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
Botnet detection develops a challenging problem in numerous fields such as order, cybersecurity, law, finance, healthcare, and so on. The botnet signifies the group of co-operated Internet connected devices controlled by cyber criminals for starting co-ordinated attacks and applying various malicious events. While the botnet is seamlessly dynamic with developing counter-measures projected by both network and host-based detection techniques, the convention techniques are failed to attain sufficient safety to botnet threats. Thus, machine learning approaches are established for detecting and classifying botnets for cybersecurity. This article presents a novel dragonfly algorithm with multi-class support vector machines enabled botnet
... Show MoreSludge worm samples were collected from the Tigers River sediment during the period from November 2018 to June 2019 in Al Sarafiya District/ Baghdad- Iraq. Biometric morphological measurements focusing on the form of penis sheath and chaetal morphology were used for species identification, in addition to molecular analysis by amplification of conserved 18s rRNA encoding gene using ITS1 and ITS4 universal primers.According to the morphological measurement records, the results revealed the existence of Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Claparede 1862, L. claparedeianus Ratzel, 1868 and L. cervix Brinkhurst 1963. Other two groups of specimens, with short penis sheath, were identified by molecular technology as L
Adhesion (type 1 fimbriae) and host defense avoidance mechanisms (capsule or lipopolysaccharide) have been shown to be prevalent in Escherichia coli isolates associated with urinary tract infections. In this work, 50 uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) isolated from children with urinary tract infections were genotypically characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. We used two genes; fimH and kpsMTII, both of them previously identified in uropathogenic E.coli (UPEC) isolates. The PCR assay results identified fimH (90.0)% and kpsMTII (72.0)% isolates. In the present study, was also demonstrated that these genes may be included in both or one of them within a single isolate.
Beata thalassemia
Beta thalassemia syndrome by reduction or absence of B-globin chain synthesis. Without iron chelation therapy (ICT) the regular blood transfusion would increase the iron stores to several times. Endocrine glands are vulnerable to iron overload causing endocrine dysfunction. Iron deposition within the parathyroid gland causes hypoparathyroidism particularly after ten years of age. Pancreatic islets are very susceptible to oxidative damage due to iron overload; their high divalent metal expression makes them highly susceptible to iron-catalyzing oxidative stress. The pathogenicity of osteopathy in is multifactorial comprising environmental (diet and lifestyle), iatrogenic (medicines), genetic and acqui
... Show MoreSequence covering array (SCA) generation is an active research area in recent years. Unlike the sequence-less covering arrays (CA), the order of sequence varies in the test case generation process. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of the SCA strategies, earlier works reported that finding a minimal size of a test suite is considered as an NP-Hard problem. In addition, most of the existing strategies for SCA generation have a high order of complexity due to the generation of all combinatorial interactions by adopting one-test-at-a-time fashion. Reducing the complexity by adopting one-parameter- at-a-time for SCA generation is a challenging process. In addition, this reduction facilitates the supporting for a higher strength of
... Show MoreSequence covering array (SCA) generation is an active research area in recent years. Unlike the sequence-less covering arrays (CA), the order of sequence varies in the test case generation process. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of the SCA strategies, earlier works reported that finding a minimal size of a test suite is considered as an NP-Hard problem. In addition, most of the existing strategies for SCA generation have a high order of complexity due to the generation of all combinatorial interactions by adopting one-test-at-a-time fashion. Reducing the complexity by adopting one-parameter- at-a-time for SCA generation is a challenging process. In addition, this reduction facilitates the supporting for a higher strength of cove
... Show MoreThe manuscript should contain an abstract. The abstract should be self-contained and citation-free and should not exceed 200 words. The abstract should state the purpose, approach, results and conclusions of the work. The author should assume that the reader has some knowledge of the subject but has not read the paper. Thus, the abstract should be intelligible and complete in it-self (no numerical references); it should not cite figures, tables, or sections of the paper. The abstract should be written using third person instead of first perso The fast microwave assisted pyrolysis (FMWAP) of water hyacinth (WH) for biochar production is investigated. Taguchi’s method was used to optimize FMWAP parameters. The effects of microwave
... Show MorePurpose: To validate a UV-visible spectrophotometric technique for evaluating niclosamide (NIC) concentration in different media across various values of pH. Methods: NIC was investigated using a UV-visible spectrophotometer in acidic buffer solution (ABS) of pH 1.2, deionized water (DW), and phosphate buffer solution (PBS), pH 7.4. The characterization of NIC was done with differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The UV analysis was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, and robustness. Results: The DSC spectra showed a single endothermic peak at 228.43 °C (corresponding to the melting point of NIC), while XRD and FTIR analysis confirmed the identit
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