A survey on intestinal parasitic infections and some risk factors of infection (social, economic and behavioral) was conducted in suburban area at Simum subdistrict, Mueang district, Nakhon Ratchasima Province during the period of April 3rd to April 11th, 2007. A total of 214 stool samples, from 85 males and 129 females were examined using simple direct smear, Kato’s thick smear and modified Ha...

A 49-year-old man with lepromatous leprosy treated with dapsone monotherapy for 12 years (1967 to 1979) reported in the hospital in 2003, with relapsed disease. A slit skin smear showed a bacteriological index of 4+. Biopsies from skin lesions before and after anti-leprosy therapy showed features of lepromatous leprosy. Both biopsies showed unusual features of bacillary clumps in epidermal cell...

Four methods for the detection of Trichomonas vaginalis in vaginal secretions from 88 symptomatic patients were compared: wet-mount examination, Kupferberg liquid medium, Hirsch charcoal agar, and the Papanicolaou smear. Hirsch diphasic slants and Kupferberg medium did not significantly differ in sensitivity from direct examination of wet mounts. The Papanicolaou smear identification of trichom...

We conducted a decision analysis to assess and compare four algorithms for amplified Mycobacterium tuberculosis direct (MTD) testing of respiratory specimens in terms of cost-effectiveness. The most cost-effective strategy was one in which smear-positive specimens but not smear-negative specimens were diluted prior to MTD testing.

A Canadian man came to the hospital with history of daily fever in the afternoon, for five days, ranging from 38.5oC to 39oC, headache, muscle pain and asthenia. He is a photographer enthusiastic about wild life and had been to Zimbabwe for 14 days, where he filmed groups of lions and animals of the African megafauna. Upon examination, he presented a hyperemic skin lesion in the posterior regio...

The study has strived to compare the leucocyte-esterase stripe activity on sputum samples with gram-stained direct smear microscopy. This is for the demonstration of white blood cells (WBCs) and so to develop a simple method for selecting suitable sputum samples for cultural examination and laboratory diagnosis. . A total of 17(34.0%) out of 50 samples studied were shown to be unsuitable fo...

Sir, Chanarin‐Dorfman syndrome (CDS) is a rare inherited disorder characterized by congenital ichthyosis, nonbullous ichthyosiform erythroderma, myopathy, and hepatic involvement with deposition of neutral lipids in skin, muscle, liver, central nervous system, and granulocytes. Variable skin and systemic involvement makes diagnosis difficult in some cases wherein an easy screening tool in the f...

Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis is the species most frequently implicated with cutaneous and mucosal leishmaniasis in the Americas; its diagnosis is based on the identification of amastigotes in lesions, which is limited by low parasite burden. Leishmanin Skin Test (LST) is a support tool for diagnosis, based on delayed type hypersensitivity responses to Leishmania antigens injected intraderm...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis is one of the most prominent health problems in the world, causing 1.75 million deaths each year. Rapid clinical diagnosis is important in patients who have co-morbidities such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. Direct microscopy has low sensitivity and culture takes 3 to 6 weeks 123. Therefore, new tools for TB diagnosis are necessary, especially in health...