Experimental study of specific and nonspecific blood culture bottles for the diagnosis of candidemia.

BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis of candidemia is critical for the correct management and treatment of patients. AIMS: To test the efficacy of different blood culture bottles in the growth of Candida strains. METHODS: We compared the performance of BD BACTEC™ Plus Aerobic/F (Aero) culture bottles with the specific BD BACTEC™ Mycosis IC/F Lytic (Myco) culture bottles using the BD BACTEC™ FX 40 automated blood culture system to determine the mean time-to-detection (TTD) in Candida species. One isolate each of six Candida species was inoculated into blood culture bottles (final concentration, 1-5CFUml-1) and incubated at 37°C until automated growth detection. RESULTS: Candida albicans and Nakaseomyces glabratus (Candida glabrata) were detected earlier in the specific culture bottle, whereas Candida tropicalis was detected earlier in the nonspecific bottle; Candida parapsilosis, Pichia kudriavzevii (Candida krusei), and Meyerozyma guilliermondii (Candida guilliermondii) presented similar TTD in both bottles. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests the suitability of using both bottles in clinical laboratories for a faster diagnosis and prompt starting of any treatment.

Chronic treatment with lithium increases the ecto-nucleotidase activities in rat hippocampal synatosomes.

Lithium is a mood-stabilizing treatment used in bipolar and other psychiatric disorders. The molecular mechanisms underlying lithium action remain poorly understood. Adenosine is a neuromodulator that possesses anticonvulsant and neuroprotective properties and the ecto-nucleotidase pathway is a metabolic source of the extracellular adenosine. Here we investigated the effect of lithium on the ecto-nucleotidase pathway in synaptosomes from hippocampus and cerebral cortex of adult rats. Male Wistar rats received standard rat chow with lithium chloride (2.5 mg/g of chow) and NaCl (17 mg/g of chow) during 4 weeks. The serum lithium levels were 1.18 +/- 0.05 mEq./L. ATP and AMP hydrolysis was significantly increased (20 and 35%, respectively) in hippocampal synaptosomes of rats chronically treated with lithium chloride. No significant differences were observed in the hydrolysis of the three nucleotides by cortical synaptosomes. In conclusion, the modulation of the ecto-nucleotidase pathway may be a new explanation for the potential neuroprotective lithium action in hippocampal lesions.