Prevalence of Human Parvovirus B19 in Neurological Patients: Findings from Region of Western Saudi Arabia.

Human parvovirus (B19) infection causes Erythema infectiosum in persons with other hematological disorders like aplastic anemia and complications such as hydrops fetalis, spontaneous abortions. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of IgG and IgM antibodies in B19 infected neurological patients and to assess possible transmission related risk factors. This cross-sectional descriptive study comprised 140 neurological patients. Blood samples were screened for both IgG and IgM against B19 by ELISA and nested PCR. IgG and IgM accounted 6.4% and 3.5% prevalence in neurological patients. Both IgG and IgM revealed prevalence of 3.5% simultaneously in different age groups. IgG and IGM Nested PCR displayed 6.42% B19 viral DNA prevalence among samples analyzed. Among B19 risk associated factors, only history of blood transfusion (Odds Ratio=1.9:1, P=0.04) was significantly associated with B19 infection among neurological patients. Neurological patients showed very less prevalence of B19 infection and hence disclose no significant association on risk factors associated with its transmission.

Molecular characterisation in tongue squamous cell carcinoma reveals key variants potentially linked to clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is a highly aggressive malignancy characterized by frequent recurrence, poor survival with relatively few therapeutic options due to the late diagnosis in many cases. OBJECTIVES: Understanding the molecular pathways underlying OTSCC tumourigenesis and the discovery of diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers. METHODS: We performed high-throughput mutational analysis of 44 OTSCC formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) cases using the Cancer Hotspots Panel (CHP) v2 on the Ion Torrent™platform. We determined the frequency of human papilloma virus (HPV) using PCR and Epstein bar virus (EBV) positivity using immunohistochemistry. As a control for EBV infection we screened matched non-tumourous tissues. RESULTS: Sequencing analysis identified missense, nonsense and frameshift mutations in TP53 (66%), PIK3CA (27%), CDKN2A (25%), EGFR (18%), and PTEN (14%). Interestingly, no significant associations were found between damaging mutations and clinicopathological data. A total of 10/44 of the OTSCC samples (23%) tested was positive for HPV18 DNA. OTSCC patients with positive HPV infection had worse overall survival compared to HPV-negative cases as determined by Kaplan-Meier survival (p= 0.023). Furthermore, EBNA1 expression showed a strong tumour-enriched expression pattern in 20 out of 21 samples (95%) in the epithelial compartments of the tissues analysed. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, this study highlights that the two most common events in OTSCC are TP53 mutations and EBV positivity. Helping to understand the contribution of TP53 mutations and EBV infection events could serve as useful biomarkers for OTSCC.

Antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial and fungal infections among infected diabetic patients.

Objective: To determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of the most common bacterial and fungal infections among infected diabetic patients. Methods: This study was conducted at the Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, from June 2011 to June 2012, and comprised specimens collected from diabetics. Antibiotic susceptibility test using disc diffusion method was performed for bacterial isolates, and antifungal susceptibility test using colorimetric method for candida isolates. Results: Of the 138 specimens, antibacterial susceptibility test was performed for 129(93.5%) bacterial isolates while antifungal resistance test was performed for 9(6.5%) candida isolates. Of the bacterial isolates, 27(20.9%) were escherichia coli, 26(20.1%) staphylococcus aureus and 15(11.6%) were pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. All Escherichia coli and staphylococcus aureus were susceptible to amikacin and vancomycin (100% each). Moreover, all candida species were susceptible to amphotericin B, econazole, fluconazole, ketoconazole and nystatin (100% each). CONCLUSIONS: The most effective antibiotics for bacterial infections among diabetic patients were vancomycin for gram-positive bacteria, amikacin for gram-negative bacteria and for bacteria isolated from diabetic patients with foot infections.

Anti hepatitis E virus seropositivity in a group of male blood donors in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the seropositivity of Immunoglobulin-G and Immunoglobulin-M to hepatitis E virus in male blood donors in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The study was carried out from March to August 2009, in which 900 blood samples were collected from 4 different hospital blood banks in Makkah City: AL-Noor Hospital, Central Blood Bank, Maternity and Children Hospital, and Herra Hospital. All the samples were tested for Immunoglobulin-G and Immunoglobulin-M antibodies specific to hepatitis E virus using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test. RESULTS: Hepatitis E virus-specific Immunoglobulin-G antibodies were detected in 168/900 (18.7%), and IgM in 39/900 (4.3%) samples. Prevalence of the former was found to be higher in non-Saudi donors. In addition, its prevalence increased with age. Moreover, its prevalence was found to be higher in uneducated donors and in donors who drank well-water. CONCLUSION: Exposure to hepatitis E virus among blood donors in Makkah City was high in comparison to the neighbouring areas in the region. Further studies are warranted to determine the true seroprevalence of the virus in the society at large.