Banihashemi Mahnaz; Pezeshkpoor Fakhrozaman; Hadis Yousefzadeh; Fatemeh Livani; Gholamreza Ghandeharian
Volume 17, Issue 4 , 2014, , Pages 126-129
Abstract
Background: The diagnosis of herpes simplex virus may requirevirological confirmation. Tzanck smear is an old, rapid, costeffective but nonspecific method that has been recently re-evaluatedas a method for the diagnosis of herpes virus infection. This studywas conducted to compare Tzanck smear and viral ...
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Background: The diagnosis of herpes simplex virus may requirevirological confirmation. Tzanck smear is an old, rapid, costeffective but nonspecific method that has been recently re-evaluatedas a method for the diagnosis of herpes virus infection. This studywas conducted to compare Tzanck smear and viral culture in thediagnosis of herpes simplex virus infection in patients clinicallysuspected to be infected with this virus.Method: Materials obtained from a fresh vesicle were used toprepare Tzanck smears and viral cultures.Result: In this study, 40 (71.4%) of the 56 samples were culturepositive while Tzanck smears were positive in 36 (64.3%) patients.We found that the sensitivity and specificity of the Tzanck testwas 90% and 100% respectively when compared to cell culture.Moreover, the positive predictive value (PPV) and negativepredictive value (NPV) of the Tzanck test was 100% and 80%,respectively.Conclusion: The Tzanck smear has its limitations but is still asuitable rapid, easy, and cost effective diagnostic method forherpes simplex virus infections, especially when viral cultureor other virological methods are not available.
Pezeshkpoor Fakhrozaman; Tohidi Mohammad; Layegh Pouran; Shahabi Majid
Volume 16, Issue 2 , 2013, , Pages 45-48
Abstract
Background: Accurate diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis wouldavoid unnecessary treatment and scar formation. Direct smear isthe most common method for the diagnosis of this disease but itsnegative result could not rule out the infection; so, the need formore sensitive methods is obvious. We conducted ...
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Background: Accurate diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis wouldavoid unnecessary treatment and scar formation. Direct smear isthe most common method for the diagnosis of this disease but itsnegative result could not rule out the infection; so, the need formore sensitive methods is obvious. We conducted this study tocompare the efficiency of direct skin smear with smears preparedby fine needle aspiration (FNA) using polymerase chain reaction(PCR) as a reference method.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, which was conductedduring two years from May 2008 to May 2010, 33 patients withsuspicious acute cutaneous leishmaniasis based on clinical studieswere randomly selected. Direct skin smears and FNA smearswere taken from each patient and PCR was performed on biops
