Association of Interleukin 27 gene polymorphism and risk of Hepatitis B viral infection in Egyptian population

According to the World Health Organization, Hepatitis B virus [HBV] is considered a major global public health problem. The genetic background may be a crucial etiologic factor in HBV infection and its complications. Interleukin-27 [IL-27] is a newly discovered cytokine encoded by 2 genes [EBI3 and p28]. Mutations in the IL-27 gene may lead to altered cytokine production and/or activity and thus modulate individual's susceptibility to HVB infection. This work was designed to study the association of IL-27p28 [964A/G, 2905T/G and 4730T/C] gene promoter single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] with the risk of Hepatitis B virus [HBV] in Egyptians. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one that examines IL-27p28 promoter polymorphism in Egyptian patients. One hundred and sixteen patients with HBV infection and 101 healthy controls were genotyped by using polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism [PCR/RFLP] in Egyptian population. There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of IL-27p28 gene polymorphisms between patients and controls. Furthermore, no association was found between the distributions of the haplotypes and HBV risk. Our data suggested that polymorphisms in the IL-27 gene may not contribute to HBV susceptibility. Further studies with large sample size should be conducted to validate these results in Egyptian population

Ketoconazole in pityriasis versicolor with monitoring its serum level using a simple bioassay technique

A simple agar-well diffusion bioassay method for measurement of ketoconazole was evaluated in which a medium containing 0.7% trypticase peptone and a strain of Candida pseudotropicalis as assay organism were used. A linear relationship between zone diameters and Log 10 concentrations of the drug over the pharmacologically relevant ranges of 0.5-20 mug/ml was obtained [F=1324.038; p <0.001]. The variability among measurements was found to be 0.3421 denoting that the technique was precise and hence was used to monitor serum level of patients of this study. Twenty two patients with pityriasis versicolor therapeutically received a ten-day course of ketoconazole to investigate the efficacy of this short course of the drug. Patients were assessed both clinically [for scaling and pigmentation] and laboratory [KOH scraping] before starting ketoconazole therapy, at the end of the course [day 10] and on day [30]. Serum ketoconazole levels of patients ranged from 0-6.9 mug/ml on the second day of therapy and 0.9-7.1 mug/ml on day [10]. Before starting therapy, all patients showed positive KOH preparation, 21 [95.5%] showed scaly lesion and 12 patients [45.5%] had pigmented lesion. On day [30] only one patient had scaly lesion while two patients still had pigmented lesion and KOH positive smear. The improvement seen in both clinical and laboratory parameters in the follow-up period was highly significant [P <0.001] when compared to pretreatment figures. The 10-day course of ketoconazole in the treatment of pityriasis versicolor was recommended

Prevalence of skin diseases in rural area

The aim of this work is to estimate the prevalence of skin diseases, among the population in Om Meshak Hamlet in order to prepare a list of the most common skin diseases among such population. The subjects of this study were 1058 population constituting the total population in the hamlet, the results of the survey indicated that over two-thirds [72.5 percent] of the population had some sort of skin disorders. The most commonly encountered skin diseases detected in their order of prevalence are scabies [23.5 percent], pediculosis capitis [14.2 percent], piteyriasis alba [11.8 percent], impetigo [10.2 percent], acne vulgaris [4.7 percent], insect bite [4.6 percent], tinea [2.1 percent], papular urticaria [1.9 percent] and hyperkeratosis of the Palms and soles [1.6 percent]. Overcrowding, bad hygiene and environmental conditions had a major effect on the prevalence of skin diseases in this study