MEDICAL LABORATORY JOURNAL
Year:2012 | Volume:6 | Issue:1|Papers Count:12

Background and objectives: C-Met is a proto-oncogene that encodes a protein known as hepatocyte growth factor receptor (HGFR). The HGF receptor possesses tyrosine -kinase activity and it is essential for embryonic development, wound healing and cancer. Many proteins are proteolytically released from the surface by a process known as ectodomain shedding.Shedding occurs under normal physiologic conditions and can be increased in certain pathologies. C-Met can be seen among many receptors for which ectodomain shedding has been shown. The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of soluble c-Met in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum samples of patients with viral and bacterial meningitis.Material and Methods: in this study, 75 CSF and serum samples of patients with bacterial meningitis, 71 with viral meningitis and 82 normal controls were investigated. The soluble c-Met concentration was determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Result: the amount of soluble c-met in CSF of patients with bacterial meningitis (83.91±5.50), viral meningitis (80.41±4.71) and control group ( 22.66±3.39) are compared with that in serum of patients with bacterial meningitis (561.58±25.87), viral meningitis (550.50±34.34) and control group (256.25±18.55). There is significant increase in the CSF and serum’s soluble c-Met expression in the patients with meningitis, in comparison with control group.Conclusion: The data presented here indicate that soluble c-Met is a constant component of human serum and CSF, but it can not be used for differentiating bacterial meningitis from viral meningitis.

Background and objectives: Hepatitis B virus infection is a major health problem in worldwide. The prevalence of Occult and chronic HBV in hemodialysis patients is higher than standard in developing countries. People with occult HBV are negative for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) but positive for HBV-DNA. We aimed to evaluate occult hepatitis B infection in patients under hemodialysis in Panje-Azar hospital in Gorgan.Material and Methods: In this study, taken place from 2009 to 2010, the participants were 100 hemodialysis patients with administration of complete HBV vaccination with negative test for HBsAg. After preparing 10 milliliter blood sample, HBV DNA testing was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Result: The mean age of the patients is 54.60 years. They are male (48%) and female (52%). They have been under hemodialysis for 48 months, averagely.There has not been any HBV-DNA in HBsAg negative patients under hemodialysis. The rate of occult hepatitis B infection in these end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients was zero.Conclusion: Results indicate that there is no any occult HBV infection in ESRD patients under hemodialysis in Gorgan, which is similar to some studies. The results could be justified by complete vaccination of the patients.

Background and objectives: Helicobacter pylorus is a helical gram negative bacterium with polar flagella, discovered by Warren and Marshall in 1983.Helicobacter pylori exist in the stomach mucus tissue of less than 20% of people under 30 years old, but this amount would increase up to 40% and 60% in 60- year- old people. The aim of this study was to compare three methods of culture media, direct slide staining and the urease test for the rapid diagnosis of bacterium in case of peptic or duodenal ulcer.Material and Methods: In This descriptive study, duplicate biopsy specimens were taken from 82 clients referring to four different Hospitals. In endoscopy room of the Hospitals, a rapid urease test were carried out on one of duplicate specimens for the presence or non-presence of Helicobacter pylori. In order to see the Helicobacter pylori in the tissues, three slides using foushin, giemsa, and gram staining were prepared from the second specimens. Then, the specimens were incubated into selective culture media and incubated for 4-6 days in micoraerophilic condition.Results: Of 82 tested specimens 70 (85.5%) and 66 (80.5%) are identified as Helicobacter pylori by positive urease and culture medium, respectively. The frequency of foushin, giemsa, and gram staining are 67 (81.7%), 66 (80.5%), and 61 (74.4%), respectively. The foushin staining is the best with 100% sensitivity among the other methods.Conclusion: Based on difference between proportions, There is no significant difference between staining methods (foshin, giemsa, gram staining) and culture media in all cases.

Background and objectives: Tuberculin is the proteins existed in tuberculosis culture medium which precipitated by trichloroacetic acid (TCA) or ammonium sulfate. Tuberculin is used for diagnosis of Tuberculosis. The aim of this study is to compare the human tuberculin produced by Razi Institute and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Culture Filtrate Protein.Material and Methods: Initially By biphasic medium, Bacteria from Lowenstein-Jensen solid medium was transferred to a Dorset−Henley Liquid medium. After 6 weeks of growth, the bacteria were isolated from liquid medium containing secretory proteins by the 0, 22 micron filter and the solution containing secretory proteins was precipitated by TCA and ammonium sulfate, separately. Then, using spectrophotometer and kjeldahl protein assay, the presence of protein in solution was confirmed. At the end, the precipitated proteins are compared with the human tuberculin by Coomassie-Blue stained SDS-PAGE Results: The protein samples precipitated by TCA have more bands in the limit of higher than 20 kDa, but the protein samples by ammonium sulfate have more bands in the limit of less than 20 kDa. Human tuberculin proteins are like smear and their weight is less than 16 kDa.Conclusion: It seems that ammonium sulfate is more suitable for low molecular weight proteins than TCA for precipitation.

Background and objectives: Food handlers could be the main sources of intestinal parasite transmission in case of not observing the hygienic rules.Contamination can be decreased by screening food handlers through physical exam and laboratory tests. The aim of this study was determining the prevalence of intestinal parasites in 2010.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional research was carried out on 500 randomly selected individuals engaged in different food related careers. After filling out the questionnaire sheets, two specimens of feces were collected from each person and tested by brine 30% (floatation) and direct methods.Result: The results show that the prevalence of intestinal parasites is 6%.The highest prevalence is relateted to Giardia lamblia (17; 4.3%) and the lowest to Hymenolepis nana (3; 0.6%). in the age group of 60-51 years (11.8%) and individuals who just able to read and write (7.4%) The highest percentage is observed. The Most contamination is reported in butchery staff (25%) and the lowest in people worked in butler's pantry, without parasitic infections.Conclusion: The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections are high relatively, especially pathogenic protozoan; therefore, it is important be careful about health status of these individuals and their role in the spread of pollution.

