background : this study aimed to compare three staining methods including: calcofluor white, chromotrope and quick hot gram chromotrope used in diagnosis of intestinal microsporidial spores . methods : one hundred and seventy five stool specimens were collected from patients referred to laboratory of intestinal protozoology at the school of public health, tehran university of medical sciences d...

In a meta-analysis examining respiratory specimen Gram stain for diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia, absence of bacteria on Gram stain had a high negative predictive value, but a positive Gram stain correlated poorly with organisms recovered in culture. Rapid and accurate diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a major challenge and no generally accepted gold standard ex...