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
A simple, fast, inexpensive and sensitive method has been proposed to screen and optimize experimental factors that effecting the determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE.HCl) in pure and pharmaceutical formulations. The method is based on the development of brown-colored charge transfer (CT) complex with p-Bromanil (p-Br) in an alkaline medium (pH=9) with 1.07 min after heating at 80 °C. ‘Design of Experiments’ (DOE) employing ‘Central Composite Face Centered Design’ (CCF) and ‘Response Surface Methodology’ (RSM) were applied as an improvement to traditional ‘One Variable at Time’ (OVAT) approach to evaluate the effects of variations in selected factors (volume of 5×10-3 M p-Br, heating time, and temperature) on
... Show MoreThe aim of research is to identify the effect of using Waks strategy upon acquiring the psychological concepts and mind habits for students in the college of education. An experimental design with a partial adjustment of two experimental and control groups as well as a posttest were employed. The researcher divided the study sample into two groups: group one consisted of (38) students to represent the experimental group that was taught according to the waks strategy, and group two consisted of (35) students to represent the control group that was taught according to the traditional method. The sample was chosen based on some variables namely (Intelligence, Prior knowledge). The researcher has designed the research tools as th
... Show MoreThe dose rate for bremsstrahlung radiation from beta particles with energy (1.710) MeV and (2.28) MeV which comes from (32P and 90Y) beta source respectively have been calculated through six materials (polyethylene, wood, aluminum, iron, tungsten and lead) for first shielding material with thickness (x=1) mm which are putting between beta sources and second shield (polyethylene, aluminum and lead) with thickness (1, 2 &4) mm have been calculated. The distance between beta source and second shield is constant (D=1) cm. This dose rate was found by program called Rad Pro Calculator (version 3.26). The results of dose rate of beta particles were plotted as a function to the atomic number (Z) for first shield materials for each
... Show MoreSAPO-11 is synthesized from silicoaluminophosphate in the presence of di-n-propylamine as a template. The results show that the sample obtained has good crystallinity, 396m2/g BET surface area, and 0.35 cm3/g pore volume. The hydroisomerization activity of (0.25)Pt (1)Zr (0.5)W/SAPO-11 catalyst was determined using n-decane and base oil. All hydroisomerization experiments of n-decane were achieved at a fixed bed plug flow reactor at a temperature range of 200-275°C and LHSV 0.5-2h-1. The results show that the n-decane conversion increases with increasing temperature and decreasing LHSV, the maximum conversion of 66.7 % was achieved at temperature 275°C and LHSV of 0.5 h-1. Meanwhile, the same catalyst was used to improve base oil spec
... Show MoreSAPO-11 is synthesized from silicoaluminophosphate in the presence of di-n-propylamine as a template. The results show that the sample obtained has good crystallinity, 396m2/g BET surface area, and 0.35 cm3/g pore volume. The hydroisomerization activity of (0.25)Pt (1)Zr (0.5)W/SAPO-11 catalyst was determined using n-decane and base oil. All hydroisomerization experiments of n-decane were achieved at a fixed bed plug flow reactor at a temperature range of 200-275°C and LHSV 0.5-2h-1. The results show that the n-decane conversion increases with increasing temperature and decreasing LHSV, the maximum conversion of 66.7 % was achieved at temperature 275°C and LHSV of 0.5 h-1
... Show MoreThe present study investigates the characterization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized using Fusarium solani and their impact on tomato seed germination, plant growth, and disease resistance. A visible color change from yellow to dark smoky indicated the formation of AgNPs, while UV-visible spectrophotometry revealed an absorbance peak at 437 nm, confirming their presence. Atomic force microscopy analysis showed that the AgNPs ranged from 0 to 39.27 nm in size, with an average height of 5.772 nm, while scanning electron microscopy highlighted their diverse surface morphology. The application of AgNPs and mycorrhizal fungi significantly improved tomato seed germination rates, plant height, and dry weight compared to untreate
... Show MorePrecise forecasting of pore pressures is crucial for efficiently planning and drilling oil and gas wells. It reduces expenses and saves time while preventing drilling complications. Since direct measurement of pore pressure in wellbores is costly and time-intensive, the ability to estimate it using empirical or machine learning models is beneficial. The present study aims to predict pore pressure using artificial neural network. The building and testing of artificial neural network are based on the data from five oil fields and several formations. The artificial neural network model is built using a measured dataset consisting of 77 data points of Pore pressure obtained from the modular formation dynamics tester. The input variables
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