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Purpose: Knowledge of oral mucositis (OM) in patients with acute leukemia (AL) and chemotherapy (CT) has remained limited. Thus, a prospective, longitudinal study was undertaken to characterize clinical features, associated risk factors, and behavior of OM in a cohort of AL patients starting CT.Methods: Prospective and longitudinal study. A cohort of patients, older than 15 years of age with AL, scheduled to receive CT, was followed from March 2006 to October 2007. At baseline and three times per week, for 21 days, patients had an oral examination performed using the Oral Mucositis Assessment Scale (OMAS); also, oral pain and difficulty to swallow were recorded using a visual analog scale. Weekly, salivary flow measurements (Schirmer's test modified version) were done.Results: A cohort of 29 AL patients was followed for a median time of 21 (range, 14-53) days; 12 (41.4%) developed OM, with a mean OMAS score of 0.181 (SD +/- 0.56) and a mean peak OMAS score of 1.8 (SD +/- 0.56). The OM onset mean time was 9.8 (range, 2-20, SD +/- 6.09) days, with a mean duration of 7 (range, 3-14, SD +/- 4.15) days. OM was significantly correlated with salivary flow [rs = 0.420 (P = 0.0051)], oral pain [rs = 0.47 (P < 0.0001)], ability to swallow [rs = 0.36 (P = 0.0001)], and type of food intake [rs = 0.38 (P < 0.0001)].Conclusions: OM is a frequent and early side effect of CT closely correlated with oral pain, difficulty to swallow, and impairment in food intake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A follow-up study was carried out to evaluate the prognostic value of hairy leukoplakia (HL) and oral candidosis (OC) in a cohort of 111 asymptomatic Mexican HIV infected patients. Oral exams were performed at baseline and every 6 months, from September 1989 to March 1994. Chi-square contingency table test, the Kruskall-Wallis one-way analysis of variance, the Kaplan-Meier product-limit method and the log rank test were used for the analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox's proportional hazards analysis were also performed. Fifty-four patients (51%) progressed to AIDS (initially 36 CDC-II and 18 CDC-III). Individuals with HL and/or OC, showed faster development to AIDS than subjects without lesions or other HIV-related manifestations (P = 0.008). The presence of OC, HL or both always remained significant despite adjustment for total lymphocytes, CDC stage, zidovudine therapy or its combinations. Oral lesions in HIV infection may be regarded with other clinical and laboratory studies as markers of HIV disease progression and as indicators to begin antiretroviral treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred and twenty-five HIV-infected patients, of whom 49 (39%) were at early stages of the infection (CDC-II & Ill) and 76 (61%) in COC IV, were prospectively examined. In 100 (80%) one or more oral mucosal lesions were observed; candidiasis (51%) and hairy leukoplakia (43%) were the commonest. Erythematous candidiasis was more often seen (35%) than the pseudomembranous type (16%), and appeared with the higher values at early than later stages. The prevalence of hairy leukoplakia, oral hyperpigmentation and xerostomia were incremented in groups CDC-IV. Pseudomembranous candidiasis and exfoliative cheilitis increased significantly with severity of disease. Our study demonstrates that oral alterations associated to HIV are a frequent finding, both at early (76%) and Late (83%) stages of the infection in Mexican patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the cases of three AIDS patients who developed major recurrent oral ulcers with severe odynophagia and weight loss. The patients were treated successfully with systemic steroids. Within the first week of prednisone therapy (40 mg/day), the symptoms improved and the lesions entirely healed. We suggest, on the bases of recent literature, that superantigens and the cytokine network could be involved and they should be considered in the immunopathogenic mechanisms of this type of ulcers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Helicobacter pylori is associated with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers, and gastric cancer. Two major virulence factors of H. pylori have been described: the pathogenicity island cag (cag PAI) and the vacuolating cytotoxin gene (vacA). Virtually all strains have a copy of vacA, but its genotype varies. The cag PAI is a region of 32 genes in which the insertion of IS605 elements in its middle region has been associated with partial or total deletions of it that have generated strains with varying virulence. Accordingly, the aim of this work was to determine the cag PAI integrity, vacA genotype and IS605 status in groups of isolates from Mexican patients with non-peptic ulcers (NPU), non-bleeding peptic ulcers (NBPU), and bleeding peptic ulcers (BPU). Methods The cag PAI integrity was performed by detection of eleven targeted genes along this locus using dot blot hybridization and PCR assays. The vacA allelic, cag PAI genotype 1 and IS605 status were determined by PCR analysis. Results Groups of 16-17 isolates (n = 50) from two patients with NPU, NBPU, and BPU, respectively, were studied. 90% (45/50) of the isolates harbored a complete cag PAI. Three BPU isolates lacked the cag PAI, and two of the NBPU had an incomplete cag PAI: the first isolate was negative for three of its genes, including deletion of the cagA gene, whereas the second did not have the cagM gene. Most of the strains (76%) had the vacA s1b/m1 genotype; meanwhile the IS605 was not present within the cag PAI of any strain but was detected elsewhere in the genome of 8% (4/50). Conclusion The patients had highly virulent strains since the most of them possessed a complete cag PAI and had a vacA s1b/m1 genotype. All the isolates presented the cag PAI without any IS605 insertion (genotype 1). Combined vacA genotypes showed that 1 NPU, 2 NBPU, and 1 BPU patients (66.6%) had a mixed infection; coexistence of H. pylori strains with different cag PAI status was observed in 1 NBPU and 2 BPU (50%) of the patients, but only two of these patients (NBPU and BPU) had different vacA genotypes.

Objective: To evaluate the associations among post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevalence; risk factors and comorbidities have not been firmly established within a university outpatient population., Patients and Methods: Records from 881 COVID-19 outpatient patients (504 females [57.9%] and 366 males [42.07%]), most of whom were between 30 and 40 years of age (mean=37.3 years old; 95% CI, 36.5-38.2), with initial infection data from February 2020 to August 2022 were reviewed once, whereas the survey took place during 2 different moments during the pandemic. The first period (April 20, 2021, to June 21, 2021) yielded 279 responses, whereas in the second period (June 23, 2021, to October 4, 2021), 602 responses were recorded. The instrument used contained 20 questions across 3 main domains: general information, data related to infection and adverse effects, and service satisfaction experience., Results: All the patients were positive for immunoglobulin G antibodies against nucleocapsid by the third week. Post-COVID-19 symptoms arose at least 2 weeks after recovery from the initial illness; 654 individuals reported at least one symptom after the acute COVID-19 period, for a post-COVID-19 prevalence of 74.96%. The most frequent symptoms were fatigue (84%), headache (71%), and difficulty concentrating (71%). More than 60% of participants reported at least one comorbidity, among which the most common ones were obesity (35.9%), smoking (17.5%), and hypertension (12.2%)., Conclusion: In this study, we assessed post-COVID-19 prevalence among outpatients and found that comorbidities were strongly related to consequences impacting quality of life and mental health burden., Competing Interests: The authors report no competing interests., (© 2024 The Authors.)