National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Leptospirosis is one of the most widespread worldwide zoonotic occupational disease which is widely prevalent in various states of India, especially in Tamil Nadu. The mortality in severe disease ranges from 5-40%. Early diagnosis and treatment with appropriate antibiotics contributes to a reduction in the mortality rate. Hence this study was done with the objective of evaluating the usefulness of PCR in early diagnosis of human leptospirosis. Blood samples collected from patients with clinical diagnosis of leptospirosis during the first week of illness and blood samples from normal healthy controls were included in the study. All samples and controls were subjected to serological assays- Latex agglutination test (LAT), Microscopic agglutination test (MAT), and Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using specific primers G1 and G2. Out of 75 samples from the patients with clinical diagnosis of leptospirosis, 78.7% were positive by PCR, while 54.6% were positive by MAT, and 50.6% by LAT. Among the 55 healthy controls, PCR & MAT were negative in all, whereas LAT was positive in 3.6%. PCR was found to be the most sensitive test for diagnosis of Leptospirosis during the initial phase of illness, as the sero-conversion usually takes a week to develop. PCR was observed with high specificity as well. Hence PCR is very useful in early diagnosis especially in fulminant cases of leptospirosis, where early treatment reduces the mortality rate.
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