Evaluation of Quantitative Hepatitis C Virus Core Antigen Testing as a Tool for Screening and Confirmation of HCV Infection.

Background: Hepatitis C is a common viral infection worldwide. Finding the most effective diagnostic methods with low cost is always needed for laboratory improvement. In this study, we evaluated the performance of a quantitative chemiluminescent hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCV cAg) test by comparing it with the HCV confirmatory antibody line immunoblot assay (HCV Ab-LIA) test as well as the HCV quantitate reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) test.

Methicillin-resistant replication in the presence of high (≥32 µg/ml) drug concentration of vancomycin as seen by electron microscopy.

Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) has unfortunately become a common pathogen in many healthcare facilities. In many institutions, vancomycin remains the preferred agent for treating serious MRSA infections including bacteraemia with or without endocarditis. The mutant prevention concentration (MPC) testing ≥10 colony forming units of bacteria, describes the antimicrobial drug concentration blocking the growth of the least susceptible cell from high density bacterial populations.