Diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia

Diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is conventionally based on direct staining and visualization. Challenges in obtaining alveolar samples have stimulated interest in techniques for detection of Pneumocystis DNA in non-invasive samples, which can give good sensitivity and specificity. Robust diagnosis is key to ensuring appropriate therapy.

Introduction

Pneumocystis jirovecii (previously Pneumocystis carinii) is a pathogen capable of causing life threatening Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in the immunocompromised with case fatality rates among those hospitalized of around 10%. PCP typically occurs in individuals with hematological malignancies on chemotherapy or with other causes of acquired cellular immunodeficiency or, most frequently, in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals with CD4 T-cell counts <200 cells/µL or <14% of total white cell count. First-line treatment is co-trimoxazole, a combination of the antibiotics sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, at high dose for 3 weeks, which has the clinically significant potential side effects of bone marrow suppression, rash and bronchial hypersensitivity.

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Source: ClinicalLaboratoryInternational

I Want to be a Medical Lab Technologist. What will my Salary be?

The job: Medical laboratory technologist

The role: From throat swabs to cancer screens, blood tests to DNA tests, Canadians generate over 440 million medical test results a year, which are conducted by medical laboratory technologists (MLTs).

“We would have been there the day you were born to test you for certain disorders as a baby, and you would have never known,” says Christine Nielsen, the chief executive officer of the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science in Hamilton . “As a healthy adult, when your doctor sends you off for lab tests and just wants to see what your glucose [level] is, your specimen goes through our people.”

Read more: I Want to be a Medical Lab Technologist. What will my Salary be?

National Microbiology Lab technician, Lillian Mendoza, processes patient samples for the measles

virus and genotyping in Winnipeg Manitoba, February 19, 2015.

Source: theglobeandmail

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Could Altered Gut Bacteria be a Cause?

What causes chronic fatigue syndrome? The answer to this question continues to baffle researchers, so much so that some have even questioned whether the condition exists. Now, a new study by researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, may have shed light on a biological cause, after finding that patients with chronic fatigue have an altered gut microbiome.

Senior author Maureen Hanson, of the Departments of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Microbiology at Cornell, and colleagues publish their findings in the journal Microbiome.

Also referred to as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a condition characterized by extreme fatigue that does not improve with rest.

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Researchers found that people with CFS have abnormalities in their gut microbiome.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Parasitic worms help gut flora to prevent Crohn’s disease

The parasitic worms that lurk in some people’s intestines may be revolting, but they seem to forestall Crohn’s disease and other types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). A new study might explain how, revealing that the worms enable beneficial microbes in the intestines to outcompete bacteria that promote inflammation. The results could lead to new ways of treating gut diseases by mimicking the effects of the parasites.

“It’s a beautifully done paper,” says immunologist Joel Weinstock of Tufts University in Boston, who wasn’t connected to the work. “It had not been previously shown that one of the mechanisms [of IBD] is through changes in the intestinal flora.”

In people with IBD, inflammation in the digestive tract results in symptoms such as diarrhea and bleeding and can sometimes lead to intestinal obstructions or other severe complications. Because parasitic worms, or helminths, can be harmful, they appear to be unlikely allies against these diseases. “They are called parasites for a reason,” says immunologist Ken Cadwell of the New York University School of Medicine in New York City, a co-author on the new study. However, IBD is rare in parts of the world where helminths are prevalent, and it is surging in more developed countries, where few people now carry the intestinal intruders. That difference suggests, researchers say, that they are protective.

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Parasites like this whipworm might protect us from Crohn’s disease by altering our intestinal bacteria.

Source: CNRI/Science

Automatiion in the clinical microbiology laboratory

In spite of some exceptions, the clinical microbiology lab has been a late starter as far as automation is concerned. It has also traditionally been viewed as ‘low tech’, especially when compared to its cousins in clinical chemistry or pathology. A variety of factors, however, have been converging to reverse such a situation.

Automation hampered by process complexity

One of the most important barriers to the automation of a clinical microbiology lab is process complexity. Unlike hematology or chemistry labs, which have little diversity in specimens and generally use standard collection tubes, microbiology laboratories need to work with a vast range of specimen types in a multitude of transport containers. The complex nature of specimen processing and culturing and the ensuing lack of standardization have been major deterrents to automation.

Nevertheless, growth in the presence of automated technologies in clinical microbiology labs is now expected to accelerate as a result of several factors, above all rising demand. This requires agility and high responsiveness, making automation indispensable.

Aging populations drive demand

Aging populations with more-complex diseases and conditions require a growing number of tests - for example, to monitor implants and prosthetic devices for infections. The elderly also need greater care in medicating, since they are more prone to adverse drug events.

In the year 2000, an article by Dr. Thomas T. Yoshikawa of the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles noted that though “the major focus in infectious diseases for the past decade has been on young adults”, in the future “the vast majority of serious infectious diseases will be seen in the elderly population.”

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Source: captodayonline