Angiotensin-converting enzyme gene insertion/deletion polymorphism in Saudi patients with rheumatic heart disease.

Objectives: To investigate the association between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Saudi patients.

Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Saudi RHD patients. Genomic DNA was isolated from 99 RHD patients attending the Pediatric Cardiology Clinic at the Maternity and Children Hospital, Al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia from March 2013 to June 2014, and from 145 age- and gender-matched controls.

Evaluation of direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical samples using the BD ProbeTec ET system.

Objective: To evaluate the performance of the semi-automated BD ProbeTec ET system for the direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) in comparison with microscopy, and culture for respiratory and non-respiratory specimens.

Methods: The study was conducted in the Maternity and Children's Hospital, Madina, Saudi Arabia from October 2008 to October 2009. A single center prospective study of 70 suspected tuberculosis samples were subjected to microscopy, culture (solid and liquid), and the DB ProbeTec ET system.

Angiotensin converting enzyme DD genotype is associated with development of rheumatic heart disease in Egyptian children.

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene polymorphism was previously studied in some cardiovascular diseases. There are only few studies which investigated this polymorphism in patients with rheumatic heart disease (RHD). The results of these investigations are inconsistent.

Lack of association between endothelial constitutive nitric oxide synthase (ecNOS 4 b/a) gene polymorphism and rheumatic heart disease.

Our aim in this work was to explore any possible association between ecNOS 4 b/a polymorphism and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). In this study, leukocyte DNA was extracted from 139 patients with RHD and 79 healthy control children. After amplification by PCR, the products were separated by electrophoresis in 6% polyacrylamide gel and visualized after ethidium bromide staining with UV light.