Publications by authors named "Mieko Kosaka"
Article Synopsis
- Cutaneous warts are primarily caused by HPV infection, but differentiating between types like plantar warts and other lesions is challenging, highlighting the need for better diagnostic methods.
- A study followed 21 patients with plantar warts, revealing that 11 were HPV-positive and 10 were HPV-negative, which raised questions about the accuracy of previous diagnoses.
- Results showed that HPV-positive patients had a significantly higher healing rate after standard treatment compared to HPV-negative patients, suggesting that HPV typing could improve diagnosis and treatment effectiveness for plantar warts.
Article Synopsis
- Warts, caused by HPV, can be hard to distinguish from similar skin conditions like clavus and callus, so researchers are exploring less-invasive methods to differentiate them.
- In a study with 90 patients, DNA was successfully extracted from surface swabs and scales, enabling the detection of various HPV types using PCR.
- Results showed a 90.9% agreement rate between clinical diagnosis and HPV detection, highlighting challenges in diagnosing plantar warts, especially in older patients, and suggesting that swabbing techniques can aid in diagnosis and follow-up.
Chikungunya fever is a mosquito-borne disease of key public health importance in tropical and subtropical countries. Although severe joint pain is the most distinguishing feature of chikungunya fever, diagnosis remains difficult because the symptoms of chikungunya fever are shared by many pathogens, including dengue fever. The present study aimed to develop a new immunochromatographic diagnosis test for the detection of chikungunya virus antigen in serum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: For the diagnosis of seasonal influenza, clinicians rely on point-of-care testing (POCT) using commercially available kits developed against seasonal influenza viruses. However, POCT has not yet been established for the diagnosis of pandemic influenza A virus (H1N1pdm) infection due to the low sensitivity of the existing kits for H1N1pdm.
Methodology/principal Findings: An immunochromatography (IC) test kit was developed based on a monoclonal antibody against H1N1pdm, which does not cross-react with seasonal influenza A or B viruses.
N¹,N¹²-diacetylspermine (DiAcSpm) is a minor component of human urine that constitutes less than 0.5% of total polyamine species in human urine. Structurally related polyamines and acetylpolyamines were separated and analyzed by HPLC and gas chromatography, and refinement of these procedures led to the identification of this minor component.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince its emergence in April 2009, pandemic influenza A virus H1N1 (H1N1 pdm), a new type of influenza A virus with a triple-reassortant genome, has spread throughout the world. Initial attempts to diagnose the infection in patients using immunochromatography (IC) relied on test kits developed for seasonal influenza A and B viruses, many of which proved significantly less sensitive to H1N1 pdm. Here, we prepared monoclonal antibodies that react with H1N1 pdm but not seasonal influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2) or B viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Colonoscopic examination is the common pathway for positive screening tests detecting colorectal lesions. We evaluated a specific, quantitative high-throughput automatic immunochemical fecal occult blood test (Auto iFOBT) method for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening and to determine its concordance with physician assessments informed by complete colonoscopy, the gold-standard technique for evaluation of the colonic mucosa.
Methods: 1200 CRC symptomatic patients were recruited for a retrospective investigation.