International Journal of Medical Laboratory
Volume:10 Issue: 3, Aug 2023

Psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease causing raised, scaly patches on the skin, especially the elbows, knees, and scalp due to systemic inflammation. The disease affects more than 125 million people worldwide. Psoriasis is associated with problems such as depression, reduced quality of life, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, lymphoma, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome. Psoriasis has a complex pathogenesis that is not yet fully understood. Many studies have shown the importance of the microbiome for the exacerbation of psoriasis. On the other hand, psoriasis and some other treatments can increase the colonization of some microbial agents in the body. Candida is commensal yeast that forms part of the natural microflora of the skin and mucous membranes. It has been shown that people with psoriasis are susceptible to candidiasis. In this review article, the causes of candidiasis, its diagnosis, and treatment in patients with psoriasis, as well as psoriasis aggravation methods by Candida species have also been investigated. To this end, keywords such as "psoriasis", "candida", " oral candidiasis", "cutaneous candidiasis", "vulvovaginal candidiasis", "epidemiology of Candida"  and "balanitis" were searched. Articles published in national and international scientific databases, namely Google Scholar, PubMed/MEDLINE, Elsevier databases, Scopus, Science Direct, IranMedex, and SID from 2001 to 2023 were used. Oral candidiasis, cutaneous candidiasis, vulvovaginal candidiasis, and balanitis are diseases that affect people with psoriasis. On the other. This fungus may aggravate psoriasis through toxin production and activation of T lymphocytes independent of antigen presentation.

Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a group of non-specific symptoms associated with the built environment, including mucosal symptoms in the eyes, nose, throat, and skin, and general symptoms such as headache and fatigue. Currently, more attention has been paid to the impact of buildings on the health and well-being of occupants, so SBS has become a global concern. Indoor microbial agents such as fungi are important in causing this syndrome. Fungi are eukaryotic microorganisms that occur in indoor air. Among the fungi, Cladosporium, Aspergillus, Stachybotrys, and Penicillium have a significant role in causing SBS. Fungi can contribute to this syndrome in different ways. Thus, this review article attempts to investigate the role of fungi and how to intervene in these microorganisms in SBS. To this end, keywords such as: "air," "indoor," "fungi," and "sick building syndrome" were searched. Articles published in scientific databases, such as Google Scholar, PubMed/MEDLINE, Elsevier, and Scopus were used.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood biomarkers are widely evaluated as diagnostic tools to distinguish between bacterial meningitis and viral meningitis in emergency laboratory tests. So, this aimed to examine the levels of diagnostic parameters in blood and CSF to discriminate between bacterial and viral meningitis in young children referred to Khoy Hospital.

A total of 101 young children with meningitis were enrolled in this prospective study. The diagnosis of bacterial and viral meningitis was based on clinical features and laboratory findings.

Of the 101 patients with meningitis, 18 (17.82%) were bacterial, and 83 (82.17%) were viral meningitis. The levels of CSF glucose and CSF/blood glucose ratio were significantly lower in the bacterial meningitis group than in the viral meningitis group (p < 0.01). In contrast, white blood cells count, CSF protein, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and ferritin levels were significantly higher in patients with bacterial meningitis compared to viral meningitis (p < 0.01). However, there was no difference between viral and bacterial meningitis groups concerning mean serum glucose.

This study suggests that decreased CSF glucose and CSF/blood glucose ratio and increased white blood cells count, CSF protein, ferritin, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein combined with clinical symptoms can help better diagnosis of bacterial meningitis, especially in comparison with viral meningitis.

In the absence of treatment for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, there is an urgent need to find alternative methods to control the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study was conducted to compare the effects of vitamin D3 and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on clinical status indicators in patients with COVID-19 hospitalization in Abadan, Iran.

100 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infection participated in this study. Patients were randomly allocated to four groups: 3 intervention groups and 1 control group. All patients received standard treatment. In addition, the intervention-1 group received NAC tablets and vitamin D3 placebo ampoules. The intervention-2 group received NAC tablets and vitamin D3 ampoules. The intervention-3 group received vitamin D3 ampoules and NAC placebo tablets. The control group received vitamin D3 placebo ampoules and NAC placebo tablets. Symptoms of the disease and clinical status indicators were compared in groups in the baseline and on days 7, 14, 21, and 28, respectively.

The trial comparison showed that the incidence of cough, dyspnea, and serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase in laboratory tests in the NAC-P1 group was lower than in the other three groups (p <0.005). Also, the results showed a significant difference in the length of hospitalization between the four groups. The length of hospitalization was decreased in the NAC-D3 group (p < 0.024).

Based on the results, vitamin D3 supplements and NAC can improve some outcomes in COVID-19 treatment; however, more randomized controlled trial studies are required in this field.

