Polymorphisms in autophagy genes and active pulmonary tuberculosis susceptibility in Romania
. CUCU MG, RIZA AL, CIMPOERU AL, STREATA I, SOSOI SS, CIONTEA MS, et al. Implication of TLR2 polymorphism in pulmonary tuberculosis. Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology 2015;20 (1). 17. Liu PT, Stenger S, Tang DH, Modlin RL. Cutting edge: vitamin D-mediated human antimicrobial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis is dependent on the induction of cathelicidin. The Journal of Immunology. 2007;179(4):2060-3. DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.179.4.2060. 18. Fabri M, Stenger S, Shin D-M, Yuk J-M, Liu PT, Realegeno S, et al. Vitamin D is required for IFN
Serological, clinical and epidemiological aspects of Lyme borreliosis in Mures County, Romania
disease spirochetes in Romania. Exp Appl Acarol. 2011 Jul;54(3):293-300 DOI: 10.1007/s10493-011-9438-4 6. Lindgren E, Jaenson TGT: Lyme borreliosis in Europe. Influences of climate and climate change, epidemiology, ecology and adaptation measures, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark. 2006;5-24 [http://www.euro.who.int/__data/ assets/pdf_file/0006/96819/E89522.pdf] 7. European Concerted Action on Lyme Borreliosis. Diagnosis: Case Definition EUCALB: [http://eucalb.com/] 8. Wilske B
Rickettsia conorii specific Ig G antibodies: a seroepidemiologic survey in Constanta and Tulcea counties and Bucharest, Romania, 2009
-nodulaire. Arch Rom Path Exp, 1992, 2:23-25. 5. Combiescu D, Dumitrescu N, RussM: Consideraţii epidemiologice asupra unor cazuri de febră butonoasă ivite în ultimii 41 de ani; Stud.Cercet.Inframicrobiologie, Bucureşti. 1953, 1-2 :99-102. 6. Constantinescu N, Marinescu Gh - Febra butonoasă (Boutonneuse fever - Rom.) in Elemente de inframicrobiologie specială (Special inframicrobiology elements - Rom.), Ed. Nicolau, St S, Ed. Medicală, Bucureşti, 1962:738-740. 7. Serban R: Boutonneuse Fever in Romania between 2000-2008, Bulletin of
Phenotypic and genotypic variations in Candida albicans isolates from Romanian patients
Abstract
Background: During the last two decades a major increase in the proportion of severe fungal infections has been noted due to the excessive use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, catheters, and a growing number of immunocompromised patients.
Objectives: This is the first investigation providing complete data regarding the phenotypic and genotypic profiles of Candida albicans (C. albicans) isolates in Romanian patients.
Methods: We investigated 301 isolates in terms of genotype determination (G), resistogram (R), phospholipase activity (Pl), haemolysis (Hl), proteinase activity (Pt), and biofilm formation (BF).
Results: The analyzed isolates of C. albicans showed low values for Pt (61.73%), Hl (95.49%), and BF (60.71%), and did not present any Pl activity (92.23%). More than half of the investigated samples were genotype A with 450 bp (52.92%) and the majority (86.19%) were resistant to sodium selenite (A), boric acid (B), sodium periodate (D) and silver nitrate (E), but sensitive to cetrimide (-). One-way ANOVA analysis revealed significant effects of the infection site on biofilm formation (p = 0.0137) and no significant correlation was found between the genotype (A, B, C) and the infection site (p =0.449).
Conclusions: Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that C. albicans isolates in Romanian patients exhibit different genotypic and phenotypic patterns, and no significant correlations between genotype and infection site could be observed.
Genetic testing in pediatrics - a narrative essay of challenges and possibilities in Romania
sequencing is a first-tier clinical diagnostic test for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Genet Med. 2019 Jun 11. doi: 10.1038/s41436-019-0554-6. DOI: 10.1038/s41436-019-0554-6 6. Gheldof A, Seneca S, Stouffs K, et al. Clinical implementation of gene panel testing for lysosomal storage diseases. Mol Genet Genomic Med. 2019;7(2):e00527. DOI: 10.1002/mgg3.527 7. Drugan C, Drugan T, Caillaud C, Grigorescu-Sido P, Nistor T, Crăciun AM. Laboratory diagnosis and follow-up of Romanian Gaucher disease patients. Rev Romana Med Lab. 2017;25(3):275-85. DOI
Genotype comparison of Candida albicans isolates from different clinical samples
References 1. Brown GD, Denning DW, Gow NAR, Levitz SM, Netea MG, White TC. Hidden Killers: Human Fungal Infections. Sci Transl Med. 2012;4(165):165rv13. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3004404 2. Odds FC, Bougnoux ME, Shaw DJ, Bain JM, Davidson AD, Diogo D, Mette DJ, et al. Molecular phylogenetics of Candida albicans. Eukaryotic cell. 2007;6(6):1041-52. DOI: 10.1128/EC.00041-07 3. Roșca I, Bostănaru A-C, Minea B, Năstasă V, Gherghel I, Pânzaru C-V, et al. Phenotypic and genotypic variations in Candida albicans isolates from Romanian patients. Rev
Hemolysis has no influence on routine coagulation tests in subjects without anticoagulant therapy - a referral Romanian emergency hospital laboratory experience
Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the rate of hemolyzed specimens sent to our laboratory for coagulation testing, assess the interference of hemolysis on coagulation for patients without anticoagulant therapy and to determine the reference intervals for PT, INR and aPTT for our laboratory in order to test our own limitations.
