At present, further investigations are needed in patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and either negative sputum smear or without sputum. The aim of the present study was to analyse the yield of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) smear and PCR in patients with confirmed pulmonary TB. Patients with a positive culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in sputum or BALF were a...

BACKGROUND Although checking specimen quality upon sputum collection for acid-fast smear of suspected tuberculosis (TB) cases is recommended, this procedure is based on expert opinion. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the impact of sputum gross appearance and volume on smear positivity among patients with suspected pulmonary TB, according to sex. METHODS From November 2010 through J...

Malaria presents a diagnostic challenge in most tropical countries like India. Microscopy remains the gold standard for diagnosing malaria, but it is labour intensive and depends upon the skill of the examiner. Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDT’s) have been developed as an easy, convenient alternative to microscopy. The aim of this study was to correlate and compare the conventional diagnosti...

Recommendations on the management of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) are still based on the behaviour of this disease in populations unaffected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Studies prior to the HIV epidemic estimated that there were 1.22 cases of smear-negative and extra-pulmonary TB for each smear-positive case. Patients with smear-negative pulmonary TB were found to b...

Background: There are data about the relationship between morphologic findings on HRCT and the number of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) on sputum smears in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). It was also shown that existence of cavities and airspace consolidation might be related to smear positivity in PTB patients. However there is no study suggesting a relationship between AFB on sputum smea...

Worldwide, the male to female ratio of new smear-positive tuberculosis (TB) cases is approximately two to one. However, in Pakistan, this is not the case. Rates of notified TB cases are 20-30% higher in young females compared with males, and female rates remain high regardless of increasing age. This is in stark contrast to neighboring India, which is characterized by an excess of male TB cases...

Background Detecting patients whose sputum is smear-positive (smear+) on microscopic examination is an essential public health strategy to control tuberculosis (TB). It is estimated that only 53% of smear+ cases were notified under DOTS in 2004, indicating that a significant proportion of smear+ cases are going undetected within DOTS areas worldwide. Recent studies have suggested that women in ...

based on the accumulated data, ftir spectroscopy seems to be a highly sensitive tool in cervical cancer diagnosis. we, therefore, employed this technique in a screening type of research here in tehran. the purpose of this study was to look for the spectral pattern differences between normal and malignant cervix samples in iranian women. through formal and informal announcements, all gynecology ...

the 1991 bethesda system for cervical/vaginal cytology reporting has defined adequacy criteria, including unsatisfactory designation. most laboratories in usa and a few laboratories in iran have implemented these criteria, but only few studies about clinical implications have been performed. all unsatisfactory papanicolaou (pap) smears taken between august 2000 and march 2002 were retrieved fro...