ABSTRACT
Leptospirosis is the most widespread zoonosis in the world and is more prevalent in tropical and temperate regions. Guilan Province in north of Iran, is an endemic region of human leptospirosis. Since diagnosis of leptospirosis according to clinical symptoms is very difficult due to lack of characteristic pathogonomic sign[s], laboratory support is necessary. In 2003, we obtained blood samples from patients hospitalized in main general hospitals of Guilan Province and were suspected as having leptospirosis according to their clinical presentations. We examined 995 sera by a commercial IgM and IgG ELISA kit to find positive cases. 62.7% of positive cases were male and about 86% of them were farmer. High distribution rate of leptospirosis was seen in middle-aged people [65% in 20-50 years old]. It seems that leptospirosis has a high occurrence in major cities and is mostly distributed in warm months of the year. Demographic analysis of the results indicates that leptospirosis is typically a rural and an occupational disease in the area
Subject(s)
Humans , Leptospira , Zoonoses , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent AssayABSTRACT
Introduction: Leptospirosis is most widespread Zoonosis in the world, especially in Tropical and temperate regions with moist climate. Diagnosis of Leptospirosis according to clinical symptoms is difficult and uncertain due to lack of specific sign [s]. Leptospira is a fastidious bacterium. Isolation of these bacteria by culture is difficult, time consuming and hence doses not contribute to an early diagnosis. Specific antibodies against Leptospira appear from 6th day of disease onset. The Microscopic Agglutination Test [MAT] is most reliable assay but generally requires paired sera for detection of seroconversion and is considered too complex for routine use
Objective: We performed this study to final a simple and reliable method for diagnosis of acute human leptospirosis. ELISA is another common method for diagnosis of Leptospirosis
Materials and Methods: In summer of 2004, we examined 282 single sera of patients who were suspected of Leptospirosis by a commercial none quantities and an in-house semi quantative ELISA assays and compared their results with MAT
Results: Mean time of first taking blood samples were 6:36 after onset of symptoms. All specimens with titers >/=640 against a pathogenic serovar in MAT were regarded as confirmed leptospirosis [104 from 282]. All specimens which were positive in any IgM-ELISA assays were compared with the results of MAT. In our study, sensitivity, specifity, positive and negative predictive values of in house ELISA were 89.4%, 87%, 80.2% and 93.4% consequently but were 87.5%, 41.5%, 44.6% and 85% for comerical IgM-ELISA assay consequently
Conclusion: The results of our study show that IgM- ELISA assay is a reliable and sensitive method for diagnosis of acute leptospirosis and also show that in house semi quantative IgM ELISA was more specific and commercial qualitative IgM- ELISA was more sensitive
ABSTRACT
Increasing the body building sport in young people, using various drugs to enhance the body efficiency is beeing increased. However, they play the temporary roles in body-building, but they cause the irreparable poisionings and bad effects on them 337 body-building athletes from among 70 clubs in Semnan province were chosen randomly and they were given a questionnaire, containing the demographic questions, in which the rate of using drugs and their knowledge about the side-effects of these drugs had been considered, was filled out via interview. To analyse the data, chi-square and ratio tests were used 27.3% of samples used the doping drugs [95% CI: 22.5%- 32.1%]. The most common drugs were food supplements [20.8%], anabolic steroide [14.2%] and vitamins [7.1%]. The people who used doping drugs were at the ages of 20 [35.4%], 20-25 [26.1%] and higher than 20 [21.1%]. 31.7% of cases were with under highschool diploma.Using these drugs were more than those who had diploma degree or higher [23.3%]; and showing a significant relationship [P=0.0418]. Also, the percentage of using the doping drugs among the cases under 20 [35.4%] was significantly [P=0.0294] higher than cases with more than 20 year-old [24.7%]. Among the athletes, only 4.7% of them had knowledge about the side-effects of doping drugs, and there was a significant relationship between the knowledge of bad effects and level of educations [P<0.004]. Increasing the consumption of doping drugs, using in lower ages and having less knowledge about the side-effects among users, showing that the physical education instructors and the athletes are trained and regarding to kinds of drugs and variation among them, educational structure is changed to prevent the next problems