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
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This study aims to evaluate the biocompatibility of a novel filler material intended to improve the longevity of polymer systems used in prosthetics in respect of cytotoxicity and skin irritation. RTV50F silicone elastomer incorporated with various percentages of hexagonal boron nitride (H-BN) (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 1 wt%) have been tested. Silicone without H-BN was utilized as the control for comparison. The in vitro cytotoxicity test includes specimens (n=18) with 10 mm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness applied directly to the normal human fibroblast cell line (NHF) and incubated for 72 hours, then 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to determine the cell viability. The skin irritati
... Show MoreUntreated municipal solid waste (MSW) release onto land is prevalent in developing countries. To reduce the high levels of harmful components in polluted soils, a proper evaluation of heavy metal concentrations in Erbil's Kani Qrzhala dump between August 2021 and February 2022 is required. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of improper solid waste disposal on soil properties within a landfill by assessing the risks of contamination for eight heavy elements in two separate layers of the soil by using geoaccumulation index (I-geo) and pollution load index (PLI) supported. The ArcGIS software was employed to map the spatial distribution of heavy element pollution and potential ecological risks. The I-geo values in summe
... Show MoreInelastic longitudinal electron scattering form factors to 2+ and 4+ states in 65Cu nucleus has been calculated in the (2p3/2 1f 5/2 2p1/2) shell model space with the F5PVH effective interaction. The harmonic oscillator potential has been applied to calculate the wave functions of radial single-particle matrix elements. Two shell model codes, CP and NUSHELL are used to obtain results. The form factor of inelastic electron scattering to 1/21−, 1/22−, 3/22−, 3/23−, 5/21−, 5/22− and 7/2- states and finding the transition probabilities B (C2) (in units of e2 fm4) for these transitions and B (C4) (in units of e2 fm8) for the transition 7/2-, and comparing them with experimental data. Both the form factors and reduced transition pr
... Show MoreThis study aims to evaluate the performance of emergency departments according to international standards through studying the performance in some of Iraqi public hospitals, where the evaluation performance is considered one of the important topics that take a great deal of officials' attention, especially decision makers in health organizations.
The researcher has derived the research idea from the importance of work in emergency department in hospitals and to what it provides of medical services and quick and immediate nursing care that help in patients' lifesaving, and it is the mirror that reflects the real image for the hospital
... Show MoreThe purpose of this research is to highlight the nature of the relationship between the mental abilities of decision makers and strategic orientation . The intellectual capacity of decision-makers is the cornerstone for the implementation of all the tasks and duties of the Organization and constitutes the most important of its capabilities. As a result of the sharp changes in the environment in which it operates, this organization must accurately define its strategic directions to ensure its
survival and continuity. The problem of field research was to answer a fundamental question: Is the Iraqi director aware of how to employ mental abilities in strategic direc
... Show MoreIn the present study, the removal of zinc from synthetic waste water using emulsion liquid membrane extraction technique was investigated. Synthetic surfactant solution is used as the emulsifying agent. Diphenylthiocarbazon (ditizone) was used as the extracting agent dissolved in carbon tetrachloride as the organic solvent and sulfuric acid is used as the stripping agent. The parameters that influence the extraction percentage of Zn+2 were studied. These are the ratio of volume of organic solvent to volume of aqueous feed (0.5-4), ratio of volume of surfactant solution to volume of aqueous feed (0.2-1.6), pH of the aqueous feed solution (5-10), mixing intensity (100-1000) rpm, concentration of extracting agent (20-400) ppm, surfactant co
... Show MoreIn this study, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of Al2O3-water nanofluids for a range of the Reynolds number of 3000, 4500, 6000 and 7500 with a range of volume concentration of 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% are studied numerically. The test rig consists of cold liquid loop, hot liquid loop and the test section which is counter flow double pipe heat exchanger with 1m length. The inner tube is made of smooth copper with diameter of 15mm. The outer tube is made of smooth copper with diameter of 50mm. The hot liquid flows through the outer tube and the cold liquid (or nanofluid) flow through the inner tube. The boundary condition of this study is thermally insulated the outer wall with uniform velocity a
... Show MoreAbstract\
In this research, estimated the reliability of water system network in Baghdad was done. to assess its performance during a specific period. a fault tree through static and dynamic gates was belt and these gates represent logical relationships between the main events in the network and analyzed using dynamic Bayesian networks . As it has been applied Dynamic Bayesian networks estimate reliability by translating dynamic fault tree to Dynamic Bayesian networks and reliability of the system appreciated. As was the potential for the expense of each phase of the network for each gate . Because there are two parts to the Dynamic Bayesian networks and two part of gate (AND), which includes the three basic units of the
... Show MoreIn this study, the effect of pumping power on the conversion efficiency of nonlinear crystal (KTP) was investigated using laser pump-power technique. The results showed that the higher the pumping power values, the greater the conversion efficiency (η) and, as the crystal thickness increases within limitations, the energy conversion efficiency increases at delay time of (0.333 ns) and at room temperature. Efficiency of 80% at length of KTP crystal (L = 1.75 X 10-3 m) and Pin = 28MW, and also, compare the experimental results with numerical results by using MATLAB program.