Correlation between blood lead level and hemoglobin level in mitrovica children.

INTRODUCTION: Lead toxicity is a serious health threat, especially in developing countries due to environmental pollution. It was thus aimed to investigate correlation between blood lead level and concentration level of hemoglobin in the blood of children involved in research. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The research included 250 children of which 31(12.4%) kindergarten children, 166 (66.4%) of primary school pupils in Mitrovica and 53(21.2%) of primary school pupils in Shtime as control group. From the 250 children included in the survey 129 or 51.6% were female children and 48.4% male children. Children were selected randomly, while tests for concentration of Pb and blood hemoglobin were done at the National Institute of Public Health. RESULTS: The average value of blood lead level of Mitrovica pupils was 2.4 µg/dL (SD±1.9µg/dL), range 0.5 to 16.3µg/dL. The average value of blood lead level of Shtime pupils was 2.3µg/dL (SD±0.7µg/dL), range 1.2 to 5.2 µg/dL with no statistical difference (P = 0.191). The average value of blood lead level in kindergarten children of Mitrovica was 3.8µg/dL (SD±1.3µg/dL), range 2.2 to 7.7µg/dL with significant difference between the average values of blood lead levels of pupils and kindergarten children of Mitrovica (P <0.0001). The average value of hemoglobin in the pupils of Mitrovica was 14.0g/dL(SD± 3.7g/dL), range 9.4 to 25.6 g/dL. The average value of hemoglobin to pupils of Shtime was 11.4g/dl(SD±0.8 g/dl), range 9.2 to 13.0 g/dl with significant difference between mean values of hemoglobin pupils of Mitrovica and Shtime (U '= 6440.0, P <0.0001). With Spearman correlation is found significant correlation of a medium scale (r = -0.305, df = 248, p <0.0001) between blood lead levels and hemoglobin level in the blood.

Molecular epidemiology of Acinetobacter baumannii in central intensive care unit in Kosova teaching hospital

Infections caused by bacteria of genus Acinetobacter pose a significant health care challenge worldwide. Information on molecular epidemiological investigation of outbreaks caused by Acinetobacter species in Kosova is lacking. The present investigation was carried out to enlight molecular epidemiology of Acinetobacterbaumannii in the Central Intensive Care Unit (CICU) of a University hospital in Kosova using pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). During March - July 2006, A. baumannii was isolated from 30 patients, of whom 22 were infected and 8 were colonised. Twenty patients had ventilator-associated pneumonia, one patient had meningitis, and two had coinfection with bloodstream infection and surgical site infection. The most common diagnoses upon admission to the ICU were politrauma and cerebral hemorrhage. Bacterial isolates were most frequently recovered from endotracheal aspirate (86.7 percent). First isolation occurred, on average, on day 8 following admission (range 1-26 days). Genotype analysis of A. baumannii isolates identified nine distinct PFGE patterns, with predominance of PFGE clone E represented by isolates from 9 patients. Eight strains were resistant to carbapenems. The genetic relatedness of Acinetobacter baumannii was high, indicating cross-transmission within the ICU setting. These results emphasize the need for measures to prevent nosocomial transmission of A. baumannii in ICU.

Molecular epidemiology of Acinetobacter baumannii in central intensive care unit in Kosova Teaching Hospital.

Infections caused by bacteria of genus Acinetobacter pose a significant health care challenge worldwide. Information on molecular epidemiological investigation of outbreaks caused by Acinetobacter species in Kosova is lacking. The present investigation was carried out to enlight molecular epidemiology of Acinetobacter baumannii in the Central Intensive Care Unit (CICU) of a University hospital in Kosova using pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). During March - July 2006, A. baumannii was isolated from 30 patients, of whom 22 were infected and 8 were colonised. Twenty patients had ventilator-associated pneumonia, one patient had meningitis, and two had coinfection with bloodstream infection and surgical site infection. The most common diagnoses upon admission to the ICU were politrauma and cerebral hemorrhage. Bacterial isolates were most frequently recovered from endotracheal aspirate (86.7%). First isolation occurred, on average, on day 8 following admission (range 1-26 days). Genotype analysis of A. baumannii isolates identified nine distinct PFGE patterns, with predominance of PFGE clone E represented by isolates from 9 patients. Eight strains were resistant to carbapenems. The genetic relatedness of Acinetobacter baumannii was high, indicating cross-transmission within the ICU setting. These results emphasize the need for measures to prevent nosocomial transmission of A. baumannii in ICU.

Etiology and susceptibility of urinary tract isolates in Kosova.

Urinary tract infections are amongst the most common pathogenic infections with an increasing resistance to antimicrobials. The objective of this study was to determine the etiology and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of urinary tract infection pathogens isolated in Kosovo. A retrospective study was carried from urine samples of both inpatients and outpatients that were received in our laboratory throughout 2001. During the study period, 16500 urine samples were analysed, of which 4260 (25.8%) had significant bacteriuria obtained from 1420 patients. Of this, 1059 (74.6%) were collected from females and 361 (25.4%) from males. Urine samples processed from outpatients were 72.5% (1029), whereas 27.5% (391) were from hospitalised patients. Escherichia coli was the most common aetiologic agent isolated (80.5%), followed by Proteus spp. (6.1%), Klebsiella spp. (5.9%), Citrobacter (5.1%) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (0.8%). Gram-positive bacteria accounted for only 0.3%. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was only isolated from inpatients and was responsible for 0.6% of infections. Amoxicillin, ampicillin and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole resistance rates were 48.7, 46.5 and 32.1%, respectively. Nitrofurantoin, cefalexin and ciprofloxacin expressed the highest susceptibility among these isolates. E. coli isolates from inpatients and outpatients showed more than 25% resistance to trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole. Of all isolates, 16% (225) were resistant to three or more agents and considered multi-drug resistant. Current data on the prevalence of multidrug resistance among urinary tract isolates should be a consideration to change the current empiric treatment of urinary tract infections.