This study was carried out to isolate and identify the etiological agents causing suppurative corneal ulcers and to perform the antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the bacterial isolates. Samples (corneal swabs and scrapings) were collected aseptically from 56 suppurative corneal ulcer patients attending Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH). Isolation and identification of the microbial agents and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were done in the Microbiology laboratory of Rajshahi Medical College. Culture yielded growth in a total of 47(83.93%) cases out of 56 patients with pure fungal growth, pure bacterial growth and mixed microbial growth (both bacteria and fungi) in 24(42.86%), 14(25.0%), and 09(16.07%) cases respectively. Among the fungal isolates, Aspergillus fumigatus was the leading agent detected in 10(30.30%) cases followed by Fusarium spp, Mucor spp, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus spp, Unidentified branching fungus and Alternaria spp. found in 08(24.24%), 04(12.12%), 03(9.09%), 02(6.06%), 02(6.06%), 03(9.09%) and 01(3.03%) cases respectively. Staphylococcus aureus was the leading bacterial pathogen found in 10(43.47%) cases followed by Pseudomonas spp., H. influenzae, Staph. epidermidis, Strept. pneumoniae and E. coli detected in 05(21.73%), 03(13.04%), 02(8.69%), 02(8.69%) and 01(4.35%) cases respectively. Lomefloxacin, Tobramycin and Gentamicin were found to be better efficacious drugs against most of the bacterial pathogens noted in in-vitro susceptibility testing. This limited study has revealed and reinforced that suppurative corneal ulcers are caused by both bacterial and fungal agents with fungal preponderance in this geographical area and Lomefloxacin, Tobramycin and Gentamicin are better choice of antibiotics to treat bacterial suppurative corneal ulcers patients.Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2010; 03 (02): 33-36

Objective: Urine is the most frequent specimen received for culture/sensitivity by clinical laboratories. The microbiological performance of HiCrome UTI agar medium was compared with Blood agar and MacConkey agar for isolation and presumptive identification of bacteria from urine culture. Methods: A total of 443 consecutively collected midstream and/or catheter-catch urine samples from patients attending the Islami Bank Medical College Hospital, Rajshahi, Bangladesh during January to December, 2012 were cultured. Urine samples showing pus cells ≥ 5/HPF were inoculated on to Blood agar (BA), MacConkey agar (MAC) and HiCrome UTI agar (CA) media simultaneously and incubated overnight aerobically at 370C. Rate of isolation and presumptive identification of bacterial species were compared for different media. Results: Culture yielded a total of 199 bacterial isolates from 189 (42.67%) positive plates including 179 (40.40%) unimicrobial and 10 (2.26%) polymicrobial (mixed growth of pair of bacteria) growths. Both HiCrome UTI agar and Blood agar media supported 100% growths while 151 (75.88%) growths were observed on MacConkey agar. The rate of presumptive identification was found significantly higher on HiCrome UTI agar (97.49%) than MAC agar (67.34%) (P<0.001) as primary urine culture medium. Of 199 isolates, E. coli was found to be the leading uropathogen isolated from 118 (59.30%) samples with its presumptive identification rate of 95.76%, 93.22% and 5.93% on CA, MAC and BA respectively. All 10 (100%) polymicrobial growths were demonstrated distinctly on CA against only 01(10%) on each BA and MAC. Conclusion: HiCrome UTI agar was found to be more useful as primary urine culture medium in both higher rate of isolation and presumptive identification of uropathogens in comparison to conventional media. Its inherent characteristics in demonstrating polymicrobial growth and ease of rapid identification by distinct colony colour are unique.

The present study has been carried out in an attempt to evaluate antimicrobial susceptibility patterns with special reference to susceptibility of Salmonella Typhi to ciprofloxacin isolated from blood culture. The study is also designed to find out the MIC of Ciprofloxacin by E-test. Blood samples were taken for culture sensitivity, Widal test and ICT from 100 clinically suspected cases of typhoid fever in 1 st week of illness who attended at out patient department of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH).The study was done in Microbiology Department of Rajshahi Medical College and Shishu Hospital, Dhaka. Diagnosis of patients was based on history of fever, blood culture, Widal test and ICT. The antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of isolates from blood culture was recorded. Further more, the minimum inhibitory concentration of Ciprofloxacin was determined by E-test for the isolates resistance to Ciprofloxacin. Out of 100 suspected cases of typhoid fever, blood culture positive for S. Typhi were 16 (16%). Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of 16 isolates of S. Typhi showed that no isolate was resistant to Ceftriaxone and Ceftazidime, only 03(18.75%) were resistant to Ciprofloxacin and Azithromycin whereas 10(62.5%) were MDR showing resistance to Ampicillin, Co-trimoxazole and Chloramphenicol which are first-line antityphoidal drugs. On the other hand, all (100%) the isolates were resistant to Nalidixic acid.The study revealed that Ceftriaxone and Ceftazidime are the most effective drugs in the treatment of typhoid fever. Moreover, E-test has been found to be helpful to determine appropriate therapeutic dose of Ciprofloxacin specially in case of drug resistance and pediatric population.

