Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine

About: Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Visceral leishmaniasis & Population. The organization has 624 authors who have published 809 publications receiving 8628 citations.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli isolated from patients with severe cholera-like disease.

Abstract: The "cholera syndrome," characterized by profuse "rice-water" diarrhea leading to collapse, is produced classically by Vibrio cholerae, although it also may be seen in infection by non-cholera vibrios [1], and in a significant proportion of patients from whom no etiologic agent can be identified [2], The latter category of patients has continued to be an enigma, in spite of sophisticated techniques of culturing stools. During the 1968 cholera season in Calcutta, 17 patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital with severe diarrheal disease, but from whom no enteric pathogens could be isolated, were studied extensively by intubation and perfusion of the small bowel [3, 4]. Most of these patients were found to be colonized in the small bowel with either a single serotype of Escherichia coli, or a mixture of coliform bacteria. As reported, these patients had secretory abnormalities of the small bowel, similar in kind to those seen

Relapses of Plasmodium vivax Infection Usually Result from Activation of Heterologous Hypnozoites

Abstract: n p 38 Results. Combined genetic data from 2 genotyping approaches showed that novel P. vivax populations were present in the majority of patients with recurrent infection (107 [72%] of 149 patients overall [78% of patients in Thailand, 75% of patients in Myanmar {Burma}, and 63% of patients in India]). In 61% of the Thai and Burmese patients and in 55% of the Indian patients, the recurrent infections contained none of the parasite genotypes that caused the acute infection. Conclusions. The P. vivax populations emerging from hypnozoites commonly differ from the populations that caused the acute episode. Activation of heterologous hypnozoite populations is the most common cause of first relapse in patients with vivax malaria.

Rapid and sensitive detection of Leishmania kinetoplast DNA from spleen and blood samples of kala-azar patients.

Abstract: Following sequence analysis of a Leishmania donovani kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) minicircle, we have developed synthetic oligonucleotides for use in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). With these primers, we have amplified L. donovani kDNA from splenic aspirates and blood samples taken from kala-azar patients. Treatment of the samples for PCR requires only limited DNA purification by lysis in SDS, digestion with proteinase K, phenol extraction and ethanol precipitation of the resulting nucleic acid. We have obtained amplified product routinely with DNA prepared from the equivalent of 2.5-25 microliters of splenic aspirate or of 50-500 microliters of blood from infected patients. In dilution experiments a visible product has been obtained on amplification of DNA from the equivalent of 2.5 x 10(-7) microliters of splenic material. We therefore propose the amplification of L. donovani kDNA by PCR as a rapid and highly sensitive method for the diagnosis of kala-azar.