Prevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in different patient groups of an urban university in Brazil.

This study sought for evidence of previous CMV infection in patients of a general hospital serving the low income population of Rio de Janeiro. An enzyme immunoassay was used to detect anti-CMV antibodies in 713 typical hospital patients classified into eight different groups. Positive tests were found in 87% of pregnant women, 85% of newborns, 61% of pediatric patients, 77% of adolescent patients, 81% of adult patients, 87% of dialysed transplant candidates, 89% of kidney donors, and 92% of patients after transplantation. Depending of the subgroup studied these results carry different meanings and necessitate different clinical approaches. The risk of congenital disease is probably low in view of the reduced number of pregnant women still susceptible to primary infection. The number of primary infections will also be low in transplant recipients. However, those still susceptible will almost certainly acquire the infection from their donor. Prophylactic CMV matching in kidney transplantation is not a realistic approach due to the low probability of finding pairs of seronegative donors and recipients.

Reavaliacao da tecnica de imunodifusao radial para identificacao de amostras toxinogenicas de Corynebacterium diphtheriae. / Reevaluation of radial immunodiffusion technic for the identification of toxinogenic samples of Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Os autores descrevem e avaliam modificacao da tecnica de imunodifusao radial, proposta inicialmento por Ouchterlony, para pesquisa de toxinogenicidade de C. diphtheriae. A modificacao proposta foi comparada com o metodo de Elek, utilizando-se 71 amostras de microrganismos recem isolados com diagnostico presuntivo de bacilo difterico e uma amostra padrao. O metodo sugerido demonstrou maior sensibilidade sem aparente perda da especificidade, sendo de facil execucao e interpretacao e, ainda, mais economico