RESUMEN
Genitourinary tuberculosis presents a challenge in diagnosis and treatment due to variations in clinical and radiological signs, insufficient patient history and difficulty in the isolation of the bacilli. The aim of this study was to isolate and identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the urine samples obtained from patients with suspected urinary tuberculosis admitted to our hospital by using Ehrlich-Ziehl-Neelsen (EZN), culture and polymerase chain reaction-restriction analysis (PCR-RFLP) methods. A total of 1004 urine samples collected from 437 patients who were admitted to our hospital between January 2004-July 2006, were inoculated on Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) and/or BACTEC 12B (Becton Dickinson, USA) after decontamination and, direct preparations stained with EZN method were evaluated microscopically. M. tuberculosis complex (MTC) and mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (MOTT) were differentiated by nitro-alpha-acetylamino-beta-hydroxypropiophenone (NAP) test and the susceptibility testing for the MTC strains to primary antituberculosis drugs were performed by BACTEC 460 TB (Becton Dickinson, USA) system. PCR-RFLP method was performed for the identification of Mycobacterium spp. Twenty-two (5%) patients have yielded positive results by at least one of the conventional methods (EZN, LJ and/or BACTEC). Fifteen samples were positive for acido-resistant bacilli (ARB) by EZN method, and 17 samples were positive for mycobacterial growth in the cultures. Ten of 22 patients were found positive by both of the methods, while seven were culture positive but ARB negative and five were culture negative but ARB positive. These five patients received BCG treatment because of the presence of bladder tumor. Twelve (70.5%) of 17 strains isolated from culture were identified as MTC, while five (29.4%) were identified as M. fortuitum. Of 12 MTC isolates, eight (66.7%) were found susceptible to all of the antituberculosis agents, while one was found resistant to isoniazide (INH) and ethambutole (ETB), one was resistant to INH and rifampicin (RIF), and two were resistant to only INH. It is concluded that, in order to identify mycobacteria and to perform antituberculous susceptibility tests, cultivation of mycobacteria is a prerequisite.
Asunto(s)
Bacteriuria/microbiología , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/aislamiento & purificación , Tuberculosis Urogenital/diagnóstico , Medios de Cultivo , Diagnóstico Diferencial , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Pruebas de Sensibilidad Microbiana , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/efectos de los fármacos , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa/métodos , Polimorfismo de Longitud del Fragmento de Restricción , Coloración y Etiquetado/métodos , Tuberculosis Urogenital/tratamiento farmacológico , Tuberculosis Urogenital/orinaRESUMEN
Psoriasis is a common inflammatory skin disease. Infectious models are considered to be of pathophysiological importance in psoriasis. The immunological profile of stable psoriasis plaques suggests that viral antigens may be important. Human parvovirus B19 (PVB19) is a single-stranded DNA virus that causes various clinical symptoms. Several case reports have suggested associations between PVB19 infection and various chronic autoimmune and dermatologic diseases. There has so far been no information regarding the role of PVB19 in psoriasis, except psoriatic arthritis. In this report, to investigate the role of PVB19 in psoriasis, we analyzed PVB19 DNA of peripheral blood from psoriatic patients (n = 47) in comparison with blood donors (n = 20). We also determined the presence of anti-PVB19 IgG and IgM antibodies by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found that the presence of PVB19 DNA in patients with psoriasis (38%) was significantly higher than in controls (0%, P < 0.01). Anti-PVB19 IgG antibodies were detected in 79% of the cases while only 6% had anti-PVB19 IgM antibodies. PVB19 DNA presence was associated with seropositivity for anti-PVB19 IgG (P < 0.05) but not with IgM antibodies, indicating subclinical activation of latent infection. No correlation was found between the presence of PVB19 DNA and a patient's age, sex, type of psoriasis, or psoriasis area and severity index. The data demonstrated a statistically significant association between psoriasis and PVB19. Therefore, we suggest that PVB19 infection may be of pathophysiological importance in psoriasis.