We previously reported that the prevalence of oral thrush among Maasai women of reproductive age in Ngorongoro Conservation Area was abnormally high (32%) in the absence of immune-compromising diseases such as HIV. This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that Maasai women of reproductive age are prone to oral thrush because they are deficient in micronutrients such as Vitamins A, C, D,...

Legipid(®) Legionella Fast Detection is a test based on combined magnetic immunocapture and enzyme-immunoassay (CEIA) for the detection of Legionella in water. The test is based on the use of anti-Legionella antibodies immobilized on magnetic microspheres. Target microorganism is preconcentrated by filtration. Immunomagnetic analysis is applied on these preconcentrated water samples in a final ...

Iron is ubiquitous in natural water sources used around the world for drinking and cooking. The health impact of chronic exposure to iron through water, which in groundwater sources can reach well above the World Health Organization's defined aesthetic limit of 0.3 mg/L, is not currently understood. To quantify the impact of consumption of iron in groundwater on nutritional status, it is import...

OBJECTIVES To compare the performance of the BacT/ALERT PZA kit (BioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) with the radiometric BACTEC 460TB PZA test (Becton-Dickinson method) for testing Mycobacterium tuberculosis susceptibility to pyrazinamide. METHODS A total of 50 M. tuberculosis strains were tested. Thirty of these strains had been previously considered pyrazinamide-susceptible and 20 pyrazina...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to compare superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica parasites. MATERIALS F. gigantica and F. hepatica helminths were collected from abattoir and cultured in buffer media for 4 h at 37 °C. Excretory-Secretory (ES) products were collected, centrifuged and stored at -20(°)C. E-S protein concentration was measured by Brad...

PURPOSE To correlate morphologic changes with molecular, biochemical, and cytogenetic profiles in gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients before and after imatinib treatment. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We investigated 132 tumor samples obtained from 35 patients with advanced disease who underwent resective surgery after imatinib treatment according to the European Organization for Research an...

PURPOSE The Western Blot test is considered a gold standard test for the confirmation of an ELISA and/or rapid assay screened reactive sample in the diagnosis of HIV infection, especially in the low risk population. In this study, an indigenously developed HIV W. Blot kit (J.Mitra & Co., New Delhi, India) was compared for its performance characteristics with a widely used Western Blot kit, HIV ...

Stem cell factor (SCF) binding to the c-kit receptor triggers homodimerization and intermolecular tyrosine phosphorylation of the c-kit receptor, thus initiating signal transduction. Receptor dimerization is a critical early step in this process. Prior biochemical studies of c-kit receptor dimerization have mainly used affinity cross-linking techniques, which are beset with problems including l...

We evaluated the performance of four visually read pregnancy tests (TestPack Plus hCG Combo, ICON II hCG, SureCell hCG-Serum/Urine and PregnaGen 1-Step) designed to detect increased concentrations of choriogonadotropin (hCG) in either serum or urine samples. The biochemical sensitivities and specificity in both serum and urine samples were similar for each kit. All kits correctly identified pre...

OBJECTIVE To compare results of 3 commercial heartworm antigen test kits performed on serum samples from dogs infected with low numbers of adult female heartworms. DESIGN Blinded laboratory evaluation. Sample Population-Serum samples from dogs (n = 208) proven at necropsy to be infected with 1 to 4 adult female heartworms and from dogs (32) without heartworms. PROCEDURE Samples were sequent...