[Salmonella enterica serotypes and Salmonella infections: a multicenter study covering ten provinces in Turkey]. / Salmonella enterica serotipleri ve Salmonella enfeksiyonlari: Türkiye'de on ili kapsayan çok merkezli bir çalisma.

In order to find the distinctive features of Salmonellae and Salmonella infections in Turkey, 620 Salmonellae strains, isolated from various clinical samples (481 stool, 108 blood, 12 urine, 3 bone marrow, 3 cerebrospinal fluid, 9 pus, and one from each of the bile, pleural fluid, wound, catheter samples) in 13 clinical microbiology laboratories of 10 provinces in Turkey (Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Edirne, Eskisehir, Istanbul, Izmir, Kayseri, Konya and Trabzon) between July 1, 2000 and June 30, 2002, were serotyped. Among the patients 43% were female, 57% were male, 63.2% were from outpatient clinics and 36.8% were hospitalized patients. Seventy eight percent of the patients had gastroenteritis, 10.7% had septicemia/local infection, 9.8% had typhoid/paratyphoid fever and 1.5% were carriers. Incidence of gastroenteritis was higher in 0-5 years age group (p<0.001). Of the 620 Salmonella enterica isolates, 47.7% were S. Enteritidis, 34.7% S. Typhimurium, 6% S. Paratyphi B, 2.9% S. Typhi, 0.2% S. paratyphi A, 6.1% serogroup C1, and 2.4% serogroup C2. S. Enteritidis was the most common serotype in all provinces except for Kayseri, where S. Typhimurium was found to be the most common serotype (68.2%). Overall, the most frequently isolated serotype was S. Enteritidis, also being the most common serotype in stool and blood cultures. During the surveillance period two outbreaks have occurred, the first one by S. Enteritidis strains in Edirne, and the second one by S. Typhimurium strains in Kayseri. As a result, Salmonella infections are still a common health problem in Turkey, and active surveillance of Salmonella infections has vital importance.

[Comparison of the methods used for the detection of antinuclear antibodies]. / Antinükleer antikorlarin saptanmasinda kullanilan yöntemlerin karsilastirilmasi.

The production of one or more autoantibodies in the majority of rheumatic diseases is a common clinical finding. Indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) test is the former and widely used method in detecting autoantibodies. Recently, commercial enzyme immunoassays (EIA) and immunoblot (IB) assays are available for the routine laboratories. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacies of these methods in 121 sera samples which were collected from 46 male and 75 female patients, of whom antinuclear antibody (ANA) testing were requested by clinicians. All the samples were simultaneously studied by IFA with HEp-2 and Crithidia lucillae cells, and by two different commercial kits of EIA and IB, and the results were evaluated. When IFA is accepted as reference method, the sensitivities and specificities of the other methods were found as follows, respectively; 82-100% and 84-100% for ANA-EIA, 48-54% and 98-100% for ANA-IB, 66-100% and 97-98% for anti-dsDNA-EIA, and 50-66% and 86-100% for anti-dsDNA-IB. The agreement rates of ANA-EIA, ANA-IB, anti-dsDNA-EIA and anti-dsDNA-IB methods with IFA were detected as 82-90%, 74%, 96-97%, and 84-98%, respectively. As a result, it may be concluded that IFA test should be used as a primarily test for the detection of ANA and anti-dsDNA autoantibodies, while EIA and IB methods are useful for antigen differentiation and confirmation of the results.