utilization of monoclonal antibodies in immunocapture RT-PCR and dot blotting immunobinding assays for the detection of Cucumber mosaic virus

Reliable plant diagnostic techniques are necessary for good crop management. Occasionally, ELISA may not give a definitive result, requiring confirmation using different diagnostic methods. Immunocapture reverse transcription PCR [IC-RT-PCR] requires the direct confirmation of an ELISA result in a simple, cost-effective manner. We found that the use of captured antigens as a template in IC-RT-PCR can eliminate the need for traditional extraction methods and reduce the number of steps involved, costs incurred, and sampling variations. Experiments showed that a reliability of pathogens can be detected using ELISA in the IC-RT-PCR process. To date, a rapid assay for diagnosis of CMV has not been developed, and there is a critical need for a method that can be employed in both laboratory and field. Dot immunobinding assays [DIBA] are useful alternatives to microtitre plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]. It has the additional advantages of simplicity, and is completed quickly in the field or the laboratory on large numbers of samples, in a short time. The method proposed provides a sensitive quantitative technique for dot-immunobinding assay

Neurophysiological and radiological assessment of spinal cord lesions

Several electrophysiological techniques have been used to evaluate the functional neurologic condition of patients with spinal cord lesions. Somatosensory evoked potentials [SEPs] and motor evoked potentials [MEPs] are safe, noninvasive and commonly used techniques to evaluate the integrity of central sensory and motor pathways. Twenty patients [10 males and 10 females] with mean age of 39.7 +/- 15.8 years were included in the study. All patients had focal spinal paraplegia with dorsal sensory level. They underwent the posterior tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potentials [PT-SEPs] studied on both lower limbs and tibialis anterior motor evoked potentials [TA-MEP] studied on both upper and lower limbs by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation. Subjects with evidence of medical disorders, peripheral neuropathy or evidence of cervical lesions were excluded from the study. Moreover, the patients were subjected to nerve conduction studies of both lower limbs and MRI with contrast on dorsal spine. From the results obtained, it was concluded that clinically complete lesions are not necessarily neurophysiologically silent. Recordable SEPs and MEPs may be obtained in spite of clinically complete lesions and vise versa. MRI is the procedure of choice for detecting most of the spinal cord lesions. Despite the accuracy of the MR study in detection of anatomic changes of the spinal cord, they may fail to correlate such changes with the functional state of the cord. Sensory and motor evoked potential can play an important role in following up and monitoring the patients with dorsal cord lesions

Effect of myringoplasty on tympanometric measurements

This study was carried out to assess the myringoplasty operation tympanometrically. The grafted drum, despite of being apparently normal clinically, may still have some imprints on the tympanometric measurements. These imprints may correlate with some pre and intra-operative findings concerning the myringoplasty procedure. The studied sample involved twenty patients who underwent successful myringoplasty compared to twenty controls. The study had demonstrated significant correlation between the preoperative site and size of a drum perforation, also its grafting technique, versus the postoperative tympanometric measurements. However, such correlation was absent in recording the stapedial reflex