Serologic, endoscopic and pathologic findings in pediatric celiac disease: A single center experience in a low/middle income country.

BACKGROUND: Studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are needed to provide a comprehensive picture of the global incidence of celiac disease (CD). AIM: To describe the serology, endoscopic and histological findings in typical and atypical presentations of pediatric CD at a tertiary referral hospital in an African low/middle income country (LMIC). METHODS: This observational study was conducted on 199 patients with CD from 2010 to 2019. The patients were divided into typical and atypical groups according to the presenting symptoms including 120 and 79 patients respectively. Serology, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with duodenal biopsy were performed for patients who had symptoms suggestive of CD. The severity of the intestinal damage was graded according to the histo-pathologic Marsh-Oberhuber classification. RESULTS: Chronic diarrhea was the main intestinal presentation in the typical group. Anemia was the most common extraintestinal symptom in both the typical and atypical group. Marsh-Oberhuber type 3b and 3c was significantly higher in the seropositive patients with a P value of 0.007. A significant correlation was observed between the histological grade of the biopsied duodenal mucosa and the clinical presentation (P < 0.001). Age was significantly higher in the atypical group (P value < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Although typical CD was observed in 120 patients in this study, the clinical variability of the condition was frequently observed. Age only was a significant predictor for the appearance of atypical CD. Therefore, CD presentations in LMIC are not different from industrialized countries.

Clinical and Environmental Surveillance of Rotavirus Common Genotypes Showed High Prevalence of Common P Genotypes in Egypt.

The objective of this study was to compare the prevalence of human rotavirus group A common G and P genotypes in human Egyptian stool specimens and raw sewage samples to determine the most common genotypes for future vaccine development. From 1026 stool specimens of children with acute diarrhea and using nested RT-PCR, 250 samples (24.37%) were positive for human rotavirus group A. Using multiplex RT-PCR, rotavirus common P and G genotypes were detected as 89.20% and 46.40% of the positive clinical specimens respectively. This low percentage of common G genotypes frequency may affect the efficiency of the available live attenuated oral rotavirus vaccines [Rotarix® (human rotavirus G1P[8]) and RotaTeq® (reassortant bovine-human rotavirus G1-4P[5] and G6P[8])], however the percentage of clinical specimens which were negative for common G genotypes but positive for P[8] genotype was 12.00%. From 24 positive raw sewage samples for rotavirus group A VP6 collected from Zenin and El-Gabal El-Asfar wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), 21 samples (87.50%) were typeable for common P genotypes while 13 samples (54.17%) were typeable for common G genotypes. Phylogenetic analysis of a VP8 partial gene of 45 P-typeable clinical isolates and 20 P-typeable raw sewage samples showed high similarity to reference strains and the majority of mutations were silent and showed lower to non-significant similarity with the two vaccine strains. This finding is useful for determining the most common antigens required for future vaccine development.

Histopathological changes in the oesophageal mucosa in Egyptian children with corrosive strictures: A single-centre vast experience.

BACKGROUND: The caustic ingestion continues to be a major problem worldwide especially in developing countries. The long-term complications include stricture and increased life time risk of oesophageal carcinoma. Patients suffered from corrosive induced oesophageal strictures have more than a 1000-fold risk of developing carcinoma of the oesophagus. AIM: To determine the possibility of oesophageal mucosal dysplasia after prolonged dilatation in post corrosive stricture. METHODS: This observational study was conducted at the Paediatric Endoscopy Unit in Cairo University Children's Hospital. It included children of both sexes older than 2 years of age who had an established diagnosis of post-corrosive oesophageal stricture and repeated endoscopic dilatation sessions for more than 6 mo. All patients were biopsied at the stricture site after 6 mo of endoscopic dilatation. A histopathological examination of an oesophageal mucosal biopsy was performed for the detection of chronic oesophagitis, inflammatory cellular infiltration and dysplasia. RESULTS: The mean age of the enrolled children was 5.9 ± 2.6 years; 90% of the patients had ingested an alkaline corrosive substance (potash). The total number of endoscopic dilatation sessions were ranging from 16 to 100 with mean number of sessions was 37.2 ± 14.9. Histopathological examination of the specimens showed that 85% of patients had evidence of chronic oesophagitis (group A) in the form of basal cell hyperplasia, hyperkeratosis and subepithelial fibrosis. Thirteen percent of the patients had evidence of reactive atypia (group B) in the form of severe neutrophilic intraepithelial inflammatory cellular infiltration, and 2 patients (2%) had mild squamous dysplasia (group C); we rebiopsied these two patients 6 mo after the initial pathological assessment, guided by chromoendoscopy by Lugol's iodine. CONCLUSION: The histopathology of oesophageal mucosal biopsies in post-corrosive patients demonstrates evidence of chronic oesophagitis, intraepithelial inflammatory cellular infiltration and dysplasia. Dysplasia is one of the complications of post-corrosive oesophageal stricture.

