ABSTRACT
Due to the high transfusion volume, polytransfused patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta-thalassemia are constantly exposed to parenterally transmitted infections. Currently, we have little information about the virome of such patients and how the virological composition might be influenced by the hemotherapy procedures that these patients receive. The objective of this study was to compare the viral diversity between these two groups with respect to the viral abundance and how it might be affected by the specific conditions of these groups. We sequenced by next-generation sequencing (NGS) and compared the virome of 30 patients with beta-thalassemia major, 45 with SCD, and 16 blood donors from the Blood Center of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. Predominantly, commensal viruses including Torque teno virus (TTV) genotypes and human pegiviris-1 (HPgV-1) were identified in each group. Strikingly, while HPgV-1 reads were dominant in the SCD group, thalassemic patients showed high TTV abundance, expressed both in viral reads and genotypes. We speculated that the commensal virome of polytransfused patients might be influenced by the transfusion frequency and disease characteristics and that commensal viruses might be used as important genetic biomarkers for these hematological disturbances. Nevertheless, more specific studies are necessary to confirm a relationship between blood virome and transfusion treatment.
ABSTRACT
The gonadal veins are anatomically asymmetric and there are several anatomical variations involving them. During a renal vascular anatomy study through cadaver dissection, students of the School of Medical Science of Santa Casa of Sao Paulo, Brazil, found an anomalous drainage of the left spermatic vein. In the case presented here the right spermatic vein drains normally to the inferior vena cava, but the left spermatic vein penetrates in the inferior pole of the left kidney and there it tributes in a branch of the renal vein. According to the reviewed literature a case like this had never been reported. There was not any other abnormality in the renal vascular anatomy in this case. The gonadal vein, renal vein and the segments of inferior vena cava into which the gonadal vein drains have a common origin in the fetal subcardinal vein and or in its anastomosis with the supracardinal veins, which would justify the finding.