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
The aims of the present study are to evaluate the levels of CA19-9 in sera and tissues' homogenate of breast and thyroid benign patients in order to assess its use as an early diagnostic parameter in differentiation between malignant and benign cases. The study was conducted on 8 patients with breast benign tumor and 8 patients with thyroid benign tumor, by the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. The results of CA19-9 levels in sera were (15 ±1.58 and 10.67 ±2.08)U/ml respectively compared with serum CA19-9 levels of control group which was 7.74 ±4.92 U/ml, the results were found to be highly significantly in breast tumor patients and non significantly in thyroid
... Show MoreTo determine the important pathogenic role of celiac disease in triggering several autoimmune disease, thirty patients with Multiple Sclerosis of ages (22-55) years have been investigated and compared with 25 healthy individuals. All the studied groups were carried out to measure anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies IgA IgG by ELISA test, anti-reticulin antibodies IgA and IgG, and anti-endomysial antibodies IgA and IgG by IFAT. There was a significant elevation in the concentration of anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies IgA and IgG compared to control groups (P≤0.05), there was 4(13.33%) positive results for anti-reticulin antibodies IgA and IgG , 3(10%) positive results for anti-endomysial antibodies IgA and IgG . There were 4 pos
... Show MoreTo determine the important pathogenic role of celiac disease in triggering several
autoimmune disease, thirty patients with Multiple Sclerosis of ages (22-55) years
have been investigated and compared with 25 healthy individuals. All the studied
groups were carried out to measure anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies IgA IgG
by ELISA test, anti-reticulin antibodies IgA and IgG, and anti-endomysial
antibodies IgA and IgG by IFAT. There was a significant elevation in the
concentration of anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies IgA and IgG compared to
control groups (P≤0.05), there was 4(13.33%) positive results for anti-reticulin
antibodies IgA and IgG , 3(10%) positive results for anti-endomysial antibodies
Leishmaniasis is a widespread parasitic disease that occurs as a result of infection with a unicellular parasite belonging to the genus Leishmania. Diagnosis by conventional methods is inaccurate and is not sensitive to confirm the genus infection. Here, we have investigated a methods for Leishmania genus diagnosis, which includes the technique of polymerase chain reaction to detect the presence of the parasite at in vitro for promastigote cultures using three genus-specific primer pairs to amplify HSP70, ITS, and ITS2. The results showed single band of ~1422, ~1020, and ~550 respectively. This study has proved the ability of these primer pairs to detect Leishmania infection and recommend them to be used for detection of leishmaniasis in
... Show MoreThis paper present a simple and sensitive method for the determination of DL-Histidine using FIA-Chemiluminometric measurement resulted from oxidation of luminol molecule by hydrogen peroxide in alkaline medium in the presence of DL-Histidine. Using 70?l. sample linear plot with a coefficient of determination 95.79% for (5-60) mmol.L-1 while for a quadratic relation C.O.D = 96.44% for (5-80) mmol.L-1 and found that guadratic plot in more representative. Limit of detection was 31.93 ?g DL-Histidine (S/N = 3), repeatability of measurement was less that 5% (n=6). Positive and negative ion interferances was removed by using minicolume containing ion exchange resin located after injection valve position.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa has variety of virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenicity. Therefore, rapid detection with high accuracy and specificity is very important in the control of this pathogenic bacterium. To evaluate the accuracy and specificity of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay, ETA and gyrB genes were targeted to detect pathogenic strains of P. aeruginosa. Seventy swab samples were taken from patients with infected wounds and burns in two hospitals in Erbil and Koya cities in Iraq. The isolates were traditionally identified using phenotypic methods, and DNA was extracted from the positive samples, to apply PCR using the species specific primers targeting ETA, the gene encoding for exotoxin A, and gyrB gene. The res
... Show MoreOne hundred specimens (urine and sputum) were collected in sterilized containers from patients attending two hospitals in Baghdad province including: Educational Al-Karama Hospital and Educational Al-Yarmouk Hospital, in which, thirty-eight K. pneumoniae isolate were obtained out of one hundred specimens, all of which are of urine origin. The results obtained in this study showed that Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were highly resistant to Augmentine (94.7%), also Klebsiella isolates were resistant to Ceftriaxone (86.8%), Cefotaxime (81.5%), and Ceftazidime (65.7%). Very low level of resistance was found toward Imipenem and Meropenem (18.4% and 5.2%) respectively. Only four isolates (10.52 %) were positive for wzy gene; K19, K20, K21, an
... Show MoreIn accordance with epidemic COVID-19, the elevated infection rates, disinfectant overuse and antibiotic misuse what led to immune suppression in most of the population in addition to genotypic and phenotypic alterations in the microorganisms, so a great need to reevaluate the genetic determinants that responsible for bacterial community (biofilm) has been raised. A total of 250 clinical specimens were obtained from patients in Baghdad hospitals and streaked on Mannitol salt agar medium. The results revealed that 156 isolates appeared as round yellow colonies, indicating that they were mostly identified as Staphylococcus aureus from 250 specimens. The antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates for methicillin 37.17% (n=58), Amoxic
... Show MoreBackground:SARS-CoV-2 infection has caused a global pandemic that continues to negatively impact human health. A large group of microbial domains including bacteria co-evolved and interacted in complex molecular pathogenesis along with SARS-CoV-2. Evidence suggests that periodontal disease bacteria are involved in COVID-19, and are associated with chronic inflammatory systemic diseases. This study was performed to investigate the association between bacterial loads of Porphyromonas gingivalis and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fifty patients with confirmed COVID-19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, their age ranges between 20-76 years, and 35 healthy volunteers (matched accordingly with age and sex to th
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