Evaluation of Nested Multiplex PCR in the Diagnosis of Malaria Infection / 대한진단검사의학회지

BACKGROUND: A peripheral blood smear has been the gold standard method for the diagnosis of malaria infection. Recently, many other methods have been introduced, although having inferior sensitivity and specificity to peripheral blood smears. We evaluated Neodin malaria PCR kit and its applicability in clinical settings. METHODS: Samples from seventy patients who visited Korea University hospital were used for evaluation. DNA from EDTA blood was tested in nested multiplex PCR and 470 bp for Plasmodium vivax or 340 bp for Plasmodium falciparum was confirmed after electrophoresis. The detection limit was determined by dilution of malaria positive blood with normal blood. RESULTS: Thirty-five cases of P. vivax and 10 cases of P. falciparum were noted. Except for a case of falciparum malaria, all positive cases were consistent with the peripheral blood smear results. Detection limit was 3.6 parasite/microL. CONCLUSIONS: Neodin malaria nested multiplex PCR has high sensitivity and the ability for species discrimination and may be available in the diagnosis of malaria infection.

Comparison of HLA-B27 typing methods -PCR-SSP, microlymphocytotoxicity, and flow cytometry / 대한임상병리학회지

BACKGROUND: HLA-B27 typing has long been performed by the microlymphocytotoxicity method(MCT) but the flow cytometry method(FCM) was introduced several years ago. False positive results due to the HLA-B7 cross reactive groups(CREG) were the main drawback of the serologic method. The authors performed polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primer(PCR-SSP) test for HLA-B27 to compare the results with serologic methods. METHODS: PCR-SSP test for HLA-B27 was performed on four hundred forty one samples. Three hundred twenty eight samples were tested by MCT and one hundred thirteen samples by FCM. PCR-SSP for HLA-B27 subtyping or Amplification Refractory Mutation System-PCR(ARMS-PCR) for HLA-B typing was performed on twenty four discrepant samples. RESULTS: The concordance rate between MCT and PCR-SSP was 92.9%(305/328) and the concordance rate between FCM and PCR-SSP was 99.1%(112/113). Twenty four(5.4%) out of four hundred forty one samples showed discrepancy between serologic methods and PCR-SSP method. Fourteen out of one hundred MCT positive samples and only one out of forty FCM positive samples showed negative by PCR-SSP. Nine samples showed PCR-SSP positive and MCT negative. CONCLUSIONS: The false positive rate of MCT was quite high and there were some false positive and negative results by PCR-SSP, too. From the above findings, we suggest that FCM is the most accurate method for HLA-B27 typing in those laboratory equipped with flow cytometry.

A Clinical Study of the Nasal Morphologic Changes following LeFortI Osteotomy

The facial esthetics are much affected by nasal changes due to especially its central position in relation to facial outline and so appropriately evaluated should be the functional and esthetic aspects of the nose associated with the facial appearance. Generally, a maxillary surgical movement is known to induce the changes of nasolabial morphology secondary to the skeletal repositioning accompanied by muscular retraction. These changes can be desirable or undesirable to individuals according to the direction and amount of maxillary repositioning. We investigated the surgical changes of bony maxilla and its effects to nasal morphology through the analysis of the lateral cephalogram in the Le Fort I osteotomy. Subjects were 10 patients(male 2, female 8, mean age 22.3 years) and cephalograms were obtained 2 weeks before surgery(T1) and 6 months after surgery(T2). The surgical maxillary movement was identified through the horizontal and vertical repositioning of point A. Soft-tissue analysis of the nasal profile was performed employing two angles: nasal tip projection(NTP), columellar angle(CA). Also, alar base width(ABW) was assessed directly on the patients with a slide gauge. The results were as follows: 1. Both anterior and superior movement above 2mm of maxilla rotated up nasal tip above 1mm. Either anterior or superior movement above 2mm of maxilla made prediction of the amount & direction of NTP changes difficult. Especially, a correlation between horizontal movement of maxilla and NTP rotated-up was P<0.01. 2. Both much highly anterior and superior movement of maxilla is accompanied by more CA increase than either highly. Especially, the correlation between horizontal movement of maxilla and CA change was P<0.05. 3. Anterior and/or superior movement of maxilla was accompanied by the unpredictable ABW widening. 4. The amount of changes of NTP, CA, and ABW is not in direct proportion to amout of anterior and/or superior movement of maxilla. 5. Nasal morphologic changes following Le Fort I osteotomy are affacted by not merely bony repositioning but other multiple factors.

Chemical Modification of RBC Surface Antigen with Methoxy Polyethylene Glycol / 대한임상병리학회지

BACKGROUND: Today, blood group antigens are a strong barrier of safe transfusion. We evaluated the change of agglutinability of antibody to RBC surface antigen before and after activated methoxy polyethylene glycol (mPEG) modification. METHODS: We collected blood from healthy volunteers and the blood were treated by activated mPEG (MW 5,000, Sigma, USA). Agglutinability of RBC was measured using anti-sera (Green Cross, Korea) in ABO and Rh(D) groups, and compared the agglutinability changes before and after mPEG treatment. RESULTS: The agglutinability of Rh(D) surface antigen (n=20) was disappeared after mPEG treatment. However, ABO antigens showed variable agglutinability against antisera, some of which showed no change at all. CONCLUSIONS: In the case of Rh(D) antigen, it would be useful to apply mPEG treated RBCs for clinical use, if the safety problem were solved. But in the case of ABO antigen, the more evaluation of the condition of reaction and the concentration of mPEG should be needed.

A clinical study of the blood loss and transfusion on orthognathic surger