Background: Toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) is one of the most common opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients. In Cuba, despite the highly active antiretroviral therapy, TE is still the most important cause of cerebral mass lesions in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The detection of Toxoplasma gondii by PCR may facilitate the diagnosis and follow-up of TE in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients by direct identification of parasite DNA in clinical samples. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a rapid PCR method using the B1 gene to detect T. gondii in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from patients with suspected TE.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational program carried out in 1993. The intervention took place after the first external quality assessment in coproparasitology, conducted in 77 laboratories of Havana City. Centers receiving training were compared with those that did not, and better results were obtained in the municipalities of 10 de Octubre, Plaza, and Cerro, as well as in all laboratories that sent people to training. Better diagnosis was found for the helminths Trichuris trichiura, Taenia sp., and Fasciola hepatica as well for the protozoans Blastocystis hominis and Endolimax nana in the laboratories that received training. The laboratories that received training had significantly higher scores than those which did not. The results point to the effectiveness of the educational intervention. We recommend external quality assessment in coproparasitology as well as ongoing, mandatory technical education, held at regular intervals. Such measures should assure steady improvement in diagnosis of intestinal parasites by the health services network.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.