There is an introductory chapter on the use of the microscope and then successive chapters on examination of the sputum, the urine, the blood, gastric and duodenal contents, the faeces, animal parasites, pus and other body fluids, miscellaneous examinations including divers subjects such as the pregnancy tests and diagnosis of rabies, sero-diagnosis, bacteriological methods, and vaccines and sk...

Invasive candidiasis is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Clinical diagnosis is complicated by a lack of specific clinical signs and symptoms of disease. Laboratory diagnosis is also complex because circulating antibodies to Candida species may occur in normal individuals as the result of commensal colonization of mucosal surfaces thereby reducing the usefulness of antibody detectio...

Syphilis has several clinical manifestations, making laboratory testing a very important aspect of diagnosis. In North America, many unsuspected cases are discovered by laboratory testing. The etiological agent, Treponema pallidum, cannot be cultured, and there is no single optimal alternative test. Serological testing is the most frequently used approach in the laboratory diagnosis of syphilis...

Antiphospholipid antibodies may be associated with venous thromboembolism and/or arterial thromboses or miscarriages; their heterogeneity complicates the laboratory diagnosis. For a long time, they were believed to be directed against anionic phospholipids. More recently, it has been demonstrated that these antibodies are directed at plasma proteins bound most of the time to a phos-pholipid sur...