Molecular characterization of Egyptian Giardia lamblia isolates

Six Giardia lamblia strains [four from Egypt, one from the USA and one from Sudan] were used to study the phenotypic and genotypic variation in some Egyptian G. Lamblia strains compared with other G. lamblia strains, which may be responsible for the difference in their behavioral characteristics. By using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis [SDS-PAGE] for antigenic study, E1 strain appeared different from the rest of the strains with two bands; one at 121 kDa and the other at 34 kDa, which were not present in other strains, while bands at 130 and 43 kDa were present in all strains, but absent in E1 strain. Another difference between E1 strain and the rest of the strains was obtained by cellulase acetate electrophoresis [CAE], using phosphor-glucomutase [PGM] enzyme, where E1 strain gave a different zymodeme than the other strains. Based on the computerized random amplified polymorphic deoxyribonucleic acid- polymerase chain reaction [RAPD-PCR] analysis, 4 rapdemes were identified; rapdeme 1 contained E1 strain, rapdeme 2 contained E2, E3 and E4 isolates, rapdeme 3 contained Sudan strain and rapdeme 4 contained USA strain. In conclusion, this study revealed a diversity between G. lamblia strains, especially E1 strain, which showed unique characters

evaluation of the modified agar plate method for diagnosis of strongyloides stercoralis

An examination of 320 random stool samples from patients aged 7 - 60 years in Kafr-Sakr Hospital was done to compare the efficacy of modified agar plate method to traditional method for diagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis infection. Out of 320 examined cases, 27 were positive for strongyloidiasis by all means. The traditional methods detected 37% and 48.1% from the positive cases by single and repeated 3-day examination, respectively. The modified agar plate detected 70.3% and 96.2% among positive cases by single and 3 days examination, respectively. The modified agar plate was twice efficient than the traditional methods. Precautions taken to obtain the best result were discussed. Considering the other advantages of this technique, it was concluded that it may eventually become the test of choice in the diagnosis of strongyloidiasis