Listeria-Associated Lymphadenitis: A Series of 11 Consecutive Cases and Review of the Literature

We studied 11 cases of culture-proven Listeria-associated lymphadenitis reported to the French National Reference Center for Listeria from 1994 to 2019 and 8 additional published cases. Listeria-associated lymphadenitis is rare, but it is associated with a mortality as high as for invasive listeriosis, and it is frequently diagnosed with concomitant neoplasia.

Restructuring Clinical Dental Specialty Examination: A Call for National Standard

This commentary encompassed present clinical dental specialty training and assessments in Malaysia. Specifically, no uniform examination and assessment are identified within the dental specialty training programmes provided by local dental schools. Candidates who underwent the same specialty programme might be trained and evaluated differently (depending on the institution). Despite the standard Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) guideline for dental specialty training programmes (initially published in 2019), the aforementioned standards were established as a national reference for present and future Malaysian dental specialty programmes with no indication of standardised national dental specialty programme assessments. As such, a national reference for dental specialty assessments under the guidance of dental and MQA authorities is urgently needed to ensure standard quality and competent graduates of the programmes.

Reliability of Morphological and PCR Methods for the Official Diagnosis of Aethina tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae): A European Inter-Laboratory Comparison

The Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida Murray, 1867) is an invasive scavenger of honeybees. Originally endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, it is regulated internationally in order to preserve the areas still free from this species. To ensure the reliability of official diagnoses in case of introduction, an inter-laboratory comparison was organised on the identification of A. tumida by morphology and real-time PCR. Twenty-two National Reference Laboratories in Europe participated in the study and analysed 12 samples with adult coleopterans and insect larvae. The performance of the laboratories was evaluated in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity was satisfactory for all the participants and both types of methods, thus fully meeting the diagnostic challenge of confirming all truly positive cases as positive. Two participants encountered specificity problems. For one, the anomaly was minor whereas, for the other, the issues concerned a larger number of results, especially real-time PCR, which probably were related to inexperience with this technique. The comparison demonstrated the reliability of official diagnosis, including the entire analytical process of A. tumida identification: from the first step of the analysis to the expression of opinions. The performed diagnostic tools, in parallel with field surveillance, are essential to managing A. tumida introduction.