[en] Objective: To assess the frequency of the bacterial agents responsible for UTIs and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns in a tertiary care hospital. Material and Methods: This Laboratory- based cross- sectional study was conducted at The Microbiology Department, Combined Military Hospital, Quetta in time duration of one year from April 2022 to March 2023. This study encompassed 512 bacterial isolates that were cultured positive from a collection of 1282 urine samples obtained from patients receiving care both in indoor and outdoor settings. The specimens were inoculated on CLED agar. Identification of isolated colonies was done by standard microbiological techniques and the Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method was used for antibiotic susceptibility testing. Quality control was ensured by using reference strains, and antibiotics were tested according to the CLSI 2022 recommendations. Results: Bacterial uropathogens were identified in urine samples of 33.5% of male and 44.7% of female patients, with an overall infection rate of 39.93%. Of the 512 bacterial isolates, 91.79% were Gram-negative and 8.21% were Gram-positive. Escherichia coli was the most common isolate (69.53%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (12.1%), Enterococci (7.6%), Pseudomonas (2.92%), among other bacterial species. The gram-negative isolates were sensitive to Nitrofurantoin (96%), Fosfomycin (93%), Amikacin (79%), Imipenem (75%), and Meropenem (74%), while gram positive isolates were highly sensitive to Linezolid (100%), Vancomycin (95%) and Nitrofurantoin (90%). (author)

[en] To evaluate direct drug susceptibility testing on MGIT 960 system for detection of multidrug resistant tuberculosis from smear positive pulmonary specimens. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Microbiology Department, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, from July 2016 to September 2017. Methodology: Smear positive specimens were pretreated according to guidelines and then tested on MGIT 960 TB system for direct drug susceptibility testing (DST) of isoniazid and rifampin. Samples were also processed by gold standard indirect method, which comprises culture and then DST from positive growth by MGIT 960 TB system. Results: Out of 108 specimens, 95 (88%) DST results were reportable. Out of 95 reportable specimens, 17 isolates were resistant to both isoniazid (INH) and rifampin (RIF) by direct DST. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy for INH were 92%, 93%, 82%, 97% and 92.6%, respectively; and 95%, 96%, 86.3%, 98.6% and 95.7%, respectively for RIF. Average time to report DST by indirect method was 23.6 ±3.9 days, while it was 11.4 +-2.7 days for the direct method. Conclusion: Direct susceptibility testing on MGIT 960 system showed very good agreement when compared with indirect method. Time saving is crucial factor in initiation of early effective therapy, especially in drug resistant cases. Further studies on large scale are required for more accurate evaluation of this method. (author)

[en] Centre of Action approach is very useful in getting insight of rainfall and stream flow variability of specific region. Hameed et al. showed that Inter-annual variability of Gulf Stream north wall is influenced by low Icelandic pressure system and has more statistically significant correlation than North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) with longitude of Icelandic low. This study also aims to explore possible relationships between rainfall and stream flow in Collie river catchment in Southwest Western Australia (SWWA) with Indian Ocean high pressure dynamics. The relationship between rainfall and stream flow with Indian Ocean high pressure system have been investigated using correlation analysis for early winter season (MJJA), lag correlation for MJJA versus SOND rainfall and stream flow are also calculated and found significant at 95% confidence level. By investigating the relationship between COA indices with rainfall and stream flow over the period 1976-2008, significant correlations suggests that rainfall and stream flow in Collie river basin is strongly influenced by COA indices. Multiple correlations between rainfall and stream flow with Indian Ocean high pressure (IOHPS and IOHLN) is 0.7 and 0.6 respectively. Centers of Action (COA) indices explain 51% and 36% of rainfall and stream flow respectively. The correlation between rainfall and stream flow with IOHPS is -0.4 and -0.3 whereas, with IOHLN is -0.47 and -0.52 respectively. (author)