Cultivation of Protozoa Parasites In Vitro: Growth Potential in Conventional Culture Media versus RPMI-PY Medium.

The in vitro cultivation of Leishmania and Trypanosoma parasites plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of parasitic diseases. Although Evans's modified Tobie and Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle media, for and , respectively, are the two commonly used media for both isolation and maintenance of strains in vitro, their preparation is expensive and laborious and requires fresh rabbit blood from housed animals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vitro growth of both parasites with an alternative monophasic, blood-free, easy, and affordable medium called RPMI-PY, which was previously demonstrated suitable for the in vitro growth of .

Retrospective Analysis of Leishmaniasis in Sicily (Italy) from 2013 to 2021: One-Health Impact and Future Control Strategies.

Leishmaniasis is an important vector-borne disease that represents a serious public health problem, including in Sicily (Italy), which is considered an endemic area. We collected canine, feline and human data from 2013 to 2021 in Sicily, while entomological surveys were conducted only in 2013 and 2021. Overall, 23,794/74,349 (34.

Does Heparin Affect Tc-MAA In Vitro Stability?

Introduction: Pulmonary embolism (PE) can be diagnosed by perfusion lung scintigraphy using human albumin macroaggregates labelled Tc (Tc-MAA). When PE is suspected, subcutaneous Low Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWH) should be administered even before the results of the PE diagnostic flowchart. In our study, we aimed to evaluate a possible interaction (in vitro interference) between Tc-MAA and LMWH.

Oropharyngoesophageal Scintigraphy in a Case of Complex Swallowing Disorders After a Major Oral Surgery.

A 75-year-old woman had an occasional finding of a left tonsil mass for dysphagia, which resulted a high-grade squamous carcinoma. Therefore, the patient was sent to have a left pharyngectomy. After the pharyngectomy, the patient reported persistent swallowing disorders and nasal reflux.

Molecular Diagnosis of Leishmaniasis: Quantification of Parasite Load by a Real-Time PCR Assay with High Sensitivity.

Real-time PCR was developed to quantify kinetoplast DNA and optimized to achieve a sensitivity of 1 parasite/mL. For this purpose, we cloned the conserved kDNA fragment of 120 bp into competent cells and correlated them with serial dilutions of DNA extracted from reference parasite cultures calculating that a parasite cell contains approximately 36 molecules of kDNA. This assay was applied to estimate parasite load in clinical samples from visceral, cutaneous leishmaniasis patients and infected dogs and cats comparing with conventional diagnosis.