ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has not ended, and several variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus continue to emerge. The emergence of new variants is worrying because higher transmission leads to spikes in infections, vaccine efforts, and other therapeutic developments. Existing literature reports that with new variants affecting vaccine efficacy, hospitalization and risk of a recurrent infection increase. In this review article, we describe the latest variants of SARS-CoV-2, and the impact of each new variant on the efficacy of the developed vaccines reported in the literature and findings. The report concludes that the emergence of a variant that completely evades the immune response and reduces neutralizing antibodies.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: early detection of H. pylori is essential to prevent the development of infections into gastric malignancies. The coccoid form of H. pylori is difficult to detect either by culture or histopathology; however, it can be detected using molecular methods, such as real-time PCR. The study was expected to provide new information on the development of H. pylori detection. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was conducted at the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Center of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital between October 2016 and August 2017. The sampling method used was consecutive sampling. Biopsy from gastric antrum and corpus were performed in 64 patients. We collected 2 specimens from each site to be examined using real-time PCR and histopathology. Initially, we conducted real-time PCR optimization followed by application of clinical samples from gastric biopsy. Data analysis using McNemar's χ2 and Kappa tests. RESULTS: the real-time PCR showed 25% positivity, while the positive proportion of histopathological examination was 14%. Real-time PCR has a sensitivity and specificity 88.9% dan 85.5%, respectively. The McNemar's χ2 test showed that there is significantly different (p=0.039) between the two tests; kappa value (p=0.561). Conclusion: the real-time PCR examination is more sensitive than histopathology. This technique can improve diagnosis by 11% compared to histopathological examination.
