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: Non-host-adapted Salmonella serovar Typhimurium is a facultative intracellular bacterium, which invades and multiplies within mononuclear phagocytes in liver, spleen, lymph nodes and Peyer’s plaques. Salmonella infection is a crucial medical and veterinary problem globally. S. Typhimurium causes various clinical symptoms, from asymptomatic infection to typhoid-like syndromes in infants or highly susceptible animals, for instance mice. Objective: The present study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of anthrax protective antigen (PA)as a potent adjuvant mixed with killed Salmonella Typhimurium (S.T.) to enhance the immunization capacity of the last. Materials and Methods: Two groups of mice were immunized with either th
... Show MorePeroxidase is a class of oxidation-reduction reaction enzyme that is useful for accelerating many oxidative reactions that protect cells from the harmful effects of free radicals. Peroxidase is found in many common sources like plants, animals and microbes and have extensive uses in numerous industries such as industrial, medical and food processing. In this study, P. aeruginosa was harvested to utilize and study its peroxidases. P. aeruginosa was isolated from a burn patient, and the isolate was verified as P. aeruginosa using staining techniques, biochemical assay, morphological, and a sensitivity test. The gram stain and biochemical test result show rod pink gram-ne
... Show MoreThe cellular and molecular toxicity effect of Aloe Vera crude extract on meristem cells of onion (Allium cepa) roots were studied . Different concentrations of this crude extract 20% ,10% ,5% ,2% ( and 40%) were used at different periods ; 24 ,48 and 72 hour . Number of chromosomal aberrations and the mitotic index was calculated . In addition, the genetic effects were observed by using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA ( RAPD ) technique . The results showed that the gel crud extract of Aloe vera had inhibition effects on the growth of the onion roots with 10% EC50 value. Significant effects of this gel crud extract were also observed on the chromosomal a
... Show MoreFrom different hospitals in Baghdad city, 25 clinical isolates of Proteus spp. were collected from different clinical samples, all isolates were identified as Proteus mirabilis by using bacteriological and biochemical assays in addition to Vitek-2 identification system. 15 (60%) isolates were identifying as Proteus mirabilis. The susceptibility of P. mirabilis isolates towards cefotaxime and ceftazidime was (66.6 %), (20%) consecutively; while extended spectrum β-lactamases producing P. mirabilis percentage was (30.7 %). Because blaVEB-1 was documented as an important indicator for increasing risk of extended spectrum beta ßlactamases producing P. mirabilis isolates that began to spread from many geographic area to Far east which inc
... Show MoreThirteen isolates were collected from various clinical sources during the periodfrom 22/10/2017 to 22/12/2017. All the isolates were diagnosed based on the microscopic and biochemical propertiesby Vitek-2 Compact system. All isolates formed biofilm 100%, with 30% of isolatesbiofilm produced strongly and 70% on medium. The results of the present study have shown the presence of Curli fimbriae genes in E. cloacae bacteria from cases of urinary tract infections, infected patient with blood bacteremia and inflammation of wounds. Curli fimbriae is considered to be an important factor in the virulence of E.cloacae bacteria, which plays an important role in adhering and combining cells on solid surfaces to form the biofilmand helps in the adhesion
... Show MoreMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the most important diagnostic tool. There are many methods to segment the
tumor of human brain. One of these, the conventional method that uses pure image processing techniques that are not preferred because they need human interaction for accurate segmentation. But unsupervised methods do not require any human interference and can segment the brain with high precision. In this project, the unsupervised classification methods have been used in order to detect the tumor disease from MRI images. These metho
... Show MoreRegression testing being expensive, requires optimization notion. Typically, the optimization of test cases results in selecting a reduced set or subset of test cases or prioritizing the test cases to detect potential faults at an earlier phase. Many former studies revealed the heuristic-dependent mechanism to attain optimality while reducing or prioritizing test cases. Nevertheless, those studies were deprived of systematic procedures to manage tied test cases issue. Moreover, evolutionary algorithms such as the genetic process often help in depleting test cases, together with a concurrent decrease in computational runtime. However, when examining the fault detection capacity along with other parameters, is required, the method falls sh
... Show MoreTest anxiety for intermediate level The current study aims to measure the test anxiety of research’s sample and to identify the statistical differences of test anxiety, considering two variables gender and students classes level (first and third intermediate class). To do this, a stratified random sampling of (300) student from first and third intermediate classes had selected from both the karkh and Rusafa sides of Baghdad province for the academic year 2015-2016. The author tested the whole sample by using the test anxiety scale that had tested for its validity and reliability. The results revealed that the research’s sample as a whole was suffering from test anxiety, there were a statistical differences between male and female tha
... Show MoreObjectives: To identify the frequency and types of microsatellite instability among a group of sporadic CRC patients and to correlate the findings with clinicopathological characteristics. Methods: During an 8-month period, all patients with sporadic CRC who attended to two teaching hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq were recruited to this cross-sectional study regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, or tumor characteristics. Demographic, clinical, and histopathological features were recorded. DNA was extracted from FFPE-blocks of the resected tumors and normal tissues. PCR amplification of five microsatellite mononucleotide repeat loci (BAT25, BAT26, NR-21, NR-24, and MONO-27) and 2 pentanucleotide repeat control markers (Penta C and Pent
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