METHODOLOGY: A combination of nucleic acid-based assays, including in house generic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for enteroviruses, flaviviruses and phleboviruses, a commercial real-time PCR assay for herpesviruses and a commercial real time multiplex PCR, enabling detection of frequently-observed viral, bacterial and fungal agents were employed for screening.
RESULTS: The microbial agent could be characterized in 10 (10%) of the 100 specimens. Viral etiology could be demonstrated in 7 (70%) specimens, which comprises Human Herpesvirus 6 (4/7), Herpes Simplex virus type1 (2/7) and Enteroviruses (1/7). In 3 specimens (30%), Streptococcus pneumoniae, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were detected via the multiplex PCR, which were also isolated in bacteriological media. All specimens with detectable viral nucleic acids, as well as unreactive specimens via nucleic acid testing remained negative in bacteriological cultures.
CONCLUSIONS: Herpes and enteroviruses were identified as the primary causative agents of central nervous system infections in children. Enterovirus testing must be included in the diagnostic work-up of relevant cases.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 258 community dwelling women from urban and rural settings who participated in health campaigns. In order to reduce the sampling bias, half of the study population performed the self-sampling prior to the physician sampling while the other half performed the self-sampling after the physician sampling, randomly. Acquired samples were assessed for cytological changes as well as HPV DNA detection.
RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 40.4±11.3 years. The prevalence of abnormal cervical changes was 2.7%. High risk and low risk HPV genotypes were found in 4.0% and 2.7% of the subjects, respectively. A substantial agreement was observed between self-sampling and the physician obtained sampling in cytological diagnosis (k=0.62, 95%CI=0.50, 0.74), micro-organism detection (k=0.77, 95%CI=0.66, 0.88) and detection of hormonal status (k=0.75, 95%CI=0.65, 0.85) as well as detection of high risk (k=0.77, 95%CI=0.4, 0.98) and low risk (K=0.77, 95%CI=0.50, 0.92) HPV. Menopausal state was found to be related with 8.39 times more adequate cell specimens for cytology but 0.13 times less adequate cell specimens for virological assessment.
CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that self-sampling has a good agreement with physician sampling in detecting HPV genotypes. Self-sampling can serve as a tool in HPV screening while it may be useful in detecting cytological abnormalities in Malaysia.