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AIMS (1) To determine incidence and reasons for transfer from maintenance haemodialysis (HD) to peritoneal dialysis (PD); (2) To compare mortality of HD patients transferred to PD with those who initiated and remained on PD. METHODS A 1:2 matched cohort of ANZDATA included patients dialyzing over 3 months dividing into 2 groups. Group A (HD to PD) was compared to group B (initiated and remained on PD) and matched PD group (Group C). We compared mortality by total time on dialysis regardless of modality. RESULTS Of 20 882 patients, there were 911 in group A. The transfer rate from HD to PD was 5%, 6.7% and 7.4% at 1,4 and 8 years, respectively. Median time before switching of patients in Group A was 5.9 (4.0-10.9) months. The commonest reported reason for transfer was patient preference (63.8%). Mortality was significantly worse in Group A if dialysis vintage was ≤6 months and from 12-24 months (P

We examined gonococci isolated in 2004, in East Java and Papua, Indonesia, to review the suitability of ciprofloxacin-based and other treatment regimens. Gonococci from the two provinces were tested in Sydney for susceptibility to penicillin, tetracycline, spectinomycin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, azithromycin and rifampicin. Of 163 gonococcal isolates from East Java (91) and Papua (72), 120 (74%) of gonococci, 62 (68%) and 58 (80%) from East Java and Papua, respectively, were penicillinase-producing gonococci and 162 displayed high-level tetracycline resistance. Eighty-seven isolates (53%) were ciprofloxacin resistant, 44 (48%) from East Java and 43 (60%) from Papua. All isolates were sensitive to cefixime/ceftriaxone, spectinomycin and azithromycin. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of gentamicin were in the range 0.05–8 mg/L. Sixty-nine gonococci (42%) showed combined resistance, to penicillin, tetracycline and quinolones. Quinolone resistance has now reached unacceptable levels, and their use for the treatment of gonorrhoea in Indonesia should be reconsidered.

Objectives: To describe the prevalence and characteristics of isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae grown from urine samples that produced negative results with nucleic acid amplification assays (NAA) targeting the cppB gene. Methods: An initial cluster of culture positive, but cppB gene based NAA negative, gonococcal infections was recognised. Urine samples and suspensions of gonococci isolated over 9 months in the Northern Territory of Australia were examined using cppB gene based and other non-cppB gene based NAA. The gonococcal isolates were phenotyped by determining the auxotype/serovar (A/S) class and genotyped by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Results: 14 (9.8%) of 143 gonococci isolated were of A/S class Pro–/Brpyut, indistinguishable on PFGE and negative in cppB gene based, but not other, NAA. Conclusions: This cluster represents a temporal and geographic expansion of a gonococcal subtype lacking the cppB gene with consequent loss of sensitivity of NAA dependent on amplification of this target. Gonococci lacking the cppB gene have in the past been more commonly associated with the PAU-/PCU- auxotype, a gonococcal subtype hitherto infrequently encountered in Australia. NAA based on the cppB gene as a target may produce false positive as well as false negative NAA. This suggests that unless there is continuing comparison with culture to show their utility, cppB gene based NAA should be regarded as suboptimal for use either as a diagnostic or supplemental assay for diagnosis of gonorrhoea, and NAA with alternative amplification targets should be substituted.

The commercial BD ProbeTec ET (BDPT) system for the detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis from clinical specimens was compared with our in-house LightCycler real-time PCR (LC-PCR) assays. Specimens initially positive by the BDPT system were retested by our LC-PCR assays. Our results for C. trachomatis testing indicate a 91.2% agreement when the results of 114 clinical specimens, initially positive by BDPT over a wide range of method-other-than-acceleration (MOTA) scores, were retested by our LC-PCR assay. The agreement between the two systems improved to 96% when only MOTA scores of30,000 were retested by the LC-PCR assay. The overall agreement between the two systems for Neisseria gonorrhoeae detection from 155 clinical specimens was only 77.4%, with agreement particularly low (24.1%) for MOTA scores ranging from 2,000 to 19,999. Repeat testing of specimens with the BDPT only closely correlated with that seen by others demonstrating that reproducibility of the BDPT system for specimens initially within the MOTA score range from 2,000 to 9,999 is problematic, especially for Neisseria gonorrhoeae testing. With our study, we proposed an algorithm for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae testing which involves screening with the BDPT system followed by selective use of our in-house LC-PCR assays.

Corrosion processes involve both oxidation and reduction reactions that proceed simultaneously at the metal surface. In aqueous environments dissolved oxygen and chloride ions often play dominant roles in metallic corrosion. Complexation of chloride ions with the metal itself can have a strong effect on both oxidation and reduction reactions at the metal surface. Oxygen, chloride and metal ions can also form surface complexes that can have a significant effect on corrosion processes; in addition, oxygen provides another reduction reaction to the overall corrosion process. Fe, Ni, and Fe-Ni alloys, common construction materials, undergo enhancement or inhibition of the metallic electrodissolution reaction by the presence of chloride ions. Some of this work by our laboratory had been presented at a previous ECS Hawaii meeting and will be reviewed at the present meeting in addition to further experimental results on chloride and hydrogen ion effects on the electrodissolution of Fe-5Ni, Fe-1Ni and Fe-0.5Ni alloys. Experimental

Anodic dissolution of an Fe−5Ni alloy in deoxygenated acidic chloride solutions of 1.0 M ionic strength has been studied. Steady state partial current densities of the iron and nickel components were obtained by atomic absorption spectrophotometry analysis of the solutions. Alloy and component electrodissolution rates show two anodic Tafel regions indicating simultaneous parallel reactions as reported previously for pure iron. Anodic Tafel slopes of 0.075 and 0.04V dec−1 were obtained in the lower (A) and higher (B) polarization regions, respectively. The kinetic results for the alloy are consistent with the Cl− accelerated mechanism in Region (A) and the Bockris or OH− accelerated mechanism in Region (B) for both iron and nickel components as proposed previously for pure iron.