Background: Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is gram-negative bacterium, which causes Legionnaires’ disease as well as Pontiac fever. Objective: To determine the frequency of Legionella pneumophila in pneumonic patients, to determine the clinical utility of diagnosing Legionella pneumonia by urinary antigen testing (LPUAT) in terms of sensitivity and specificity, to compares the results obtained from patients by urinary antigen test with q Real Time PCR (RT PCR) using serum samples and to determine the frequency of serogroup 1 and other serogroups of L. pneumophila. Methods: A total of 100 pneumonic patients (community acquired pneumonia) were enrolled in this study during a period between October 2016 to April 2017; 92 samples were collected from patients attended and admitted to Al-Imamein Al-Kadhimein Medical City and 8 samples from those in the (Center of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation) in the Medical City of Baghdad. All patients were under therapy with antibiotics. Serum and urine specimens were obtained from all patients; urine samples were processed for urinary antigen test (rapid test). Serum samples were collected and submitted to DNA extraction for detection of L. pneumophila mip gene by q RT PCR assay. Results: The percentage of L. pneumophila in two hospitals in Bagdad was 30%. Of these 26% was serogroup 1 detected by urinary antigen testing (UAT). In the other hand, 23% of samples were positive by q RT PCR based mip gene, of these 19 % were serogroup 1 and 4% were another serogroup. The sensitivity of UAT is high (P value < 0.001), which means statistically highly significance than q RT PCR. Conclusion: LPUAT is a rapid tool for early diagnosis of Legionella infection, which highlights the need of using this test in hospitals and health institutions and there is a high prevalence of L. pneumophila in Iraq that refer to the necessity of considering this microorganism point of view in future studies for detection and treatment in pneumonic patients. Keywords: L. pneumophila, mip gene, quantitative real time PCR, urinary antigen. Citation: Gauad SA, Abdulrahman TR, Muhamad AK, Jawad AA, Hassan JS. Clinical utility of urinary antigen test and molecular method for detection of Legionella pneumophila. Iraqi JMS. 2018; 16(2): 207-215. doi: 10.22578/IJMS.16.2.13
Pharmaceutical care is a patient-centered, outcomes oriented practice that requires the pharmacist to work in concert with the patient and the patient’s other healthcare providers to promote health, to prevent disease, and to assess, monitor, initiate, and modify medication use to assure that drug therapy regimens are safe and effective. In addition, the presence of clinical pharmacists has led to a higher quality of patient education and provision of complete detailed information for patients. In developed countries Pharm D has become the professional degree for practice of Pharmacy. The graduates will be enrolled in a pharmacy residency program; admission to the residency programs is available to Pharm D graduates of an accredit
... Show MoreBackground: Periodontal diseases (PD) are inflammatory conditions of the tissues supporting the teeth, most often gingivitis and periodontitis. Maxillary chronic rhinosinusitis (MCRS) is the inflammation of the maxillary sinuses which is last for at least 12 consecutive weeks duration. Aims of study: Distribution of periodontal diseases among patients with Maxillary chronic rhinosinusitis according to gender and age. Materials and methods: Males and females subjects (25-45 years), divided into two groups; 150 patients suffer from MCRS and 130 subjects without MCRS. Clinical periodontal parameters; Plaque Index (PL.I), Gingival Index (G.I), Probing Pocket Depth (PPD), Clinical Attachment Level (CAL) and Bleeding On Probing (BOP) recorded f
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Prescribing drugs to patients to treat ailments or reducing their morbidity may not be enough, even if the drugs were all indicated and in the right dose. Clinical pharmacists play a pivotal role in conducting information and instruction to patients and conveying feedback to treating physician when appropriate, and the final goal is in the interest of the patient. Identification and classification of drug related problems and discussing them with the health care providers. Prospective, interventional, clinical study for 180 hemodialysis patients, and was designed as two phases, an observational phase to identify drug related problems and classifying them according to the latest Pharmaceutical
... Show MoreOne of the most important problems confronts hospitals is the strains emergence of Enterococcus spp. with multiple resistance to antibiotics, which propel researchers to modify or produce new antibiotics or combination between two antibiotics so that to be more effective against Enterococcus . This study was aimed to susceptibility some of local Enterococcus spp. Isolates with of 21 antibiotic using disc diffusion method. The results showed absolute resistant 100% toward (Cephalexin , Gentamycin , Amikacin ,Erythromycin and Nalidixic acid), while showed a high sensitivity toward (Vancomycin and Impenem ) at percentage of 92.3% for each . Also highl
