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
Prostate cancer is the commonest male cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. Over many decades, prostate cancer detection represented a continuous challenge to urologists. Although all urologists and pathologists agree that tissue diagnosis is essential especially before commencing active surgical or radiation treatment, the best way to obtain the biopsy was always the big hurdle. The heterogenicity of the tumor pathology is very well seen in its radiological appearance. Ultrasound has been proven to be of limited sensitivity and specificity in detecting prostate cancer. However, it was the only available targeting technique for years and was used to guide biopsy needle passed transrectally or transperineally
... Show MoreGe-Au infrared photoconductive detection was prepared from germanium single crystal which were doped with different gold concentration using thermal evaporation. The spectral resonsivity (Rλ), spectral detectivity (D*) were determined as function of wavelength, also the resistance, conductivity in dark and with illumination to infrared radiation, the gain and relative photo response have been measured with different gold concentration. Remarkable improvements in the photoresponse gain were observed for the highest resistance specimen at the expense of spectral detectivity values.
To determine the relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and reproduction disorder (recurrent spontaneous abortion), twenty women patients who undergo spontaneous abortion during first trimester of pregnancy (20-38) years and have been investigated from 2015/12/1 -2016/3/1 and compared to fifteen healthy individuals. All subjects were carried out to measure anti-H. pylori IgA and anti- H. pylori IgG antibodies by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). There was significant elevation (p≤ 0.05) in concentration of anti- H. pylori IgG Abs (6.30± 0.99) compared to control group (4.48± 0.61) and IgA Abs (5.42 ± 0.90 U /ml) as compared to control group (3.92 ± 0.41 U/ml). The percentage of H. pylori IgG and IgA was 20% and 25
... Show MoreFive Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from the ability of chitinase production from the isolates were studied. Quantitative screening appeared that Saccharomyces cerevisiae S4 was the highest chitinase producer specific activity 1.9 unit/mg protein. The yeast was culture in liquid and solid state fermentation media (SSF). Different plant obstanases were used for (SSF) with the chitine, while liquid media contained chitine with the diffrented nitrogen source. The favorable condition for chitinase producers were incubated at 30 ºC at pH 6 and 1% colloidal chitine.
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or kala-azar is one of the worlds most neglected tropical diseases in mortality and fourth in morbidity, rK39 dipstick was used to diagnose the suspected infected patients as cheapest simple technique which can differentiate recent from chronic infection, for disease out-coming, naïve T-lymphocyte cells should be differentiated into pathogen-specific immunity responses, such as T-helper 1(Th-1) or (Th-2). HLA-G is a special protein defined as nonclassical HLA class I molecule can suppress the immune system through prevention of T-cell function by foul all T-cell mechanisms. So, this study aimed to detect and evaluate the level of sHLA-G in the sera of patients infected with VL. The results showed that there was
... Show MoreAims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the value and accuracy of longitudinal strain in detection of coronary artery disease compared to coronary angiography. Results: The left ventricular longitudinal strain-speckle tracking showed evidence of stenosis of left anterior descending artery, circumflex artery and right coronary artery in (86.1%), (76.4%), and (84.7%) respectively. For the stenosis in left anterior descending artery, the current study showed that the longitudinal strain was a good predictor for presence of significant stenosis with a sensitivity of (93.8%), specificity (75%) and accuracy (91.7%) compared with coronary angiography. For the stenosis in right coronary artery, the left ventricular longitudinal strain had
... Show MoreThis paper focus on study the variations of monthly tropospheric NO2 concentrations over three Iraqi cities Baghdad (33.3° N, 44.4° E), Basrah (30.56° N, 47.8° E) and Erbil (36.3° N, 44.06° E). Monthly NO2 retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard Aura satellite during the period from October 2004 to March 2013 have been used. The results show a high monthly and annual NO2 concentrations at Baghdad than Basra and Erbil may be attribute to high densely populations and a high economic activity. During the whole period, Baghdad, Basrah and Erbil were exhibited an average of NO2 (8.1±2.5), (3.7±1.3) and (3.3±1.7) in unit 1015 molecules
... Show MoreIn this study, simple, low cost, precise and speed spectrophotometric methods development for evaluation of sulfacetamide sodium are described. The primary approach contains conversion of sulfacetamide sodium to diazonium salt followed by a reaction with p-cresol as a reagent in the alkaline media. The colored product has an orange colour with absorbance at λmax 450 nm. At the concentration range of (5.0-100 µg.mL-1), the Beer̆ s Low is obeyed with correlation coefficient (R2= 0.9996), limit of detection as 0.2142 µg.mL-1, limit of quantification as 0.707 µg.mL-1 and molar absorptivity as 1488.249 L.mol-1.cm-1. The other approach, cloud point extraction w
... Show MoreBackground The application of nanotechnology to biomedical surfaces is explained by the ability of cells to interact with nanometric features. The aim of this study was to consider the role of nanoscale topographic modification of CPTi dental implant using chemical etching method for the purpose of improving osseointegration. Materials and methods: Commercial pure titanium rod was machined into 20 dental implants. Each implant was machined in diameter about 3mm, length of 8mm (5mm was threaded part and 3mm was flat part). Implants were prepared and divided into 2 groups according to the types of surface modification method used: 1st group (10 implant) remained without nano surface modification (control), 2nd group include (10 implant) etche
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