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
Image pattern classification is considered a significant step for image and video processing.Although various image pattern algorithms have been proposed so far that achieved adequate classification,achieving higher accuracy while reducing the computation time remains challenging to date. A robust imagepattern classification method is essential to obtain the desired accuracy. This method can be accuratelyclassify image blocks into plain, edge, and texture (PET) using an efficient feature extraction mechanism.Moreover, to date, most of the existing studies are focused on evaluating their methods based on specificorthogonal moments, which limits the understanding of their potential application to various DiscreteOrthogonal Moments (DOMs). The
... Show MoreCredit card fraud has become an increasing problem due to the growing reliance on electronic payment systems and technological advances that have improved fraud techniques. Numerous financial institutions are looking for the best ways to leverage technological advancements to provide better services to their end users, and researchers used various protection methods to provide security and privacy for credit cards. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the challenges and the proposed solutions to address them. This review provides an overview of the most recent research on the detection of fraudulent credit card transactions to protect those transactions from tampering or improper use, which includes imbalance classes, c
... Show MoreImage pattern classification is considered a significant step for image and video processing. Although various image pattern algorithms have been proposed so far that achieved adequate classification, achieving higher accuracy while reducing the computation time remains challenging to date. A robust image pattern classification method is essential to obtain the desired accuracy. This method can be accurately classify image blocks into plain, edge, and texture (PET) using an efficient feature extraction mechanism. Moreover, to date, most of the existing studies are focused on evaluating their methods based on specific orthogonal moments, which limits the understanding of their potential application to various Discrete Orthogonal Moments (DOM
... Show MoreThis research is considered one of the important researches in Maysan Governorate, as it focuses on the construction of helicopter airport project in the oil fields of the Maysan Oil Company, where the oil general companies in Maysan Governorate suffer from the cost of transporting the foreign engineering experts and the governing equipment of sustaining oil industry from Iraq's international airports to oil fields and vice versa. Private international transport companies transport foreign engineering from the oil fields to Iraqi airports and vice versa, and other international security companies take action to provide protection for foreign engineering experts during transportation. Hence, this process is very costly.
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... Show MoreAir pollution is one of the important problems facing Iraq. Air pollution is the result of uncontrolled emissions from factories, car exhaust electric generators, and oil refineries and often reaches unacceptable limits by international standards. These pollutants can greatly affect human health and regular population activities. For this reason, there is an urgent need for effective devices to monitor the molecular concentration of air pollutants in cities and urban areas. In this research, an optical system has been built consisting of aHelium-Neonlaser,5mWand at 632.8 nm, a glass cell with a defined size, and a power meter(Gentec-E-model: uno) where a scattering of the laser beam occurs due to air pollution. Two pollutants were examin
... Show MoreBackground: A carefully planned clinical medical education is critical for the provision of supportive clinical educational environment. The latter will ensure effective teaching, active learning and good attitudes and performance at the bedside. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical learning environment at AL-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital. Materials and Methods: A descripitive cross-sectional study involved resident doctors from Internal Medicine and Surgery departments who had six months or more residency training in the respective departments. Data were collected using the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure. Data where analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0 and presented us
... Show MoreBackground: Parvovirus B19 is a human pathogenic virus associated with a wide range of clinical conditions. During pregnancy congenital infection with parvovirus B19 can be associated with poor outcome, including miscarriage, fetal anemia and non-immune hydrops.
Objective: The study aimed to determine the prevalenceof Parvovirus B19 DNA in pregnant women attending the Military hospital in Khartoum, demonstrating the association between the virus and poor pregnancy outcomes.
Subjects and methods: This study was a cross sectional study, testing pregnant Sudanese women whole blood samples (n= 97) for the presence of Parvovirus B1
... Show MoreBackground: One of the most predominant periodontal diseases is the plaque induced gingivitis. For the past 20 years, super-oxidized solutions have be..