Search

Marwa Khalaf,1 Mohamed Alboraie,2 Muhammad Abdel-Gawad,3 Mohamed Abdelmalek,4 Ahmed Abu-Elfatth,4 Walaa Abdelhamed,5 Mariam Zaghloul,6 Rabab ElDeeb,7 Doaa Abdeltwab,4 Mohamed Abdelghani,4 Fathiya El-Raey,8 Hani Aboalam,1 Azza Badry,9 Mina Tharwat,10 Shima Afify,11 Doaa Elwazzan,7 Ahmed Shawkat Abdelmohsen,4 Hayam Fathy,12 Shaker Wagih Shaltout,13 Helal F Hetta,14 Shamardan E Bazeed15 1Assiut Liver Center, Ministry of Health, Assiut, 71515, Egypt; 2Department of Internal Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt; 3Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Infectious Diseases Department, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt; 4Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology Department, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 5Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology Department, Sohag University Hospital, Sohag, Egypt; 6Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Infectious Diseases Department, Kafr El-Sheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt; 7Tropical Medicine Department, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt; 8Hepatogastroenterology and Infectious Diseases Department, Al-Azhar University, Damietta, Egypt; 9Epidemiologist, Infectious Disease Control Department Preventive Medicine Assiut Health Affairs Directorate, Assiut, Egypt; 10Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology Department, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt; 11Gastroenterology Department, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt; 12Internal Medicine, Hepatogastroenterology Unit, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 13Tropical Medicine Department, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt; 14Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, 71515, Egypt; 15Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology Department, South Valley University, Qena, EgyptCorrespondence: Marwa Khalaf, Assiut liver center, Ministry of health, Assiut, 71515, Egypt, Email Marwa.Kh@med.aun.edu.eg Helal F Hetta, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, 71515, Egypt, Email helalhetta@aun.edu.egBackground and Aim: Little is known about the persistence of symptoms after clearance of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our study aimed to assess persistent symptoms in COVID-19 patients after clearance of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Methodology: A multi-center survey was conducted on first wave COVID-19 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, including presenting symptoms and persistent symptoms after viral clearance and possible factors contributing to persistence of such symptoms, were collected using an online multicomponent questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed to detect the most persisting symptoms and factors contributing to their persistence.Results: Overall, 538 patients were enrolled. Mean age was 41.17 (±SD 14.84), 54.1% were males, and 18.6% were smokers. Hypertension and diabetes were the most reported co-morbidities. Mild symptoms were reported in 61.3% of patients, 51.3% were admitted to hospital and 6.5% were admitted to the intensive care unit. Our study identified 49 types of persisting symptoms. Fatigue (59.1%), sense of fever (46.5%), anorexia (24.3%) and diarrhea (24.3%) were the most commonly reported persisting symptoms followed by loss of taste and smell (22.3%), headache (21.4%), cough (20.8) and dyspnea (21%). The use of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and multivitamins were significantly associated with persistence of symptoms (OR = 8.03, 8.89 and 10.12, respectively).Conclusion: Our study revealed that in COVID-19 recovered patients, many patients reported persistence of at least one symptom, particularly fatigue and sense of fever. Follow-up of patients after discharge from hospital is recommended until complete resolution of symptoms.Keywords: coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, fatigue, dyspnea

Staphylococcus aureus causes a wide range of illnesses, from skin infections and persistent bone infections to life-threatening septicemia and endocarditis. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is one of the most common bacteria that cause nosocomial and community-acquired infections. Clindamycin is one of the most effective treatments for several bacterial infections. Despite this, these infections may develop inducible clindamycin resistance during treatment, leading to treatment failure. This study determined the incidence of inducible clindamycin resistance among S. aureus clinical isolates. A total of 800 S. aureus strains were identified from clinical samples collected from several university hospitals in Egypt. All isolates were examined for the presence of MRSA using cefoxitin (30 μg) and the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion technique. The induction phenotypes of all 800 S. aureus strains were evaluated using the disk approximation test (D test), as recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute. Of the 800 strains of S. aureus, 540 (67.5%) were identified as MRSA and 260 (32.5%) were classified as methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA). In MRSA infections, clindamycin constitutive and inducible resistance was more frequent than in MSSA infections (27.8% versus 11.5% and 38.9% versus 15.4%, respectively). Clindamycin-sensitive strains were more prevalent in MSSA (53.8%) than in MRSA (20.4%) infections. In conclusion, the frequency of constitutive and inducible clindamycin resistance in MRSA isolates emphasizes the need to use the D test in routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing to evaluate clindamycin susceptibility, as the inducible resistance phenotype can inhibit the action of clindamycin and thus affect treatment efficacy.

