OBJECTIVES To assess the performance of three commercial molecular assays for detecting major families of carbapenemases in pure bacterial isolates. METHODS A panel of 450 isolates with previously defined carbapenem resistance mechanisms was tested using the Check-Direct CPE kit, the eazyplex(®) SuperBug complete A kit and the Xpert(®) Carba-R kit. Isolates included 438 Enterobacteriaceae and...

Sample preparation and DNA extraction protocols for DNA amplification by PCR, which can be applied in human fecal samples for taeniasis diagnosis, are described. DNA extracted from fecal specimens with phenol/chloroform/isoamilic alcohol and DNAzol reagent had to be first purified to generate fragments of 170 pb and 600 pb by HDP2-PCR. This purification step was not necessary with the use of QI...

Opisthorchiasis and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) are major public health problems in Thailand and countries in the lower Mekong Subregion. Elimination of opisthorchiasis will be an important step toward the prevention, control and reduction of CCA. In order to achieve this goal, a sensitive and robust diagnostic method is required to identify people with current Opisthorchis viverrini sensu lato in...

Isolating RNA from insects is becoming increasingly important in molecular entomology. Four methods including three commercial kits RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen), SV Total RNA isolation system (Promega), TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen), and a cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-based method were compared regarding their ability to isolate RNA from whole-body larvae of Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyric...

A commercial kit for the radioisotopic assay of folate in serum, the Bio-Rad 'Quanta Count' folate kit, produced lower results than the Lactobacillus casei microbiological assay method. Its normal range was 2-0-13-0 microng/l and the reproducibility was similar to that of the microbiological assay method. The kit was also satisfactory for whole bood folate assays. The cost requires careful cons...

AIM To characterise the genomic DNA (gDNA) yield from urine and quality of derived methylation data generated from the widely used Illuminia Infinium MethylationEPIC (HM850K) platform and compare this with buffy coat samples. BACKGROUND DNA methylation is the most widely studied epigenetic mark and variations in DNA methylation profile have been implicated in diabetes which affects approximat...

PURPOSE To evaluate a home-made ELISA kit for detection of Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection and comparison of its immunologic criteria with those of foreign commercial kits. METHODS A home-made IgG ELISA kit was developed using soluble antigenic fractions of Hp proteins. Confirmed sera were tested and serological criteria were evaluated through assessment of 199 serum samples. RESULTS The...