The objective of the present study was to investigate the usefulness of a recombinant flagellar protein, FlaB, of Leptospira interrogans serovar pomona in the serodiagnosis of leptospirosis by the fluorescence polarization assay (FPA). The recombinant protein FlaB was purified to homogeneity by a combination of nickel-nitriloacetic acid agarose chromatography, electrophoresis, and electroelutio...

Acute- and convalescent-phase serum specimens were collected from 50 patients with group A streptococcal pharyngitis. The anti-streptolysin O (ASO) titer for each serum specimen was determined by using both the standard neutralization assay and the latex agglutination (LA) test (Rheumagen ASO; Biokit Inc., New Britain, Conn.). When the ASO titers derived by the two methods were compared, the co...

Crucial therapeutic decisions are based on diagnostic tests. Therefore, it is important to evaluate such tests before adopting them for routine use. Although things such as blood tests, cultures, biopsies, and radiological imaging are obvious diagnostic tests, it is not to be forgotten that specific clinical examination procedures, scoring systems based on physiological or psychological evaluat...

Typhoid fever remains a major public health risk with more than 13 million cases occurring annually in Asia alone. Delay in diagnosis and institution of appropriate therapy especially with emergence of multi-drug resistant strains of Salmonella typhi, can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality may significantly increase the risk of adverse outcome. Traditionally, the isolation o...

Background: Children with blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) can be risk stratified for intra-abdominal injury (IAI) through a combination of readily accessible clinical variables. The aim of this study was to identify ultrasound and laboratory studies that accurately identify IAI while limiting unnecessary CT-scan among children without injury. Materials and Methods We conducted a prospective, obse...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to compare validity of 5 diagnostic tests of helicobacter pylori with each other: stool antigen test, urea breath test (UBT), rapid urease test (RUT), serology and histology. METHODS A total of 94 patients who had indication of endoscopy entered the study. All of the 5 tests were performed for each patient. When the results of at least 2 tests were posi...

BACKGROUND Leptospirosis is a globally emerging zoonotic disease and an important public health threat in developing countries. Diagnosis of leptospirosis is mainly based on clinical presentations in resource poor countries. World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced "Faine's criteria" for diagnosis of leptospirosis. This study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of modified Faine's cr...

An indirect ELISA for the determination of each isotype (IgM, IgG, IgA, IgD, IgE) of rheumatoid factors (RF) was performed with sera obtained from 77 patients with either classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 319 controls, using rabbit IgG as the antigen. The results were compared with those of a commercial latex agglutination test, using denatured human gamma globulin as the anti...

Introduction Amblyopia is a leading cause of visual impairment in both childhood and adult populations. Our aim in this study was to assess the epidemiological characteristics of the amblyopia screening program in Iran. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was done on a randomly selected sample of 4,636 Iranian children who were referred to screening program in 2013 were participated i...