Producion of efficient antimicrobial drugs against to common human pathogens is one of the most important challenges in the field of medical microbiology. Continuous screening of clinical isolates and survey of antimicrobial resistance pattern is critical.Today, disk diffusion and dilution methods are known as the common antimicrobial susceptibility TESTing methods. Disk diffusion method does not render dependable results in determination of antimicrobial susceptibility pattern because this method is semi quantitative. MIC determination by microdilution and macrodilution techniques and recent method “E-TEST”, have given interpretable results to researchers. Microdilution and macrodilution methods are also time consuming, expensive and error- prone methods. Whereas E-TEST method is one of the means by which we will be able to determine susceptibility pattern of known species in low cost and short time. In this survey, constructing and printing of E-TEST, coating of antibiotic on O.H.P film and quality control of constructed E-TESTs were performed according to M7 A7 CLSI Standard. In this study quality of required materials for E-TEST Production were suitable. Evaluation of constructed strips was performed using standard strain of staphylococcus aureus and reproducibly of results was appreciated.

Contact dermatitis is an inflammatory skin disease due to contact with different substances and caused by two mechanisms: allergy and irritation. Contact dermatitis is a common skin disease and the most common occupational dermatosis. Differentiating between allergic and irritant contact dermatitis is essential in the identification of etiologic factor(s) and hence, its control and prognosis. This differentiation can be done only by patch TEST. Unfortunately, this simple, safe and useful TEST is always neglected. We review the basics of patch TEST, the method of performance, reading and interpretation of its results, possible side effects and results of studies done with patch TEST in different countries.

The present study investigated varieties of C-TEST as measures of General Language proficiency (GLP). C-TEST was first introduced into language TESTing as a modification of close procedure. The original C-TEST was developed by mutilating the second half of every other word, beginning from word two ID sentence two of [l passage. Through various studies, C-TEST proved an integrative and a highly reliable and valid measure of (GLP. The present study was also aimed at further confirming those findings by investigating not only the original C-TEST but other varietis of C-TEST. To this end ten C-TEST versions were developed, by applying different deletion techniques and deletion rates, and were administered among nearly 500 senior EFL students, in the way that each form was given to almost 50 subjects. All the subjects had already taken a TOEFL. and a close TEST prior to the administration of the C-TESTs. The results of data analyses showed that C:-TEST may measure different things one of which might be general language proficiency and as such, not all varieties of C-TEST measure this construct to the same extent.

Background: Streptococcal pharyngitis is the most common type of acute bacterial pharyngitis that may have different complications if remained untreated. On the other hand, antibiotics may impose side effects if prescribed for healthy subjects, thus, the appropriate diagnosis of affected individuals is of utmost importance. Previous studies have indicated the accuracy of Rapid TEST for streptococcal pharyngitis, so the present study was conducted to determine the accuracy of Rapid TEST among a group of Iranians.Materials and methods: For this clinical trail, 320 consecutive cases of sore throat were enrolled. Rapid TEST was performed for all cases; however, culture was our gold standard for diagnosis. Finally, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated.Results: The study population included 150 males and 170 females with the mean age of 21 ± 7 years. The positive and negative predictive values of Rapid TEST were 66% and 98.5%, respectively.Conclusion: With respect to the known complications of acute pharyngitis, we strongly recommend Rapis TEST for all patients with sore throat.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important etiologic agents causing severe infection in human. Extravagant use of vancomycin as first line treatment of infections caused by this organism, has led to production of vancomycin resistant staphylococci and enterococci, as an important health problem. The recommendations of international societies to control nosocomial infections , regarding making policies for vancomycin usage in health and treatment centers in order to prevent development and spread of vancomycin resistant Enterococcus and staphylococcus aureus. The goal of this study is determining sensitivity of S. aureus isolated from clinical specimens hospitalized patients using E-TEST in order to find suitable primary therapeutic method.Methods: This study is Analytic descriptive, and 14 different antibiotics were evaluated using E-TEST method at Al_Zahra hospital in Isfahan. Quality control was implemented using staphylococcus ATCC 29213. Data were analyzed by SPSS -13 software and WHOnet-5 after editing and entering into computer. Findings: This study was done on 72 patients, 25 of whom were women and the rest were men. There was no meaningful relation between patients sex and the place of isolation of organisms , but regarding ward of hospitalization and resistance rate , highest resistance was observed in ICU and surgical wards (P<0.05). Highest sensitivity is to vancomycin (93.5%) and then to Rifampin (87%) and amikacin (71.4%). Highest resistance is against doxycycline and oxacillin (75%) and then cotrimoxazole and ofloxacin with 69% resistance stand at next level. Conclusion: Because of inadvertent use of antibiotics , specially in hospitals?ICU and surgical wards, the resistance of potentially dangerous and lethal bacteria like staphylococcus aureus is high and presently only a few drugs like vancomycin exist that can cover this Bacterium.

Background: Various environmental factors can induce or exaggerate hand eczema. Objective: Evaluation of patch TEST results in hand eczema patients. Patients and Methods: In this descriptive study 100 patients with hand eczema referred to Loghman Hakim & Booali Hospital in Tehran underwent patch TESTing with 23 allergens obtained from Hennal Company. Results: 240 positive reactions observed in 86 patients. The most common positive reactions were related to nickel sulfate (30 patients, 13.5%) and potassium dichromate (28 patients, 11.7%). In positive group 28 patients were male and 58 were female. In negative group 3 patients were male and 11 were female (P>0.05). The mean age was 31.7±11.9 years and 24.8± 9.2 years for positive group and negative group, respectively (P<0.05). In positive patch TEST group 49 patients had subacute and 37 patients had chronic eczema. In negative patch TEST 11 patients had subacute eczema and 3 patients had chronic eczema (P>0.05). Conclusion: Performing patch TEST, the allergens involved in hand eczema can be detected. Detecting type of allergens, patients will be able to avoid those materials which can lead to improvement of disease.        

Introduction: Contact eczema is a common inflammatory skin disease; different materials with irritant and allergic mechanisms can produce this disease. Although history and physical examination are important in diagnosis of allergen, because of extent of several factors, environmental allergens, were not simply recognized. Patch TEST is an important diagnostic tool to confirm allergic contact dermatitis and can reduce mistake of clinical diagnoses.Objective: Determine frequency of dermatic allergens in patients with contact or atopic dermatitis who were referred to Razi hospital in Rasht.Materials and Methods: In a descriptive cross sectional study during 22 months, 100 patients with clinical diagnoses of contact and atopic dermatitis who referred to Razi hospital patch TESTed with European standard series containing 24 allergens. Their reactions were evaluated after 24, 48 and 72 hours after application of patch TEST. Data was collected and were analyzed by SPSS. (P<0.05 was considered significant.Results: Among 100 patients, positive patch TEST was seen in 36% which mean age of them was (30.67) years (SD=10.85 The most common involved location was hand (86%) and most common allergens were Nickel sulfate (20%) and potassium dichromate (9%). In this study 6 (25%) of all allergens showed positive reaction.Conclusion: Nickel Sulfate and Potassium Dichromate were the most common contact allergens in our study.