Human herpes virus types 6 and 7 (HHV-6, HHV-7) can remain latent in the urogenital tract epithelial cells. Varicella-Zoster virus (VZV) is among the Alphaherpesviruses infecting most people during childhood. This virus can remain latent in the ganglionic neurons. The latent infection can reactivate through weakness, suppression of the immune system, and aging. Therefore, this study investigated the molecular prevalence of HHV-6, HHV-7, and Varicella-Zoster virus in sperm samples from infertile men.

Sperm samples from 82 infertile patients were collected from infertility centers in Tehran. Chromatin health levels and sperm DNA examinations were carried out using sperm DNA fragmentation index kits. Viral nucleic acids were extracted from the samples. The presence of VZV, HHV-6, and HHV-7 genomes was examined through the conventional polymerase chain reaction assay.

The average age was 37.3 ± 6.1 years. The mean sperm motility percentage was 33.6 ± 2%. Infertile men's mean DNA fragmentation index was 27.2 ± 1.2. This study shows a 7.3% and 4.9% prevalence for HHV-6 and VZV, respectively, and the absence of HHV-7 in sperm specimens.

Although the infection rates of these herpesviruses seem relatively low, more comprehensive and multi-center studies are required to obtain more accurate results.

Toxoplasmosis is a protozoan infection caused by a forced intracellular parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, a branch of the apicomplexa found in humans and numerous species of animals. This study aimed to determine the titer of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in patients referred to the Central Laboratory of Ilam City and to define their effective factors in the prevalence of this disease using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method.

The current study was a descriptive cross-sectional study with a random sampling of 116 patients' serum referred to the Central Laboratory of Ilam City. Samples were analyzed using ELISA for the presence of Immunoglobulin (Ig)M, IgG antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii.

Twenty-three samples (19.8%) out of 116 serum samples were detected using anti-Toxoplasma antibodies. Nineteen samples out of these 23 (16.4%) samples were antibody IgG while the other 4 were IgM antibodies. The results of the Chi-square test showed a significant difference between IgG-positive titer and sex, level of education, place of residence, age, and marital status; however, no significant difference was found between these variables and positive IgM titer.

As a large number of people are susceptible to acute toxoplasmosis infection and lack proper health information, it is necessary to adopt monitoring and control measures by health care officials to prevent the infection through the necessary training and health recommendations.

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began in 2020. A major problem during COVID-19 was determining the clinical severity. There are a variety of markers for assessing the COVID-19 severity and outcome. So, this study aims to introduce a new approach for determining the disease severity based on the laboratory data obtained by machine learning algorithms.

In this study, we used 100 patients for modeling. We used demographical, background disease, and laboratory data of COVID-19 patients as parameters for training the convolutional neural network model to evaluate disease severity and tried to create a predictive algorithm for future data. The sequential neural network from the Keras library by TensorFlow was used for prediction. The clinical validation of prediction by model was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

The mean F1 score for our current model was 0.62 (in the range of 0-1). The F1 scores for the severe group and the mild group were 0.8 and 0.45, respectively. The ROC curve for clinical validity revealed an acceptable Area Under Curve (0.085) for both severe and mild categories.

The current study introduces a simple machine learning algorithm as tool for determining COVID-19 severity of by acceptable ROC. This study can lead us to use such algorithms more often in laboratory medicine and clinical decision-making. Furthermore, the present study is just a preliminary study and highlights the need for further research to validate and refine the proposed model.

Ginger has anti-oxidant and anti-diabetic properties, but its beneficial effects have not been fully understood on ovarian disorders in diabetic conditions. In the current project, the impact of ginger extract was investigated on oxidative stress and steroidogenesis-related genes in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced female rats. 

The STZ-induced rats were utilized as a diabetic model and received 200 or 400 mg/kg/day ginger extract for eight weeks. The biochemical factors were measured by standard procedures in this study. Serum levels of insulin and sex hormones were assessed by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique, and the mRNA expression of target genes was assayed by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

An increase in the levels of glucose, testosterone, and malondialdehyde (MDA) as well as a decrease in the levels of insulin, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3βHSD), steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), 17β-estradiol, and progesterone was observed in the diabetic rats. Ginger (200 mg/kg) exhibited a significant amelioration in the levels of glucose, testosterone, and MDA. Treatment with 200 mg/kg ginger enhanced the levels of GPx, StAR, and 17β-estradiol. Administration with 400 mg/kg ginger extract also ameliorated the level of glucose, testosterone, MDA, and elevated the level of insulin, GPx, 3βHSD, StAR, 17β-estradiol, and progesterone in the diabetic rats.

The current study suggests ginger extract protects against ovarian damage in STZ-diabetic rats.