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This study describes the prevalence, clinical manifestations and microbiological characteristics of attaching and effacing Escherichia coli isolates, i.e., enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) belonging to the classical EPEC serotypes, non-EPEC attaching and effacing E. coli (A/EEC) and verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC), isolated in a case-control study of Danish children aged <5 years. Among 424 children with diarrhoea and 866 healthy controls, EPEC and VTEC were more prevalent in cases (2.4% and 2.6%, respectively) than in controls (0.7% and 0.7%, respectively). There was a high frequency of A/EEC isolates (n = 121), but these were equally prevalent in cases (11.3%) and controls (12.5%), and comprised a heterogeneous distribution of O:H serotypes. The intimin (eae) subtypes in A/EEC isolates showed an even distribution; the eae-gamma subtype predominated in classical EPEC cases. The virulence genes encoding the bundle-forming pilus (bfpA) and enteroaggregative heat-stable enterotoxin (astA) were rare among all isolates, and seemed to be of limited pathogenic importance in this population. Virulence characterisation of A/EEC isolates did not reveal any significant differences between cases and controls. Colonisation of children with A/EEC was associated with contact with sheep or goats (OR 2.2). The role of A/EEC, not being VTEC or belonging to the classical EPEC serotypes, requires further clarification, but serotyping is useful in discriminating between EPEC and A/EEC strains.

In order to monitor the distribution of subtypes of Campylobacter and to identify clusters, 975 isolates of Campylobacter spp., obtained from human infections occurring in two Danish counties, were studied during a 1-year period. The isolates were characterised by Penner serotyping and automated ribotyping. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiling was used to confirm clustering of identical serotypes and ribotypes. The 975 isolates were divided into 48 serotypes, 210 ribotypes and 277 serotype-ribotype combinations. The overall distribution of serotypes and ribotypes was similar between the two counties. After taking into account the rare or common occurrence of subtypes, a model identified 43 clusters of subtypes during the study period. Clustered isolates represented 28% (273/975) of the study population, with clusters containing between three and 20 isolates. PFGE confirmed the validity of selected clusters identified by serotyping and ribotyping. The observed clustering of Campylobacter isolates, with identical types in time and place, indicates that common-source outbreaks of campylobacteriosis are more common than is usually thought.

This report concerns a prolonged restaurant-associated outbreak of infection caused by a multidrug-resistant (ASSuT) strain of Salmonella Typhimurium, phage-type U302, which took place during July and August 2003 and affected people from Denmark and neighbouring countries who had attended a specific restaurant. The outbreak comprised 67 laboratory-verified cases and ten probable cases; however, the actual number of patients was estimated to be more than 390. The outbreak strain was isolated from a buffet which was probably contaminated by an assistant chef who was found to excrete the epidemic strain. An attack rate of 7.3% was estimated and long incubation periods were observed, including one extreme instance of 27 days. This outbreak underscores the importance of conscientious personal hygiene, including frequent washing of hands, for professionals handling food.

Thirteen patients with myocardial infarction were investigated with two-dimensional echocardiography because of the appearance of signs of cardio-circulatory failure associated with a systolic murmur during the first 15 days following the infarct. The precise diagnosis was obtained by surgical or autopsy examination in 11 cases and by haemodynamic investigations in 2 cases. These mechanical complications were: 8 septal ruptures and 5 cases of acute mitral incompetence, due to papillary rupture in 2 cases and to papillary dysfunction in 3 cases. The 8 cases of septal rupture, complicating 6 cases of anterior infarct and 2 cases of diaphragmatic infarct, were diagnosed by 2-D echocardiography, which revealed 3 apical perforations (one of which was only visible via a sub-costal approach), 3 superior perforations or lacerations, 2 inferior perforations in the middle or the base of the septum; all visible in an apical view of the 4 cavities. The injection of ultrasonic contrast in 4 patients demonstrated negative lavage, which confirmed the diagnosis, in one case, even before the perforation could be visualised. The 2 cases of ruptured papillary muscles were visualised directly on the 2-D echocardiography. However, only one of the three cases of papillary muscle dysfunction was diagnosed by echocardiography. 2-D echocardiography has an important place in the investigation of complicated myocardial infarction, not only as a means of diagnosing ruptures of the septum or papillary muscles, but also to evaluate the deterioration in left ventricular contractile function, which enabled surgical repair without left haemodynamic investigations, in two cases.

