1,721,042 research outputs found
Identification of Cryptococcus antigen in human immunodeficiency virus‐positive Turkish patients by using the Dynamiker® lateral flow assay
No full textCryptococcus neoformans causes life‐threatening meningoencephalitis, particularly in
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐positive individuals with low CD4 levels (<100
cells/μL). Although the burden of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis (CM) in Turkey
is low (0.13 cases per 100 000 persons), asymptomatic individuals at risk of cryptococcosis
should be screened for antigenemia to prevent the disease and/or promote
early CM diagnosis. A lateral flow assay (LFA) is used to detect Cryptococcus antigen
(CrAg) in cerebrospinal fluid and serum. We determined Cryptococcus antigenemia
prevalence in serum samples of HIV‐positive and HIV‐negative adult patients by using
Dynamiker® CrAg‐LFA, a point‐of‐care dipstick test. Patients’ demographic data,
CD4 count, HIV‐RNA levels and anti‐retroviral therapy status were recorded. CrAg
was detected in 28 (11%) of 254 HIV‐positive patients screened but not in 100 HIVnegative
control individuals; a significant difference was observed in the CrAg‐LFA
positivity rate between HIV‐positive and HIV‐negative groups (x2 = 11.970; P < .05).
In CrAg‐positive patients, the median CD4 level was 666 cells/μL (115‐1344 cells/
μL), with a median viral load of 23 copies/mL (0‐3.69 × 106 copies/mL). In HIV‐positive
CrAg‐negative patients, the median CD4 level was 633 cells/μL (31‐2953 cells/
μL) and the median viral load was 12 copies/mL (0‐1.95 × 106 copies/mL; P > .05).
Results indicate that HIV‐positive patients with both low (<200 cells/μL) and high
(>200 cells/μL) CD4 counts should be screened for asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenemia.
HIV‐associated asymptomatic cryptococcosis is not uncommon in Turkey,
which warrants systematic screening. Updated strategies for CM prevention among
HIV‐positive patients should be used even in non‐endemic countries.This study was funded by the Research Fund of Çukurova University (project no. TTU‐2018‐10976)
Successive Potassium Hydroxide Testing for Improved Diagnosis of Tinea Pedis
No full textIn this study, we investigated the role of successive potassium hydroxide (KOH) tests for the diagnosis of tinea pedis with different clinical presentations. The study included 135 patients with 200 lesions that were clinically suspicious for tinea pedis. Three samples of skin scrapings were taken from each lesion in the same session and were examined using a KOH test. This study offers an inexpensive, rapid, and useful technique for the daily practice of clinicians and mycologists managing patients with clinically suspected tinea pedis
Asymptomatic dermatophyte scalp carriage in school children in Erzincan, Turkey
No full textBackground: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of symptomatic tinea capitis infections of the scalp and its asymptomatic carriage in students attending primary schools in Erzincan, Turkey. Materials and Methods: Eighteen primary schools were visited; 1 located in the central district and 17 located in other districts of the Erzincan province. From 2015 November to 2016 April, scalp scrapings were obtained from a total of 1879 students aged 6 to 13 years (mean age: 9.37±1.69) 924 (49.2%) male and 955 (50.8%) female using sterile hairbrushes, and assessed for tinea capitis and asymptomatic fungal carriage. The hairbrushes were used to seed Sabouraud Dextrose Agar containing cycloheximide, chloramphenicol and gentamycin. A questionnaire was students to collect epidemiological data on carriage and infection development. Results and Discussions: In our study, symptomatic cases were not detected but dermatophyte carriage was detected in a 13-year-old girl of foreign descent (Meskhetian Turk), who had migrated to Erzincan province. The fungal sample was identified as Trichophyton tonsurans using the DNA sequencing of the ITS region. When the underlying factors were explored, it was found that the girl was a national wrestler. In the literature, T. tonsurans outbreaks have been widely reported in people engaged in combat sports, particularly wrestling and judo. Asymptomatic carriage is that it is mostly caused by anthropophilic dermatophytes (T. tonsurans, T. violaceum, Microsporum audouinii). Our results are consistent with the literature. The prevalence of dermatophyte-positive scalp carriage generally correlates well with the incidence of tinea capitis in community. Symptomatic tinea capitis studies targeting primary school children performed in Adana, Erzurum, Istanbul, Izmir, Diyarbakır, Batman and Afyon reported prevalence of 0.05%, 0.08%, 0.08%, 0.1%, 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.4% respectively. In Erzincan province, the prevalence of asymptomatic dermatophyte carriage observed is 0.05%. Conclusions: In our study, the prevalence of asymptomatic carrier state was similar with the prevalence of symptomatic cases in Turkey. This study is significant for being the first to investigate tinea capitis infections and carriage in Erzincan, Turkey. Keywords: Tinea capitis, asymptomatic dermatophyte scalp carriage, Trichophyton tonsurans, DNA sequencing analysis
Investigating Cryptococcus Antigen Using Lateral Flow Assay in HIV-positive Patients.
No full textTEZ11790Tez (Uzmanlık) -- Çukurova Üniversitesi, Adana, 2019.Kaynakça (s. 40-49) var.xi, 50 s. : res. (bzs. rnk.), tablo ; 29 cm.Cryptococcus neoformans özellikle CD4 sayısı düşük olan (200 hücre/?L olan hastalar da araştırılmalıdır. Ayrıca, HIV ile ilişkili asemptomatik kriptokokkoz Türkiye’de nadir değildir ve bu durumun sistematik olarak araştılması gereklidir. HIV pozitif ve/veya AIDS hastalarında kriptokok meningoensefalitinin önlenmesi için güncel stratejiler endemik olmayan ülkelerde bile uygulamaya alınmıştır.Cryptococcus neoformans causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis, particularly in HIV-positive individuals with low CD4 levels ( 200 cells/?L) CD4 counts should be screened for asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenemia. HIV-associated asymptomatic cryptococcosis is not uncommon in Turkey, which warrants systematic screening. Updated strategies for the prevention of CM among HIV-positive and/or AIDS patients are warranted even in non-endemic countries.Bu çalışma Ç.Ü. Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri Birimi tarafından desteklenmiştir. Proje No: TTU-2018-10976
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
