The key role of diagnostic tests in clinical microbiology is the accurate and timely detection of an etiologic agent(s) causing infection to enable clinicians to provide the most effective therapy in an early stage. Unfortunately, the ideal test for Legionella spp. does not exist. Although diagnostic methods have improved during the 30 years since L. pneumophila was first described, no currentl...

Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) poses an important diagnostic problem. Clinical picture of the disease is often atypical. SPECT is one of the main diagnostic tools in ischemic heart disease. Radioisotope study evaluates distribution of a radiopharmaceutical agent in the heart through a series of scintigraphic images taken by an external gamma camera. This article discusses the technical aspects of...

This review discusses rational design of particles for use as therapeutic vectors and diagnostic imaging agent carriers. The emerging importance of both particle size and shape is considered, and the adaptation and modification of soft lithography methods to produce nanoparticles are highlighted. To this end, studies utilizing particles made via a process called Particle Replication In Non-wett...

Despite over a decade of intensive investigation, non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) remains an etiologic, diagnostic, and therapeutic dilemma. At issue are the nature of the causative agent, the clinical significance of the disease and the methods for detection, interven­ tion and prevention. This brief review will focus on only selected aspects of this dilemma and concentrate primarily on the kno...

background: application of dose-area product (dap) quantity has been increased in the clinical practice. dap is relatively easy to measure. dap has been shown to correlate well with the total energy imparted to the patient, which is related to the effective dose. material and methods: in this study, measurements of dap were carried out in a sample of 421 adult patients who underwent conventiona...

background and objectives non-traumatic acute abdominal pain is one of the most common complaints in patients referred to emergency department. to make diagnosis decision several diagnostic tests such as wbc count, urine analysis, and abdominal sonography are usually ordered which disturb emergency department, staff and force significant cost to patient and are time consuming. this study was do...

This paper presents an Ontology-based Holonic Diagnostic System (OHDS) that combines the advantages of the holonic paradigm with multi-agent system technology and ontology design, in order to realize a highly reliable, adaptive, scalable, flexible, and robust diagnostic system for diseases. We propose to use ontologies as brain for the holonic diagnostic system to enhance its ability to structu...

An illness consisting of vomiting, fever, and mild diarrhoea after a short incubation period was observed in a boarding school and reproduced in volunteers who received filtered extracts of faeces from a typical case. The main discriminatory diagnostic feature of the illness in volunteers was vomiting. The faeces contained no pathogenic bacteria nor any virus that could be detected in tissue cu...

Summarizing all the specific features of the simulation systems needed for agent-based systems, the paper documents that the simulation tools of this kind do represent rather complex development environment for agent-based systems than one-purpose simulation software obvious in the case of “classical” centralized systems. The agent-oriented simulation tools explore and combine methods of real-t...

background since iran is one of the malaria endemic areas, diagnosis of this disease is important. although the microscopic study of stained peripheral blood smears is as a gold standard of malaria diagnosis, this method requires a microscope, the equipment, and trained people. because of some problems associated with microscopic method in some situations, rapid diagnostic test (rdts) can be a ...