Comparative susceptibility of Yersinia enterocolitica, Eikenella corrodens, and penicillin-resistant and penicillin-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae to beta-lactam and alternative antimicrobial agents

Eye contact boosts the reflexive component of overt gaze following

Establishing eye contact with an individual can subsequently lead to a stronger gaze-mediated orienting effect. However, studies exploring this phenomenon have, so far, only assessed manual responses and focused on covert attention - namely, without eye movements. Here, in two experiments, we explored for the first time whether eye contact can also impact on overt attention in an oculomotor task. This approach has two main advantages, in that it relies on more sensitive, online measures of attention allocation and it better mimics real life settings. Participants performed leftwards and rightwards eye movements in response to a central cue. Furthermore, a task-irrelevant central face established - or not - eye contact with the participant, and then averted its gaze either leftwards or rightwards. Hence, eye movement direction was either congruent or incongruent with that of the gaze stimulus. In both experiments, a gaze following behaviour emerged - specifically, smaller saccadic latencies and a greater accuracy emerged on congruent than on incongruent trials - but its magnitude was not modulated by eye contact. However, in Experiment 2 - in which the different eye contact conditions were presented intermixed rather than blocked, thus making eye contact contextually salient - eye contact led to an overall decrement of saccadic latencies and enhanced the reflexive component of gaze following. Taken together, these results provide novel evidence indicating that eye contact can impact on both eye movements programming and overt gaze following mechanisms, at least when eye contact is made contextually salient.

Eikenella corrodens Sepsis with Cerebrospinal Fluid Pleocytosis in a Very Low Birth Weight Neonate

We report a case of Eikenella corrodens sepsis associated with CSF pleocytosis in a very low birth weight neonate. A 1000-gram male neonate was born at 27-week gestation due to preterm labor. The patient presented with signs and symptoms of sepsis and was treated for suspected meningitis with intravenous ampicillin and gentamicin for 7 days, with cefotaxime added for three weeks. He had a normal brain MRI at discharge and normal development at 6 months of life. To our knowledge, this is the first case of E. corrodens sepsis and associated meningitis in a very low birth weight neonate.

Infective endocarditis due to Eikenella corrodens: Case report and review of the literature

Eikenella corrodens is an uncommon cause of bacterial endocarditis. In the 11 reported cases in the literature, the disease was associated with predisposing factors and was clinically indolent or subacute. A case is reported which in contrast to the reported literature was acute in onset with severe heart failure, requiring urgent valve replacement.

Pharmacokinetics of cefotaxime in healthy volunteers and patients

Cefotaxime is a third-generation cephalosporin that has maintained good susceptibility pattern despite its extensive use. It is available for intravenous and intramuscular administration. Its pharmacokinetic property includes a small volume of distribution with low protein binding. Cefotaxime's half-life is approximately 1.1 h, and it is primarily eliminated by the kidney. It has an active metabolite desacetyl-cefotaxime that displays pharmacokinetic properties similar to cefotaxime. Desacetyl-cefotaxime has a half-life of 1.5 h and also is eliminated by the kidneys by both glomerular filtration and active secretion. The half-life of cefotaxime and its metabolite is altered in patients with severe renal dysfunction requiring dosage adjustment. Despite its relatively short half-life, cefotaxime may be dosed every 12 h based on its pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties.

Meningitis caused by a penicillin- and chloramphenicol-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae

We report here a case of a five-month-old infant with pneumococcal meningitis, which was both penicillin- and chloramphenicol-resistant, and the difficulties that arose, both in the laboratory diagnosis of the resistance and in the therapy of this infection.

Cefotaxime. A review of its antibacterial activity, pharmacological properties and therapeutic use

SYNOPSIS

Cefotaxime is a new 'third generation' semisynthetic cephalosporin administered intravenously or intramuscularly. It has a broad spectrum of activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, and is generally more active against Gram-negative bacteria than the 'first' and 'second generation' cephalosporins. Although cefotaxime has some activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, on the basis of present evidence it cannot be recommended as sole antibiotic therapy for pseudomonal infections. However, cefotaxime has been effective in treating infections due to other 'difficult' organisms, such as multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. Like other cephalosporins, cefotaxime is effective in treating patients with complicated urinary tract and lower respiratory tract infections, particularly pneumonia caused by Gram-negative bacilli. High response rates have also been achieved in patients with Gram-negative bacteraemia. Although favourable clinical results have been obtained in patients with infections caused by mixed aerobic/anaerobic organisms (such as peritonitis or soft tissue infections), the relatively low in vitro activity of cefotaxime against Bacteroides fragilis may restrict its usage in situations where this organism is the suspected or proven pathogen. In preliminary studies, males and females treated with a single intramuscular dose of cefotaxime for uncomplicated gonorrhoea caused by penicillinase-producing strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae responded very favourably. Encouraging results have also been reported in open studies in children including neonates, treated with cefotaxime for meningitis and various other serious infections. In some situations, cefotaxime has been given in combination with another antibiotic such as an aminoglycoside, but the merits of such a combination have not been clearly established. Whether cefotaxime alone is appropriate therapy for conditions previously treated with aminoglycosides (other than pseudomonal infections) also needs additional clarification, but if established as equally effective in such conditions cefotaxime offers potentially important clinical and practical advantages in its apparent lack of serious adverse effects and freedom from the need to undertake drug plasma concentration monitoring.