Izzet Sahin

Nosocomial Oral Myiasis by Sarcophaga sp. in Turkey

We present a case of oral myiasis in a 15-year-old boy with tuberculosis meningitis. The diagnosis was based on the visual presence of wriggling larvae about 1 cm in size and on the microscopic features of the maggots, especially those relating to stigmatic structures. The larvae were identified as third-stage larvae of Sarcophaga sp.

Serum malondialdehyde levels in toxoplasma seropositive patients.

used as an indicator of oxidative stress in cells and tissues. Lipid peroxides, derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids, are unstable and decompose to form a complex series of compounds. These include reactive carbonyl compounds, of which malondialdehyde (MDA) is the most abundant. Therefore, measurement of malondialdehyde is widely used as an indicator of lipid peroxidation. Increased levels of lipid peroxidation products have been associated with a variety of chronic diseases in both humans and model systems. 8-10 For example, HIV infection is associated with oxidative stress, as has been demonstrated in adult, seropositive individuals. One study showed that serum malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration in HIVinfected children was significantly higher than in control children. 6,7 The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in the serum malondialdehyde levels (an end-product of lipid peroxidation) between normal and T. gondii-infected individuals (IgG seropositive but no symptoms).

[Investigation of anti-Echinococcus granulosus antibodies in patients with suspected cystic echinococcosis].

OBJECTIVE Cystic echninococcosis (CE) is an important helmintho-zoonotic disease causing health-threatening and economic losses for developing countries. In this study, anti-Echinococcus granulosus antibodies were evaluated in 1556 CE suspected patients (701 males, 855 females) who applied to the serology laboratory of the Parasitology Department of Erciyes University between June 1999 and July 2010. METHODS Fifty-six (3.6%) patients were evaluated with the three different methods of Indirect Hemagglutination Test (IHA), Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Test (IFAT) and Western blot (WB). 378 (24.3%) were tested with both IHA and IFAT, 123 (7.9%) with both IHA and WB,and 999 (64.2%) were evaluated with one of these three methods. RESULTS In 353 (22.7%) patients, anti-E. granulosus antibodies detected by one of above three methods were considered as positive. CONCLUSION Since some patients were assessed either as negative or positive with one of above test, we believe that it should be safer to use at least two tests together for diagnosis of CE.