Study of predictive value of pediatric risk of mortality (PRISM) score in children with end stage liver disease and fulminant hepatic failure.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use of the PRISM score as a predictor of outcome in patients with end stage liver disease (ESLD) and fulminant hepatic failure (FHF). METHODS: The present study included 30 patients with ESLD and FHF, with ages ranging from 2 to 108 months, who were admitted to the Emergency room (ER) and the Pediatric Hepatology Unit at Cairo University Children's Hospital (tertiary referral hospital) over a six-month-period from May through October 2008. Survivors were followed up for 6 months. Two other scores were also calculated, the PELD score and the Child-Pugh score. The outcome was defined as survivors and deceased. RESULTS: Deceased patients as compared with survivors were significantly younger (median age 7 vs. 24 months, p=0.003). A ROC curve was constructed for the PRISM score, the predicted death rate (PDR) and the PELD score in the 30 patients. PRISM score was significantly associated with mortality (p=0.04). The best cut off value was 9.5 (70.6% sensitive and 61% specific). PDR was also significantly associated with mortality (p=0.011). The best cut off value for PDR was 5.95 (70.6% sensitive, 85% specific). On the other hand, the PELD score was not associated with mortality (p=0.202). CONCLUSIONS: PRISM score can be applied with an adequate degree of accuracy for severity assessment and mortality prediction to pediatric patients with ESLD or FHF.

Noninvasive assessment of hepatic fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity in Egyptian children with chronic hepatitis C virus infection using FibroTest and ActiTest.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic hepatitis and hepatic fibrosis. Liver biopsy, because of its limitations and risks, might be considered an imperfect gold standard for assessing the severity of chronic liver diseases. In this study, we aimed to prospectively validate FibroTest (FT) and ActiTest (AT) as noninvasive serum biochemical markers for assessment of the degree of hepatic fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity respectively, in pediatric patients with chronic HCV infection and compare them to liver biopsy. METHODS: Fifty patients, aged 2 to 18 years, with chronic HCV infection were prospectively enrolled. Two assessments were carried out, within 24-h duration, one of a liver biopsy specimen and the other FT and AT measured in serum sample. FINDINGS: A highly significant linear trend and correlation were found between FT-related fibrosis and fibrosis stage by METAVIR scoring on histopathological examination. A highly significant correlation was also found between AT and necroinflammatory histological activity using METAVIR as well. The FT area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) is 0.97, SE=0.02 which can diagnose patients with mild stage of fibrosis, thus discriminating them from those with no (or minimal) fibrosis. The AT can successfully discriminate between patients with moderate activity and those with mild activity with AUROC=0.93, SE=0.06. CONCLUSION: FT and AT are potential noninvasive methods for assessment of hepatic fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity in pediatric patients with chronic HCV infection in comparison with liver biopsy.

