Our results show that exposure to T. gondii may lead to schizophrenia.

TS is therefore a diagnosis that attending doctors need to consider early. Patients in endemic area of TB, presenting with back pain in association with constitutional symptoms and elevated ESR and or positive CRP should be investigated to exclude TS. Older age, male gender, chronic peritoneal dialysis, imprisonment and previous TB infection may be the main risk factors of TS.

Background:Diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is not always easy, thus employing methods with a short duration and acceptable sensitivity and specificity is necessary to diagnose TB.Objectives:The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of serum adenosine deaminase (ADA) level for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.Patients and Methods:A total of 160 sex and age-matched subjects were included in this study, and were divided to four groups; forty patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) diagnosed based on the national TB program (NTP), forty patients with non-tuberculosis bacterial pneumonia, forty patients with lung cancer and forty people who were healthy in every respect. Serum adenosine deaminase activity in patients of each group was measured by the Giusti and Galanti calorimetry method using a commercial kit (Diazyme, USA). The ANOVA analysis was used to compare groups for quantitative variables.Results:Mean serum ADA level in the PTB group was clearly higher than the mean serum ADA in the other three groups. Mean serum ADA was 26 IU/L in PTB patients, 19.48 IU/L in patients with pneumonia, 15.8 IU/L in patients with lung cancer, and 10.7 IU/L in the control group (P < 0.05). In regard to the cut off value of 26 IU/L for ADA in patients with PTB sensitivity and specificity was defined as 35% and 91%, respectively.Conclusions:Serum ADA activity with high specificity percentage may be a useful alternative test in restricted resource areas to rule out diagnosis of PTB. However, serum ADA activity is not a useful tool for TB diagnosis.

Background:Early treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is necessary for a successful tuberculosis (TB) control program.Objectives:The objective of this study was to determine total treatment delay and its associated factors among PTB patients in Ahvaz.Patients and Methods:A retrospective study was performed among newly diagnosed PTB cases registered in 2010 at the Ahvaz health center. Total treatment delay was defined as the time interval between the onsets of cough to the initiation of anti-TB treatment. Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment was based on the national TB program (NTP). Data analysis was performed using the SPSS software by chi-square and Fisher's exact test with odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).Results:The mean age of the patients was 38.9 ± 12.3 years; 83 were male and 56 were female. Of the 139 smear positive PTB cases, 91 (65.5%) cases had received delayed-treatment. The mean time between onset of symptoms, diagnosis and treatment was 73 days (median: 48 days, range: 4-570 days). Female gender (OR (95% CI): 2.9, 1.03-8.23, P = 0.02), smoking (OR (95% CI): 0.49, 0.22-0.96, P = 0.04) and receiving immunosuppressive drugs (OR (95% CI): 8.18, 1.09-75.31, P < 0.05) were associated with longer delayed time.Conclusions:Delayed diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis appears to be the main problem in the TB control program of the region. Delayed time is significantly associated with female gender, smoking and immunosuppressive drugs.