Post-operative spondylodiscitis due to Propionibacterium acnes: A case report.

Post-operative spondylodiscitis due to Propionibacterium acnes is rare, with only a few cases reported in the literature. In this article, we report the case of a 76-year-old patient who suffered from spondylodiscitis T12-L1 discovered after 1 month of pain and fever. Antibiotic treatment was administered for 6 weeks without revision surgery. Diagnosis remains incomplete, and preventive therapy against this infection is not well known. There is no link between immunosuppression and this infection. A cure has been reported in 98% of cases, but further investigation is still required for the establishment of treatment guidelines.

[Internal medicine in the hospital setting]. / Médecine interne hospitalière: l'année en revue.

Management of all pathologies, and in particular that of the most frequent ones, should whenever possible be based on robust evidence and arguments. New studies published this year enable rationalizing of screening in certain clinical situations, more adequate treatment of others, and open the way for novel and apparently very effective treatments. Whether it be the screening of carotid stenosis, the treatment of pericarditis, of heart failure, of chronic obstructive lung disease or spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, paradigm changes are conceivable. This selective review of the literature summarizes certain studies published this year.

[What to do with a normal urinary strip in case of lower urinary tract symptoms?]. / Symptômes urinaires bas et bandelette normale: à quoi penser?

Patients very often consult for lower urinary tract symptoms, that do not necessarily equate to common cystitis. When urinary leucocytes and nitrites are absent, the urinary strip has a very good negative predictive value and makes the diagnosis of a lower urinary tract infection very unlikely. One then has to search for other diagnoses and to clarify the nature of the symptoms, irritating or obstructive ones, their duration and to correlate them to the patient's age and gender. In sexually active young patients, infectious diseases predominate, such as uretritis or vaginitis, while, with age, the prevalence of dysfunction of vesical emptying, benign prostatic hyperplasia or atrophic vaginitis increase.

Design and evaluation of a grapevine pruner for biofungicide application.

Eutypa lata is a significant grapevine pathogen with limited means of prevention and control. The biological control agent Fusarium lateritium can prevent E. lata infection if applied directly onto a vine pruning wound. F. lateritium was suspended and stored in an invert emulsion formulation. A commercially available pruning shear was modified to dispense the formulated F. lateritium onto the cutting blade for direct application onto the pruning wound simultaneously with grapevine cutting. The modified pruner was tested for its ability to cover grapevine pruning wounds using the emulsion formulation. Efficacy of formulated F. lateritium on pruned grapevine canes was also studied using the pruner for application. Addition of grooves in the pruning blade significantly improved wound coverage. Biological efficacy testing determined that applying formulated F. lateritium with the modified pruner was as effective as pipetting formulation directly onto the pruning wound.