OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of immunosuppressive anticancer therapy on titre levels of anti-hepatitis B surface antibodies (anti-HBs) in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative and anti-HBs positive patients with haematological malignancies or solid tumours. METHODS This retrospective study reviewed the medical records of patients with haematological malignancies or solid tumours...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to assess the outcome of pregnancies complicated by Brucella infection. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING EL-Hasan National Hospital, El-Rawad Clinic, TAIF, SAUDI ARABIA (where the practical part of the study was accomplished) and Obstetrics & Gynecology Department, Mansoura University Hospital (where the theoretical part of the study was completed). METHODS This st...

All of five lyophilised cultures of Mycoplasma orale kept for 23 years at room temperature were still viable, as were all but one of 12 lyophilised cultures of six Mycoplasma spp. that had been stored for 18-22 years at 4 degrees C. Similarly, 11 of 13 lyophilised ureaplasma cultures were viable after 8-22 years at 4 degrees C; the titre of organisms in the viable cultures had diminished no mor...

Complement fixing antibody in animals injected with heat killed tubercle bacilli in oil appears earlier in the lesion at the site of injection than in the blood serum. Complement fixing antibody in an extract prepared by suspending one part by weight of tissue from the local site in five parts of saline is in general in higher concentration than in the blood, for a period of approximately 3 wee...

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) titre elevation is sometimes found in benign diseases, such as gastro-intestinal tract inflammatory disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; however, very high CEA titre is rarely encountered in benign pulmonary disease. A 36-yr-old female, who had suffered from body weight loss, was found to have high serum CEA titre (60.8 ng.mL(-1)). Image studies reve...

The cultural method to identify avian Salmonella infections is laborious and expensive, thus a rapid, sensitive and cost-effective method for the diagnosis of salmonellosis is anticipated. S. pullorum was isolated and a stained Salmonella somatic antigen was prepared. The protein concentration of stained antigen was measured and adjusted to 3000 ng/μl. Preservative was used to increase its shel...

Fifty six children with thalassaemia, and 118 healthy subjects, who had all been immunised with an intramuscular injection of hepatitis B vaccine (HB-VAX) into the deltoid area three years previously, were given booster doses intradermally. All responders (good = hepatitis B surface (HBs) antibody titre greater than or equal to 10 U/l; poor = HBs antibody titre less than 10 U/l) showed pronounc...

According to the protein-only hypothesis, infectious mammalian prions, which exist as distinct strains with discrete biological properties, consist of multichain assemblies of misfolded cellular prion protein (PrP). A critical test would be to produce prion strains synthetically from defined components. Crucially, high-titre 'synthetic' prions could then be used to determine the structural basi...

A number of commercially available disinfectants are commonly used on pig breeding farms and are authorised by the French Agricultural Ministry. However, the efficacy of these disinfectants is unknown with regard to the emergent porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2). The virucidal efficacy of nine disinfectants was evaluated by testing a suspension of PCV2 isolated in France. The assays were perform...