Topic: biofilms- maybe why some bacteria not detectable when cultured
Dawn in VA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9693
posted
This is beginner's stuff I know. I haven't followed much of the biofilm research lately. I wanted to get a very layman's grasp of it. This is taken from Wikipedia: --------------------------
Biofilms and infectious diseases Biofilms have been found to be involved in a wide variety of microbial infections in the
body, by one estimate 80% of all infections.[9] Infectious processes in which biofilms have been implicated include common problems such as
[11], and less common but more lethal processes such as endocarditis, infections in cystic fibrosis, and infections of permanent indwelling devices such as joint prostheses and heart valves.[12][13]
It has recently been shown that biofilms are present on the removed tissue of 80% of patients undergoing surgery for chronic sinusitis. The
patients with biofilms were shown to have been denuded of cilia and goblet cells, unlike the controls without biofilms who had normal cilia
and goblet cell morphology.[14] Biofilms were also found on samples from two of 10 healthy controls mentioned.
***The species of bacteria from interoperative cultures did not correspond to the bacteria species in the biofilm on the respective patient's tissue. In other words, the cultures were negative though the bacteria were present.***
New staining techniques are being developed to differentiate bacterial cells growing in living animals, e.g. from tissues with allergy-inflammations .[
-------------------- (The ole disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.) Posts: 1349 | From VA | Registered: Jul 2006
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kelmo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8797
posted
I agree that it may contribute to false negatives.
When I had my first blood smear done with Fry, it was clean. Due to symptoms, my LLMD put me on zithromax for six months.
After six months, I had another smear done. Bingo! Hemobartonellosis.
He thinks that the zith punched holes in the biofilm, which was keeping the bacteria clining to the vessel walls. Now, they were released back into the blood stream.
Posts: 2903 | From AZ | Registered: Feb 2006
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