t p S b t Clinical Scenario A 44-year-old woman with abdominal pain of 4 onths’ duration is referred to your gastroenterology clinic rom her primary care physician for evaluation of positive erologic markers for IBD. The patient denies diarrhea, bright ed blood per rectum, melena, fevers, and weight loss. She has ormal liver function test results, complete blood count, erythocyte sedimentation ...

Serologic methods are becoming increasingly important in the diagnosis of mycotic infections. Necessary prerequisites for the evaluation of such tests should include information on the antigenic relationships of strains within a species as well as relationships with other species, both closely and distantly related. Several investigations of interspecies cross reactions among fungi have appeare...

Topic Overview: How should a clinician employ serologic tests in a Lyme disease evaluation? Before ordering an ELISA or Western blot the clinician should develop a clinical impression of the patient, taking into account the exposure history, symptoms and exam findings. If Lyme disease is judged to be a diagnostic possibility then testing is reasonable. Neither ELISA nor Western blot testing is ...

A rickettsia named the ELB agent, or "Rickettsia felis," was identified by molecular biology techniques in American fleas in 1990 and later in four patients from Texas and Mexico. We attempted to isolate this rickettsia from infected fleas at various temperatures and conditions. A representative isolate of the ELB agent, the Marseille strain, was characterized and used to develop a microimmunof...

abstract background and objective: celiac is an autoimmune disease that is characterized by an immune-system-related damage in the intestinal tissue after consumption of gluten. there is not any general agreement for gold standard. the purpose of this study was the evaluation of specificity and sensitivity of anti-endomysial (ema) and anti-tissue transglutaminase (ttg) serological test compared...

Acute infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is infrequently diagnosed, owing in large part to vague or non-specific symptoms. Among the most common of these symptoms are fever, fatigue, pharyngitis, lymphadenopathy, anorexia, arthralgia, myalgia, rash, and headache. Some patients seek no medical attention for such symptoms, and others recall no symptoms whatsoever. Physicians in all...

The antibody response of patients with various infections has been utilized as an aid to diagnosis since the early days of scientific microbiology, as exemplified by the Widal, Wassermann, and Weil-Felix tests. A variety of serologic techniques have been used to this end. In our laboratories we have studied the antibody response by means of the passive bacterial hemagglutination test on patient...

Diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in syphilis show wide variation. The use of only one type of serologic test is insufficient for diagnosis. However, current international recommendations cannot be applied due to various reasons (cost, availability, etc.). The aim of the study was to review serologic data of syphilis patients to determine diagnostic performance of three different methods. I...