INTRODUCTION Diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) still remains a laboratory challenge due to the great diversity of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) and their significance regarding APS-diagnostic criteria. METHODS A multi-line dot assay (MLDA) employing phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylinositol (PI), cardiolipin (CL), and beta2-glycoprotein I (β2 GPI) was used to detect aPL, im...

The Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection is one of the major public health problems in Nepal because of its increasing disease morbidity and mortality. The main purpose of this study was to determine the anti-JEV IgM positivity among acute encephalitis syndromic cases from all over Nepal. The present study was conducted at National Public Health Laboratory, Kathmandu, Nepal from April 20...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the role of serum IgG, IgM and IgA anti-dsDNA antibody isotypes in the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and their association with clinical features and disease activity, in a large cohort of SLE patients. METHODS Sera of 200 SLE patients (mean age 34±10.3 years; 26 male and 174 female; median duration of disease 115 months, range 7-378), and of 206 cont...

BACKGROUND Acute viral hepatitis is most frequently caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis D virus (HDV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV). OBJECTIVES To determine seroprevalence of HAV, HBV, HCV and HEV among patients with acute hepatitis in Nairobi, Kenya, elucidate various risk factors for hepatitis viral infection and determine the co-...

The clinical course and response to therapy of patients with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) are not completely determined by the level of IgG present on the platelet surface. It is possible that antibodies of other immunoglobulin classes also play a role in platelet destruction in some of these patients. Therefore, we studied 175 patients with ITP for the presence of IgM anti-platelet an...

Diagnosis of hepatitis E virus (HEV) is usually determined serologically by detection of the presence of immunoglobulin (Ig)M antibodies or rising anti-HEV IgG titers. However, serological assays have demonstrated a significant variation in their sensitivities and specificities. In this study, we present the systematic comparison of different immunological anti-HEV assays using complete serocon...

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is largely responsible for water borne epidemics in many developing countries. The principle mode of HEV transmission is the fecal oral route in epidemic and sporadic forms with a high case fatality ratio in pregnant women. Serum samples from 50 healthy subjects and from 435 acute viral hepatitis patients, 4-75 years old, were screened for markers of acute viral hepatiti...

Background and Aims: Primary infections of rubella and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) can lead to severe complications in pregnancy. The screening of Rubella and HCMV in pregnant women is not routinely carried out in Iran. This cross sectional study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of HCMV and rubella infections in neonates with and without congenital defects. Materials and Methods: This s...

Anti-A and anti-B blood group antibodies in the cynomolgus monkey sera were serologically characterized. 2-Mercaptoethanol (2-ME) inactivated these antibodies of both group-A and group-B sera. Furthermore, soluble human ABH substances neutralized these antibody activities. However, these activities were not inhibited by anti-human IgG or IgA serum but by anti-human IgM serum. By gel filtration ...

An 18 yr old previously well male Taiwanese was admitted with malaise, anorexia, and jaundice for two weeks. Results of liver tests were compatible with acute hepatitis. On day 1, he was seronegative for HBsAg, IgM anti-HAV, IgM anti-HBc, IgM anti-CMV, and IgM EBV capsid Ab, but positive for anti-delta in association with anti-HBc and anti-HBs. At follow up on day 5 HBsAg converted to positive ...