Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial causes of acute meningitis

In this work a trial was done to study the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria causing acute meningitis among Egyptians. Cerebrospinal fluid samples were obtained from 55 cases of acute meningitis attending Imbaba and Abbasia fever hospitals during the period from Nov. 1987 to Jan. 1988. Each CSF sample was examined microscopically and cultured aerobically in 5% CO2 and anaerobically. Out of 55 cases 32 cases [58.2%] were positive for aerobic bacteria. The aerobic bacteria were N. meningitides from 17 cases [30.9%] H. influenzae from 5 cases [9.1%], S. penumoniae from 5 cases [8.3%], E. coli from 4 caes [8.3%] and S. aureus from 2 cases [93.6%]. The anaerobic organism was gram-negative diplococcus belonging to the family veillonellaceae

Chemotherapeutic agents in tuberculosis and cellmediated immune response an in-vitro study

To estimate the potential adverse sequence of PAS, INH, ethionamide, ethambutol and rifampin therapy on cell mediated immune response in tuberculosis, we measured the in vitro lymphocyte resposes to PHA in the presence of these chemotherapeutic agents in varying concentrations per ml. lymphocytes were collected on Ficol-Hypaque gradient from the heparinized blood from normal adult male blood donors. The degree of incorporation of tritiated thymidine into the lymphocytes in the presence and absence of the chemotherapeutic agents were measured by a B, scintillation counter as cpm. The stimulation indices were calculated. PAS, INH and ethionamide were found to have no adverse effect on lymphocytes in any of the concentrations used. Rifampin at the concentration of 50 micro g/ml and ethambutol at the concentration of 300 micro g/ml were significantly depressant to lymphocytes