Objective: Ionizing radiation induces deleterious effects in the biological systems by producing free radicals. Grape Seed Extract (GSE) as a free radical scavenger could protect the body against the damages. Materials and Methods: In this study, 12 healthy male volunteers were divided into Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 and received 100, 300, 600 and 1000...

We evaluated the value of Aspergillus PCR as a tool for diagnosing invasive aspergillosis from whole-blood samples during antifungal therapy. In a 3-year study, 36 patients receiving antifungal therapy due to chest radiographic findings highly suggestive of fungal pneumonia were evaluated. The PCR results from whole-blood samples were compared to those obtained from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid...

Typically DNA used in PCR assays is usually extracted according to die phenol-chloroform method (1) or by an alternative 'saltingout' rapid purification (2). Moreover partially purified DNA obtained with rapid procedures have been reported to be suitable for PCR amplification (3). We describe here a more simple and efficient method to amplify DNA directly from whole blood samples without any pu...

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and 2 antibodies detection was performed in 457 dried whole blood spots samples (S&S 903). Q-Preven HIV 1+2 was the screening test used. The results were compared with the gold standard serum tests by ELISA (Cobas Core e Axsym HIV1/2 gO) and immunofluorescence was the definitive confirmatory test. The samples were obtained from the Hospital Nossa Senhora da C...

background & aim: ferulago angulata sub. carduchorum (locally name: chavir or chavil) is an important medicinal plant in iran. the powder of aerial parts of this plant contains variety of components with different therapeutical effects such as antioxidant activities (aoa). this study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation powder of aerial parts of this plant on t...

Quantitative determination of the small C3 breakdown product, C3d, was used to investigate complement activation in 45 plasma samples from 30 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The mean plasma C3e level in these samples (3.0 +/- 1.3 mg/100 ml) was significantly increased (P less than 0.001) as compared to patients with degenerative joint disease (0.9 +/- 0.4 mg/100 ml) and healthy blood d...

Nontreponemal antibody tests such as the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test are carried out on serum and widely used as screening tests for syphilis. The aim of the present study was to develop a screening test for syphilis making use of whole blood and VDRL liposomes. Antibody to human red blood cells was conjugated to VDRL liposomes and reacted with a diluted sample of patient w...

background toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic parasitic organism causing infection in many mammals, including immunosuppressed patients. toxoplasmosis as an opportunistic infection is highly prevalent among patients receiving a kidney transplant. objectives the purpose of this study was to identify and determine the prevalence of toxoplasma gondii in clinical samples collected from patients ...

Testing for cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA is increasingly being used for specimen types other than plasma or whole blood. However, few studies have investigated the performance of different nucleic acid extraction protocols in such specimens. In this study, CMV extraction using the Cell-free 1000 and Pathogen Complex 400 protocols on the QIAsymphony Sample Processing (SP) system were compared using...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the OraQuick HCV rapid antibody test from OraSure and the Multisure HCV antibody assay from MP Biomedicals. METHODS Five seropanels from patients, intravenous drug users and blood donors with and without HCV infection were used on the two rapid immunochromatographic tests. Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated. In addit...