We evaluated the effectiveness of serological and parasitological methods for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) diagnosis in patients from the central region of Paraná state, southern Brazil. Five groups were compared: clinical diagnosis, parasitological diagnosis, communicants, inhabitants of a non-endemic area and carriers of other etiologies. Two antigens were prepared from promastigotes of Leish...

OBJECTIVE To examine the presence of serum antinuclear autoantibodies in a healthy population. METHODS Serum of 500 normal blood donors between 18 and 60 years of age were tested for the presence of autoantibodies. Antinuclear antibodies were detected by indirect immunofluorescence technique using HEp-2 epithelial cells as the substrate. The presence of dnaN was detected by indirect immunoflu...

Laboratory confirmation of chlamydial antigen in clinically suspected cases of chlamydial eye infections is important, as similar clinical picture can be presented by different infective or noninfective causes. We retrospectively analyzed the presence of Chlamydia trachomatis antigen in 690 clinically suspected patients over the last 8 years (2009-2016). The chlamydial antigen was detected usin...

Nucleoprotein (N) gene from rabies virus (RABV) is a useful sequence target for variant studies. Several specific RABV variants have been characterized in different mammalian hosts such as skunk, dog, and bats by using anti-nucleocapsid monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) via indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) test, a technique not available in many laboratories in Mexico. In the present study, a tot...

Both celiac disease and scleroderma have autoimmune etiology and affect the bowel causing diarrhea. As an association of autoimmune disease in a single individual is not rare, it is important to know if a patient with scleroderma may also have celiac disease. To analyze this we studied 105 scleroderma patients and 97 volunteers for IgA-EmA by indirect immunofluorescence assay. We could not find...

Inter- and intra-observer variation was examined among six microscopists who read 50 scrub typhus (ST) and murine typhus (MT) indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) immunoglobulin M (IgM) slides. Inter-observer agreement was moderate (κ = 0.45) for MT and fair (κ = 0.32) for ST, and was significantly correlated with experience (P = 0.03 and P = 0.004, respectively); κ-scores for intra-observer...

The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of Coxiella burnetii antibodies among blood donors and to examine the epidemiological characteristics of C. bumetii infection in Ankara, Turkey. A total of 601 serum samples were collected from blood donors aged 18-61 years. Donor samples were stratified by age, sex, and residence (rural or urban). IgG and IgM antibodies to the C. bumetii ...

A rapid and sensitive culture test has been developed for detecting herpes simplex virus (HSV) in ocular infections. The virus is cultured by inoculation and centrifugation of cell monolayers grown on coverslips and the inclusions detected by an indirect immunofluorescence technique. This rapid test takes only two days to complete. By comparison, in our hands the conventional culture test, whic...

An antiserum raised against whole cells of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans was allowed to react with a variety of acidophilic and nonacidophilic bacteria in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and an indirect immunofluorescence assay. Both experiments demonstrated that the antiserum was specific at the species level. This preparation was used to evaluate the role of T. ferrooxidans in the microbial ...