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Biomedical subjects

A Y Nasrallah

Publications and source records attributed to A Y Nasrallah.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Clinical presentation of enteric fever: its changing pattern in Kuwait.

The clinical experience with enteric fever (1985-89) at a general hospital in Kuwait is presented. There were 90 cases of typhoid and 10 cases of paratyphoid fever, with a mortality rate of 2%. Typhoid complications of bowel perforation, haemorrhage or septic shock were present in 5% and abortion in 2%. Neurological or psychiatric manifestations were a feature in 15%. Most infections were imported (78%). Despite rapid economic development, enteric fever may still be acquired locally but less frequently with time. This contributed to initial diagnostic uncertainty in 18% of cases, and especially in children. Another changing pattern emerged with the recent finding of five drug-resistant Salmonella typhi isolates, two in 1988 and three in 1989. Efforts are clearly needed to diagnose enteric fever more rapidly and to utilize new antibiotics for drug-resistant cases.

Adolescent↗

Evaluation of a latex kit reagent for the detection and identification of pneumococci.

The ability of a commercial latex kit to detect pneumococcal antigen in 50 CSF samples, 150 ear swabs and 80 sputum samples was investigated. Results were compared with microscopic and culture findings. 18/19 culture-positive specimens were latex-positive. 7 latex-positive specimens yielded organisms other than S. pneumoniae which agglutinated the latex, 4 Klebsiella spp, 2 Staphylococcus aureus and 1 Haemophilus influenzae. For 11 other specimens latex agglutination was positive and culture negative. S. pneumoniae was recovered from the blood of 1 of these patients and, in 2 further cases, microscopy showed poorly stained organisms which had some resemblance to S. pneumoniae. For 10 different strains of S. pneumoniae suspensions containing between 10(4) and 10(7) organisms per ml were required to agglutinate the latex.

Antigens, Bacterial↗