The frequency and severity of streptococcal infections and their sequelae have declined dramatically in the past century, yet the prevalence of streptococcal infections is still high. The reasons for this decline must be intimately related to host resistance, virulence of the agent, and environmental factors, especially crowding. Close examination of these fundamental influences does not reveal...

This study showed that streptococcal L forms could not be isolated from children who were either carriers of group A streptococci or had disease due to this pathogen. It was possible to induce L colony formation in 15 strains of group A. Streptococcal bacteriophages were demonstrated in 20% of group A streptococci isolated from school children who were carriers, but did not have clinical eviden...

Non-rheumatic Streptococcal Acute Myocarditis, also known as Strep Pharyngitis Acute Myocarditis (SPAM) occurs in young adults, typically within five days of the initial streptococcal pharyngitis, and is characterized by typical cardiac symptoms, abnormal electrocardiography, and elevated cardiac biomarkers in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease. Patients may also report myalgias...

1479 In the late 1980s, studies of children with Sydenham chorea (SC), the neurological manifestation of rheumatic fever, suggested that the disorder might serve as a useful model of pathophysiology for some forms of childhood-onset obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD) and tic disorders. The disorders share anatomic similarities. Both OCD and SC have evidence of basal ganglia dysfunction, particu...

Previous studies have shown that antisera raised in rabbits to certain enteric bacteria (cross-reactive bacteria) are capable of specifically lysing in a 51chromium-release lymphocytotoxicity test the lymphocytes of HLA-B27-positive (B27+) patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). This study investigated the clinical relevance of this finding by ascertaining whether Escherichia coli isolated f...

The number of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria was determined in the saliva of 20 children with acute group A beta-haemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) pharyngo-tonsillitis, and 20 with acute non-GABHS tonsillitis. Antibody titres to four Gram-negative anaerobic bacilli that reside in the oropharynx (Fusobacterium nucleatum, Prevotella intermedia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and Actinobacillus actinomy...

BACKGROUND Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease with possible contributions from bacterial antigens. We aimed to investigate the role of oral bacteria as inducers of inflammatory cascades in smooth muscle cells from carotid endarterectomy patients (AthSMCs) and healthy controls (HSMCs). FINDINGS Inactivated Streptococcus mitis, S. sanguinis, S. gorgonii, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcom...

BACKGROUND There has not been a comprehensive, multi-centre study of streptococcal peritonitis in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) to date. METHODS The predictors, treatment and clinical outcomes of streptococcal peritonitis were examined by binary logistic regression and multilevel, multivariate poisson regression in all Australian PD patients involving 66 centres between 2003 and 2006. ...

A 761-bp portion of the tuf gene (encoding the elongation factor Tu) from 28 clinically relevant streptococcal species was obtained by sequencing amplicons generated using broad-range PCR primers. These tuf sequences were used to select Streptococcus-specific PCR primers and to perform phylogenetic analysis. The specificity of the PCR assay was verified using 102 different bacterial species, in...