intensive care unit for the management of septic shock secondary to infection with Salmonella enteritidis. The patient was also found to have Pneumocystis jiro− veci and Mycobacterium avium pneumo− nia. Further work−up revealed him to be HIV−positive, with a CD4 count of 125/ mm3. The patient was started on a treat− ment regimen of cefotaxim, trimetho− prim/sulfamethoxazole, prednisolone, clari...

We undertook a study to evaluate Streck tissue fixative (STF) as a substitute for formalin and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in fecal preservation. A comparison of formalin, PVA, (mercuric chloride based), and STF was done by aliquoting fecal samples into each fixative. Stool specimens were collected in Haiti, and parasites included Cyclospora cayetanensis, Giardia intestinalis, Entamoeba coli, Iodam...

RESEARCH QUESTION Can we minimize cough duration and number of sputum samples in chest symptomatic patients for screening of TB? OBJECTIVE To evaluate cough of 3 weeks versus 2 weeks duration using two sputum samples versus three samples in chest symptomatic patients attending the OPD. STUDY DESIGN Hospital-based cross-sectional study. MATERIALS AND METHODS Outpatients (2810) with H/O cou...

Silver staining was introduced more than a decade ago as a sensitive procedure to detect trace amounts of proteins in polyacrylamide gels (1). Since then, silver staining has been perfected and extended to the study of other biological molecules that have been separated by electrophoresis in a variety of supports (2,3). Silver staining follows generally one of two methods. One uses diamine or a...

Despite the recent development of more sensitive technologies, diagnosis of tuberculosis in resource limited settings continues to rely on sputum smear microscopy. This is explained by the fact that smear microscopy is simple, inexpensive, and the most accessible tool in resource limited settings for tuberculosis diagnosis. Hot Ziehl-Neelsen (Z-N) is still used in laboratories of resource limit...

Background. Tuberculosis lymphadenitis is one of the most common forms of all extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Objective. To evaluate the magnitude of M. tuberculosis from lymph node biopsy paraffin-embedded sections among suspected patients visiting the Jimma University Specialized Hospital. Method. A cross-sectional study design of histological examination among lymph node biopsy paraffin-embedde...

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a cause of prolonged diarrhoea, mainly in travellers. Laboratory diagnosis may be achieved by a number of methods such as the staining of faecal smears by the modified Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) technique. Safer methods using this technique have been described for the staining of acid fast bacilli and cryptosporidia by replacing the phenol content of the carbol fuschin stain ...

A comparative study of acid-fast stain techniques has shown that some methods in common use give divergent values for the MI , and smaller but significant discrepancies in the BI . The methods used by Rees and Valent ine and by Shepard to equate solid staining with viability are in fairly good agreement. The heating of carbol-fuchsin stain is the factor which causes the most variation in the MI...

We report two immigrants with tuberculosis of the skull base and a review of the literature. A Somalian man presented with bilateral otitis media, hearing loss, and facial and abducens palsy. Imaging showed involvement of both mastoid and petrous bones, extending via the skull base to the nasopharynx, suggesting tuberculosis which was confirmed by characteristic histology and positive auramine ...

Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases in India. Growth of Brucella is slow and needs meticulous biochemical tests and antisera for confirmation of the isolates. In the present study modified cold ZN staining was tried on the broth cultures for early presumptive identification of Brucella growth. Blood cultures were attempted in 22 seropositive patients. In the five blood cultu...