Nimir et al and disease transmission. Patients and Methods Type of study and sampling This was a cross-sectional study from January to April of 2009. Random method was employed to select eligible pa- tients. Study site and subjects Four Oncology wards in Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) were selected as the site for undertaking the present study. The survey involved 129 patients with dif- ferent malignancies. Demographic information Information was gathered by using study subject information sheet and a standardized structured questionnaire. An opera- tional definition was used for risk factors. Contact with cats is defined as the one who is owner of one or more cats, or close contact with cats by straying, playing or feeding cats. Consumption of undercooked meat is defined as the one who has the habit of eating under-cooked meat where the method of preparation could not be guaranteed. Blood transfusion was defined as one who has received blood or blood products at least 3 months prior to the study period. Institutional per- mission was obtained before starting our study. Serologic studies Toxoplasma was screened by a standard ELISA commercial kit in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and performed at the Microbiology Laboratory of HUKM. A re- J Clin Med Res • 2010;2(3):117-120 sult of > 51 IU/ml of anti-Toxoplasma (IgG) antibody was regarded as positive, indicating latent or pre-existing Toxo- plasma infection. A result of > 51 IU/ml of anti-Toxoplasma (IgM) antibody was regarded as positive, indicating recently acquired Toxoplasma infection. Statistical analyses Statistical analyses were conducted by using SPSS version 10.0 for Windows 2004. Chi-square test for significance at 95% confidence level and p value of less than 0.05 was con- sidered statistically significant. Results During the three months of the study period, 129 samples of blood were collected from different patients. One blood sample (0.77%) was positive for Toxoplasma IgM antibod- ies. Three patients (2.32%) were positive for both IgM and IgG, and fifty patients (38.75%) had IgG positive blood samples. Leukaemic patients contribute the highest percent- age of positive IgG results (22%), followed by lymphoma (14.4%), breast cancer (7.3%), lung carcinoma (3.5%) and other malignancies (4%). The mean age was 51 years (range15 - 88 years). The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis was the highest in the age group of 20 - 41 years. Ethnic groups involved in this study were as follows: sixty nine Malay, fifty Chinese, four Indi- ans and two Indonesian patients. Toxoplasma IgG positivity was highest among Malaysian (32%), followed by Chinese (17%), Indians (1%) and (0%) among the Indonesian pa- tients. Male to female ratio was almost equal, (50.1%) male and (49.9%) female. Table 1 shows some predisposing factors of toxoplas- mosis, seropositivity rate of Toxoplasma antibody among patients living in rural areas was higher (41.3%) compared Table 1. Toxoplasma Seropositivity According To Residency and Occupation Group Seropositive Seronegative Seropositive Seronegative Residency Urban 21 (26.6%) 54 (67.5) Occupation Laborers 9 (11.3%) 17 (21.2%) Rural 33 (41.3%) 21 (26.2%) Non-laborers 29 (36.3%) 21 (26.3%) others 16 (20.0%) 37 (46.3%) P value 0.02 > 0.05 118 Articles © The authors | Journal compilation © J Clin Med Res and Elmer Press™ | www.jocmr.org