This study, based on 39 cases, confirms the value of two-dimensional echocardiography in the diagnosis of right ventricular infarction during the acute phase. This diagnosis is confirmed by the presence of abnormalities of the segmental kinetics always present in the inferior wall and less frequently in the anterior wall. The inferior part of the septum is affected in two thirds of cases. Right ventricular dilation is frequently observed, but is not constant. Two-dimensional echocardiography has a diagnostic sensitivity similar to that of isotope ventriculography, but greater than that of haemodynamic investigations. Finally, apart from the easy demonstration of complications (tricuspid incompetence, septal rupture, intracardiac thrombosis), two dimensional echocardiography can be used to evaluate right ventricular function.

Two cases of sudden death are reported in patients with mitral valve prolapse with mitral insufficiency. Both had significant impairment of left ventricular function. Irreversible ventricular fibrillation occurred in one patient one-half hour preceding a catheterization, whereas the other patient died during sleep. Review of the literature revealed 42 cases of sudden death in patients with prolapse. Occasionally left ventricular dysfunction or medication overdosage can explain or favor development of the terminal arrhythmia, but usually no precipitating factor other than prolapse can be identified. It appears impossible to identify actual subgroups at risk, although sudden death does occur more frequently in patients with a large amount of prolapse of both valves, previous syncopal episodes, and ECG abnormalities at rest. Complex ventricular arrhythmias are also reported, but their predictive importance is difficult to evaluate. Sudden death is a rare complication of mitral prolapse, fact which should conservatively influence indications for further supplementary testing and treatment in these patients.

The system release of prazosin confirms the good efficacy and tolerance of Alpress in the hypertension treatment. Prazosin has favorable effects on some risk factors, and it therefore seem interesting to conduct a study in a pannel of hypertensive patients, to emphasize the quality of Alpress response, based on these criteria. This experiment demonstrated the efficacy and tolerance levels of Alpress as well as its favorable effect on cholesterol.

In order to study the etiologies and mechanisms in sports-related sudden death, the author selected 198 cases from the world literature which met the following criteria: subjects were less than 40 years of age and in good physical condition, death occurred at the latest 1 hour after the physical activity, there was no known heart disease, and an autopsy had been performed. In spite of the heterogeneous character of those subjects included in this study and numerous biases, the following results were obtained: in some cases, the mechanism underlying the sudden death could be confirmed by autopsy (massive myocardial infarction, rupture of the aorta, cerebral hemorrhage), and in others it appeared highly probable (atheromatous or congenital coronary artery lesions, hypertrophic cardiomyopathies). Finally, in a certain number of cases, the observed abnormalities could only be seen as presumptive evidence (mitral prolapse, sequelae of myocarditis, or the presence of toxic agents). Failure to establish a precise diagnosis at autopsy occurred in only 22 cases (11%), however, amphetamine drug presence was discovered in 7 of these cases. Approximately one-half of the group studied revealed atheromatous coronary artery lesions (29% of cases) or congenital lesions (17.5%) especially involving the origin of the left coronary artery. These were followed in frequency by the hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. Mitral valve prolapse and WPW syndrome were rarely encountered. Extracardiac causes included rupture of the aorta (4.5%) and cerebral vascular accidents (5%).

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a recently defined subgroup of primary hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Ten new cases are studied. The electrical features (anomalies of repolarisation) were constant and giant negative T waves were observed in 3 out of 10 cases. Two-dimensional ultrasonography confirmed the diagnosis in every case; the optimal views consisted of 4 cavity scans obtained by the apical approach. When angiography was performed (7 cases out of 10), it confirmed the ultrasonographic findings and was able to eliminate any coronary artery lesions. The patients had a mean age of 48.3 years with a marked male predominance (sex ratio of 0.8) and all of the patients are alive with a mean follow-up of 3.4 years. The functional handicap was moderate (class III: 1 case, class II: 5 cases and class I: 4 cases) and did not progress during the period of follow-up. The family surveys performed revealed that apical hypertrophy can be integrated into the spectrum of segmental hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In two cases, this survey revealed the coexistence in the same family of segmental hypertrophy with different topography. The long term prognosis of this disease is unknown and the authors consider that the risk of ventricular arrhythmia justifies routine rhythmological evaluation in order to guide subsequent treatment.