Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the major causes of chronic hepatitis. It is important to know the genotypes of HCV in the decision of the HCV related chronic hepatitis therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the HCV genotypes determined at the Microbiology Laboratory of Akdeniz University Hospital, and to evaluate the changes in the distribution of the genotypes within the last five years. A total of 422 blood samples from HCV-RNA positive chronic hepatitis C patients (219 male, 203 female; age range: 8-79 yrs, mean age 46.3 ± 15.5 yrs) which were sent to our laboratory for genotyping between 2009-2013 period, were analyzed retrospectively. HCV-RNA extractions were performed in an automated system (EZ1 Virus Mini Kit v2.0, Qiagen, Germany), and a commercial reverse hybridization line probe-based assay (LIPA; GEN-C RT-PCR, Italy) was carried out for genotyping, For viral load determinations, a real-time PCR method (Cobas TaqMan HCV, Roche Diagnostics, Germany) was used. Demographic data of the patients were obtained from the hospital information systems and electronic patients' files. Out of the 422 patients, genotype 1b was detected in 63.3% (n= 267), genotype 1a in 14.7% (n= 62), genotype 3a in 11.1% (n= 47), genotype 2b in 0.9% (n= 4), genotype 4e in 0.2% (n= 1). The subtypes couldn't be determined for 5.4% (n= 23), 2.6% (n= 11) and 1.4% (n= 6) of the patients infected with genotype 1, 2 and 4, respectively. One (0.2%) patient, was coinfected with genotype 1 and 4. Of the patients, 40 were foreign-born (16 cases from Russia; 4 of each from Ukraine and Georgia; 3 of each from Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Germany; one of each from Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Moldova, Switzerland and Romania) and among these patients genotype 3a (19/40; 47.5%) was the most common genotype followed by genotype 1b (17/40; 42.5%). Median values of HCV viral load were 668.500 IU/ml (range: 2.000-9.630.000) in the whole group; while it was 732.000 IU/ml (range: 2.000-9.630.000) in patients infected with genotype 1 and 444.000 IU/ml (range: 2.650- 8.330.000) in patients infected with the other genotypes (p> 0.05). Patients infected with genotype 1 were found to be older than those infected with other genotypes (47 ± 15.7 and 39.5 ± 12.2, respectively; p< 0.001). Among patients infected with different genotypes, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of genders (p> 0.05). In conclusion, the determination of HCV genotypes is of crucial importance for treatment decision-making of chronic HCV infection. Besides, it also allows monitoring the changes in the epidemiology of HCV. In this study, although genotype 1b was determined as the most common HCV genotype, the detection of other genotypes was remarkable. This finding was attributed to the presence of many foreign national people in Antalya region which was a high capacity tourism area in Turkey.

Infections with multidrug resistant gram-negative bacteria is a growing problem especially in health care settings. Colistin is one of the last resort antibiotics for such infections in which treatment options are limited. Increasing resistance to colistin is a global problem. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) study groups have recommended the ISO-standard broth microdilution method (20776-1) as the reference method for the determination of colistin susceptibility. Since the broth microdilution method is not a practical method, it is rarely used in routine clinical microbiology laboratories, yet simple and accurate phenotypic detection methods for the determination of colistin resistance in routine microbiology laboratories are not precisely defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate BD Phoenix100 (Becton Dickinson, USA) system and colistin broth disk elution method for the detection of in vitro activity of colistin against gram-negative bacteria. A total of 419 gram-negative bacteria, including 199 Klebsiella pneumoniae, 163 Acinetobacter baumannii, 34 Escherichia coli, 20 Enterobacter spp., and three Citrobacter spp. isolates which were isolated from various clinical samples in our hospital between 2016-2018 were tested. The broth microdilution method was used as the reference method applying ISO-standard broth microdilution methods (20776-1) and CLSI/EUCAST recommendations. For colistin broth disk elution method, final concentrations of 0 (growth control), 1, 2 and 4 μg/ml were obtained by adding 10 μg colistin disks to four tubes containing 10 ml cation-adjusted Mueller Hinton broth per isolate. After incubation at room temperature for 30 minutes, 50 μl of standardized inoculum suspensions were added to the tubes. Colistin minimum inhibitor concentration (MIC) values were read visually after 16-20 hours of incubation at 35°C in ambient air. Manufacturer's recommendations were followed for BD Phoenix100 system. The categorical agreement between the reference broth microdilution method and the colistin broth disk elution method was 99.3%, very major error and major error rates were 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively. For BD Phoenix100 system, the categorical agreement was 95%, with a very major error rate of 5%. Our results showed that colistin broth disc elution method worked well compared to the reference broth microdilution method. The BD Phoenix100 system, with a high very major error rate, does not reliably distinguish colistin-resistant and colistin-susceptible strains.

Background: Rapid and accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is crucial to facilitate early treatment of infectious cases and thus to reduce its spread. To improve the diagnosis of TB, more rapid diagnostic techniques such as antibody detection methods including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based serological tests and immunochromatographic methods were developed. This study was designed to evaluate the validity of an immunochromatographic assay, ICT Tuberculosis test for the serologic diagnosis of TB in Antalya, Turkey. Methods: Sera from 72 patients with active pulmonary (53 smear-positive and 19 smear-negative cases) and eight extrapulmonary (6 smear-positive and 2 smear-negative cases) TB, and 54 controls from different outpatient clinics with similar demographic characteristics as patients were tested by ICT Tuberculosis test. Results: The sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value of the ICT Tuberculosis test for pulmonary TB were 33.3%, 100%, and 52.9%, respectively. Smear-positive pulmonary TB patients showed a higher positivity rate for antibodies than smear-negative patients, but the difference was not statistically significant. Of the eight patients with extrapulmonary TB, antibody was detected in four patients. Conclusion: Our results suggest that ICT Tuberculosis test can be used to aid TB diagnosis in smear-positive patients until the culture results are available.