The resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae to antibiotics at children with medium otitis

Abstract

Background: Brucellosis is most common global zoonosis and an important public health problem in many parts of the world. Diagnosis of brucellosis is frequently difficult to establish and diagnostic methods are not always successful in isolating the organisms. Therefore, the rapid detection of Brucella Spp. with the Bactec system and PCR may lead to an earlier diagnosis and may improve patient management. The aim of this study was to evaluate PCR technique as a diagnostic tool for brucellosis in comparison to conventional bacteriological techniques.Methods: A total of 50 patients suspected to have brucellosis were included in this study. All patients presented with clinical signs compatible with brucellosis. Diagnosis was established by high-titer antibodies. High titer was defined as a titer equal to or greater than 1:80 by the standard tube agglutination (STA) method was considered significant. Blood samples and sera from those patients were tested by culture using BACTEC 9050 system and PCR using primer set to amplify a 223 bp region with in the gene coding for a 31 KD brucella antigen.Results: 50 patients were included in the study: 27 were male and 23 were female, and their ages ranged from 8 to 77 years (median, 43 years). Forty-seven (94%) of the patients have a titer of ≥ 1:80 using the standard tube agglutination (STA) method. While 2 (4%) of the patient have 1:40 titer and 1(2%) of the patient have 1:20 titer. All of the patients have a titer of ≥ 1:80 using the Coombs' antibruclla test. Eleven whole blood samples and 17 serum samples out of 50 had positive PCR and 7 patients out of 50 had brucella species grown in their cultures. Conclusion:Our results suggest that the serum-PCR assay is rapid and easy to perform and highly sensitive and specific, and it may therefore be considered a useful tool for diagnosis of human brucellosis.