Occult hepatitis B virus infection in liver transplant patients in a Brazilian referral center

Estimates of occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection prevalence varies among different studies depending on the prevalence of HBV infection in the study population and on the sensitivity of the assay used to detect HBV DNA. We investigated the prevalence of occult HBV infection in cirrhotic patients undergoing liver transplantation in a Brazilian referral center. Frozen liver samples from 68 adults were analyzed using a nested polymerase chain reaction assay for HBV DNA. The specificity of the amplified HBV sequences was confirmed by direct sequencing of the amplicons. The patient population comprised 49 (72.1%) males and 19 (27.9%) females with a median age of 53 years (range=18-67 years). Occult HBV infection was diagnosed in three (4.4%) patients. The etiologies of the underlying chronic liver disease in these cases were alcohol abuse, HBV infection, and cryptogenic cirrhosis. Two of the patients with cryptic HBV infection also presented hepatocellular carcinoma. Markers of previous HBV infection were available in two patients with occult HBV infection and were negative in both. In conclusion, using a sensitive nested polymerase chain reaction assay to detect HBV DNA in frozen liver tissue, we found a low prevalence of occult HBV infection in cirrhotic patients undergoing liver transplant, probably due to the low prevalence of HBV infection in our population.

Serodiagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection by Cobas Core ELISA in adults from Minas Gerais, Brazil

We evaluated the accuracy of a 2nd generation ELISA to detect Helicobacter pylori infection in adults from a developing country in view of variations in sensitivity and specificity reported for different populations. We studied 97 non-consecutive patients who underwent endoscopy for evaluation of dispeptic symptoms. The presence of H. pylori was determined in antral biopsy specimens by culture, by the preformed urease test and in carbolfuchsin-stained smears. Patients were considered to be H. pylori positive if at least two of the three tests presented a positive result or if the culture was positive, and negative if the three tests were negative. Sixty-five adults (31 with peptic ulcer) were H. pylori positive and 32 adults were H. pylori negative. Antibodies were detected by Cobas Core anti-H. pylori EIA in 62 of 65 H. pylori-positive adults and in none of the negative adults. The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of the test were 95.4, 100, 100 and 91.4 per cent, respectively. The Cobas Core anti-H. pylori EIA presented high sensitivity and specificity when employed for a population in Brazil, permitting the use of the test both to confirm the clinical diagnosis and to perform epidemiologic surveys.

Isolation Leishmania sp from aqueous humor of a patient with cutaneous disseminated leishmaniasis and bilateral iridocyclitis (preliminary report)

Os autores descrevem um caso raro de leishmaniose con lesoes cutaneas disseminadas, manifestacoes sistemicas e comprometimento ocular, sendo este caracterizado por iridociclite bilateral nao granulomatosa. A gravidade do quadro oftalmologico e a ausencia de resposta ao tratamento, a despeito da melhora das manifestacoes cutaneas e sistemicas, levaram a realizacao de puncao propedeutica da camada anterior ocular. A partir do humor aquoso isolou-se Leishmania sp. Os autores desconhecem na literatura qualquer outro caso onde tal achado tenha sido demonstrado