Hepatitis C virus [HCV] in pregnancy: prevalence and risk factors for infection

Maternal and child health issues relating to hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection have recently assumed greater importance than ever before. The aim of this work was to find out the magnitude of the problem of HCV seroprevalence among pregnant women and the relations between HCV infection and the risk factors [age, gravidity, blood transfusion, surgical operations, hospital admission, multiple injections and past history suggestive of hepatitis]. This study was carried out on 1832 pregnant women. Serum samples were subjected to HCV antibodies and positive samples were subjected to liver function tests and HCV RT- PCR. The results were discussed in details

Clinical and molecular analysis of P53 gene mutation events in colorectal cancer patients

This study aimed to investigate the role of p53 gene mutations and deletion events in 46 patients with colorectal cancer [histologically diagnosed]. Immunohistochemistry and PCR/SSCP [polymerase chain reaction and single strand conformational polymorphism] were used to improve the accuracy of the currently used staging systems. P53 mutations were found in 25/46 cases. The majority of gene mutations were found in tumors from the left colon. There was no statistical relation between P53 gene mutations reported and Dukes staging. Meanwhile, there was a significant statistical relation between p53 gene mutations and the prognosis of the cases. The study showed that codon 175 was the most unstable one and that nucleotide mutation CGC to CAC was the commonest mutation form. The application of p53 mutation gene analysis may have clinical implications in colorectal cancer patients. However, the study of other genes involved in colorectal cancer is necessary

Necrolytic acral erythema in Egyptian patients with HCV

Three thousand adult and pediatric cases with confirmed hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection [ELISA and PCR] were screened for necrolytic acral erythema [NAE] during a period of three years. Five cases had the typical clinical and histopathological characteristics of NAE. During the same period of screening, 18 cases of NAE were unaware of their HCV infection. Most of NAE patients were adults [91.3%] and the chronic form of the lesions was more predominant with affection of the dorsa of toes and/or feet in all cases. Electron microscopic examinations failed to detect HCV particles and PCR failed to detect HCV RNA in the skin lesions