agar and Brain-Diseases

Bacillus cereus is known to cause two types of food poisoning: emetic and diarrhoeal. Both diseases are usually self-limiting; however, severe cases have been reported, presenting with acute liver failure and encephalopathy, including rarely fatal cases of vomiting. Clinical laboratories do not routinely test for B. cereus in patients with gastrointestinal disease. Therefore, B. cereus causing food poisoning goes undetected. We report a successful isolation of emetic B. cereus from a patient with food poisoning who presented with severe vomiting, fulminant hepatic failure, and acute encephalopathy, by a non-conventional method. Initially, stool specimens from the patients were routinely cultured to identify the causative organisms of food poisoning. No foodborne pathogens were detected in this study. In contrast, additional clinical and epidemiological information strongly suggested food poisoning by emetic B. cereus. Consequently, we allowed Drigalski agar medium smeared with patient stool specimens to stand at room temperature (approximately 25 °C) for 9 days. After 9 days, mixed bacteria grown on the medium were inoculated onto mannitol egg yolk polymyxin (MYP) agar plates, a selective medium for B. cereus. Typical colonies of B. cereus developed on MYP agar plates. The isolated B. cereus had a cereulide-producing genetic locus (ces) gene encoding the emetic toxin cereulide. The method used in this case study was unique. This method is easy to apply after obtaining an additional clinical and epidemiological information, and this method will improve the diagnostic rate of severe B. cereus food poisoning. This will contribute to the advancement of therapeutics in the future.

Topics: Agar; Bacillus cereus; Brain Diseases; Emetics; Foodborne Diseases; Humans; Vomiting

To characterize near-resonance saturation pulse MR imaging on a 1.5-T scanner in order to gain insight into underlying mechanisms that alter tissue contrast and to optimize the technique for neuroimaging.. Off-resonance saturation pulses were applied to T1-weighted, spin-density-weighted, and T2-weighted sequences at frequency offsets ranging from 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz down field from water resonance. Suppression ratios were determined at each offset for phantom materials (MnCl2 solution, gadopentetate dimeglumine, corn oil, water, and agar), normal brain structures, and a variety of brain lesions.. Signal suppression of MnCl2 on T1-weighted images occurred at offsets of less than 2000 Hz even though no macromolecules were present in the solution. Only those phantom materials and tissues with short or intermediate T1 relaxation times and relatively large T1/T2 ratios were sensitive to changing frequency offsets. Suppression of brain increased from approximately 20% at 2000 Hz offset to approximately 45% when the offset was reduced to 300 Hz. In human subjects, the net effect of reducing the frequency offset was to increase T2 contrast on T1-weighted, spin-density-weighted, and T2-weighted images. Distilled water and contrast material did not suppress except at very low offsets ( < 300 Hz). A frequency offset of 300 Hz was optimal for maximizing conspicuity between most contrast-enhancing lesions and adjacent brain while preserving anatomic detail.. Suppression of MnCl2 indicates that magnetization transfer is not the sole mechanism of contrast in near-resonance saturation MR imaging. Spin-lock excitation can reasonably explain the behavior of the phantom solutions and the increase in T2 contrast of tissues achieved as the frequency offset is decreased from 2000 Hz to 300 Hz. Below 300 Hz, saturation is presumably caused by spin-tip effects. With our pulse design, an offset of 300 Hz is optimal for many routine clinical imaging examinations.

Topics: Adult; Agar; Brain; Brain Diseases; Brain Neoplasms; Cerebrovascular Disorders; Chlorides; Contrast Media; Corn Oil; Drug Combinations; Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; Female; Gadolinium; Gadolinium DTPA; Humans; Image Enhancement; Macromolecular Substances; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Manganese Compounds; Meglumine; Middle Aged; Organometallic Compounds; Pentetic Acid; Phantoms, Imaging; Water

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Agar; Brain Diseases; Child; Chronic Disease; Electrophoresis; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Female; gamma-Globulins; Humans; Male; Methods; Middle Aged; Multiple Sclerosis; Optic Neuritis; Polysaccharides

Topics: Agar; Brain Diseases; Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteins; Electrophoresis; Humans; Intervertebral Disc Displacement; Intracranial Arteriosclerosis; Meningitis; Multiple Sclerosis; Neurosyphilis; Pathology; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases; Polyradiculopathy; Serum Albumin; Serum Globulins

Topics: Agar; Antibodies; Autoimmune Diseases; Brain Diseases; Complement Fixation Tests; Hemagglutination; Hemagglutination Tests; Humans; Immunodiffusion