Search

Background: Cognitive impairment (CI) is common in multiple sclerosis. We assessed the relationship between CI and demographic, motor disability, and volumetric brain atrophy in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Methods: In all, 43 RRMS patients and 40 age‐ sex‐, and education‐matched normal volunteers were enrolled. Assessments included: demographic, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS); Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS); and brain volumetric assessment. Results: The mean age of onset of RRMS patients was 25.72 y and the mean number of attacks was 3.30 ± 2.33/year. The total brain volume, cerebral, and cerebellar hemispheres, brainstem as well as thalamic and hippocampal gray matter were significantly reduced in RRMS patients compared with controls. CI was detected in 41.9% of patients. Patients with CI had fewer years of education (P =.001), a higher number of attacks (P =.002), worse EDSS scores (P =.030); reduced gray matter volume, particularly of the thalamus, and hippocampus compared with patients without CI. There were significant negative correlations between CI with duration of illness, number of attacks, time elapsed between onset and diagnosis, and EDSS. Thalamic volume showed strong positive correlations with CI (P <.0001). The best predictors of CI were thalamic atrophy, duration of illness, and years of education (P =.001,.010, and.035 respectively). Conclusion: We confirmed the presence of gray matter atrophy of the brain in RRMS patients. Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging measures of thalamus, duration of illness, and years of education could be useful biomarkers of CI in RRMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Asthma is a major global public health issue worldwide. It's the most frequent chronic disease in children and one of the primary causes of morbidity. Hemoglobin, myoglobin, and a number of enzymes all include iron, which is an essential mineral. Objective: It was to evaluate iron deficiency as a risk factor affected children with bronchial asthma in order to back up the clinical findings at Mansoura University Children Hospital. Patients and Methods: In this study, 50 asthmatic patients and 50 control participants, ranging in age from 6 to 18, were matched. We investigated the effects of iron deficiency on children with bronchial asthma by analysing laboratory results for the following tests and parameters; 1) Pulmonary function tests (FEV1, FVC, PEF, FEV1/FVC), 2) Complete blood count (HB, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RBC, RDW, HCT), 3) Serum iron, 4) Serum ferritin level, 5) Total iron binding capacity, and 6) Transferrin saturation. Results: Both FEV1/FVC and FEV1/FVC percent had statistically significant relationships with RBCs. Among the cases analysed, there was no statistically significant association between ferritin and pulmonary function tests or between TIBC and pulmonary function tests. All lung function tests had no statistically significant link with transferrin saturation (Tsat). Conclusion: Iron deficiency anaemia may have a negative impact on spirometry in asthmatic children, resulting to an increase in the severity of asthmatic attacks. Iron supplementation in infants may show to be a safe and successful technique for reducing the incidence of asthma, but further research is needed to determine the causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is an increasing evidence of an association between low vitamin-D levels and depression. Consequently, the present study aimed to investigate the serum levels of vitamin D in cases with major depressive disorder in Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt. Also, we studied the correlation between serum vitamin-D level and different demographic and clinical variables in these patients. This study included 60 patients who attended our outpatient psychiatric clinic at Sohag University Hospital, who were diagnosed as major depressive disorder (group I) and a similar number (60) of age-matched and sex-matched controls (group II). The diagnosis was based on Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th ed. criteria and verified by application of Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology. A blood sample was taken from all participants for assessment of the levels of serum vitamin D. Results Patients with major depressive disorder have significantly lower serum vitamin-D levels than controls (mean±SD was 17.2±12.3 for patients and 33.4±24.2 for controls, P=0.001). About 58.33% of patients had deficient vitamin D, while 45% of controls had deficient vitamin D (P=0.022). There is a statistically significant negative correlation between the severity of depression and serum vitamin D. Conclusions Serum vitamin D was significantly lower in major depression patients than controls. In addition, it is evident to have a direct correlation with severity of symptom depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Recent application of unrivaled public health measures for COVID-19 pandemic could have significant implications on other infectious diseases. Objectives We aim to detect the influence of the recently applied health measures on acute bronchiolitis-associated hospitalizations. Methods We analyzed patients’ electronic records at our tertiary hospital to obtain data of hospitalized patients with acute bronchiolitis for the period between November 1, 2017, to February 28, 2021. We compared the frequencies of hospitalizations in the peak respiratory syncytial virus epidemic months (November–February) in 2020 with those in 2017–19. Results There were 16,466 all-cause hospitalizations during the period (November-February) from 2017 to 2021. We observed significant lower frequencies of acute bronchiolitis associated hospitalizations in 2020/2021 compared with 2019/2020, 2018/2019, and 2017/2018 (0.6% vs. 8.2%, 7.4%, and 9.9%, respectively) (P <0.05). Conclusion The social isolation measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic have significant unexpected effects on the seasonality of acute bronchiolitis in our population, which could be due to inhibition of diseases transmission practiced by adults and older children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The exact pathogenesis of autism is still unknown. Both thyroid hormones and 25(OH)D are important for brain development, in addition to CD5; all have immunomodulatory actions by which their dysregulation may have a potential role in autism pathogenesis. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the thyroid profile, serum 25(OH)D levels and CD5 expression levels among autistic patients and to find out the correlations between the measured biomarkers with each other on one side and with the disease severity on the other side. Patients and methods: This cross-sectional case-control study has been conducted on 60 children with autism and 40 controls, recruited from Qena Governorate, Upper Egypt. Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) score was used to assess the included patients. Biochemical assays of thyroid function in the form of free triiodothyronine (FT3), free tetraiodothyronine (FT4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and 25(OH)D were done using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits, while CD5 expression levels were measured using flow cytometry (FCM) analysis for all the included patients and controls. Results: The overall measurement results show significant higher mean serum TSH levels, mean CD5 expression levels with significant lower mean serum 25(OH)D levels among autistic children when compared with the control group (p,0.05 for all). Significant negative correlations between CD5 with FT3, FT4 and 25(OH)D were observed. CARS score showed significant negative correlations with both FT3 and 25(OH)D, while it was positively correlated with CD5 in a significant manner (p,0.05 for all). Conclusion: Elevated CD5 expression and decreased 25(OH)D stores could play a potential role in the pathogenesis of autism via their immune-modulator actions. High TSH serum levels among autistic children, although within the physiological range, reflect the presence of thyroid dysfunction among such children, which needs further assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Fatigue is common in RRMS and affecting 72.1% of patients. • Thalamus and brainstem volumes were significantly linked with fatigue. • EDSS of the patients may be positively correlated with fatigue in MS. • Fatigue is associated with impairment of information processing speed in RRMS. Fatigue is the most troublesome symptom in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). It starts early in the disease course, escalates with disease progression and impacts the patients' quality of life. The aim of this work was to estimate the frequency of fatigue and to evaluate the relationship between severity of fatigue, clinical data, level of disability and volumetric brain atrophy in RRMS. 43 RRMS patients with 40 age- and sex-matched normal volunteers were recruited. Demographic and clinical data were recorded. Each participant was assessed with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Brief Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) and a variety of brain volumetric measures. 31 (72.1%) of RRMS patients were found to have fatigue. There were no significant differences in demographic data between patients with or without fatigue according to FSS. However, patients with fatigue had a higher number of attacks, and higher scores in the EDSS and BICAMS than non-fatigued patients. There was a greater reduction in total brain volume, cerebral grey matter, and brain stem, thalamic and caudate volumes in fatigued compared with the non-fatigued patients and controls. FSS was significantly correlated with patients' age, duration of illness, total number of attacks, EDSS, and BICAMS. Total brain, cerebral grey matter and thalamic volumes all had negative correlations with fatigue severity. Regression analysis showed that EDSS accounted for 46% of the variance in fatigue scores while thalamic and brainstem atrophy accounted for 50.7%. Fatigue was fairly common in RRMS patients. Level of disability and atrophy of the thalamus and brain stem were the best predictors of fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory pseudotumors of the lung are a group of non-neoplastic tumors, which are mainly of parenchymal origin and rarely endobronchial. We report a case of a 9-year-old girl who presented with left-sided tension pneumothorax and subcutaneous emphysema. After emergency management, chest computed tomography revealed an ill-defined left lung mass. Rigid bronchoscopy revealed a mass occluding the left main bronchus at the origin of the left upper lobe bronchus. Initially, the mass was thought to be a foreign body granuloma. Few weeks later, the child presented with recurrence of the same clinical, radiologic, and bronchoscopic outcomes. Histologic examination after the repeat bronchoscopic excision revealed the lesion to be consistent with inflammatory pseudotumor. Left upper lobectomy was performed with a complete resolution of symptoms and no recurrence was observed during the 2 years of follow-up. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of inflammatory pseudotumor presenting with tension pneumothorax.