Oral Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) are safe, highly effective altering disease burden and prognosis in hepatitis C patients. Sustained virologic response (SVR) is achieved nowadays in more than 90% of the treated patients and related to the improvements in functions of the liver, fibrosis plus survival. Furthermore, portal hypertension is thought to be improved with achievement of virological response, parallel to the improvements in hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. We aimed to assess the recurrence rate of oesophageal varices by long-term follow-up in patients treated with different DAAs regimens who had achieved SVR. We studied 176 Child A cirrhotic HCV patients who achieved SVR after DAAs treatment and had a history of endoscopic oesophageal varices obliteration and were on maximum tolerated propranolol dose. They were subjected to follow-up upper gastrointestinal endoscopy repeated every 6 months for 4 years. Fifty-two patients (29.5%) had recurrence of oesophageal varices observed during the 4-years follow-up upper GIT endoscopy. On multivariate analysis, platelet count was the only significant variable, P-value = .007*. HbA1C, HOMA IR, BMI 1 and BMI 2 showed non-significant differences between the studied groups. By ROC analysis, we identified baseline platelet count of 96 000/µL with 100% sensitivity (95% confidence interval [CI] [91%-100%]) and 74% specificity (95% CI [65%-81%]). Spearman correlation showed a positive correlation between AFP, age, AST, Bilirubin, creatinine, INR. Patients who achieved SVR post DAAs showed a significant decrease in oesophageal varices recurrence post endoscopic obliteration. Baseline platelet count was found to be a strong independent predictor for oesophageal varices recurrence., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can affect the neurological system, and neuropathy is one of these manifestations. Hepatitis C virus infection is associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) type II, and diabetic patients are at higher risk of acquiring HCV infection. Sweat function has been proposed to assess early autonomic neuropathy. This study aimed to evaluate small fiber neuropathy in asymptomatic HCV-related cirrhotic patients with or without DM through sweat function assessment by Sudoscan test. Three groups were involved: 47 healthy controls, 48 HCV-related cirrhotic patients without DM (group 1), and 49 HCV-related cirrhotic patients with DM type II (group 2). All participants were subjected to liver panel tests, renal function tests, cell blood counts, HbA1c, and abdominal ultrasound. Sweat function was assessed in all patients and controls by measuring hand and feet electrochemical skin conductance (ESC, microSiemens [µS]) using Sudoscan. Peripheral neuropathy was detected in none of the controls, 39% of group 1 patients, and 62% of group 2 patients (P < 0.0001). The mean feet ESC (FESC) was 88.3 ± 6.8 µS in controls, 67.2 ± 19.2 µS in group 1, and 57.9 ± 19.4 µS in group 2 (P < 0.0001). A significant correlation was observed between FESC and bilirubin, albumin, creatinine, international normalized ratio, transaminases, and splenic size. Electrochemical skin conductance measurement is a valuable, noninvasive method for early detection of small fiber neuropathy in asymptomatic HCV-related cirrhosis, with or without DM.

Background: Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is a hereditary autosomal recessive disease which is mainly seen in the Turks, Armenians, Arabs, and Jews. It is characterized by recurrent episodes of fever, polyserositis, and rash. MEFV gene, encoding pyrin protein, is located on the short arm of chromosome 16. FMF is associated with a broad mutational spectrum in this gene. Certain mutations are more common in particular ethnic groups. To date, different mutations of MEFV were observed in studies carried out in different regions worldwide. However, most of these studies did not extensively investigate the Egyptian population, in spite of the high prevalence of FMF in this geographical region., Aim: To identify the frequency of MEFV gene mutations among the patients who presented with FMF like symptoms and, to characterize the different genetic mutations and their association with increased Amyloid A among Egyptian patients., Methods: FMF Strip Assay (Vienna Lab Diagnostics, Vienna, Austria) was used. This test is based on reverse hybridization of biotinylated PCR products on immobilized oligonucleotides for mutations and controls in a parallel array of allele-specific oligonucleotides., Results: Among the 1387 patients presenting with signs and symptoms suggestive of FMF, 793 (57.2%) were of undefined mutations, whereas 594 had MEFV gene mutations. 363 patients (26.2%) were heterozygous mutants, 175 patients (12.6%) were compound heterozygous mutants, and 56 patients (4%) were homozygous mutants. The most commonly encountered gene mutations in heterozygous and homozygous groups were E148Q (38.6%), M694I (18.1%), and V726A (15.8%). The most commonly encountered gene mutations in the compound heterozygous groups were E148Q+M694I observed in 20.6% of the patients, followed by M694I+V726A and M6801+V726A found in 18.9% and 11.4 %, respectively. The most commonly encountered gene mutation associated with abdominal pain, fever, and high serum Amyloid A was E148Q allele (37.5%) ., Conclusions: Unlike all previous publications, E148Q allele was found to be the most frequent in the studied patients. Moreover, this allele was associated with increased Amyloid A. 793 patients were free of the 12 studied Mediterranean mutations, which implies the necessity to perform future sequencing studies to reveal other mutations.