OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of rotavirus in infants and young children in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. METHODS A population-based prevalence study was done in randomly selected infants and young children suffering from acute diarrhoea. Faecal specimens were collected from 479 patients. A latex agglutination test was used for rotavirus detection. All positive and 10 negative samples for rot...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the use in an emergency department of a new D-dimer assay (Simplify D-dimer) as a screening test for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). METHODS 187 outpatients with clinical features suspicious of acute DVT were entered into this study. A Simplify D-dimer test was performed in the emergency department on all patients. A SimpliRED D-dimer test and a semi-automated latex aggluti...

Using 255 serum samples with various reactivities, we evaluated the Syphilis Fast latex agglutination test (Syphilis Fast) against the Treponema pallidum particle agglutination test (TP-PA) for confirming a diagnosis of syphilis. We found 98.8% agreement between the Syphilis Fast and the TP-PA. The Syphilis Fast, however, had a couple of advantages over the TP-PA: the test takes only 8 min to p...

cryptococcosis has become the fourth leading life-threatening opportunistic infection in patients with aids, but also occurs in non-aids patients. in view of the increasing numbers of infection during last decade in iran, use of rapid, sensitive and specific test for diagnosis of cryptococcal disease has become important than ever. we aimed to produce the reagents for latex cryptococcal antigen...

Titers in a direct agglutination test using Formalin-fixed toxoplasma tachyzoites were significantly higher in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome with toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) than in those without TE. In contrast, when fresh (not fixed) tachyzoites were used, the titers did not differ from those in patients without TE. The direct agglutination test using Formalin-fixed tachy...

A rapid slide test for the detection of degradation products of fibrinogen/fibrin (FDP) using a new antibody-coated latex particle is described. The latex particle has been specifically coated with antibody to fragments D and E. The latex agglutination test (Thrombo-Wellcotest) has been compared with the tanned red cell haemagglutination inhibition immunoassay (TRCHII) in 143 patients with a va...