RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Influenza A virus is the most virulent human pathogen and causes the most serious problem. Having epidemiological knowledge about this disease is important. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of influenza A/H3N2 virus infection in northern Iran from 2011 to 2013 using the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). METHODS: In this cross-sectional study 57 samples were collected from patients with influenza-like illness (T≥ 38 °C and cough or sore throat. Influenza-RNA was extracted from the samples using PureLink(TM) Viral RNA/DNA Kit. RT-PCR was one using SuperScript III Platinum, Quantitive Real Time PCR system from invitrogen with a specific type of primers and probs. All samples were examined in the Influenza laboratory of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 38.2±14.5 year, 278 (48.69%) were males and 293 (51.31%) females. A total number of 201 patients (35.2%) were diagnosed as influenza A1 H3 N2 infection. CONCLUSION: The results show that the prevalence of A/H3N2 in the North of Iran is considerable and needs more attention for preventive measures.
RESUMEN
The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a correlation between urine and/or stone cultures with postoperative sepsis in patients treated for renal and ureteral calculi. Three hundred and twenty-eight consecutive patients who underwent percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) or ureteroscopy from 2006 to 2009 were identified, all of whom had a stone culture obtained during surgery. All had a preoperative urine culture. Two hundred and seventy-four underwent ureteroscopy and 54 PCNL. All patients had either negative preoperative urine cultures or were given preoperative antibiotics for 1-7 days prior to surgery. Stone fragments were obtained during the procedure and sent for analysis. The primary endpoint was sepsis. Of 328 patients, 3 % (11/328) developed postoperative sepsis. 73 % (8/11) had positive stone cultures, while none had a positive preoperative urine culture. 8 % (8/96) with positive stone cultures and 1 % (3/232) with negative stone cultures developed sepsis (p = 0.003). The stone culture grew the same pathogen as the urine culture obtained on readmission in 64 % (7/11) of the patients, while 9 % (1/11) of preoperative urine cultures correlated with the readmission pathogen (p = 0.02). The pathogen causing infection had a significantly higher correlation with the organism grown on stone culture than the preoperative urine culture. The patients who developed sepsis did so despite preoperative antibiotics, and the pathogen grown on the preoperative urine culture was different from that seen post operatively. These results suggest that stone culture is more informative than preoperative urine culture for determining treatment of postoperative sepsis.