Background and objectives: Genomic DNA extraction of bacterial cells is of processes performed normally in most biological laboratories; therefore, various methods have been offered, manually and kit, which may be time consuming and costly. In this paper, genomic DNA extraction of Staphylococcus aureus was investigated using some laundry detergent brands available in Iran to achieve a rapid and cost effective method.Material and Methods: five-enzyme Taj brand, three-enzyme Saftlan brand, and Darya and Pak brands without enzyme were used in the concentrations of 10, 20, 40, 80 mg/L. Afterwards, in order to evaluate the efficiency of extracted DNA in downstream processing, PCR test was performed for femA gene in the genome of Staphylococcus aureus.Results: DNA extraction using different concentrations of the brands show that extracted DNA using 40 mg/L Saftlan and Taj brand powders have the best results according concentration (mg/ml) and purity (A260/A280) parameters. These parameters are 387.5; 1.88 (Taj), 254.1; 2.80 (Softlan), 396.6; 1.95 (Manual) and 423.3; 2.2 (Kit), respectively. Afterward, the PCR test results by show that DNA extraction using laundry detergents has no effect on its efficiency in order to be used in downstream processes.Conclusion: These results indicate that the proper concentrations of laundry detergents can be used to extract genomic DNA with similar efficiency to kit and manual extraction methods.

Background and objectives: cardiac surgery is often associated with acute kidney injury (AKI). Nowadays, AKI is typically diagnosed by an increase in serum creatinine, which is a delayed and unreliable biomarker. Recent studies recommended using the liver type fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP) as an early biomarker.Material and Methods: The urine samples of 18 adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery were collected in different times before (2, 4, 8, 24 hour) and after cardiac surgery for detection of L-FABP by Elisa.Results: The results from ELISA test show that the increasing amount of LFABP in urine samples of 4 patients is a diagnostic indicator for AKI. The mean concentration of L-FABP has increased up to 17 times at 8 hours after cardiac surgery compared to before surgery.Conclusion: according to our findings, we speculated that the urinary L-FABP can be a reliable and rapid biomarker for diagnosis of acute kidney injury.

Background and objectives: The increase of ESBL producing E.coli can create a tremendous difficult y for the health system. These isolates leads to rapid transmission of causative genes to other clinically important bacteria and synchronously increased resistant to other antibiotics. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of this isolate and related genes in Gorgan, North of Iran.Material and Methods: This study was conducted on 218 isolated E.coli from urinary tract infection of outpatients referring to six medical laboratories in Gorgan, during 2010-11. The resistance to Cefotaxim (Mast Co.) was assessed by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. The confirmatory test for detection of resistant isolates was carried out by double disk method at the presence of Cefotaxim and clavulanic acid. The presence of b lactamase gene of blatem, blactx and blashv in ESBL was assessed by PCR method.Results: of 218, 70 isolates (32.1%) are resistant to Cefotaxim. Sixty-two (88.6%) of them are confirmed as ESBL producing E.coli.b lactamase genes of blactx, blatem and blashv can be seen in 28 (45.2%), 26 (41.9%) and 6 (9.7%) isolates, respectively.Conclusion: the prevalence of ESBL producing E.coli in Gorgan is in the range of country average and blaCTX-M gene is the most common gene.

Background and objectives: In this research, the formation of chitosan-TiO2 nanocomposite and its antibacterial effect on Escherichia coli and staphylococcus aureus was investigated Material and Methods: to study the results, we used Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transition electron microscopy (TEM) images, infrared (IR) spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible. Optical Density (OD) was also measured by spectrophotometer; then the effect of this nano composite, in the vicinity of aforementioned bacteria, on the sterilized gauze in solid Muller Hinton Agar and TSB liquid mediums was assessed Results: The mentioned nanocomposite was formed with the composition of 4mg/ml Chitosan concentration and 2% titanium dioxide concentration.Finally, we observed that this nanocomposite near 100% could prevent bacterial growth and in the presence of this material did not grow any bacteria.Conclusion: chitosan-Tio2 Nanocomposite can be useful on culture medium and sterilized gauze to control pathologic bacteria.

Background and objectives: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an autosomal disorder characterized by increased levels of total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol. The FH clinical phenotype has been associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease and premature death.The mutation in LDLR gene in most cases is responsible for FH phenotype.Furthermore, other gene mutations such as apolipoprotein B- gene may cause similar results. Preliminary research indicates that the FH phenotype is also influenced by other genetic and environmental Factors; therefore, routine clinical analysis such as total cholesterol and LDL-C levels in serum, for early diagnosis and treatment, are not sufficient. Molecular diagnostic investigations, because of high specifity and sensitivity of near %100, administered for determining the prevalent mutations in LDLR (and probably other genes) are needed for exact diagnosis and accurate therapy. Currently, PCR-SSCP and southern blotting techniques are among the common techniques that could detect major mutations in gene.Because of wide diversity in kinds of mutations in LDLR gene, we recommend, first, determining the proband's mutation and kinds of mutation, then, performing routine test based on type of mutation.