Eosinophilic bronchitis without asthma may occur as a consequence of occupational exposure. The cases of a foundry worker and a baker who developed symptoms, respectively, due to exposure to isocyanate and flour, are reported. Cough was not associated with variable airflow obstruction or with airway hyper-responsiveness and was responsive to inhaled corticosteroids. The eosinophilia detectable ...

We reviewed the 52 new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed at Pusat Pakar Utara, Kedah in 1998. It was found that the majority of the patients had symptoms for many years. They had seen many doctors but were not diagnosed. In 40% of the patients, no investigations for tuberculosis were done and in the others tuberculosis was excluded because of negative sputum smear examination. Many had ...

In the Report on the Classification of Pl^~ monary Tuberculosis published by the Tuberculosis Association of India (1940), a plea made for the recognition of a definite standard in the examination of sputum for tubercle bacilli, both on the admission and discharge oi patients. The minimum standard suggested for declaring a patient negative is that on discharge no tubercle bacilli should be foun...

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a common and lethal infectious disease, which requires accurate and early diagnosis for effective containment. Essential for the diagnosis of pulmonary infection is the detection of the bacilli through the manual microscopic examination of ZN-stained sputum smear, which is a time-consuming, complex process necessitating at least 8-10 minutes per slide. Moreover, ...

The occurrence of bronchiectasis can involve a combination of many environmental factors, including infection. The aim of our work is to determine the bacteriological profile of bronchiectasis. This is a retrospective study of 100 patients hospitalized in between January 2010 and July 2013. The average age was 48 years with a 58% female predominance. Symptomatology was by a bronchial syndrome i...

OBJECTIVE To compare the simple, swab 'Kudoh method' for culturing Myobacterium tuberculosis from sputum samples, to the standard Petroff digestion-decontamination procedure. The Kudoh method, which requires no centrifugation and takes only 4-5 min per sample, was also evaluated for its performance in a rural setting. METHODS Two hospital laboratories in Caracas, Venezuela processed 314 sputu...

A 54-year-old male, farmer with a history of dyspnea from 10 years ago, developed increased sputum production, coughing and bloodstreaked sputum and hospitalized for further investigations. He was a current smoker (17pack/year) and oral opium addict. Spirometry revealed severe airflow obstruction with FVC: 45%, FEV1: 31%, and FEV1/FVC: 51%. Considering cheat x-ray findings, the patient underwen...