BACKGROUND National blood donation screening for West Nile virus (WNV) started in June 2003, after the documentation of WNV transfusion-associated transmission (TAT) in 2002. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS Blood donations were screened with investigational nucleic acid amplification assays in minipool formats. Blood collection agencies (BCAs) reported screening results to state and local public hea...

1. Capella G. Is fecal DNA testing superior to fecal occult-blood testing for colorectal cancer screening? Nat Clin Pract Oncol 2005;2:234-5. 2. O’Leary BA, Olynyk JK, Neville AM, Platell CF. Cost-effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening: comparison of communitybased flexible sigmoidoscopy with fecal occult blood testing and colonoscopy. J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2004;19:38-47. 3. Haug U, Bre...

background toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic parasitic organism causing infection in many mammals, including immunosuppressed patients. toxoplasmosis as an opportunistic infection is highly prevalent among patients receiving a kidney transplant. objectives the purpose of this study was to identify and determine the prevalence of toxoplasma gondii in clinical samples collected from patients ...

Colorectal cancer is a major public health burden worldwide. There is clear-cut evidence that screening will reduce colorectal cancer mortality and the only contentious issue is which screening tool to use. Most evidence points towards screening with fecal occult blood testing. The immunochemical fecal occult blood tests have a higher sensitivity than the guaiac-based tests. In addition, their ...

Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) screening is an important procedure to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B (HBV) in a community. However, it is difficult, time consuming and expensive. In this study we aim to investigate the efficacy and usefulness of fingerprint blood impregnated paper in HBsAg screening. To our knowledge, blood impregnated paper is a practical, useful method for HBsAg...

Immunoreactive trypsin (IRT) content in blood spots from 17 cystic fibrosis (CF) children born between 1975-80 were assayed with reagents from two commercial radioimmunoassay kits. The manufacturers' procedures were modified to allow assay of blood spot IRT. Half of the CF samples had a significantly raised IRT content compared to normal blood spots. Of the blood spots from five children whose ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES To assess the cost and effectiveness of adding a system of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to the current enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) in blood donations. MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis comparing three HCV screening strategies in French blood donors: detection of antibodies a...

Strychnos henningsii Gilg is recommended among other remedies for the treatment of diabetes in traditional medicine of Southern Africa. The antidiabetic effect of oral administration of aqueous bark extract of the plant at 125, 250 and 500 mg/Kg body weight was investigated in diabetic rats induced with streptozotocin-nicotinamide for 15 days. The extract decreased the blood glucose level, feed...

human t-ceil lymphotropic virus, type 1 (htl v-i) is considered to be the causative agent of adult t-cell lymphoma/leukemia and spastic paralysis, and seems to be common in khorasan province. 300 blood samples from mashhadi and 180 from gonbadi blood donors were obtained (all samples from healthy subjects). serological screening was done by passive particje- agglutination test and confirmed by ...

colorectal cancer screening in average-risk asymptomatic persons older than 50 years of age. Randomized, controlled trials show that screening with fecal occult blood tests (FOBTs) can reduce both death from colorectal cancer and subsequent incidence of new cancer. In recent years, Fecal occult blood tests (FOBT) and serum CEA level examinations are commonly included in the program of health ch...