(99m)Technetium-macroaggregated albumin perfusion lung scan versus contrast enhanced echocardiography in the diagnosis of the hepatopulmonary syndrome in children with chronic liver disease.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a triad of advanced chronic liver disease (CLD), arterial hypoxemia and intrapulmonary arteriovenous shunting in the absence of a primary cardiopulmonary disease. HPS has been more frequently reported in adults than in children with no data on its prevalence in children with CLD. The aim of this study was to detect the prevalence of the HPS in a cohort of children with CLD because of chronic hepatitis B and/or C virus infection, schistosomiasis as well as inborn metabolic errors. We also aimed to evaluate the role of Technetium labeled macroaggregated albumin (Tc--MAA) perfusion lung scan versus contrast enhanced echocardiography (CEE) with intravenous injection of agitated saline in the diagnosis and quantification of intrapulmonary shunts and their relationship to important clinical and laboratory findings. METHODS: Forty Egyptian children (22 males) were investigated. Their ages ranged from 5 to 12 years (with a mean of 9.5 years). Twenty individuals proved to have cirrhosis. RESULTS: Blood gas determination revealed more significant arterial hypoxemia in cirrhotics than noncirrhotics both under room air and after breathing 100% oxygen for 15 mins. CEE showed comparable cardiac measurements in cirrhotic and noncirrhotic patients, and diagnosed intrapulmonary shunts in three hypoxemic cirrhotic patients; whereas Tc--MAAperfusion lung scan diagnosed shunts in seven patients (five of them cirrhotic). The presence of shunts was significantly correlated with the duration of CLD, clinical findings, presence of cirrhosis and porto-systemic collaterals. We calculated for each patient a shunt index (SI) by the formula: (activity outside thorax/activity outside plus inside thorax) 100; and an SI value of 0.278 was found to be a cutoff value for shunt detection. All patients with SI above this value had shunting associated with hypoxemia and all patients with SI below this value had no hypoxemia (specificity 100%). CONCLUSION: Arterial hypoxemia and intrapulmonary shunts were diagnosed in 17.5% of this cohort of children with cirrhotic or noncirrhotic CLD representing the classic HPS. Tc--MAA perfusion lung scan was more sensitive than CEE in detection of intrapulmonary shunts. SI cutoff value of 0.278 was found to be highly specific for shunt detection and we recommend its validation in further studies.

Skin iron concentration: a simple, highly sensitive method for iron stores evaluation in thalassemia patients.

Iron overload is a potentially fatal complication in thalassemia patients. Accurate assessment of body iron is of utmost importance for these patients. The available methods for iron stores evaluation have limitations. We assessed biochemically the skin iron concentration (SIC) and determined the relation between the hepatic and skin iron level in thalassemia major patients to develop a simple, sensitive, quantitative measure of the body iron stores. Thirty-one cases with thalassemia major were assessed for iron overload. Liver and skin biopsies were performed for the patients and skin biopsies were taken from the 31 controls. The biopsies were subjected to biochemical assay of iron and histologic sections were examined. The SIC of the studied cases was significantly higher than that of the control group with a mean of 2.705 +/- 1.14 and 0.275 +/- 0.13 mg/g dry skin weight, respectively, p < 0.001. There was significant correlation between the SIC and the liver iron concentration (LIC) (r = 0.43, p = 0.01). The amount of liver iron is equivalent to [(3.5 x SIC) + 12.9]. With the use of this equation, we could reliably estimate an LIC value as high as 21.2 mg/g dry liver weight with a standard error of 4.07. Biochemical assay of the skin iron concentration is a reliable quantitative indicator of the body iron stores in patients with thalassemia major.

Prevalence of factor V Leiden mutation and other hereditary thrombophilic factors in Egyptian children with portal vein thrombosis: results of a single-center case-control study.

No identifiable cause can be found in more than half of the cases of portal vein thrombosis (PVT). Our aim was to assess the prevalence of factor V Leiden mutation and other thrombophilic factors as risk factors in the development of PVT in the pediatric age group. From March 2001 to January 2002, 40 children with PVT were enrolled in the study, in addition to 20 age-matched and sex-matched controls. Protein C, protein S, antithrombin III, and activated protein C resistance (APCR) were assayed. Molecular study of factor II and factor V mutations was carried out. Of the patients, 25 had detectable hereditary thrombophilia (62.5%), 12 had factor V Leiden mutation (30%), 11 had protein C deficiency (27.5%), 6 had factor II mutation (15%), 1 had antithrombin III deficiency (2.5%), and none had protein S deficiency. Five children had concurrence of more than one defect. Factor V Leiden mutation is the most common hereditary thrombophilia associated with PVT and the relative risk of factor V Leiden mutation, as a cause of PVT, was six times more than in controls (odds ratio=6). Concurrence of more than one hereditary thrombophilic factor was seen in 12.5% of our patients. Circumstantial risk factors (neonatal sepsis, umbilical sepsis, umbilical catheterization) were not more significantly prevalent among patients with hereditary thrombophilia than among those with no detectable abnormalities in anticoagulation.