conclusions it is concluded that cryptosporidium spp. should be considered in immunocompromised diarrheal patients and elisa must be chosen for detection of this parasite. modified acid fast staining and cassette kit techniques could be performed if elisa is not available. the single use of the cassette kit will be inadequate for the diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis. background cryptosporidiosis ...

Background and Objective: Tuberculosis is still a major health problem, involving about 1/3 of the world ́s population. Diagnosis is difficult when we only use Ziehl-Neelson staining. Many cases may be missed. A more rapid and sensitive diagnostic method is necessary. PCR may be helpful. The aim of this study is to compare PCR, Zieh-Neelsen staining and histopathologic findings in diagnosis of t...

Sputum microscopy is the most important tool for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in peripheral laboratories. Sodium hypochlorite concentration technique prior to sputum may improve AFB bacilli over direct Ziehl Neelsen’s staining method. A prospective study was conducted at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. Consecutive samples were collected 3 months. ZN stained smears made directly fr...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Sputum smear staining for acid-fast bacilli is initial approach to the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) but more than 50% of cases are sputum smear-negative. This study was aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) guided bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in patients suspected to have tuberculosis. METHODS This prospective cross-s...

According to the 1953 Madrid classification (") leprosy presents two polar types, tuberculoid and lepromatous, and two groups, indeterminate and borderline. The chronic evolution of all clinical forms of leprosy, with the exception of the indeterminate form, may be interrupted by acute episodes and sometimes these may constitute the only manifestation of the disease. When these acute phenomena ...

The evaluation of the quality of a sputum specimen prior to bacterial culture has been an accepted practice. However, optimal sputum criteria for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) are not well established. We investigated indicators for sputum acceptability in tuberculosis cultures and acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear. A post-hoc analysis of a randomized trial with 228 sputum specimens from 77 patients ...

Background The sensitivity of smear microscopy for diagnosis of tuberculosis might be improved through treatment of sputum with sodium hypochlorite and application of fluorescent microscopy. This study aimed to determine the agreement between direct Fluorescent Microscopy and Ziehl-Neelsen concentration technique by their ability of detecting acid fast bacilli in resource poor settings. Metho...

Setting Five health care systems in Texas. Objective To describe the epidemiology of inadequate isolation for pulmonary tuberculosis leading to tuberculosis (TB) exposures from confirmed TB patients and the patient factors that led to the exposures. Design A retrospective cohort and case-control study of adult patients with TB resulting in exposures (cases) vs those TB patients who did not ...

BACKGROUND Anthracosis is the black pigment discoloration of bronchi with an unknown cause which can cause bronchial destruction and deformity (anthracofibrosis). The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of tuberculosis in anthracosis and evaluate their association. METHODS One hundred and twenty subjects with bronchoscopy diagnosis of simple anthracosis, anthracofibrosis an...