Background: Dermatophytoses infections are widespread in the developing world. The laboratory diagnosis of dermatophytes has been a challenge as it involves microscopy and trained personnel. Potassium hydroxide wet mount with dimethyl sulfoxide added is routinely used in direct microscopy. But it lacks color contrast and the hyphae may be missed on routine microscopy. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Chicago sky blue stain against routine potassium hydroxide-dimethyl sulfoxide (KOH/DMSO) wet mount in direct microscopy. Patients and methods: The study was carried out at the Department of Microbiology, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore over a period of nine months from July 2013 till March 2014. Patients of either gender regardless of age, clinically diagnosed as having dermatophytoses by dermatologists were selected for this study. Specimens from 100 patients were collected from the dermatology outdoor of a tertiary care hospital for this study. They were evaluated microscopically with routine potassium hydroxide-dimethyl sulfoxide (KOH-DMSO) wet mount and Chicago sky blue (CSB) stain. Data were collected and entered in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Results: Out of a total of 100 samples collected from skin, hair and nails, 59% were positive on direct microscopy with KOH/DMSO wet mount. Whereas direct microscopy using CSB stain revealed dermatophytes in 62% of cases. Conclusion: Chicago sky blue staining is a better technique for the detection of dermatophytes as compared to potassium hydroxide wet mount examination. It is simple, rapid, and easy to interpret. We recommend the use of this technique to improve the detection of dermatophytes without awaiting the results of the culture.

2 μg/ml were screened for heteroresistance by Glycopeptide Resistance Detection (GRD) E-test and Vancomycin screen agar. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0. Results: When compared with E test GRD, Vancomycin screen agar (V3) showed 100% sensitivity with a 95% CI 39.76% to 100% and the specificity was 65 % with a 95 % CI 47.46% to 79.79%. Its PPV was 23% and NPV was 100% with an overall diagnostic accuracy of 68%. When compared with E test GRD, Vancomycin screen agar (V4) showed a sensitivity of 75% with a 95% CI 19.41% to 99.37% and a specificity of 86.47% with a 95% CI 71.91 to 95.59%. Its PPV was 37.5% and NPV predictive value was 96.96% with an overall diagnostic accuracy of 85.36%. Conclusion: In developing countries like Pakistan, where E tests are costly and difficult to use in routine laboratories, a screening test, which does not miss heteroresistant VISA may be of clinical use.

Zinc oxide plays an important role in the current industry due to its special characteristics such as anti-corrosion, anti-bacteria, low electron conductivity and excellent heat resistance. The synthesis of Zno NPs by the sol-gel method has recently gained widespread use to synthesize and characterize zinc oxide nanoparticles. Sol-gel method is the simplest method and has the ability to control the particle size and morphology through systematic monitoring of reaction parameters. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized via sol-gel method using Zinc acetate dehydrate (Zn(CH COO) .2H O) as a precursor and ethanol (CH COOH) were used as a solvent, Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and distilled water were used as a medium. ZnO nanoparticles were characterized by using XRD, EDX, FESEM, and nano-particles analyser. The result of EDX characterization shows that the ZnO nanoparticles have good purity with (Zinc content of- 55.38% and; Oxygen content of- 44.62%). XRD result spectrum displays mainly oxygen and zinc peaks, which indicate the crystallinity in nature as exhibited. FESEM micrographs show that synthesized ZnO have a rod-like structure. The obtained ZnO nanoparticles are homogenous and consistent in size which corresponds to the XRD result that exhibits good crystalline. ZnO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by the sol-gel method in the nano size range between 81.28 nm to 84.98 nm.