Molecular diagnosis and genotype analysis of Giardia duodenalis in asymptomatic children from a rural area in central Colombia.

Giardiasis is a parasitic infection that affects around 200 million people worldwide. This parasite presents a remarkable genetic variability observed in 8 genetic clusters named as 'assemblages' (A-H). These assemblages are host restricted and could be zoonotic where A and B infect humans and animals around the globe.

[Differentiation of Entamoeba histolytica from Entamoeba dispar using Gal/GalNAc-lectin and polymerase chain reaction].

Background: Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar are morphologically identical. However, the former is highly pathogenic and the latter is not.

Aim: To differentiate Entamoeba histolytica from Entamoeba dispar through ELISA and PCR techniques in Colombian isolates from feces.

[Primary-care prevention activities in outpatients suffering from diabetic foot care].

Objective: Determining the prevalence of prevention activities regarding diabetic foot recommended by doctors and carried out by out-patients attending general medicine self-care foot control and describing food habits.

Methods: This was a descriptive and cross-sectional studywhich was carried out in two health-care institutions in Bogotá, from March to October 2008, by weightedconveniencesampling of 307 diabetic patients, aged over 18 years.

Results: Some patients had a background of foot ulcers (13.

Inequalities in prescription of hydrochlorothiazide for diabetic hypertensive patients in Colombia.

Objective: Evaluating differences in the suitable prescription of thiazides in hypertense patients, according to affiliation regime.

Materials And Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study. The database from a previous study was used regarding two groups of hypertense patients (subsidised regime and contributory regime) who had attended out-patient consultation between 01-09-2007 and 29-02-2008.

[History of the Entamoeba histolytica protozoan].

This article presents a history of Entamoeba histolytica spanning since the remote times when it was not even recognized as a cause of human disease to the recent molecular advances. Feder Losch (1875) in Saint Petersburg, found amoebae in fecal samples but only regarded them as responsible for maintaining the inflammatory process, not as a cause of dysentery. Fritz Schaudinn (1903) established the differentiation between Entamoeba histolytica and Endamoeba coli, Schaudinn decided to call it E.

[A diagnostic approach to hepatic abscess].

Background: The non invasive diagnosis of amebic liver abscess allows the use of empirical therapy without the requirement of invasive diagnostic procedures.

Aim: To determine the discriminatory capacity of clinical, laboratory and ultrasound studies for the etiological diagnosis of liver abscess.

Patients And Methods: Sixty one patients were initially included in this prospective study, but 12 did not comply with the inclusion criteria.