[Listeria monocytogenes meningitis. Description of a clinically significant case]

Meningitis caused by Listeria monocytogenes is a rare affection: it develops from close contagion as professional illness (veterinarians, butchers) or in newborns by infected mothers; in indirect way for ingestion of contaminated food in subjects at high risk: elderly, immunosuppressed patients, alcoholics, diabetics. Clinically it is not diversified from the other bacterial meningitises. In this paper we present a case of Listeria monocytogenes meningitis in an adult female, without a sure occasion of infection and in absence of the factors of typical risk.

[Risk factors and sensitivity to certain antibiotics in hospital urinary infections]

Urinary infections contracted in hospital are one of the most important health problems. The present paper looks at 549 hospitalised patients and 548 subjects referred to the laboratory for routine tests over a period of 6 months. The results showed a higher number of hospital infections in the Medicine Department and this number was directly proportional to certain risk factors such as the presence of a catheter at home, the greater age of patients and a poorer physical condition. The strains most frequently isolated were E. coli and Pseudomonas spp although percentages were different between out-patients and hospitalised patients. The infections in question might be reduced and, at least partially, controlled by means of stricter hygiene on the part of personnel and by a moderate use of vesical catheterism.

[Rheumatoid arthritis with cervical localization. Description of a case with neurological symptomatology and review of the literature]

A case of a patient with rheumatoid arthritis with a cranio-cervical junction involvement is presented. Medullary compression was present and was partially invalidating. Radiological and CT scan signs are explained and their relationship with a clinical symptomatology is discussed. The importance of radiological monitoring is emphasised in order to avoid dangerous neurological complications.