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
Diesel engine oil was subjected to thermal oxidization (TO) for six periods of time (0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 96 h, and 120 h) and was subsequently characterized by terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The THz refractive index generally increased with oxidation time. The measurement method illustrated the potential of THz-TDS when a fixed setup with a single cuvette is used. A future miniaturized setup installed in an engine would be an example of a fixed setup. For the refractive index, there were highly significant differences among the oxidation times across most of the 0.3–1.7 THz range.
The absence of ecological perception in the local urbanization resulted in the lack of a clear conception of achieving sustainability in its simplest form in the urban reality and in the city of Baghdad in particular. The research assumes the possibility of achieving urban sustainability in Iraqi cities by applying the cities for the most effective methods to implemented ecological solutions and introducing appropriate urban planning tools and improve the living environment. The research focuses on the ability to define some aspects to achieve a sustainable local urban identity from global experiences. This was performed by proposing a scheduled theoretical framework, through which th
The sustainable environmental neighborhoods is sustainable development of neighborhoods that include considerations related to transport, density, urban forms, and environmental buildings and especially those related to social and functional integration, and civil society participation, This standard, which did not attract the attention of specialists in the 1990s, has today become a center of attention for all those interested in urbanism and sustainability. The problem of the research is the existence of urban problems in residential neighborhoods that lead to lack of sustainability in the city, and the research aims to explain the role and importance of environmental sustainability
BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori is an important gastrointestinal infective bacteria with many serious complications including gastric erosions and ulceration, duodenal ulcer, gastric carcinoma and MALT gastric lymphoma. The gastric biopsy is commonly performed in H. pylori-positive dyspeptic individuals, and many previous researchers studied the histopathological features of infected gastric biopsies however little previous studies focused on the histopathological findings in young population in comparison to the older one. AIM: To make a focus on the histopathological effects of H. pylori infection in young patients compared with the older one and predicts the need for endoscopy in this population, also to estimates the prevalence of
... Show MoreImage compression is a serious issue in computer storage and transmission, that simply makes efficient use of redundancy embedded within an image itself; in addition, it may exploit human vision or perception limitations to reduce the imperceivable information Polynomial coding is a modern image compression technique based on modelling concept to remove the spatial redundancy embedded within the image effectively that composed of two parts, the mathematical model and the residual. In this paper, two stages proposed technqies adopted, that starts by utilizing the lossy predictor model along with multiresolution base and thresholding techniques corresponding to first stage. Latter by incorporating the near lossless com
... Show MoreObjectives: This study aimed to evaluate the performance of staff nurses at primary health care centers in Baghdad city and to compare them with their demographic characteristics of age, gender and education.
Methodology: A descriptive design was carried out at Baghdad City’s primary health care centers from January 2nd 2019 to May 1st 2020. An instrument was developed for the purpose of the study. A non-probability, multi-stage purposive sample of (52) staff nurses was recruited from nurses working at primary health care centers in Baghdad City. The instrument is used to evaluate staff nurses’ performance which includes (62) items. These items are divided to (13) main domains related to evaluation of work quantity, work quality,
Results of the current study demonstratedthat out of eighty-three isolatesof Pseudomonas aeruginosa,only twenty-five isolateswere resistant to five different antibiotics (of different classes) that were consequentlyconsideredmultidrug resistant isolates.These isolates developed variable susceptibility toward Eucalyptuscamaldulensisleavesoil (ECO). GC-MS analysis of ECOrevealed that the aromatic oil eugenol is the major constituent.However, the most frequent MIC was 0.39 µg/ml, while the lowest frequent MIC was 3.125 µg/ml.Moreover, this oil at ½ MIC (0.195µg/ml) increased the gene expression of exoU. Itis concluded from the outcomes of the studythat ECOmay cause severe damagewhen used to treat infections caused by P. aeruginosa.
... Show MoreThe choice of gate dielectric materials is fundamental for organic field effect transistors (OFET), integrated circuits, and several electronic applications. The operation of the OFET depends on two essential parameters: the insulation between the semiconductor layer and the gate electrode and the capacitance of the insulator. In this work, the electrical behavior of a pentacene-based OFET with a top contact / bottom gate was studied. Organic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and inorganic hafnium oxide (HfO2) were chosen as gate dielectric materials to lower the operation voltage to achieve the next generation of electronic applications. In this study, the performance of the OFET was studied using monolayer and bilayer gate insulators. To mo
... Show More