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
This paper investigated in the numerical simulation model to calculate the Earth magnetic field components at north provinces of Najaf city (Longitude 44.316 o -44.3592o E and Latitude 32.0508o - 32.0256o N). The components of the Earth magnetic field (total intensity (F), horizontal intensity (H), declination (D), inclination (I), the north component(X), the east component(Y), and Down component(Z)) were found by using spherical harmonic world magnetic model (WMM2010). A great deal of anomaly has been discovered in all components of the Earth magnetic field at the selected region (Long. 44.345o-44.335o E, Lat.32.042o-32.032o N) using Kriging method.
... Show MoreThe sacred totem is one of the social phenomena that occupied the ideas of researchers, and took up a wide area of their research, and it is one of those phenomena that emerged from one of the translations of the Tabu; Who took a psychological and anthropological analysis Because it is one of the social practices, and the main focus of it is the human group and its source is religion. Therefore, this research came with demands, the first of which is to give a semantic concept of the Tommy sanctuary, and then the analytical aspect by standing on the sacred things in the Qur’anic text that God Almighty sanctified, and the third requirement is to examine what people have sanctified, as an analysis of the verses that have
... Show MoreWater provision is sensitive to climate change, and agricultural production and food supply are sensitive to water availability. Water scarcity affects food security and agricultural economic development through changes in agricultural production and changes in the composition of produced goods. Recent droughts also led to a decrease in the volume of water allocated to agriculture, which led to a decrease in total agricultural production and exports, and this has subsequent impacts on food security and economic development. The research aimed to measure the impact of water scarcity on agricultural economic development for the period 1990-2022. The research included three behavioral equations with three endogenous variables: the cult
... Show MoreThis research aims to identify the productive relationship nature among the elements used in the agricultural companies by estimating the translog cost function. It also aims to recognize the possibility of substituting these elements with each other, to identify the nature of revenues, and economies scale through elasticity of other cost. This research goes further to define the typical use of resources, identify the performance of the companies and their contribution in controlling their cost, and estimating elasticity of substitution (Allen-Uzawa), (Morishima). The translog cost function was estimated so as the total cost of the agricultural companies is a function of the prices of production and production quantity output el
... Show MoreIn this paper, the effect of wear in the fluid film journal bearings on the dynamic behavior of rotor bearing system has been studied depending on the analytical driven of dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of worn journal bearing. The finite element method was used to modeling rotor bearing system. The unbalance response, critical speed and natural frequency of rotor bearing system have been studied to determine the changes in these parameters due to wear. MATLAB software was used to find the analytical values of dynamic coefficients of journal bearing. The results of rotor mounted on fluid film journal bearings showed that the wear in journal bearing increases the amplitude of unbalance response and decrease critical speed, sta
... Show MoreAneurysms of the cortical branches of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) are rare. They usually are secondary to traumatic or infectious etiologies and are rarely idiopathic. The specific characteristics of idiopathic aneurysms in such location are not well defined in the literature. The authors report a rare case of a ruptured giant idiopathic cortical MCA aneurysm with review of the available literature on this clinical entity.
A 24-year-old female presented with headache, disturbed level of consciousness, and right-sided weakness. Imaging studies showed a left frontoparietal intracer
In this work an approach has been developed to investigate the influence of surface roughness on thermohydrodynamic performance in aligned and misaligned journal bearings by considering an average flow model and deriving the shear flow factor for various roughness configurations, similar to the pressure flow factor. An average Reynolds equation for rough surfaces is defined in term of pressure and shear flow factors, which can be obtained by numerical flow simulation, though the use of measured or numerically generated rough surfaces. Reynolds, heat conduction and energy equations are solved simultaneously by using a suitable numerical technique (Finite Difference Method) to obtain the pressure and temperature di
... Show MoreLipid disorders and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk are known to be increased in patients with diabetes mellitus. The effects of statins on serum lipid levels are well known; however, previous studies did not compare the effects of statins on serum lipid levels in diabetic patients with non-diabetic patients. To investigate the effects of Atorvastatin on serum lipid profiles in hyperlipidemic patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in comparison with hyperlipidemic patients without diabetes.This study was conducted on 33 type 2 diabetic patients & 34 non-diabetic patients; their age range was 40-80 years, all of them were hyperlipidemic, who had been administered 10, 20, & 40 mg daily of Atorvastatin and completed a 6-month foll
... Show MoreFabrication of porous clay refractory insulating specimens from Iraqi kaolin with different percentage of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) waste crumbs additions were investigated. After mixing and forming by hand molding, the specimens was dried and fired at 1300 oC. The structural, physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the refractory insulating products were measured. Maximum addition of EPS (1.25 wt%) lead to reduce the linear shrinkage to less than 1.7% and increased apparent porosity up to 50 %. As well as, the density, Modulus of rupture and thermal conductivity were reduced to 1.39 g/cm3, 4.1 MPa and 0.21 W/m.K, respectively. The final outcome, addition of EPS showed good results in the formation of pores without distorting the
... Show MoreLeukemia or cancer of the blood is the most common childhood cancer, Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), is the most common form of leukemia that occurs in children. It is characterized by the presence of too many immature white blood cells in the child’s blood and bone marrow, Acute lymphoblastic leukemia can occur in adults too, treatment is different for children. Children with ALL develop symptoms related to infiltration of blasts in the bone marrow, lymphoid system, and extramedullary sites, such as the central nervous system (CNS). Common constitutional indications consist of fatigue (50%), pallor (25%), fever (60%), and weight loss (26%). Infiltration of blast cells in the marrow cavity and periosteum often lead to bone
... Show More