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The routinely used urinary reagent strip can be utilized for the rapid analysis of CSF. If implemented, this technique will be useful in rural areas. It would also decrease the turnaround time in centers where the facility is available.

Background and Objective:Periodontitis is a major public health problem in India with a prevalence of 60–80%. If untreated it acts as a risk factor for systemic diseases. Data on anaerobic periodontal microflora in the Indian population is very scarce. Hence, this study was undertaken to know the nature of oral microbiota in chronic periodontitis in this region of India and also the semiquantitative study in pre- and post-treatment group and to determine antibiotic susceptibility pattern for aerobic isolates.Materials and Methods:The present study was conducted on 60 cases. Material was collected from the subgingival pockets in patients with chronic periodontitis attending the Periodontology, Outpatient Department. Clinical samples were transported to the laboratory in fluid thioglycollate medium. Initially Gram's stain and Fontana stains were done. Aerobic, anaerobic, and microaerophilic culture were put up. Antibiotic sensitivity test was done for aerobic isolates.Results:Sixty samples yielded 121 isolates of which 78.34% were polymicrobial, 11.66% were monomicrobial and oral commensals were grown in 10% cases. Out of 121 isolates 91.74% were anaerobic, 7.43% were aerobic and 0.83% were microaerophilic. Fusobacterium species was the most common isolate among anaerobes. Using “paired t-test” “P” value was significant indicating significant reduction in colony count after phase-I periodontal therapy.Conclusion:This study has shown that anaerobic bacteria are important cause of chronic periodontitis, along with aerobes and microaerophilic organisms. Fusobacterium spp, Bacteroides fragilis, Porphyromonas spp and Prevotella intermedia are the most common anaerobic pathogens. Bacterial culture methods are still economical and gold standard.

Background:India has the highest tuberculosis (TB) burden, accounting for one-fifth of the global incidence and two-third of the cases in Southeast Asia with an estimated 1.9 million new cases every year. Identifying and treating latent TB infection (LTBI) can reduce the risk of development of active disease by up to 90%, thereby decreasing a major burden to the prevalence of the disease, and thus reducing potential sources in future.Aim:Early diagnosis of LTBI by tuberculin skin test (TST) and a newer interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA).Materials and Methods:Seventy-seven clinically asymptomatic household contacts (≤18 years) of confirmed pulmonary TB patients were enrolled to compare the performance of TST and IGRA to diagnose LTBI. At baseline, all participants underwent testing for IGRA and TST.Results:TST showed positivity of 22%, while IGRA demonstrated positivity of 40% in the diagnosis of latent TB. Kappa value at 95% confidence interval was 0.4753, indicates a moderate agreement between the two tests. This indicates that IGRA is a better predictor of latent TB. Maximum positive percentage was in the age group of 16–18 years in both the tests followed by 1–5 years.Aim:Early diagnosis of LTBI by tuberculin skin test (TST) and a newer interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA).