Evaluating the efficiency of lettuce disinfection according to the official protocol in iran

BACKGROUND

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Sanitization of Lettuce according to the protocols set forth by Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education for reducing populations of total coliform, fecal coliform, and helminth eggs present on lettuce.

METHODS

In the present study, we determined the load of total coliform, fecal coliform, and parasites of lettuce. The lettuce was sanitized by protocol of Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The protocol consists of 3 levels to disinfect the fruits and vegetables. The procedure was as follows: first washing stage. The leaves of leafy vegetables washed with tap water, second stage, separation of helminth eggs by 3 to 5 droplets of detergent per liter for 5 min; third stage, disinfection of vegetables by calcium hypochlorite solution (with 200 mg/l free chlorine) for 5 min; and finally the disinfected vegetables were washed with tap water.

RESULTS

The average initial levels of total coliform and fecal coliform in the samples were 3.36 log(10) cfu/g and 2.31 log(10) cfu/g, respectively. Helminth eggs were not detected in any of the samples tested. The efficiency of total coliform and fecal coliform removal were 78.1% (0.75 log(10)cfu/g) and 79.6% (0.67 log(10)cfu/g), respectively, after washing. This increased up to 94.8(1.44 log(10)cfu/g) and 98.5% (1.90 log(10)cfu/g) after the use of detergent. Chlorine disinfection rose these amounts up to 98.3% (2.18 log(10)cfu/g) and 100% (2.31 log(10)cfu/g), respectively.

CONCLUSION

By applying the protocol large parts of microorganisms existing on lettuce have indeed been removed.

Rapid, cost-effective, sensitive and quantitative detection of Acinetobacter baumannii from pneumonia patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Pneumonia with Acinetobacter baumannii has a major therapeutic problem in health care settings. Decision to initiate correct antibiotic therapy requires rapid identification and quantification of organism. The aim of this study was to develop a rapid and sensitive method for direct detection of A. baumannii from respiratory specimens.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A Taqman real time PCR based on the sequence of bla(oxa-51) was designed and used for direct detection of A. baumannii from 361 respiratory specimens of patients with pneumonia. All specimens were checked by conventional bacteriology in parallel.

RESULTS

The new real time PCR could detect less than 200 cfu per ml of bacteria in specimens. There was agreement between the results of real time PCR and culture (Kappa value 1.0, p value<0.001). The sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of real time PCR were 100%. The prevalence of A. baumannii in pneumonia patients was 10.53 % (n=38). Poly-microbial infections were detected in 65.71% of specimens.

CONCLUSION

Acinetobacter baumannii is the third causative agent in nosocomial pneumonia after Pseudomonas aeroginosa (16%) and Staphylococcus aureus (13%) at Tehran hospitals. We recommend that 104 CFU be the threshold for definition of infection with A. baumannii using real time PCR.

Butyrylcholinesterase K variants increase the risk of coronary artery disease in the population of western Iran

The conflicting results of several studies suggest that there is an association between the butyrylcholinesterase-K variant (BCHE-K, G1615A/Ala539Thr) and the risk of developing coronary artery disease (CAD) in diabetes and non-diabetic subjects. The objective of this study was to determine whether the presence of the BCHE-K variant exacerbates the risk of CAD in patients from western Iran with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This case-control study comprised 464 subjects undergoing their first coronary angiography. They were matched and randomly assigned into four groups: CAD+T2DM+ (CAD/T2DM), CAD+DM(-) (CAD/ND), CAD(-)DM+ (T2DM/NCAD) and CAD(-)DM(-)(control). The BCHE-K variant was detected by PCR-RFLP. The BCHE-K allele frequency in CAD patients with and without T2DM [total CAD (TCAD)] and separately for each group (CAD/T2DM and CAD/ND) was significantly higher than in the control group (21.1 % versus 13.3 % (p = 0.001), 22.4 % versus 13.3 % (p = 0.001) and 19.7 % versus 13.3 % (p = 0.015), respectively). The odds ratios (ORs) for the BCHE-K heterozygous and homozygous variants in TCAD subjects were 1.65 (95 % CI 1.17-2.3; p = 0.004) and 4.3 (1.05-19.4; p = 0.048); for CAD/T2DM individuals 1.76 (1.2-2.6; p = 0.004) and 4.73 (0.96-23.3; p = 0.052); and for CAD/ND patients 1.53 (1.05-2.3; p = 0.029) and 3.88 (0.8-19.7; p = 0.7), respectively. The OR of the BCHE-K allele was found to be 1.74 (1.1-2.4; p = 0.001) in TCAD subjects, 1.87 (1.12-1.48; p = 0.001) in the CAD/T2DM group and 1.59 (1.04-1.4; p = 0.016) in CAD/ND subjects. These data suggest that the BCHE-K allele increases the risk of CAD in the population (with and without DM) in western parts of Iran, and its presence intensifies the risk of CAD in T2DM. The fact that the BCHE-K allele, even in the heterozygous form, exacerbates the risk of CAD in this population, suggests that a specific therapeutic intervention should be considered for this particular group of patients.