Plastic detection comb better than visual screening for diagnosis of head louse infestation.

Finding lice can be difficult in head louse infestation. We compared a new louse detection comb with visual inspection. All children in two rural Turkish schools were screened by the two methods. Those with lice were offered treatment and the results monitored by detection combing. Children with nits only were re-screened to identify latent infestations. Using visual inspection we found 214/461 children (46%) with nits but only 30 (6.5%) with live lice. In contrast detection combing found 96 (21%) with live lice, of whom 20 had no nits. Detection combing was 3.84 times more effective than visual inspection for finding live lice. Only 10/138 (7.2%) children with nits and no lice were found to have active infestation by day 16. We found that the detection comb is significantly (P<0.001) more effective than visual screening for diagnosis; that nits are not a good indicator of active infestation; and that treatment with 1% permethrin was 89.6% effective.

Two novel serum-free media for the culture of Trichomonas vaginalis.

Definitive diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis, one of the common causes of sexually transmitted diseases in Turkey, relies on the microscopic examination of both fresh preparations and culture material of genital secretions and urine. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic efficacies of two culture media, serum-free TB1 and TB2, including iron and vitamin B12, respectively, with the well-known medium, TYM. Growth rate reached peak levels 48 h in TYM and 72 h in both TB1 and TB2 after inoculation. The highest amount of viable trophozoites has been obtained from TB1, almost equal to TYM but significantly higher than TB2. Fresh preparations obtained from the vaginal secretions of 119 patients have been examined and vaginal samples have been inoculated in TB1, TB2, and TYM. Viable T. vaginalis trophozoites have been detected in ten (8.4%) of fresh preparations and 11 (9.9%) of each medium. It is concluded that serum-free TB1 medium could be used effectively in both the isolation and maintenance of T. vaginalis culture in vitro.

Is there an association between clinical symptoms and intestinal parasitic infections?

Intestinal parasitic infections are major causes of childhood diseases in rural regions. The significant causes of this problem are the insufficient resources to improve the infrastructure in these regions and inadequate health services in both the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The aim of this study was to assess the association between intestinal parasitic infections and clinical symptoms of infected children. Cellophane tape and stool samples of 100 children, aged between 7-10 years, from two villages of Manisa city, were examined for intestinal parasites and their symptoms were recorded. Although some symptoms, such as abdominal pain, anorexia and fatigue were found to be common in infected children, no significant relationship was found between symptoms and intestinal parasitic infections.

Evaluation of three new culture media for the cultivation and isolation of Leishmania parasites.

The aim of this study was to establish novel culture media for Leishmania parasites with a potential of obtaining high amounts of promastigotes with long-term viability, and consisting of ingredients that were available in microbiology or parasitology laboratories. Other features of these media included no requirement for blood, FCS (Fetal calf serum) or erythrocyte lysate, inexpensiveness and easiness in preparation. In addition, aspiration samples obtained from cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) suspected patients were cultivated in these media. Three culture media were prepared; trypticase beef extract hemoglobine (TBH) medium, including trypticase, beef extract and yeast extract as the protein source, glucose as the carbohydrate source, FeNH4 and bovine hemoglobine; Peptone-Yeast extract medium (PY), found to be effective in our previous studies for cultuvation of on Leishmania parasites, with bovine hemoglobine (PYH) and Brain Heart medium, containing bovine hemoglobine (BKH). The number of promastigotes were the highest on day 8 and 13 in RPMI 1640 and BKH medium, respectively. In TBH and PYH, the peak level of reproduction was between day 16 and 19, and it was found to be higher in TBH medium after the day 20. The number of promastigotes were found to be close in BKH, TBH and RPMI-1640 media and lower in PYH medium. Examination of the cultivation of the aqueous lesion specimens of the 10 CL-suspected cases in media revealed reproduction in 9 flasks of RPMI-1640 containing 10% FCS, 7 TBH, 6 BKH and 4 PYH. The differences between the culture media were not found to be statistically significant. These results suggested that, three liquid culture media, assessed in this study, with no requirement for FCS or erythrocyte lysate, were effective in the reproduction of promastigotes, and could be used effectively in the patient isolation and field studies, as well.

A new experimental in vitro culture medium for cultivation of Leishmania species.

A new liquid culture medium prepared with chemicals that can be obtained economically and commercially was tested in in vitro cultivation of Leishmania promastigotes to obtain a large number of organisms to use in serological studies. The number of Leishmania infantum and Leishmania tropica promastigotes taken from Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle (NNN) medium reached 1 x 10(7)/ml at the end of the 8th day in our new medium, though in NNN medium the number of organisms reached only 5 x 10(6)/ml. After 10 subsequent passages, the culture medium prepared was evaluated as being quite inexpensive, simple, and successful compared with other commercially available liquid culture media.