BACKGROUND/AIMS: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), diagnosed by symptom-based criteria due to lack of biomarkers, need translated-validated questionnaires in different languages. As Bengali, the mother tongue of Bangladesh and eastern India, is the seventh most spoken language in the world, we translated and validated the Enhanced Asian Rome III questionnaire (EAR3Q) in this language. METHODS: The EAR3Q was translated in Bengali as per guideline from the Rome Foundation. The translated questionnaire was validated prospectively on Bengali-speaking healthy subjects (HS, n = 30), and patients with functional dyspepsia (FD, n = 35), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, n = 40) and functional constipation (FC, n = 12) diagnosed by clinicians using the Rome III criteria. The subjects were asked to fill-in the questionnaire again after 2 weeks, to check for its reproducibility. RESULTS: During translation, the original and the backward translated English versions of the questionnaire demonstrated high concordance. Sensitivity of the Bengali questionnaire to diagnose patients with FD, IBS, FC, and HS was 100%, 100%, 75%, and 100%, respectively, considering diagnosis by the clinicians as the gold standard. On test-retest reliability analysis, Kappa values for FD, IBS, FC, and HS were 1.0, 1.0, 0.83, and 1.0, respectively. The Bengali questionnaire detected considerable overlap of FD symptoms among patients with IBS, IBS among patients with FD, and FD among patients with FC, which were not detected by the clinicians. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully translated and validated the EAR3Q in Bengali. We believe that this translated questionnaire will be useful for clinical evaluation and research on FGIDs in the Bengali-speaking population.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Bangladesh ; Biomarkers ; Constipation ; Diagnosis* ; Dyspepsia ; Gastrointestinal Diseases* ; Humans ; India ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; Mothers ; Prospective Studies ; Tongue

Interleukin-18 (IL-18) has been known to induce interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) production and promote Th1 immunity. Although mammalian IL-18 has been characterized in great detail, the properties and application of chicken IL-18 remain largely uninvestigated as of yet. In this study, we evaluated the immunomodulatory properties of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium expressing chicken interleukin-18 (chIL-18) on immune responses induced by avian influenza (AI) and Newcastle disease (ND) vaccines. After oral administration of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium expressing chIL-18, chickens were vaccinated intramuscularly with the recommended dose of either inactivated AI H9N2 vaccine or ND (B1 strain) vaccine. Chickens receiving a primary vaccination were boosted using the same protocol 7 days later. Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses were evaluated in terms of HI antibody titers and proliferation and mRNA expression of IFN-gamma and IL-4 of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in response to specific antigen stimulation. According to our results, oral administration of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium expressing chIL-18 induced enhanced humoral and Th1-biased cell-mediated immunity against AI and ND vaccines, compared to that of chickens received S. enterica serovar Typhimurium harboring empty vector. Therefore, we conclude that our proposed vaccination regimen using inactivated AI and ND viruses along with oral administration of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium expressing chIL-18 may provide a novel approach in protecting chicken from currently circulating AI and ND virus strains.
Administration, Oral ; Animals ; Chickens ; Immunity, Cellular ; Influenza in Birds ; Interferon-gamma ; Interleukin-18 ; Interleukin-4 ; Newcastle Disease ; RNA, Messenger ; Salmonella ; Salmonella enterica ; Vaccination ; Vaccines ; Viruses

Aims: The study was designed to determine the prevalence of urinary tract infection (UTI) in pregnant women depending on their various clinical and socio-demographic factors, and to assess the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the responsible uropathogens in a tertiary care hospital of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Methodology and results: A total of 100 midstream urine samples were collected from pregnant women and different clinical and socio-demographic variables viz. age, gestational weeks, living conditions, and level of education associated with UTI were determined. Bacterial isolation was carried out using blood and MacConkey agar and identified according to their phenotypic characteristics. Antibiogram profiling of the isolates was done by disc diffusion method. From 48% of positive UTI samples, the highest bacteriuria was recorded within the age group of 26-30 years (n=19; 59.38%) and in both, 1st and 3rd trimester period (50%). There was no significant association between the studied risk factors and bacteriuria, except for the age of the pregnant women. Most predominantly isolated bacteria was Escherichia coli (n=39; 81.25%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=9; 18.75%). In E. coli, the highest resistance was recorded against ceftriaxone (87.18%), followed by cephalexin (84.61%) and ceftazidime (79.49%); whereas K. pneumoniae showed 100% resistance to ceftriaxone and cephalexin. Netilmicin was found as the only effective antibiotic against E. coli showing 100% sensitivity. For K. pneumoniae, azithromycin, imipenem, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, amikacin and nitrofurantoin were found as the most efficacious drugs. Conclusion, significance and impact of study As the emergence of drug resistance is ever increasing, the study necessitates the continuous surveillance of antibiotic susceptibility of uropathogens to ensure safety and better treatment to the mother and fetus.
Urinary Tract Infections--microbiology ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Pregnant Women ; Bangladesh (Daka)