Summary Three varieties of Lathyrus sativus L. released from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), viz., BARI Khesari-1, BARI Khesari-2 and BARI Khesari-3, were studied cytogenetically and at the molecular level by using RAPD for genomic characterization. The three varieties were found to posses 2n=14 chromosomes. The karyotype formulae of BARI Khesari-1 and BARI Khesari-2 are 8m + 6sm, while it is 10 m + 4sm in BARI Khesari-3. After orcein and CMA staining, one to two very small chromosome-like bodies were found in some cells of BARI Khesari-1, whereas no such body was observed after DAPI staining. Due to their unique features these can be considered as GC-rich heterochromatic B-chromosomes. In BARI Khesari-2, two pairs of satellites were found, while only one pair was present in BARI Khesari-3. The inverted position of satellited regions indicated the probable occurrence of homozygous inversion. An indication of paracentric inversion regarding DAPI-banding pattern was found in pair V of BARI Khesari-2 and thus could be considered as marker chromosomes for this variety. The three varieties have distinct CMA-and DA-PI-banding patterns. In BARI Khesari-2, a total of 12 C-bands were found on 10 chromosomes (out of 14 chromosomes). On the basis of band position and length, a deep correlation between C-banding and DAPI-banding pattern was found suggesting the heterochromatic nature of DAPI bands. Each variety showed different RAPD fingerprinting with 59.09% polymorphisim. In addition, a number of variety-specific unique RAPD bands was observed. Therefore, each variety could be characterized on the basis of karyotype and RAPD analysis.

Acute meningoencephalitis syndrome (AMES) is a life threatening condition of all ages caused by different microbial agents. Etiological diagnosis is imperative for introduction of appropriate antimicrobial agents to treat the condition. This cross sectional prospective study included seventy five (75) clinically suspected patients of AMES of different age and sex groups, who were admitted at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) during August, 2005 to Jun e, 2006. Cerebra spinal fluid (CSF) was studied by Gram-stained smear examination, bacterial culture, latex agglutination test (LAT), cytological and biochemical tests. The serum samples were also tested for qualitative C - reactive protein (CRP} by latex agglutination test and lgM anti body against Japanese Encephalitis (JE} virus by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Direct microscopy on Gram-stained smears of CSF was found positive for 10 (13.33%) cases while bacterial culture was positive in 17(22.66%) cases. Culture yielded H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae  N.  meningitidis  and  Esch.  coli  in 07 (41.17%), 05 (29.41%), 04 (23.53%) and 01(5.88%) cases respectively. Higher rate of isolation was noted among 0-5 years age group. Out of 75 CSF samples, LAT could be done for randomly selected 45 cases with positive results observed in 18 (40%) cases. Good correlation of increase total white cell count and protein level and decrease glucose level was observed among culture-positive cases in cytological and biochemical analysis of CSF. Serum CRP was found positive in 21 (28.00%) cases and it had also excellent (94.11%) correlation with culture-positive cases. Among 75 patients, whose CSF samples were found apparently clear on physical examination, 40 of them were tested for serum lgM antibodies against JE virus with 4 (10%) cases as JE-positive in ELISA. All bacterial isolates were 100% sensitive to ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin except S. pneumoniae which showed 80% sensitivity to ciprofloxacin in antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Variable sensitivity pattern was noted against penicillin, ampicillin, cotrimoxazole, gentamycin and erythromycin. This limited study has revealed that clinically suspected cases of AMES can have varying etiology with JE virus is an important cause detected among patients admitted in RMCH and Ceftriaxone is the drug of choice for bacterial meningitis.TAJ 2009; 22(1): 216-222