Immunological diagnostic methods for Trypanosoma cruzi depend specifically on the presence of antibodies and parasitological methods lack sensitivity during the chronic and "indeterminate" stages of the disease. This study performed a serological survey of 1,033 subjects from 52 rural communities in 12 of the 18 municipalities in the state of Querétaro, Mexico. We detected anti-T. cruzi antibod...

Diminished survival of transfused platelets occurred in two patients given co-trimoxazole, and a third patient taking this drug developed thrombocytopenia. By means of an indirect immunofluorescence assay antibodies against donor platelets coated with co-trimoxazole were found in the sera in all cases. These antibodies were directed against the trimethoprim component of co-trimoxazole and not a...

Animal losses due to abortion and weak offspring during a lambing period amounted up to 25% in a goat flock and up to 18% in a sheep flock kept at an experimental station on the Swabian Alb, Germany. Fifteen out of 23 employees and residents on the farm tested positive for Coxiella burnetii antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and indirect immunofluorescence assay. Ninety-fou...

From autumn 2004 to spring 2005, 70 fallow deer (Dama dama), 27 female and 43 male, living in a natural preserve of central Italy were examined by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) to detect specific antibodies to Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Thirty-one (44.28%) sera scored positive: in particular 10 fallow deer (8 male and 2 female) scored positive at 40 antibody titer, 21 deer (8 male and...

Babesiosis is a malaria-like illness caused by the intraerythrocytic parasite Babesia microti and is transmitted by the same tick that transmits Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Babesiosis is well recognized in adult residents of southern New England and New York but has been described in only five children. To determine whether children are infected with B microti les...

A serological survey on Ehrlichia canis was conducted among dogs in the central area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where the tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a common parasite of dogs. Out of a total of 316 dogs attended at the veterinary teaching hospital in the municipality of Santa Maria, only 14 (4.43%) reacted positively to E. canis antigens in the indirect immunofluorescence assay, w...

First identified in 2001, the human metapneumovirus (hMPV), is a respiratory tract pathogen that affects young children, elderly, and immunocompromised patients. The present work represents the first serologic study carried out in Uruguay. It was performed with the purpose of obtaining serological evidence of hMPV circulation in Uruguay and to contribute to the few serologic reports described u...

Examination of human gastric biopsies by an indirect immunofluorescence technique using antihuman gastrin confirms the variability in distribution and number of gastrin-secreting (G) cells (Solcia, Vassallo, and Capella, 1969) observed by morphological, cytochemical, and electron microscopical studies. In cases with presumed secondary hypersecretion a profound degree of G-cell hyperplasia is ob...

By indirect immunofluorescence techniques, microtubules and mitochondria were localized in normal rat kidney cells, human WI38 fibroblasts, mouse peritoneal macrophages, and a putative smooth muscle rat cell line, in monolayer culture. The mitochondria were found to be arranged along the cytoplasmic microtubules in each cell type. Disruption of the microtubules with colcemid caused a redistribu...

BACKGROUND Coxiella burnetii is the causative agent of Q fever, a worldwide zoonosis which shows a wide diversity of clinical manifestations. The objective of this seroepidemiological study was to estimate the prevalence of antibodies to C. burnetii in a representative population of the Eastern area of the Cantabrian Community (Northern Spain). METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted in...