... Show MoreIn this research, the results of the Integral breadth method were used to analyze the X-ray lines to determine the crystallite size and lattice strain of the zirconium oxide nanoparticles and the value of the crystal size was equal to (8.2nm) and the lattice strain (0.001955), and then the results were compared with three other methods, which are the Scherer and Scherer dynamical diffraction theory and two formulas of the Scherer and Wilson method.the results were as followsScherer crystallite size(7.4nm)and lattice strain(0.011968),Schererdynamic method crystallite size(7.5 nm),Scherrer and Wilson methodcrystallite size( 8.5nm) and lattice strain( 0.001919).And using another formula for Schearer and Wilson methodwe obtain the size of the c
... Show MoreGenerally, radiologists analyse the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) by visual inspection to detect and identify the presence of tumour or abnormal tissue in brain MR images. The huge number of such MR images makes this visual interpretation process, not only laborious and expensive but often erroneous. Furthermore, the human eye and brain sensitivity to elucidate such images gets reduced with the increase of number of cases, especially when only some slices contain information of the affected area. Therefore, an automated system for the analysis and classification of MR images is mandatory. In this paper, we propose a new method for abnormality detection from T1-Weighted MRI of human head scans using three planes, including axial plane, co
... Show MoreBackground: Strangles is a highly contagious equine respiratory disease caused by Streptococcus equi subsp. equi. It is a globally significant pathogen and one of the most common infectious agents in horses. In Iraq, no sequencing data on this pathogen are available, and only two molecular studies have been published to date. This study provides preliminary insights into strain diversity and provides a foundation for future large-scale investigations. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the molecular characteristics, identify SeM gene alleles, and perform a phylogenetic analysis of S. equi isolates from horses in Baghdad, Iraq. Methods: We analyzed 59 Streptococcus spp. isolates previously obtained from equine clinical sample
... Show MoreMore than 450 distinct types of human papilloma virus recognized via recent molecular techniques. The low and high oncogenic risk-HPV genotypes have an association with a variety of benign and malignant tumors in the oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal localizations. This study aimed to determine the rate of DNA detection of HPV genotype 6/11 in non-oncologic nasopharyngeal and palatine tonsillar tissues from pediatric patients subjected to adeno-tonsillectomies. A total number of 64 tissue specimens enrolled; 44 non-oncologic nasopharyngeal and palatine hypertrophied tissue specimens from 22 pediatric patients sustained combined adeno-tonsillectomies and compared to 20 nasal trimmed tissues with unremarkable pathological changes (in
... Show MoreThe biological activities of some ternary nickel complexes with a Schiff base obtained from 4-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde and 2-aminophenol have been reported. The Schiff base ( HL1) acts as a primary ligand whereas, anthranilic acid ( HL2), 2-nitroaniline ( HL3), alanine ( HL4) and histidine ( HL5) act as secondary ligand or co-ligand. The anticancer activity of these compounds was studied against human colon carcinoma (HCT-116), human hepatocellular liver carcinoma (HEPG-2) and human breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines. As per the results, the compounds were active against the cell lines. The antioxidant activity of the same compounds was evaluated using DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) radical scavenging and compared with ascorbic aci
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Abstract : This research is concerned with studying the best type and method of irrigation as well as the best cultivated area to reduce the cost of producing dunums of wheat crop in Iraq , and was based on data taken from the Ministry of Planning / Central Statistical Organization About cost of wheat crop production for (12) Iraqi governorates except Kurdistan, Nineveh, Salah al-Din, Anbar) and the sample size (554) according to the cost survey carried out by the Ministry of Planning / Central Statistical Organization for 2017, The results of the research showed that there are significant statistical differences between production costs when using t
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