ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess the prevalence of common pathogens isolated in blood cultures in hospitalized patients at a tertiary care hospital of Lahore
Methods: The retrospective study was done on patients with a higher probability of bacteremia and/or fungemia. Majority of the patients belong to the neonatal and pediatric group, other cases were from ICU, CCU, medical and surgical units. The blood was drawn aseptically from the patient's vein, added to TSB broth, incubated and then cultured. The organisms isolated were identified by biochemical profiling
Results: This study included 1568 patients of blood stream infection [BSI]. Out of these, 225 [14.34%] patients yielded positive blood cultures and 1343 [85.65%] patients did not yield any growth. Among the positive blood cultures 89 [39.55%] were from neonates, 81 [36%] from pediatrics and 55 [24.4%] were from adults. The most common bacterial pathogen isolated in Gram positive organisms was CoNS i.e. 55 [24%] followed by Gram negative Pseudomonas 50 [22.2%], whereas in fungal infections the most common pathogen was Candida spp. 29 [12.88%]
Conclusions: The results of our studies shows the frequency of positive blood cultures in neonates and adults. We can conclude that the frequency is much higher in neonates than adults
ABSTRACT
Objective: to evaluate the variations in HCV glycoprotein E1 gene and to map epitopes in the variable E 1 regions informing the development of an effective vaccine against HCV
Methods: to isolate the E1 gene, RNA extraction was done by using the kit method and then it was converted to the cDNA. Confirmation of HCV presence in the collected samples was done through highly conserved core primers. This was then followed by PCR amplification for E1 gene. The sequenced E 1 genes were translated in silica into protein sequences
Results: a these proteins sequences were then analyzed for the presence of B-cell and T-cell epitopes; two B-cell epitopes [CSLYPGHLSGHRMAWD, TASIRSHVDLLVGMT] and one T-cell epitope [QAFTFRPRR] were found useful. These could be helpful in the formation of a proper vaccine against HCV
Conclusion: we found 2 B-cell epitopes and 1 T-cell epitope conserved in 3a genotype that may help in vaccine development