Authors of the present letter reviewed the letter conducted by Fatahi-Bafghi entitled as "Phenotypic and molecular identification of nocardia in brain abscess."[3] Nocardia is a filamentous bacteria, branched Gram‐positive Bacilli, aerobic, and partially acid-fast, and its diagnosis depends on staining and culture.[4] In this case, microscopic study of the brain abscess specimen revealed, long ...

ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical diagnostic value of positive acid-fast staining combined with negative GeneXpert MTB/RIF in diagnosis non-tuberculous mycobacteria pulmonary disease (NTM-PD).MethodsA total 133 inpatients confirmed NTM-PD were included consecutively between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019, at Tongji Hospital Jinyintan Hospital, Medical College Huazhong University Science ...

For evaluation of the prevalence of Cryptosporidium sp. infection in diarrheic and non-diarrheic humans in Iran, fecal specimens from diarrheic (n = 129) and non-diarrheic humans (n = 271) were collected and examined for the presence of Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts. The presence of Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts was determined by Ziehl- Neelsen acid-fast staining. Humans were grouped according to t...

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health problems in the world. Effective control of TB depends on rapid and correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of Cobas Amplicor MTB (CA-MTB) test for pulmonary and extrapulmonary specimens isolated in our laboratory. A total of 424 specimens obtained from the suspected TB patients from J...

We compared the sensitivity and specificity of a modified Ziehl-Neelsen (modified-ZN) staining method for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) with that of the standard Ziehl-Neelsen (standard-ZN) staining method, using culture results with Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the "gold standard." The sensitivity (72%; 101 of 140) of the modified-ZN staining method, which uses 0.3% carbol fuchsin, was significantl...

Worldwide, laboratory technicians tediously read sputum smears for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. We demonstrate proof of principle of an innovative computational algorithm that successfully recognizes Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stained acid-fast bacilli (AFB) in digital images. Automated, multi-stage, color-based Bayesian segmentation identified possible 'TB objects', removed artifacts by shape comparis...

A reverse transcription (RT)-PCR assay targeting the 16S rRNA of Mycobacterium leprae was developed to detect the organism in clinical specimens. A 171-bp fragment was amplified when M. leprae RNA was used as a template but not when a panel of RNAs from 28 potentially cross-reacting mycobacterial species, seven genera related to Mycobacterium, and three organisms normally found among skin or no...

BACKGROUND Tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) is the most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The cytomorphological features of lymph node smears have reduced specificity for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The diagnosis of TBLN with direct smear microscopy lacks sensitivity due to the limited number of bacilli in lymph node aspirate. Therefore, we aimed to assess whether the concentration...

Reduced acid-fast staining of leprosy bacilli occurs during the dewaxing of paraffin sections by xylene and alcohols; the older and more decrepit bacilli being especially affected. By the use of non-deparaffinized sections, the leprosy bacilli which could not be stained with the usual carbol fuchsin are strongly stained. Moreover, non-deparafinized sections can be used for the periodic acid-car...