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
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen and a model bacterium for studying virulence and bacterial social traits. While it can be isolated in low numbers from a wide variety of environments including soil and water, it can readily be found in almost any human/animal-impacted environment. It is a major cause of illness and death in humans with immunosuppressive and chronic conditions, and infections in these patients are difficult to treat due to a number of antibiotic resistance mechanisms and the organism’s propensity to form multicellular biofilms. One hundred twenty clinical samples and forty hospital environmental samples (various sources) were collected from hospitals in Baghdad city during the period from Oc
... Show MoreMammary tumors (CMT) in dogs in Iraq may be induced by carcinogenic war ordnance. In our study, 10 virgin un- spayed military/pet bitches aged 5-15 years presented with abnormal masses in the abdomen with painful oedema, swelling, anorexia, weight loss, weakness and mild fever. Examination of regional lymph nodes and thoracic radiography confirmed metastasis. Tumors were excised and determined to be mostly adenocarcinomas involving multiple glands, solid in texture, 5-15 cm in size, mostly in the inguinal mammary glands at stage T3: >5 cm. Microscopy confirmed presence of adenocarcinoma in 8 dogs and solid carcinoma in 2 with half of tumors being grade III. Tumors had pleomorphic hyperchromatic cell nuclei in stroma, epithelial cells of duc
... Show MoreEvolutionary algorithms are better than heuristic algorithms at finding protein complexes in protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs). Many of these algorithms depend on their standard frameworks, which are based on topology. Further, many of these algorithms have been exclusively examined on networks with only reliable interaction data. The main objective of this paper is to extend the design of the canonical and topological-based evolutionary algorithms suggested in the literature to cope with noisy PPINs. The design of the evolutionary algorithm is extended based on the functional domain of the proteins rather than on the topological domain of the PPIN. The gene ontology annotation in each molecular function, biological proce
... Show MoreAbstract :H.pylori is an important cause of gastric duodenal disease, including gastric ulcers, Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT), and gastric carcinoma. biosensors are becoming the most extensively studied discipline because the easy, rapid, low-cost, highly sensitive, and highly selective biosensors contribute to advances in next-generation medicines such as individualized medicine and ultrasensitive point-of-care detection of markers for diseases. Five of ten patients diagnosed with H.pylori ranging in age from 15–85 participated in this research. who [gastritis, duodenitis, duodenal ulcer (DU), and peptic ulcer (PU)] Suspected H.pylori colonies w
... Show Morehe present work, among other previous studies done in our lab, aimed to highlight the histopathological effect of S. xylosus peptidoglycan in comparison to LPS of E. coli. Materials and methods: One hundred and fifty urine specimens were collected from urinary tract infection patients visiting Baghdad hospitals. The histopathological effects of S. xylosus S24 peptidoglycan was studied in the urinary tract of female mice by injecting 5 animal groups at the following concentrations: 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 µg/mL. Another 5 groups were injected with 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100 ng/mL of E. coli (serotype 0128:B12) LPS. Results: Ten isolates were confirmed to be Staphylococcus xylosus. Histopathological study showed different pathological
... Show MoreUrinary tract infection (UTI) is a considerable problem aecting the health of people each year. It is caused by various Gram-positive (G+ve) and Gram-negative (G-ve) pathogens. It is an important illness in the world aecting all age groups across their life span. Objectives: To identify the most common aerobic bacteria that cause UTIs and their antibiotic susceptibility and antimicrobial activity of plant extracts of the males' patients. Materials and methods: The study involved 35 midstream urine samples from the male students (University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq) with suspicious symptoms of UTI, during the period from January-March 2018. Each urine sample was cultured rst on Mannitol Salt Agar and MacConkey agar plates to dierentiate
... Show MoreThis study aims at detecting the differences in genotyping of coding region fusA gene in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii from Baghdad, Iraq. Collected two hundred clinical samples (50 samples from urine, 50 samples from wound, 50 samples from sputum and 50 samples from otitis infections). Laboratory diagnosis for bacterial isolates carried out by some biochemical tests and confirmed by using VITEK- 2 compact system. The results appeared that twenty isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii in all these samples. Genotyping study was performed of coding region fusA gene of the extracted genome of all bacterial isolates and used specific primers in achieved amplification process of this target gene. DNA sequencing of this gene and alig
... Show MoreIn this research the relation between skin resistances and standard penetration test of over consolidated
clay soils has been studied. The research includes doing boreholes at Babil governorate in Iraq to get
undisturbed samples and standard penetration test. Determination skin friction from direct shear test between
smooth concrete and soil was explored in laboratory for design purposes and correlated with standard
penetration test values. In many foundation design problems, the shear strength between soil and
foundation materials were estimated or correlated without any direct methods for measurement.
Twelve strain controlled direct shear tests were performed simulate the shear strength interaction
between smooth c