ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: adenovirus causes a variety of diseases such as acute respiratory, gastrointestinal, and conjunctiva infections. In this study we aimed to compare the performance of conventional virus isolation on cell culture and rapid diagnostic methods by direct fluorescent assay [DFA] and enzyme immune assay [EIA] for diagnosis of adenoviral infections
Materials and methods: one hundred and twenty six patients were included in the present study from September 2008 till April 2010 at Mansoura University Children Hospital [MUCH] and Ophthalmic Center Mansoura University, they were 68 males and 58 females with a mean age of 27.8+/- [30.19 SD]months, 153 samples were collected from them. The patients were categorized into 3 groups Group I: twenty four patients with acute conjunctivitis, group 2: sixty four patients with upper respiratory tract infection [URTJ] and group 3: sixty five patients with acute diarrhea and 25 healthy controls. Conjunctiva/ and throat swabs were subjected to study by culture on the HEp-2 cell line and DF A, while stool specimens were subjected to study by culture on the HEp-2 and EIA
Results: adenovirus was detected by cell culture in 8/24 [33.3%], 8/64 [12.5%] and 3165 [4.6%] from conjunctiva/ swabs, throat swabs and stool specimens respectively. By DFA, adenovirus was detected in 7/24 [29.2%] and 7/64 [10.9%] from conjunctiva! Swabs and throat swabs. Regarding EIA adenovirus was identified in patient with acute diarrhea in 3165 [4.6%] of cases and 1125 [4%] of control. The overall sensitivity [SENS], specificity [SPEC], accuracy [ACC], positive predictive value [PPV] and negative predictive value [NPV] of DFA in conjunctivitis were 75%, 94% 88%, 86% and 88%, and in patients with URT/ were 50%, 95%, 89%, 57% and 93%, respectively . On comparing EIA with culture in patient with acute diarrhea, SENS, SPEC, ACC, PPV and NPV we,-e I 00%, 98%, 98%, 75% and 100%
Conclusion: from the present study cell culture was the gold standard for diagnosis of adenovirus and detect active replicating viruses but it is costly and time consuming requires viable organism. DF A and E1A are rapid, easy to perform sensitive and accurate methods for adenovirus diagnosis
ABSTRACT
Egypt has a very high prevalence of Hepatitis virus type C [HCV] infection and an increasing incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC] in a younger age group. As alcoholism is rare in Egypt, the main risk factor for carcinogenesis in HCV infected patients is supposed to be mutation induced by aflatoxin or its metabolites in hepatocytes. The environmental exposure to aflatoxins in foods or feeds may be reflected on the level of circulating aflatoxin [AFB1] in blood. The levels of albumin-abducted AFB1 were measured using a quantitative ELISA test in the sera of 80 Egyptian patients diagnosed as HCC, 40 HCV infected non malignant subjects and 40 healthy control individuals. The mean value of albumin-abducted AFB1 in the sera of HCC patients was significantly higher than the control groups [P< 0.05]. Farmers coming from rural areas had significant rise in the AFB1 compared to other patients coming from urban areas or having other jobs [P< 0.01]. The level of AFB1 was noticed to be significantly higher in patients having multiple lesions and also in patients presenting with tumor sizes more than 5 cm [P< 0.05]. HCV antibody and/or RNA were detected in all examined HCC patients. Exposure to environmental aflatoxin seems to be a major risk factor for HCC in HCV-infected Egyptians. HCV chronic hepatitis could render the liver less capable of intoxication and removal of AFB1 from the body. Then the accumulated AFB1 may induce mutation in p53 paving the way for HCV to induce HCC
ABSTRACT
Infection with human papillomavirus [HPV] and Chlamydia trachomatis are associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. The recognition of HPV infection as a factor that is necessary, but not sufficient, for the development of cervical cancer has resulted in the initiation of several longitudinal studies and randomized clinical trials designed to examine the predictive value of HPV DNA testing. Forty two women were enrolled in this study [patients group] together with 20 apparently normal women [control]. For all patients and control groups, cervical swabs were taken, examined for HPV, HPV 16, HPV 18 DNA by 2 sequential PCR reactions, Chlamydia antigen and TNF-alpha by ELISA. Among 42 cases diagnosed pathologically as cervical carcinoma, HPV DNA was detected in 37 cases [88.09%]. HPV16 DNA was more common than HPV18 DNA as it was detected in 28 cases [66.7%] while HPV18 DNA was detected in 4 cases [9.5%]. There is a statistically significant difference between HPV and control cases, also HPV16 and control cases. Regarding Chlamydia antigen, 10 cases were detected out of 42 cases [23.8%] while, only 3 cases were detected in control group [15%] indicating that there is non statistically significant difference between the two groups. Regarding the pathological types of cervical carcinoma, in adenocarcinoma, HPV DNA was detected in 4 cases [80%], while in Squamous cell carcinoma [SCC], it was detected in 33 cases [89.19%]. In adenocarcinoma, HPV 16 DNA was detected in 2 cases [40%], while in SCC, it was detected in 26 cases [70.27%]. In adenocarcinoma, HPV 18 DNA was detected in 1 case [20%], while in SCC, it was detected in 3 cases [8.11%]. Regarding Chlamydia antigen, in adenocarcinoma, the antigen was detected in 1 case [20%] and in SCC, it was detected in 9 cases [24.32%]. Our results emphasized that HPV 16 was more predominant in squamous cell carcinoma, whereas type 18 was relatively high in adenocarcinoma. The level of TNF-alpha [pg/ml] was 33.81 +/-9.38 in cancer cervix cases, which was statistically significant compared to control cases [1.33 +/-0.74 [P<0.001]]. There is none statistically significant difference between adenocarcinoma [34.12 +/-12.31] and SCC [33.76 +/-9.13 [P=0.970]]. There was no significant difference regarding TNF-alpha level between HPV positive cases [34.23 +/-9.39] and HPV negative [30.66 +/-9.68 [P = 0.342]]. There was a significant difference between HPV16 [32.88 +/-8.84] and HPV18 [41.98 +/-4.32]. Also, there was no significant difference between Chlamydiae positive cases [36.62 +/-8.79] and Chlamydiae negative cases [32.93 +/-9.52 [P=0.260]]. We conclude that cervical infection with HPV but not with Chlamydia may be an important risk factor for the development of cervical cancer and TNF-alpha levels increased significantly in cervical carcinoma without special reference to the pathological type of the tumor