Background and purpose: Proper diagnosis of patients with COVID-19 is one of the challenges in medical centers. RT-PCR is the standard and reference test in diagnosis of patients with COVID-19. This study aimed at accelerating the correct diagnosis of COVID-19 and the diagnostic power of chest CT scan and RT-PCR. Materials and methods: This study was performed in 569 patients with COVID-19 admitted to Golestan-Kermanshah Hospital based on diagnostic chest CT scan. The RT-PCR test was considered as the standard and reference test in diagnosis of COVID-19. Relevant information was extracted from patients' records using a researcher-made checklist. Data analysis was performed in STATA V14. Results: The mean age of patients was 52. 53±, 16. 88 years. Men included 432 (75. 9%) patients. In this study, 84% had positive chest CT scan and 84. 9% had positive RT-PCR results. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of chest CT scan were 88. 7%, 64. 8%, and 80. 1%, respectively. The sensitivity of chest CT scan was 89. 9% in people under 60 years of age and 82. 8% in patients over 60 years old. The accuracy of chest CT scan was 84. 7% in women and 78. 7% in men. Conclusion: The accuracy of chest CT scan is high in patients with COVID-19 while it cannot definitively detect or rule out COVID-19. Nevertheless, it can be used as a quick tool to classify patients into positive and negative groups.

This study was conducted to characterize infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) isolates collected from different parts of Iran during 2005-2006. Pooled bursal samples from 49 broiler and layer pullet flocks suspected to IBD infection were collected and processed. A reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) procedure was used to amplify a VP2 gene fragment (743 bp) from IBDV field isolates. Amplified VP2 fragments were further characterized by two restriction enzymes, BspMI and SacI. From 49 field samples, 37 (75.5%) samples were IBDV positive by RT PCR. Digestion with two restriction enzymes, BspMI and SacI, showed patterns compatible with very virulent IBDV and classical IBDV strains in 34 (91.9%) and 3 (8.1%) IBDV-positive samples, respectively. The restriction enzyme analysis of this study was comparable to that of other isolates and reference strains with available nucleotide sequence data in the GenBank. The procedure followed in this study is a useful method to rapidly differentiate the very virulent IBDV and classical IBDV isolates.

Background: Adhesion and biofilm formation are two important steps in Candida pathogenesis. The aim of the current study was to investigate the presence of bcr1 gene in Candida albicans (C. albicans) isolates from women with vaginal candidiasis and its impact on biofilm formation.Methods: We used 50 clinical isolates which confirmed C. albicans by PCR-RFLP. Then total RNA was extracted from C. albicans isolates by glass bead and lysis buffer, and cDNA was synthesized using reverse transcriptase enzyme. RT-PCR (Reverse Transcriptase PCR) was used to evaluate the expression of bcr1 gene. Biofilm formation was evaluated in 96-well microplate and then tetrazolium reduction was assayed. All data were analyzed using t-test by SPSS software.Results: Fifty clinical isolates out of 150 were confirmed as C. albicans by using PCR-RFLP method. All the isolates were resistant to fluconazole, 47/50(94%) isolates had bcr1 gene by using PCR, and 45(95.7%) out of 47 isolates, showed BCR1 expression by the RT-PCR. Isolates which harbored bcr1 gene was succeed to form a dense biofilm on microplate. Comparison of the results of the tetrazolium reduction assay on the two isolates that had BCR1expression and two isolates that had no BCR1 expression showed significant differences (p=0.014).Conclusion: According to our result, all of the isolates that had bcr1 gene expression according to RT-PCR, were also resistant to fluconazole in disk diffusion test and additionally, their adherence was higher compared to the control group. These results indicate that there is a positive relation between expression of bcr1 gene and biofilm formation.