Case report Jaewoong Lee1, Hyunjung Kim1, Hae Kyung Lee1, Yeon-Joon Park2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, 1Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital, Uijeongbu, 2Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Hae Kyung Lee, E-mail: hkl@catholic.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2020;23(3):155-158. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2020.23.3.5Received on 14 July 2020, Revised on 6 August 2020, Accepted on 6 August 2020, Published on 20 September 2020.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Probiotics are used to restore and maintain the healthy intestinal microflora. Although Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) is considered as a non-pathogenic yeast, administration of SC as a probiotic is associated with a rare cause of fungemia in immunocompromised patients with central venous catheter insertion. We encountered a case of SC fungemia in a premature infant who presented with respiratory distress syndrome and had undergone central venous catheterization. Keywords Central venous catheter, Fungemia, Premature birth , Probiotics, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Probiotics are live

Original article PDF Eun-Jee Oh, M.D., Jung-Do Jang, M.D., Yeon-Joon Park, M.D., Sun Moo Kim, M.D., Byung Kee Kim, M.D. Department of Clinical Pathology, College of Medicine, the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Yeon-Joon Park Ann Clin Microbiol 2000;3(1):36-42.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Background: An accurate and rapid method for species identification of coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) has been increasingly necessary for the clinical significance and planning the management of patients with staphylococcal infections. Recently, it has been reported that there is a highly conserved area on their 60KDa heat shock protein (HSP60) gene sequences between the interspecies of CNS and it can be amplified by a set of universal degenerate primer. This led us our attention to focus on whether the PCR-based RFLP method using Mse I restriction enzyme could be a useful tool for the species identification of CNS. Methods: In the present study, we

Case report PDF Seungok Lee, Jung-Joon Park, Eun-Jee Oh, Yeon-Joon Park, and Byung Kee Kim Department of Clinical Pathology, Kangnam St. Marys Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Yeon-Joon Park, E-mail: yjpk@cmc.cuk.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2002;5(1):59-61.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia in adults and an important agent in other infections, including meningitis, otitis media, and conjunctivitis, etc. The optochin susceptibility test is the most widely used method to discriminate S. pneumoniae from other streptococci. However, 0.8-1.5% of S. pneumoniae contain optochin resistant population. Recently, we experienced three cases of variants of S. pneumoniae with decreased susceptibility to optochin. Equivocal optochin disk test should be confirmed by bile solubility, agglutination test, or DNA probe test. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2002;5(1):59-61) Keywords Optochin, Decreased susceptibility, Streptococcus pneumoniae

Review article PDF Yeon-Joon Park Department of Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Yeon-Joon Park, E-mail: yjpk@catholic.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2009;12(2):57-61.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Aminoglycosides are one of the clinically relevant antibiotics. They kill bacteria by binding to bacterial 30S subunit of ribosome. Resistance to aminoglycosides occurs by three different mechanisms: 1. Production of an enzyme that modifies aminoglycosides, 2. Impaired entry of aminoglycoside into the cell by altering the OMP permeability, decreasing inner membrane transport, or active efflux, 3. The receptor protein on the 30S ribosomal subunit may be deleted or altered as a result of a mutation. By far, enzymatic modification has been the most important mechanism. In this review, the mechanisms of action and resistance, and the prevalence of resistance due to acquisition of enzymes are briefly described. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2009;12:57-61) Keywords Aminoglycoside

Case report PDF Jayoung Kim1, Yeon-Joon Park1, Soyoung Shin1, Yonggoo Kim1, Sun Hee Park2 Departments of 1Laboratory Medicine, 2Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Yeon-Joon Park, E-mail: yjpk@catholic.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2011;14(4):153-157. https://doi.org/10.5145/KJCM.2011.14.4.153Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Elizabethkingia meningoseptica (Chryseobacterium meningoseptica) is a ubiquitous Gram-negative bacillus in the natural and hospital environments. This microorganism causes neonatal meningitis but rarely causes infections in adults, with most adult cases occurring in severely immunocompromised patients. Since E. meningoseptica is inherently resistant to the usual empiric therapy aimed at Gram-negative bacilli and MIC breakpoints for resistance and susceptibility of E. meningoseptica have not been established by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, it is very difficult to select effective antibiotics for the treatment of E. meningoseptica infection. We report here three cases of E. meningoseptica isolates (two from blood and one from CSF)

Original article PDF Jayoung Kim1, Yeon-Joon Park1, Nam Yong Lee2, Chulhun L . Chang3, Miae Lee4, Jong Hee Shin5 Department of Laboratory Medicine, 1College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, 2Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, 3Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, 4Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, Seoul, 5Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea Corresponding to Yeon-Joon Park, E-mail: yjpk@catholic.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2012;15(4):117-124. https://doi.org/10.5145/KJCM.2012.15.4.117Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Background: We evaluated the performance of the AdvanSure MDR-TB GenoBlot Assay kit (AdvanSure MDR-TB, LG Life Science, Korea) to detect mutations related to rifampin (RFP)- and isoniazid (INH)-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in respiratory specimens.  Methods: From February 2010 to June 2010, a total of 542 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates were collected from pulmonary tuberculosis patients in six university hospitals across Korea. We analyzed the conventional drug susceptibility testing (DST) and compared the

Review article PDF Yeon-Joon Park1, Wonkeun Song2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, 1College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, 2Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, Korea Corresponding to Wonkeun Song, E-mail: swonkeun@hallym.or.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2013;16(3):111-119. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2013.16.3.111Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) have recently revised the susceptibility interpretive criteria of oxyimino-β-lactams and carbapenems for Enterobacteriaceae. According to the new criteria, susceptibility testing results are sufficient to detect extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) and carbapenemases; it is not necessary to perform ESBL or carbapenemase detection tests for therapeutic purposes. Thus, it has been recommended that these related tests be performed only for infection control. These changes in the susceptibility guidelines are supported by some clinical cases and the results of pharmacodynamic and animal studies. However, differences still exist between the breakpoints established by the