Biomedical subjects

K Jagannath

Publications and source records attributed to K Jagannath.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Brief communication: rapid culture of tubercle bacilli.

One of the biggest obstacles to the correct diagnosis and efficient treatment of tuberculosis is the absence of a rapid technique for culturing tubercle bacilli and for testing their susceptibility to antituberculosis drugs. Current procedures typically take 6-10 weeks to perform. This article describes a simple, rapid, reliable and cheap method of culturing tubercle bacilli using a liquid medium consisting of a mixture of coconut water, horse serum, glycerol and benzylpenicillin. Addition of specific concentrations of antituberculosis drugs to the medium, permits information on the drug susceptibility of tubercle bacilli to be obtained in only 6 days. The procedure requires no special instruments or technical skill and can therefore be carried out routinely in the average laboratory in developing countries.

Cell Culture Techniques↗

PubMed1997

Neopterin as a marker for cell-mediated immunity in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

SETTING: Cell-mediated immunity (CMI) involves macrophage activation and T cell proliferation. These two parameters are compared in this study. OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the role of neopterin as a biochemical marker for CMI in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. DESIGN: We measured neopterin levels in serum and the culture supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNC) after stimulation with purified protein derivative (PPD) in 11 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and 10 healthy individuals. Lymphocyte proliferative response to PPD was carried out in these two groups. RESULTS: The mean concentration of serum neopterin was significantly higher in patients than in controls (P < 0.01). The spontaneous release of neopterin was significantly higher in culture supernatants of MNC from patients when compared with those of healthy controls (P < 0.05). Release of neopterin from MNC stimulated with PPD, however, was similar in both groups. The neopterin release and the stimulation index (SI) in lymphocyte proliferation assay were not comparable, suggesting that these two parameters do not run in parallel for measuring the status of CMI. However, serum concentration of neopterin was inversely related to the SI in a large proportion of subjects (66%). CONCLUSION: Measurement of neopterin, a soluble product of immune cells (macrophage), may provide information on the state of CMI.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Detection of HIV infection in pulmonary tuberculosis patients.

Well documented 112 pulmonary tuberculosis patients were studied for the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity by using two antibody screening tests along with western blot test. Nineteen of the pulmonary tuberculosis patients were HIV seropositive, 12 were acid-fast bacillus smear positive; 12 patients were tuberculin skin test positive and 15 patients were culture positive. As the incidence of HIV infection is increasing in India, it is observed that patients co-infected with HIV and TB are also on the rise. Recognition of the dual infection and taking adequate steps to deal with this epidemic are needed.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗

PubMed1986

A cold staining method for acid-fast bacilli.

The Ziehl-Neelsen method is probably the best known and most frequently used procedure for staining tubercle bacilli. The method requires controlled heating for its success. However, in developing countries, such as India, where most laboratories rely mainly on spirit lamps as a source of heat, the Ziehl-Neelsen method often cannot be carried out because rectified spirit is difficult to obtain. The study describes a cold staining technique that uses the same staining solutions as the conventional Ziehl-Neelsen method. For direct smears, the correlation of results of the cold staining procedure with those of the Ziehl-Neelsen method was 97% and for concentrated smears was 99%. The method described is suitable for use in basically equipped laboratories.

Cold Temperature↗