Comparison between DOT EIA IgM and Widal Test as early Diagnosis of Typhoid Fever.

A recently developed DOT enzyme immunoassay known as "Typhidot" for detecting IgM antibody against 50 KDa OMP antigen of Salmonella typhi, was evaluated on 100 clinically suspected typhoid fever cases and 40 age-sex matched controls, in the Department of Microbiology, Mymensingh Medical College during, the period from June 2006 to July 2007. Blood culture, Widal test, and DOT EIA for IgM test were performed in all patients. Among 100 clinically suspected typhoid fever cases, 35 were subsequently confirmed on the basis of positive blood culture for S. typhi and/or significant rising titre of Widal test. The DOT EIA IgM test could produce results within 1 hour. The result of the DOT EIA IgM test showed a good diagnostic value for typhoid fever. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the test was found as 91.42%, 90.00%, 88.88% and 92.30% respectively. On the other hand corresponding values for Widal test were of 42.85%, 85.00%, 71.42% and 62.96% respectively. Thus, The DOT EIA IgM seems to be a practical alternative to Widal test for early diagnosis of typhoid fever.

Anti H.pylori IgM in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Population.

To evaluate the usefulness of specific IgM in the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection, a cross sectional study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology, Mymensingh Medical College between July 2006 to June 2007. A total of 45 patients having upper gastrointestinal symptoms underwent endoscopy and were subsequently diagnosed as patients with gastritis, peptic ulcer (PU) and non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) and another 45 asymptomatic individuals aged 18-65 years, were included in the study. The serum samples of participants were tested for presence of anti-H pylori IgM by using ELISA method. The ELISA for anti H. pylori IgM provided sensitivity and specificity of 73.33%, 93.33% respectively.

Increasing trend of ciprofloxacin resistance amongst common bacterial isolates at Mymensingh Medical College and Hospital.

Ciprofloxacin resistance among common bacterial pathogen comprising Esch.coli, Staph.aureus and Pseudomonas spp. isolated from different clinical samples of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital during the periods of September, 1999 to March, 2001 and September, 2001 to August, 2002 were recorded. Values of two periods were compared and increased rate of ciprofloxacin resistance were noted in every bacterial species, e.g. 32.0% in Esch.coli, 8.7% in Staph.aureus and 5.1% in Pseudomonas spp. It was suggested to be aware and careful regarding use of ciprofloxacin in clinical practice so as to limit emergence of bacterial strains resistance towards the drug.

Resistance pattern of bacteria isolated from acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) cases.

Out of 350 acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) patients 110 (31.4%) were positive on culture. Among then (35.5%) yielded from upper respiratory tract infection (URI) and 64.5% yielded from lower respiratory tract infection (LRI). Predominant bacterial isolates from URI were Staph aureus (12.4%) and Strepto. pyogen (9.8%) whereas predominant agent from LRI were Strepto. pneumoniae (14.7%) and Haemophilus influenzae (8.6%). Capsular typing by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and type specific antisera revealed that 64.7% of the isolates were type-b and rest were non-b. The most frequent resistance pattern of H. influenzae was found resistant to penicillin-ampicillin (64.7%) followed by SMX-TMP (14.7%) and tetracycline (5.9%). Among penicillin-ampicillin resistant strains, 81.8% were beta lectamase positive and 18.2% were beta lectamase negative. Among beta lectamase positive strains 66.7% were capsular type-b and 33.3% were non-b, had MICS < or = 8 microgram/ml. and < or = 4 microgram/ml. respectively. 5.9% strains of Strepto. pneumoniae was found resistant to SMX-TMP, 5.9% to penicillin-ampicillin and 2.9% to cephalexin. Common resistance pattern of Staph aureus was penicillin-ampicillin (60%), SMX-TMP (37.2%) and tetracycline-erythromycine-cephalexin (11.4%). Strepto. pyogen was found resistant to tetracycline in 12.2% cases and to SMX-TMP in 8.3% cases.