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
Green synthesis methods have emerged as favorable techniques for the synthesis of nano-oxides due to their simplicity, cost-effectiveness, eco-friendliness, and non-toxicity. In this study, Nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO-NPs) were synthesized using the aqueous extract of Laurus nobilis leaves as a natural capping agent. The synthesized NiO-NPs were employed as an adsorbent for the removal of Biebrich Scarlet (BS) dye from aqueous solution using adsorption technique. Comprehensive characterization of NiO-NPs was performed using various techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett and Teller (BET) analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Additionally, o
... Show MoreThe research started from the basic objective of tracking the reality of organizational excellence in educational organizations on the basis of practical application. The research in its methodology was based on the examination of organizational excellence in the way of evaluating institutional performance. Tikrit University was selected as a case study to study the reality of application to the dimensions of organizational excellence in it, The results of the analysis for ten periods during the year and month. For the accuracy of the test and its averages, it was preferable to use the T test to determine the significance of the results compared to the basic criteria.
The research found that there is an o
... Show MoreGrowth hormone deficiency is a condition that occurs when a limited volume of growth hormone is released by the pituitary gland since growth hormone deficiency causes growth delays, short stature, and overall physical development delays. symptoms differ based on the age at which they occur .Aim of this study Estimating the level of growth hormone serotonin ,IGF-1 and Chromogranin A before and after with treatment recombinant growth hormone and It is the first study in Iraq that sheds light on the relationship between Chromogranin and other variables ( somatostatin, IGF-1,GH) ,also the prediction of Chromogranin A as a newly biochemical marker in children with growth hormone deficiency. In this study, 30 samples were collected from children
... Show MoreRetainers have the potential to detrimentally impact periodontal health and contribute to tooth decay.
To investigate periodontal health and bacterial biofilm related to Poly-Ether-Ether-Ketone (PEEK) fixed retainers as compared to Dead-soft coaxial fixed retainer (DSC).
A two-arm parallel groups single-centre randomized c
The second half of the last century witnessed a great scientific revolution that was able to bring about wide changes in various fields, including the field of physical education, which plays a fundamental role in the process of change for the better, and which knocked all the doors of modern science in various aspects and from this perspective we see that students have different capabilities And interests and motives, which require providing a differentiated education, and this depends on the necessity of knowing each student and on the school’s ability to know appropriate strategies for teaching each student so there is no single way to teach so the research problem comes in experimenting with an educational method that works on
... Show MoreIn this research we study a variance component model, Which is the one of the most important models widely used in the analysis of the data, this model is one type of a multilevel models, and it is considered as linear models , there are three types of linear variance component models ,Fixed effect of linear variance component model, Random effect of linear variance component model and Mixed effect of linear variance component model . In this paper we will examine the model of mixed effect of linear variance component model with one –way random effect ,and the mixed model is a mixture of fixed effect and random effect in the same model, where it contains the parameter (μ) and treatment effect (τi ) which has
... 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 MoreA robust and sensitive analytical method is presented for the extraction and determination of six pharmaceuticals in freshwater sediments.
Recently, Image enhancement techniques can be represented as one of the most significant topics in the field of digital image processing. The basic problem in the enhancement method is how to remove noise or improve digital image details. In the current research a method for digital image de-noising and its detail sharpening/highlighted was proposed. The proposed approach uses fuzzy logic technique to process each pixel inside entire image, and then take the decision if it is noisy or need more processing for highlighting. This issue is performed by examining the degree of association with neighboring elements based on fuzzy algorithm. The proposed de-noising approach was evaluated by some standard images after corrupting them with impulse
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