From January 1989 to December 1998, 212 permanent pacemakers were implanted by our clinic (146 new implants and 66 replacements). Pacemaker infection was recognized in 5 cases. The overall incidence ...of infection was 2.3%, and its rate in new implants and in replacement implants was 1.4 and 4.5% respectively. Early infection (within 3 months) was identified in 2 cases. Staphylococcus aureus was present in three cases. One patient had the system removed and a new unit implanted. One patient underwent explantation of the generator. Three patients received intravenous antibiotics with relocation of the generators or local irrigation, but two of them required the removal of the system.
Seventy-seven rabies virus (RV) isolates originating from Brazilian cattle were genetically characterized. Partial nucleoprotein gene sequences of these isolates were phylogenetically and ...geographically analyzed. Cattle isolates, which clustered with the vampire bat-related RV group, were further subdivided into nine genetic subgroups. These subgroups were distributed widely in lowland regions, with some subgroups separated from each other by mountain ranges. In addition, separation of the groups in mountainous regions was correlated with altitude. These results indicate that cattle rabies is derived from several regionally-defined variants, which suggests that its geographical distribution is related to that of the vampire bat population.
A molecular epidemiological analysis was performed in 19 rabies viruses (RVs) isolated from haematophagous, frugivorous and insectivorous bats, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The authors carried out RT-PCR ...for amplification of the RV nucleoprotein (N) gene, and determined 1,335 nucleotide sequences of N gene by direct sequencing method. Phylogenetic analysis, which was based on the N gene of Brazilian RV isolates identified presently and previously, revealed that RVs isolated from bats were genetically divided into four lineages had a tendency to depend on the host bat species. The first lineage consisted mainly of haematophagous bat (Desmodus rotundus) isolates, including frugivorous bat (Artibeus spp.) isolates. Other three lineages consisted of insectivorous bat isolates; mainly Eptesicus spp., Molossus spp. and Nyctinomops spp. isolates, respectively. These results indicate a possibility of that there are bat species-specific sp RV variants in Brazil.
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