, a Legionella-targeted treatment was started in two patients and an inappropriate empirical therapy was ceased in one patient. All patients treated with Legionella-targeted treatment improved clinically except one who died of adult respiratory distress syndrome at the first hospital day. CONCLUSIONS: Positive LUA is useful in diagnosing Legionnaire's disease at an early stage and in helping to initiate appropriate treatments in a tertiary-care hospital in Korea.

A Case of Arcanobacterium haemolyticum Sepsis / 대한진단검사의학회지

Arcanobacterium haemolyticum is a beta-hemolytic coryneform bacillus. It has been implicated as an etiologic agent of non-streptococcal pharyngitis and less frequently a cause of skin and wound infections, osteomyelitis, pneumonia, endocarditis, sepsis, and central nervous system infections. We describe a case of A. hemolyticum sepsis reported for the first time in Korea. A 61-year-old man with a diabetic foot was admitted due to a high fever. Three sets of blood cultures taken at the emergency room yielded coryneform bacilli. The organism was beta-hemolytic on blood agar plate, catalase-negative, and non-motile. It was identified as A. haemolyticum by Rapid CB Plus (Remel, Kansas, USA) and API Coryne (BioMerieux SA, Marcy l`Etoile, France) and confirmed by CAMP inhibition reaction. It was susceptible to penicillin, ceftriaxone, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, and vancomycin by the disk diffusion method using the breakpoint criteria of National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards for streptococci other than Streptococcus pneumoniae. The patient was improved with partial amputation of the right big toe and antimicrobial therapy with ampicillin/sulbactam. If Arcanobacterium is isolated from normally sterile sites or culture specimens properly collected from infected tissues, it should be identified to the species level. Commercial biochemical test kits specialized in corynebacteria and CAMP test are useful for species identification of A. haemolyticum.

Annual Report on External Quality Assessment in Clinical Chemistry in Korea (2002) / 임상검사와정도관리

Ten trials of external quality assessment for Clinical Chemistry in general chemistry and blood gas were performed in 2002. All the control materials were sent in specially-made boxes at the same time. The response rates were 81.2% in general chemistry and 85.7% in blood gas. The items included sodium, potassium, chloride, BUN, glucose, calcium, phosphorus, uric acid, creatinine, bilirubin, total protein, albumin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, AST, ALT, ALP, LD and GGT in general chemistry and pH, pCO2 and pO2 in blood gas. Compared with the previous year(2001), the methods of analysis are not changed much and the coefficient of variation and VIS scores of general chemistry items show no significant change.