Comparative study of Candida by conventional and CHROMagar method in non-denture and denture wearers by oral rinse technique.

Introduction: Candidal species colonizes the oral cavities of healthy individuals without dentures and also of denture wearers. Soft liners and tissue conditioning materials have been found to support the growth of Candida albicans which may predispose to lesions. The most important and common candidal species are C. albicans, C. tropicalis, and C. glabrata. C albicans is usually isolated from both the fitting surface of the denture and the denture-bearing mucosa of the affected patients. The aim of this study was to isolate, quantify, and speciate candidal species in non-denture wearers (controls) and denture wearers (study group) by the oral rinse technique. Isolation was done using Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). Speciation was done using conventional methods like the germ tube test, carbohydrate fermentation test, urease test, as well as the CHROMagar method. Aims and Objective: 1) To assess the prevalence of Candida in non-denture wearers and in denture wearers by oral rinse technique, with isolation on SDA; 2) to speciate and quantify Candida in non-denture wearers and denture wearers by using conventional methods (germ tube test, carbohydrate fermentation test, urease test) and the CHROMagar method; 3) to assess the influence of smoking and diabetes on candidal species among the denture wearers; and 4) to assess the sensitivity and specificity of SDA and CHRO Magar Materials and Methods: Salivary samples for Candida evaluation were collected from the subjects in sterile sample containers, using the oral rinse technique. Results: C glabrata was the most commonly found species among denture wearers and non-denture wearers both by conventional and CHROMagar methods. In males, C. albicans was the predominant species, whereas C. glabrata was the predominant species in females. Candidal colonization was higher in denture wearers compared to non-denture wearers, especially among females. The CHROMagar method was more rapid compared to conventional methods. In the present study, CHROMagar Candida showed 100% specificity and 100% sensitivity when compared to SDA and conventional methods.

Microsatellites retain phylogenetic signals across genera in eucalypts (Myrtaceae)

The utility of microsatellites (SSRs) in reconstructing phylogenies is largely confined to studies below the genus level, due to the potential of homoplasy resulting from allele size range constraints and poor SSR transferability among divergent taxa. The eucalypt genus Corymbia has been shown to be monophyletic using morphological characters, however, analyses of intergenic spacer sequences have resulted in contradictory hypotheses- showing the genus as either equivocal or paraphyletic. To assess SSR utility in higher order phylogeny in the family Myrtaceae, phylogenetic relationships of the bloodwood eucalypts Corymbia and related genera were investigated using eight polymorphic SSRs. Repeat size variation using the average square and Nei's distance were congruent and showed Corymbia to be a monophyletic group, supporting morphological characters and a recent combination of the internal and external transcribed spacers dataset. SSRs are selectively neutral and provide data at multiple genomic regions, thus may explain why SSRs retained informative phylogenetic signals despite deep divergences. We show that where the problems of size-range constraints, high mutation rates and size homoplasy are addressed, SSRs might resolve problematic phylogenies of taxa that have diverged for as long as three million generations or 30 million years.

Sturge Weber syndrome.

A variant of hemangioma and an uncommon congenital condition, the Sturge Weber syndrome (SWS), also called encephalo trigeminal angiomatosis, is a neurocutaneous disorder with angiomas involving the skin of the face (cutaneous angioma) and pia arachnoid (leptomeningeal angioma). It occurs typically in the ophthalmic and maxillary distributions of the trigeminal nerve (1,2). Here we present a case of a 14 year old girl.