BACKGROUND We know little about when and why general practitioners (GPs) submit stool specimens in patients with diarrhoea. The recent UK-wide intestinal infectious disease (IID2) study found ten GP consultations for every case reported to national surveillance. We aimed to explore what factors influence GP's decisions to send stool specimens for laboratory investigation, and what guidance, if ...

Reported efficacies of drugs used to treat Strongyloides stercoralis infection vary widely. Because diagnostic methods are insensitive, therapeutic trials generally require multiple negative posttreatment stool specimens as evidence of drug efficacy. However, only a single positive stool specimen is usually required for study enrollment. To determine the reproducibility of detection of S. sterc...

BACKGROUND Strongyloides stercoralis, the chief causative agent of human strongyloidiasis, is a nematode globally distributed but mainly endemic in tropical and subtropical regions. Chronic infection is often clinically asymptomatic but it can result in severe hyperinfection syndrome or disseminated strongyloidiasis in immunocompromised patients. There is a great diversity of techniques used in...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Data on normal stool form and frequency, which are important for defining constipation, are scanty; hence, we studied these in an eastern Indian population. METHODS One thousand and two hundred apparently healthy asymptomatic subjects were evaluated for predominant stool form (Bristol chart with descriptor) and frequency. Data on demographic and life-style (diet and physical a...

aim : to evaluate the diagnostic value of helicobacter pylori stool antigen test before and after eradication background : there are different methods for diagnosis and follow up of helicobacter pylori infection, including invasive methods done with endoscopy and non invasive ones such as ubt and urine analysis antibody. one of non invasive new methods is analysis of helicobacter pylori stool a...

Data are presented on faecal water losses in 93 preterm infants being fed breast milk (72 infant days) or formula (280 days). Losses per kg increased to 4 weeks, when they amounted to 11% of water requirement in infants fed breast milk and 8% in infants fed formula.

Materials and methods: Stool samples from diarrheic patients admitted to Dokuz Eylül University Medical Faculty were collected on a specifi c day of the week. Stool samples sent to our laboratory from patients aff ected by a diarrhea epidemic in İzmir were also included in the study. A total of 162 stool samples were examined by microscopic and molecular methods, and the validity of the molecul...

A previous recommendation suggests that stool be cultured for mycobacteria only if the smear is positive. We have correlated smear and culture results of 2,176 stool specimens submitted for mycobacterial culture. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for smears to predict culture results are 34, 99, 90, and 87%, respectively. We recommend that the stool smear...

Rotavirus-neutralizing antibody responses in sera and stools of children hospitalized with rotavirus gastroenteritis and then monitored longitudinally were optimally detected by using local rotavirus strains. Stool responses were highest on days 5 to 8 after the onset of diarrhea. Longitudinal monitoring suggested that serum neutralizing antibody responses were a more useful measure of severely...

BACKGROUND Whipple disease (WD) is a chronic infectious disease caused by Tropheryma whipplei. WD DNA has been found in stool and saliva specimens from patients and asymptomatic carriers. METHODS A total of 4418 samples that were sent to our center for determination of WD were tested by a T. whipplei-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on repetitive sequences. Definite...