Balantidium Coli liver abscess: first case report from India.

Protozoal infections are common in the tropics. Amoebic colitis is the commonest of these infections and can lead to liver abscess as a complication. Balantidium coli is a rare free moving protozoal parasite which is known to infest human large intestine causing a type of colitis very similar to that caused by Entamoeba histolytica. However this pathogen is not known to cause liver invasion in humans. We report here a case of liver abscess caused by B. coli, which is probably the first such case reported in Indian literature.

Clinical and laboratory predictors of invasive diarrhoea in children less than five years old.

Five hundred and thirty-three children < 5 years of age with acute watery diarrhoea were followed for appearance of blood in their stools to evaluate various clinical and laboratory predictors of dysentery. The statistical analysis was performed in two steps. Firstly, clinical and laboratory variables were evaluated as 'predictors' for isolation of invasive bacterial enteropathogens from stool culture. Secondly, all the variables, including isolation of invasive bacterial enteropathogens, were analyzed for predicting bloody diarrhoea. Presence of mucus (sensitivity = 57.4%, specificity = 83.1%, positive predictive value = 24.8%, negative predictive value = 95.3%, p = 0.0000) was the only significant clinical predictor of bloody diarrhoea. Polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) > 10/hpf (sensitivity = 55.3%, specificity = 92.4%, positive predictive value = 41.3%, negative predictive value = 95.5%, p = 0.0000) and red blood cells, regardless of their number, (sensitivity = 78.7%, specificity = 93%, positive predictive value = 52.1%, negative predictive value = 97.8%, p = 0.0000) on light microscopy of fresh stool samples were two significant laboratory findings. Isolation of invasive bacterial enteropathogens was also a significant predictor of bloody diarrhoea (sensitivity = 19.1%, specificity = 89.5%, positive predictive value = 15%, negative predictive value = 92% p = 0.0077) but ranked lower than the other 3 variables. Our results indicated that it is the severity of invasion caused by offending enteropathogens, clinically manifesting as mucoid stools and/or presence of PMN or RBC, which may be a better indicator of the invasive process and subsequent development of dysentery rather than mere isolation of invasive enteropathogens from the stools.

Ligational behavior of N-substituted acid hydrazides towards transition metals and potentiation of their microbiocidal activity.

New complexes of Cu(II), Ni(II), and Co(II) with 3-benzoyl-1-[2-N-(substituted-2'-thienyl methylmethylene/methylene)] prop-2-ene-1-oic acid hydrazides have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, molecular weight determination, molar conductance, and magnetic moment and spectroscopic techniques. Conductance measurements indicate the nonionic nature of the complexes. From the spectroscopic studies, it has been concluded that the N-substituted acid hydrazides act as tridentate ligands forming an O-N-S conjugate system and coordinating with metal ions through oxygen of carbonyl group, nitrogen of azomethine, and sulphur of thiophene moiety. Octahedral geometry has been proposed for all the complexes. The ligands and their complexes were tested for in vitro growth inhibitory activity against phytopathogenic fungi viz. Alternaria alternata, Colletotrichum capsicum, Fusarium oxysporum, and Rhizoctonia solani at 28 degrees C; and bacteria viz. gram positive Bacillus subtilis and gram negative Escherichia coli at 37 degrees C by a two-fold serial dilution technique. In some cases an increase in the biocidal activity of the ligands as a consequence of coordination with metal ions was observed in terms of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values. The trend of growth inhibition in the complexes was found to be in the order: Cu greater than Ni greater than Co.