Interstitial pulmonary disease in hepatitis C virus patients

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection has been reported in association with several extrahepatic manifestations. Included in this list is interstitial lung involvement. This study aimed to elucidate the association of HCV infection with interstitial pulmonary involvement and to investigate the relationship of severity of hepatic affection and respiratory functional and radiological changes among involvement. Thirty patients with proved hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection from the outpatient clinic of tropical department of Kasr El-Aini hospital were enrolled in this study. High resolution CT [HRCT] chest was performed to all the patients. Pulmonary changes were detected in HRCT of 14 patients [46.6%]. Lung spirometry was done to all of them. FVC%, and FEV1% were abnormal in 6 patients [20%], FEF25-75% were abnormal in 3 patients [10%]. DLCO was measured in 23 patients and was abnormal in 3 patients [13%]. Liver biopsy results according to the fibrosis stage [METAVIR fibrosis grading scale] revealed to be grade I in 11 patients [36.7%], grade II in 9 patients [30%], grade III in 8 patients [26.7%] and grade IV in 2 patients [6.7%]. The study showed significant inverse correlation between viremia level with DLCO% pred as well as significant direct correlation between liver fibrosis stages with AFP, FEV1/FVClevel and HRCT score in the studied patients. In addition to this AFP was directly correlated with the HRCT score. Otherwise, there was no significant correlation between the following variables: HRCT score and pulmonary function tests, Liver fibrosis with FEV1%, FVC%, DLCO% and viremia level, Alphafetoprotein with pulmonary function tests and viremia level in the studied patients and Age with pulmonary function tests, AFP, liver fibrosis, and viremia level and HRCT chest

Enzyme immuno-assay for the detection of urine antibodies in children infected with schistosoma hematobium

Enzyme linked Immunosorbant assay [ELISA] and dot- ELISA were performed to detect antibodies to Schisosoma haematobium egg antigens [Sh-SEA] in midday urine samples obtained from parasitological by proven urinary schistosomiases infected children. The assays failed to capture specific antibodies in 25-30 percent of patient's urine samples. Enzyme immunoblot assay [EIB] revealed consistent recognition by all the urine samples from S. haematobium cases to 20-106 KDa antigenic bands of Sh-SEA. The use of urine samples from mansoniasis or normal individuals [n=23] indicated 87 percent diagnostic specificity of this EIB. Thus, immunoreactivity of urine to electrophoresed Sh-SEA antigen is highly sensitive and non-invasive technique that could be asuitable alternative to serum ELISA for diagnosis of haematobia, particularly, for epidemiological studies on children

Evaluation of the optical density determination of the amniotic fluid in assessing fetal lung maturity

Respiratory distress syndrome [R.D.S.] is the commonest respiratory disorder in the premature infant which accounts for a high incidence of neonatal death. R.D.S. is due to a deficiency of surface active material [surfactant] in the neonatal lung. This surfactant was only reliably assessed by measuring the Lecithin/sphingomyelin ratio [L/S] in the amniotic fluid. Amniotic fluid optical density [O.D.] at 650 nm was reported to be as reliable as L/S in assessing fetal Lung maturity. Fifteen pregnant women of the high risk group between 28 and 34 weeks were studied. L/S ratio and optical density at 650 nm of the amniotic fluid were estimated on all patients before and 48 hrs after 4 intra-muscular injections of betamethazone [6 mg every 12 hrs]. Six patients were delivered within 2 -6 days after the injection, one baby died of R.D.S. and the others survived. The remaining 9 patients passed safely through their pregnancies and delivered at term. Amniotic fluids with O.D. at 650 nm of 0.15 were found to have an L/S ratio over 2 while readings <0.05 corresponded to L/S ratio of about 1.3 and readings between 0.05 and 0.15 corresponded to L/S ration of 1.5. Betamethazone injections raised the O.D. [as well as the L/S ratio] from immature pre treatment values to mature post treatment values in 12 out of the 15 cases studied. O.D. readings at 650 nm is a simple, easy, fast and as reliable as the L/S ratio in deciding fetal lung maturity

Epidemiology of HBV serological markers in public health workers in the Sharjah Medical Area

In a seroepidemiologic survey for HBV markers among public health workers of Sharjah, 831 subjects comprising most of the public health care personnel were tested for Hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg], Hepatitis B surface antibody [HBsAb], and Hepatitis B core antibody [HBcAb].The study revealed that nurses were at highest risk with a prevalence rate of 36%. Doctors were next with a prevalence rate of 25.8%. A control group had a rate of 15.7%. The risk among doctors was found to be generally higher among hospital members who had more frequent contact with blood than the primary care personnel. The duration of exposure seemed to affect the prevalence among the same group of doctors