OBJECTIVE To compare the clinical and economic effects of a strategy using immediate endoscopy to a non-invasive strategy utilizing a serologic test for Helicobacter pylori infection for individuals with symptoms suggestive of peptic ulcer disease. DESIGN Cost-effectiveness analysis evaluating the clinical and economic effects of alternative management strategies of hypothetical patients with...

CONTEXT The correct diagnosis of celiac disease in environmentally deprived children is frequently hindered by the common presence of other causes for the classical celiac disease symptoms: malnutrition, failure to thrive and frequent diarrheas. OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of celiac disease in a group of 12 to 36 month-old children using immunoglobulin antibodies against gliadin (I...

BACKGROUND There is an increased prevalence of osteoporosis among patients with celiac disease. However, the relative prevalence of celiac disease among osteoporotic and nonosteoporotic populations is not known, and the benefit of screening the osteoporotic population for celiac disease remains controversial. METHODS We evaluated 840 individuals, 266 with and 574 without osteoporosis, from th...

BACKGROUND In April 2012, the Jordan Ministry of Health investigated an outbreak of lower respiratory illnesses at a hospital in Jordan; 2 fatal cases were retrospectively confirmed by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) to be the first detected cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV). METHODS Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of selected ...

Hydatid cysts of the heart are very rare in child. In this report we describe an interesting and unique case of an 8-year-old boy with a large cardiac intracavitary hydatid cyst filling the left ventricle. Echocardiography, computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and serologic test were necessary for the diagnosis. Once assessing the diagnosis, an emergency open heart surgery was ne...

Different approaches have been used in the diagnosis of chronic Chagas disease. Serologic tests are used to detect antibodies against Trypanosoma cruzi and not the presence of the parasite itself. These tests have high sensitivity but lack specificity because of antigenic cross-reactivity with parasites such as Leishmania sp. and T. rangeli (Schmunis 1991, Saldana & Sousa 1996). Parasitological...

OBJECTIVES Celiac disease is one of the malabsorption syndromes leads to growth and development retardation in children. There is no test lonely can definitely diagnose celiac; however, the collection of clinical findings, serologic tests, intestinal biopsy, and response to treatment may diagnose it. Although diagnostic value is variable in different studies, they are used a non-invasive and ap...

Numerous reports have documented that serologic methods are much more sensitive than culture for the diagnosis of pertussis in adolescents and adults. However, a standardized serologic test for pertussis is not routinely available to most clinicians, and the serologic test levels or cutoff points correlated with diseases have not been determined. The goal of the present study was to examine the...

Anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease is a rare but potentially lethal autoimmune disorder with progressive renal dysfunction in a short time span, which is accompanied with or without pulmonary hemorrhage. Serologic test shows positive anti-GBM antibodies, and extensive crescent formation in the renal biopsy, usually without multinucleated giant cells. Our study presents a case ...

Haemophilus parasuis causes polyserositis in swine. Fifteen serovars have been characterized by immunodiffusion test, but many field strains are not typeable. Isolates (n = 300) of H. parasuis from animals in North America were serotyped by a new indirect hemagglutination test. The test was rapid and effective for serotyping of H. parasuis, and serovars 4, 5, 13, and 7 were the most prevalent s...