Leishman stained smears prepared from ninety-nine (99) splenic aspirates and eleven (11) slit skin were examined under light microscope in order to detect L.D. bodies at the department of Microbiology, Rajshahi Medical College from 2002 to May 2003. L.D. bodies were found in 46 (46.46%) and 01 (9.09%) samples of splenic aspirates and slit skin smears respectively. Smear positivity and concomita...

This study looked for M. leprae in the lymph node, nerve and skin of multibacillary (MB) leprosy patients who become slit skin smear negative after the completion of WHO-MBR. Twenty-five WHO-MBR-treated multibacillary leprosy patients were studied; borderline lepromatous (BL) leprosy (n = 11) and lepromatous (LL) leprosy (n = 14)). Fifteen patients had reaction (erythema nodosum leprosum 11, up...

BACKGROUND Diagnostic options for pulmonary tuberculosis in resource-poor settings are commonly limited to smear microscopy. We investigated whether bleach concentration by sedimentation and sputum cytology analysis (SCA) increased the positivity rate of smear microscopy for smear-positive tuberculosis. METHODS We did a prospective diagnostic study in a Médecins Sans Frontières-supported hosp...

The Kato-Katz (KK) method is a well-known method of fecal examination for helminthiases. Its diagnostic sensitivity was found very high for clonorchiasis. The present study evaluated the correlation of Clonorchis sinensis egg counts by the KK method with those by direct smear and formalin-ether (FE) technique. The egg counts obtained by the KK method (Y) were correlated with the counts by direc...

BACKGROUND Tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) is the most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The cytomorphological features of lymph node smears have reduced specificity for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The diagnosis of TBLN with direct smear microscopy lacks sensitivity due to the limited number of bacilli in lymph node aspirate. Therefore, we aimed to assess whether the concentration...

The present study is conducted to demonstrate the value of direct smear examinations ( Gram stain and wet mount ) of vaginal discharge from infected female patients. The diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis and other infections were carried out by direct gram stained smear and wet mount preparations of vaginal discharge in 1004 cases of various infections affecting these patients. Gram stain was a ...

BACKGROUND Multi drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) poses formidable challenges to TB control due to its complex diagnostic and treatment challenges and often associated with a high rate of mortality. Accurate and rapid detection of MDR-TB is critical for timely initiation of treatment. Line Probe Assay (LPA) is a qualitative in vitro diagnostic test based on DNA-STRIP technology for the iden...