The diagnosis of typhoid fever currently depends on isolation of Salmonella Typhi from blood. The sensitivity of blood culture is very low due to prior antibiotic treatment which is a common practice in Bangladesh. The sensitivity of blood culture also decreases at later stage of the disease. Widal test is the most utilized test in Bangladesh next to blood culture because it is inexpensive, less invasive. But the result of the test is controversial due to false negative & false positive results in some cases.  In this study, a recently introduced polymerase chain reaction-based technique (which has 100% specificity for S. Typhi) was compared with widal test among 80 clinically suspected typhoid fever cases.  Among 80 cases, the respective figures of positivity for PCR & widal test were 70% & 43.75% respectively.  It can be concluded that PCR based technique is more sensitive & much superior to widal for diagnosis of typhoid fever. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpp.v30i2.22683 Bangladesh J Physiol Pharmacol 2014; 30(2): 46-50

<p>This study was undertaken to apply<em> Toxoplasma gondii</em> specific IgG avidity test in seropositive pregnant women to differentiate acute and past infection. <em>T. gondii</em> specific IgG avidity test was conducted in 39 seropositive pregnant women and their pregnancy outcomes were observed later on. Out of 39 <em>T. gondii</em> seropositive pregnant women 33 (84%) were only IgG positive and 6 (15.4%) were both IgG-IgM positive. All the IgG positive cases (100%) and 2(33.3%) IgG-IgM positive cases had high avidity antibodies and they gave birth to healthy babies. Rest of the 4 (66.7%) IgG-IgM positive women had low avidity and 50% of them had abortion and 50% gave birth to unhealthy babies. This reveals that the seropositive mothers having high IgG avidity had past infection and no risk of congenital transmission. Seropositive mothers having low IgG avidity had acute infection and so congenital transmission occurred. Presence of<em> T. gondii</em> specific IgG and IgM antibody does not indicate acute infection always. IgG-IgM positive pregnant women should be further evaluated by IgG avidity assay to confirm acute infection.</p><p> </p>

Introduction: Nosocomial infections have been described as an important issue among intubated patients which leads to significant morbidity and mortality. The pattern of microbiological colonization and antibiotic resistance are much valuable in this regard. Objectives: The aim of present study was to determine the pattern of aerobic bacteria isolated from endotracheal tubes in adult patients and determination of their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Materials and Methods: Specimens were collected from tracheal tubes of patients with endotracheal aspiration and microbiological investigations were done. The isolated bacteria were identified by using standard cultural and biochemical tests. Then antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed on the isolates by disc diffusion method according to clinical and laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guideline. Results: Among 104 participants 68 (65.4%) were female and 36 (34.6%) were male. Most of the patients were in the age group of 71-80 years (48.0%). From 104 positive growths, both Gram positive and Gram negative organisms were found. Maximum samples showed growth of gram negative organism. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that the most resistant Gram negative isolate was Klebsiella with highest resistance against Vancomycin (40.4%) and which showed highest sensitive against Cefotetan, Cefoxitin and Norfloxain (39.4%). Conclusions: It may be concluded that this study indicates the emergence of antibiotic resistant infections in the studied hospital. So, there is a need to improve the effectiveness of integrated infection control programs to control and manage nosocomial infections caused by highly resistant organisms. KYAMC Journal. 2021;12(3): 153-160

A nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) specific for Salmonella enterica subspecies enteric serovar Typhi was used for the detection of the pathogen in blood. This study was done during the period of March 2013 to February 2014. A total of 80 clinically suspected cases of typhoid fever were included in the study. Blood was collected from all participating individuals. Nested PCR targeting the flagellin gene (fliC) of Salmonella Typhi & blood culture were done for each of the cases. The positivity rate of PCR & blood culture was 70%& 20% respectively. The positivity rate of PCR was significantly higher than blood culture (P< 0.05). With the nested PCR, S. Typhi DNAs were detected from blood specimens of 67.2% (43/64) patients among the suspected typhoid fever cases on the basis of clinical features but with negative cultures. We conclude that the PCR technique could be used as a novel diagnostic method of typhoid fever, particularly in culture-negative cases in an endemic country like Bangladesh.

Background: Rheumatic disorders are one of the largest health problems in the world in both developed and developing countries. Among systemic rheumatic disorders, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is very much common. This debilitating disease most commonly affects females, especially at a young age. Though the exact etiology for the development of SLE still remains vague but genetic factors especially, HLA-DR plays an important role particularly in the development of autoantibodies in SLE cases. Objective: This study was undertaken to find out the association of HLA-DR with anti-dsDNA and anti-Sm autoantibodies among patients with SLE. Methods: Buccal swabs for HLA-DR typing and blood samples for detection of anti-dsDNA and anti-Sm were collected from 46 SLE cases. HLA-DR typing was carried out by end point polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with sequence specific primers. Autoantibodies were detected by using ELISA. Results: Out of 46 cases with SLE 44 (95.65%) were female and 2 (4.35%) were male with female: male ratio was 22: 1. Their mean age at study entry was 27.05 ± 8.17 years (mean ± SD), ranging from 12.5-45 years. AntidsDNA was positive in 38 (82.61%) cases and negative in 8 (17.39%) cases. Anti-Sm was positive in 19 (41.30%) cases and negative in 27 (58.70%) cases. The most frequently identified HLA-DR was DR2 (86.96%). When Anti-dsDNA positive cases were compared with Anti-dsDNA negative cases significant association was found with HLA-DR2 (94.73% vs 50%, p value = 0.0044, pc = 0.044, RR = 18.0000). No positive association of HLA-DR was found with anti-Sm autoantibody in this study. The above data suggest that HLA-DR2 has a role in anti-dsDNA production in Bangladeshi patients with SLE. Bangladesh Medical Res Counc Bull 2022; 48: 138-145