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Background and aim: Patients with chronic kidney disease including those undergoing hemodialysis (HD) constitute a particularly challenging group regarding COVID-19 vaccination. The present study aimed to compare the rate of reinfection after two and three doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in HD patients. Patients and methods: The study included 80 HD patients who received three doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, there were another 80 patients who received only two doses of the vaccine. Patients in the latter group were selected based on propensity matching score with 1:1 ratio. Patients were monitored for post-vaccination COVID-19 infection using PCR examination of nasopharyngeal swabs. Patients were also monitored for post-vaccination complications including general complaints (headache, fever, fatigue), injection site complaints (arm pain, swelling, itching, rash), musculoskeletal complaints (muscle spasm or pain, joint pain) and others. All patients were followed for six months. Results: The present study included 80 patients submitted to COVID-19 vaccination with two doses of Sinopharm vaccine (GI) and other 80 patients who received three doses of the same vaccine (GII). At the end of follow up, 11 patients (13.8 %) in GI caught COVID-19 infection. In contrast, no patient in GII had infection (P<0.001). Comparison between patients who had COVID-19 infection and those without infection revealed that the former subgroup had significantly lower BMI (23.3 ± 2.3 versus 27.5 ± 8.1 Kg/m2), higher frequency of associated Hepatitis C (HCV) infection (54.6 % versus 2.9 %, P<0.001) and higher serum ferritin levels [median (IQR): 1101.0 (836.0-1564.0) versus 675.0 (467.0-767.7) ng/mL, P=0.01]. Binary logistic regression analysis identified high serum ferritin levels [OR (95% CI): 0.014 (0.001-0.15), P<0.001] and associated HCV infection [OR (95% CI): 0.99 (0.98-1.01), P=0.02] as significant predictors of post-vaccination COVID-19 infection in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: A three dose regime of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine associated with significantly lower rate of reinfection COVID-19 infection in HD patients. Infected patients had significantly lower BMI, higher frequency of HCV and higher ferritin levels.
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Background: The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19, a recent infectious disease that aggravates the underlying pathophysiology of hyperglycemia in diabetic individuals. This study aimed to detect how diabetes mellitus (DM) affected COVID-19 patients' morbidity and mortality, and the incidence of neonset DM. Patients and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study done at Aswan Isolation Hospitals, Egypt. It comprised 200 individuals who had been tested positive for COVID-19. They were divided into two groups: group 1 (pre-existing diabetes = 143 patients) and group 2 (new-onset diabetes = 57 patients), and all patients were subjected to general examinations, hospital stay duration, and investigations, such as (complete blood count, urea, creatinine, HBA1c, fasting, postprandial, and random blood sugar, D-Dimer, ferritin, C-reactive protein, PCR for SARS COV-2 RNA, and CT chest. Results: The current study consisted of 94 males and 106 females. According to disease severity, they were 96 (48.0%) critical cases, 57 (28.5%) severe cases, and 47 (23.5%) non-severe cases. The incidence of new-onset DM in COVID-19 patients was 28.5% (57 new cases), with a mortality rate of 42.0% (84 cases). Regarding glycemic control, we found a significant difference in fasting blood sugar (FBS) between the two groups, with a significant increase of FBS in the dead group than in the survived group. We also found a significant age difference in critical than in severe and non-severe groups, with a high mortality rate in older patients. Inflammatory markers, such as ferritin, CRP, and D-dimer, were higher in critical than in severe and non-severe groups. Conclusion: The prevalence of new-onset DM is significant among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Older patients were more prone to disease severity with high mortality rate. Inflammatory markers such as CRP and ferritin were significantly related to the COVID-19 severity and outcome.
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BACKGROUND: The incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has increased by 30-40% in the last decade. These patients have a higher mortality rate of 3-8 times compared to the general population. In the present study, we aimed to detect cardiovascular complications and their relation to the first-year mortality rate in patients on hemodialysis in Aswan University Hospital, upper Egypt. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Our study was a cross-sectional study which was done at the hemodialysis unit in Aswan University Hospital from May 2016 to May 2018. The study included 100 patients with ESRD on regular hemodialysis (first year on programmed hemodialysis). All patients were subjected to full clinical examination and laboratory studies includngd complete blood count (CBC), kidney function tests, serum calcium and phosphorus level, parathormone (PTH) hormone, serum albumin level, C-reactive protein (CRP), echocardiography and electrocardiogram (ECG), and lateral abdominal x-ray for detection of aortic calcification. . RESULTS: The present study included 47 males and 53 females, with a mean age of 50.6 ±13.89 years. The main risk factors for patients with ESRD were hypertension (48%) followed by diabetic nephropathy (36%), glomerulonephritis (15%), idiopathic etiology (11%), obstructive uropathy (8%), lupus nephritis (6%), polycystic kidney disease (4%) and cardio renal syndrome (1%). Twenty-seven deaths have been noted during the first year of dialysis treatment. The leading causes of death were cardio-vascular events (66, 67%), infection (22, 22%) and malignancy (11, 11%), The most common cardiovascular events were myocardial infarction (27.8%), sudden cardiac death (SCD) (27.8%) and heart failure (22.2%). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our study showed that the main risk factors for ESRD patients in Aswan University Hospital are hypertensive nephrosclerosis, diabetic nephropathy, glomerulonephritis and idiopathic etiology, and the main causes of first-year mortality were cardiovascular events followed by infection and malignancy.
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BACKGROUND: Screening of early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis is the greatest challenge for hepatologists. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is the most common non-invasive biomarker used in HCC diagnosis. OBJECTIVES AND AIMS: To make a comparison between the new biomarker Golgi protein 73 (GP73) versus the standard biomarker AFP in the diagnosis of HCC. METHODS: Our study was a case-control study, and 60 patients were included in the study. They were divided into two groups: 1) HCC patients with either chronic HBV or HCV infection (n=30); and 2) non-HCC patients with HBV or HCV infection who had either chronic hepatitis or liver cirrhosis (n=30). In addition, 30 healthy volunteers were included as a control group. Patients were subjected to liver function tests, kidney function tests, serum Golgi protein 73 and AFP levels. Imaging diagnosis of HCC was done by computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based on American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) practice guidelines. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences between groups in terms of serum AFP (p<0.001) and GP73 (p<0.001) were found. Non-HCC patients (chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis) and HCC patients had significantly higher AFP and GP73 than the control group. In addition, patients with HCC had significantly higher AFP and GP73 than chronic hepatitis and cirrhotic patients. GP73 had higher diagnostic performance than AFP. At a cut-off value of ≥8.4 ng/mL, GP73 yielded a sensitivity of 86.7% and specificity of 89% for the discrimination between HCC and normal populations. Similarly, at a cut-off value of ≥8.45 ng/mL, GP73 yielded a sensitivity of 83.3% and specificity of 84% for the discrimination between HCC patients and non-HCC patients. On the other hand, AFP at a cut-off value of ≥2.4 ng/mL yielded a sensitivity of 75.4% and specificity of 90% for the discrimination between HCC and normal populations; and at a cut-off value of ≥20.85 ng/mL, AFP yielded a sensitivity of 72.2% and specificity of 86.2% for the discrimination between HCC and non-HCC patients. CONCLUSION: Golgi protein 73 is a promising and accurate biomarker for early detection of HCC.