Evaluation of fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) for the detection of fungi directly from blood cultures and cerebrospinal fluid from patients with suspected invasive mycoses

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of in-house FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridisation) procedures for the direct identification of invasive fungal infections in blood cultures and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples and to compare these FISH results with those obtained using traditional microbiological techniques and PCR targeting of the ITS1 region of the rRNA gene. In total, 112 CSF samples and 30 positive blood cultures were investigated by microscopic examination, culture, PCR-RFLP and FISH. The sensitivity of FISH for fungal infections in CSF proved to be slightly better than that of conventional microscopy (India ink) under the experimental conditions, detecting 48 (instead of 46) infections in 112 samples. The discriminatory powers of traditional microbiology, PCR-RFLP and FISH for fungal bloodstream infections were equivalent, with the detection of 14 fungal infections in 30 samples. However, the mean times to diagnosis after the detection of microbial growth by automated blood culture systems were 5 hours, 20 hours and 6 days for FISH, PCR-RFLP and traditional microbiology, respectively. The results demonstrate that FISH is a valuable tool for the identification of invasive mycoses that can be implemented in the diagnostic routine of hospital laboratories. © 2015 Da Silva et al

Biosorption of methylene blue by lentil shell on activation with sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, and calcination: kinetic, isotherm, and thermodynamic study

Lentil shell (LS) on modification with sulfuric acid (LSAC), formaldehyde (LSFM), and on calcination (LSCL) were used for the adsorption of methylene blue dye in the present study. The sulfuric acid treated LS adsorbent has shown maximum adsorption. The batch adsorption experiments were studied with the effect of adsorbent dose (10–60 mg), pH (4–10), dye concentration (10–80 mg/L), contact time (10–60 minutes), and temperature (303–333 K). The maximum removal of methylene blue was found at pH 10 with adsorption time 60 minutes. The maximum adsorption capacity is measured for LSAC, LSCL, LSFM, and LS untreated (LSUN) are 49.56, 45.79, 42.24, and 42.09 mg/g respectively for 60 mg adsorbent dose with 60 mg/L of initial methylene blue dye concentration. The biosorbents were characterized with Fourier Transform Infrared spectra, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, BET-N2 adsorption, and Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis. The adsorption isotherm was studied at the temperature of 303, 313, 323, and 333 K. It was found that the higher temperature suitable for maximum adsorption. Langmuir model and Freundlich model were studied from the obtained results for adsorption mechanism. The pseudo second order kinetic model was found suitable for the present adsorption study in comparison with pseudo first order model and intraparticle diffusion model. The data obtained from the present work showed that LS could be employed as an efficient adsorbent for the adsorption of the dye.</p