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
In modern era, which requires the use of networks in the transmission of data across distances, the transport or storage of such data is required to be safe. The protection methods are developed to ensure data security. New schemes are proposed that merge crypto graphical principles with other systems to enhance information security. Chaos maps are one of interesting systems which are merged with cryptography for better encryption performance. Biometrics is considered an effective element in many access security systems. In this paper, two systems which are fingerprint biometrics and chaos logistic map are combined in the encryption of a text message to produce strong cipher that can withstand many types of attacks. The histogram analysis o
... Show MoreThis study was conducted to investigate the presence of Staphylococcus aureus in the red and white meat available in local markets. They were selected ten samples of red and white meat randomly (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Brazil) from different markets in Baghdad, and the results of reading the nutrition facts of media indication card showed that all models confirm to the Iraqi standard quality in terms of scanning all data of the media indication card, except for the birds of Bayader, where the date of expire & production date of the product was not mentioned. Also, the results of the study showed that there is no Staphylococcus aureus in local red and white meat as well as imported.
To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of emicizumab compared to recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) in Iraqi patients with hemophilia A and inhibitors.
A retrospective cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted on 46 male patients with hemophilia A and inhibitors treated at a public children’s hospital in Baghdad. Data collection was conducted between November 2024 and March 2025. Clinical and economic data were retrospectively collected for a 12-m
This study was conducted on Lake Hamrin situated in Diyala governorate, focal Iraq, between latitudes 44º 53ʹ 26.16 '- 45º 07 ʹ 28.03ʺ and 34º 04ʹ 24.75ʺ ــ 34º 19ʹ 12.74ʺ . As in this study, the surface area of Hamrin Lake was calculated from satellite images during the period from October 2019 to September 2020, with an average satellite image for each month, furthermore,by utilizing the Normalized Differences Water Index (NDWI), the largest surface area was 264,617 km2 for October and the lowest surface area 140.202 km2 for September. The surface temperature of the lake water was also calculated from satellite images of the Landsat 8 satellite, based on ban
... Show MoreA new, simple and sensitive method was used forevaluation of propranolol withphosphotungstic acidto prove the efficiency, reliability and repeatability of the long distance chasing photometer (NAG-ADF-300-2) using continuous flow injection analysis. The method is based on reaction between propranolol and phosphotungstic acid in an aqueous medium to obtain a yellow precipitate. Optimum parameters was studied to increase the sensitivity for developed method. A linear range for calibration graph was 0.007-13 mmol/L for cell A and 5-15 mmol/L for cell B, and LOD 207.4792 ng/160 µL and 1.2449 µg/160 µL respectively to cell A and cell B with correlation coefficient (r) 0.9988 for cell A, 0.9996 for cell B, RSD% was lower than 1%, (n=8) for the
... Show MoreEchocardiography is a widely used imaging technique to examine various cardiac functions, especially to detect the left ventricular wall motion abnormality. Unfortunately the quality of echocardiograph images and complexities of underlying motion captured, makes it difficult for an in-experienced physicians/ radiologist to describe the motion abnormalities in a crisp way, leading to possible errors in diagnosis. In this study, we present a method to analyze left ventricular wall motion, by using optical flow to estimate velocities of the left ventricular wall segments and find relation between these segments motion. The proposed method will be able to present real clinical help to verify the left ventricular wall motion diagnosis.