Methods: To determine the hemolysis rate, 1,689 specimens were evaluated on a visual scale and with the hemolysis icterus lipemia (HYL) test on Architect c4000 instrument. 125 blood samples collected from subjects without anticoagulant therapy were hemolyzed in vitro and the PT, INR and aPTT results were compared before and after hemolysis.To determine reference intervals (RI) for PT, INR and aPTT in our population, 125 apparently healthy human subjects (according to CLSI C28-A2) were enrolled and tests were performed on Sysmex CS 2000i, using Siemens reagents.
Results: Out of 1,689 samples, 9.46% were assessed as hemolyzed by the visual scale, while HYL test showed a 6.63% hemolysis rate. We found a shortening of 0.1s for PT, a diminution with 0.01 units for INR and a prolongation with 0.9s for aPTT from in vitro hemolyzed compared to non-lyzed samples. As to the reference intervals, we obtained in our laboratory versus reagents producer: for PT 9.8-13.9 s vs 9.8-12.1 s, and for aPTT 19.1-31.5s vs 23-31.9 s respectively; 28.38% more PT results and 13.44% more aPTT results were within range when we used local laboratory RI, compared to the manufacturer’s RI.
Conclusions: The rate of hemolyzed coagulation samples in our laboratory is higher than the rate found in the literature. Nevertheless, for patients without anticoagulant therapy hemolyzed samples should be processed. Using our own reference interval leads to a significant reduced number of abnormal results.
The angiotensinogen gene polymorphism, lifestyle factors, associated diseases and gastric areas of inflammatory and preneoplastic lesions in a Romanian sample of patients
Abstract
The aim of our study was to evaluate the association between variant genotype of angiotensinogen (AGT) c.-58A>C, lifestyle factors and clinical factors and corporeal extension of gastric inflammatory and preneoplastic lesions.
Methods: Our study included 209 subjects who underwent a complete set of gastric biopsies, followed by genotyping. They were included to study inflammatory gastric changes and preneoplastic lesions and were grouped according to the localization of changes.
Results: No significant statistical associations were noticed between AGT c.-58A>C genotypes and the corporeal extension of the inflammation or preneoplastic injury groups. Extending preneoplastic lesions to the gastric body was associated with smoking habits (p=0.01) and additionally, there was a significant association between nicotine consumption and the body extension of preneoplastic lesions (p=0.01). The use of acenocoumarol was frequently associated with the progression of histological lesions to preneoplastic lesions (p=0.01). Compared with the wild-type AA genotype, the combined genotypes AA+CC of AGT c.-58A>C were significantly associated with the progression of inflammatory gastric lesions’ according to the regular ingested doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Conclusion: The AGT c.-58A>C polymorphism is not associated with extension of the gastric lesions. In accordance with nicotine and alcohol consumption, the acenocoumarol co-treatment and multiple cardiac pathologies are associated with the corporeal progression of these injuries. The age below 70 years and NSAIDs treatment for the patients with heterozygous AC genotype and variant homozygous CC genotype for the mentioned SNP have been associated with the corporeal extension of gastric inflammation.
Major editorial changes of Romanian Review of Laboratory Medicine
References 1. International standard_editors_for website_11_ Nov_2011.pdf [Internet]. [cited 2013 Nov 10]. Available from: http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standard_editors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf 2. ICMJE: The New ICMJE Recommendations [Internet]. [cited 2013 Dec 1]. Available from: http://www.icmje.org/new_recommendations.html 3. Romanian Review of Laboratory Medicine | Versita [Internet]. [cited 2013 Nov 10]. Available from: http://versita.com/serial/romanian