We describe the search toward a fast and reliable strategy to detect and confirm the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in screening samples. First, we evaluated the sensitivities and specificities of oxacillin resistance screening agar (ORSA) with enrichment (tryptic soy broth [TSB] and ORSA [TSB-ORSA]) and without enrichment (ORSA), MRSA ID (MRSA_ID) plates, and CH...

Titers in a direct agglutination test using Formalin-fixed toxoplasma tachyzoites were significantly higher in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome with toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) than in those without TE. In contrast, when fresh (not fixed) tachyzoites were used, the titers did not differ from those in patients without TE. The direct agglutination test using Formalin-fixed tachy...

In two recent articles in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Qian et al. (4) and Lagace-Wiens et al. (2) describe a direct coagulase and a thermostable DNase test, respectively, for direct identification of Staphylococcus aureus from positive blood culture bottles. In a prospective study from April 2003 until February 2004, we investigated the accuracy of the Slidex Staph Plus agglutination ...

It is technically impractical for many clinical laboratories to use the direct immunofluorescence assay for identifying and serogrouping clinical isolates of Legionella. We compared the results obtained with the direct immunofluorescence assay with the results of a simple and less-demanding slide agglutination test for identifying 15 serogroups representing seven Legionella species. The slide a...

Since the bone marrow puncture and its study is a time-consuming and costly process and in addition, the direct agglutination test has a high sensitivity and is easier and quicker to perform for the diagnosis of Kala-azar, and considering the less value of bone marrow puncture for the definite diagnosis of endemic hepatosplenomegaly in Meshkinshahr, this study was performed to determine the dia...

this report described sarcocystis-like merozoites in peripheral blood smear of a woman with mild fever, rigor and musculoskeletal pain. extracellular organisms with a pale blue cytoplasm and one or two nuclei were seen in her blood smear stained with giemsa. sarcocystis-like can be considered as a possible cause of some idiopathic febrile diseases.

background: toxoplasma gondii infection is widely prevalent in many species of warm-blooded animals including human. the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of antibodies to t. gondii from slaughtered sleep and goats by mod­ified agglutination test (mat) in kerman region , southeastern iran. methods : altogether 1340 blood samples were collected from 562 sheep and 778 goats from a...

background: until now, the comparison of the rk39 strip test (rkt) and direct ag-glutination test (dat) for detection of visceral leishmaniasis (vl) is exclusively based on either positive or negative qualification of the reaction outcome. objective: in this study, we compared the diagnostic performance of rkt and dat for vl both qualitatively and semi-quantitatively. methods: for comparison ba...