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
Background: Debonding and fracture of artificial teeth from denture bases are common clinical problem, bonding of artificial teeth to heat cure acrylic and high impact heat cure acrylic denture base materials with autoclave processing method is not well known. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of autoclave processing method on shear bond of artificial teeth to heat cure denture base material and high impact heat cure denture base material. Materials and methods: Heat polymerized (Vertex) and high impact acrylic (Vertex) acrylic resins were used. Teeth were processed to each of the denture base materials after the application of different surface treatments. The sample (which consist of artificial tooth attached to the dentur
... Show MoreObjective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have increased morbidity and mortality from premature cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD). Framingham risk score (FRS) is a simplified coronary prediction tool developed to enable clinicians to assess the risk of a cardiovascular event and to identify candidate patients for risk factors modifications worldwide. The predictive ability of the FRS varies between populations, ethnic groups, and socio-economic status. The aim of this study is to find if there is any correlation between the Framingham risk score and the inflammatory and biochemical parameters used to measure disease activity and functional ability in Iraqi patients with active RA.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways in which many cells and cellular elements play a role. The treatment guidelines recommend theuse of a second controller drug in addition to medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) rather than the use of high doses ICS alone in the treatment of moderate-severe persistent asthma. This study was conducted to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of three treatment regimens in Iraqi patients with moderate-severe persistent asthma.The study included three groups; each group included 15 patients. Patients were administered beclomethasone inhaler alone 1500-2000 μg/day, beclomethasone inhaler 750-1000 μg/day plus oral controlled release aminophylline tablets 450 mg/day or
... Show MoreA spectrophotometric- reverse flow injection analysis (rFIA) method has been proposed for the determination of Nitrazepam (NIT) in pure and pharmaceutical preparations. The method is based upon the coupling reaction of NIT with a new reagent O-Coumaric acid (OCA) in the presence of sodium periodate in an aqueous solution. The blue color product was measured at 632 nm. The variation (chemical and physical parameters) related with reverse flow system were estimated. The linearity was over the range 15 - 450 µg/mL of NIT with detection limits and limit of quantification of 3.425 and 11.417 µg mL-1 NIT,respectively. The sample throughput of 28 samples
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In this paper Alx Ga1-x As:H films have been prepared by using new deposition method based on combination of flash- thermal evaporation technique. The thickness of our samples was about 300nm. The Al concentration was altered within the 0 x 40.
The results of X- ray diffraction analysis (XRD) confirmed the amorphous structure of all AlXGa1-x As:H films with x 40 and annealing temperature (Ta)<200°C. the temperature dependence of the DC conductivity GDC with various Al content has been measured for AlXGa1-x As:H films.
We have found that the thermal activation energy Ea depends of Al content and Ta, thus the value of Ea were approximately equal to half the value of optical gap.
Objective: Per-implantitis is one of the implant treatment complications. Dentists have failed to restore damaged periodontium by using conventional therapies. Tissue engineering (stem cells, scaffold and growth factors) aims to reconstruct natural tissues. The paper aimed to isolate both periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) and use them in a co-culture method to create three-layered cell sheets for reconstructing natural periodontal ligament (PDL) tissue. Materials and methods: BMMSCs were isolated from rabbit tibia and femur, and PDLSC culture was established from the lower right incisor. The cells were co-cultured to induce BMMSC differentiation into PDL cells. Cell morphology, stem cel
... Show MoreThe current paper proposes a new estimator for the linear regression model parameters under Big Data circumstances. From the diversity of Big Data variables comes many challenges that can be interesting to the researchers who try their best to find new and novel methods to estimate the parameters of linear regression model. Data has been collected by Central Statistical Organization IRAQ, and the child labor in Iraq has been chosen as data. Child labor is the most vital phenomena that both society and education are suffering from and it affects the future of our next generation. Two methods have been selected to estimate the parameter
... Show More: zonal are included in phraseological units, form metaphorical names for a person, give him various emotional and evaluative characteristics. This article examines the topic of zoomorphic metaphors that characterize a person in the Russian and Arabic languages in the aspect of their comparative analysis, since the comparative analysis of the metaphorical meanings of animalisms is an important method for studying cultural linguistics, since zoomorphic metaphors are a reflection of culture in a language.