Seroepidemiological assessment of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine responsiveness and associated factors in the vaccinated community of the Casablanca-Settat Region, Morocco.

Assessing the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG positivity through population-based serological surveys is crucial for monitoring COVID-19 vaccination efforts. In this study, we evaluated SARS-CoV-2 IgG positivity within a provincial cohort to understand the magnitude of the humoral response against the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and to inform evidence-based public health decisions. A community-based cross-sectional seroprevalence study was conducted, involving 10,669 participants who received various vaccines (two doses for BBIBP-CorV/Sinopharm, Covishield vaccine, and Pfizer/BioNTech, and one dose for Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine). The study spanned 16 provinces in the Casablanca-Settat region from February to June 2022, during which comprehensive demographic and comorbidity data were collected. We screened samples for the presence of IgG antibodies using the SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quant assay, which quantifies antibodies against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein, measured on the Abbott Architect i2000SR. The overall crude seroprevalence was 96% (95% CI: 95.6-96.3%), and after adjustment for assay performance, it was estimated as 96.2% (95% CI: 95.7-96.6). The adjusted overall seroprevalences according to vaccine brands showed no significant difference (96% for BBIBP-CorV/Sinopharm, 97% for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/Oxford/AstraZeneca, 98.5% for BNT162b2/Pfizer-BioNTech, and 98% for Janssen) (p = 0.099). Participants of older age, female sex, those with a history of previous COVID-19 infection, and those with certain chronic diseases were more likely to be seropositive among ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/Oxford/AstraZeneca and BBIBP-CorV/Sinopharm vaccinee groups. Median RBD antibody concentrations were 2355 AU/mL, 3714 AU/mL, 5838 AU/mL, and 2495 AU/mL, respectively, after two doses of BBIBP-CorV/Sinopharm, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/Oxford/AstraZeneca, BNT162b2/Pfizer-BioNTech, and after one dose of Janssen (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, we observed that participants vaccinated with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/Oxford/AstraZeneca and BBIBP-CorV/Sinopharm with comorbid chronic diseases exhibited a more pronounced response to vaccination compared to those without comorbidities. In contrast, no significant differences were observed among Pfizer-vaccinated participants (p > 0.05). In conclusion, our serosurvey findings indicate that all four investigated vaccines provide a robust humoral immune response in the majority of participants (more than 96% of participants had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2). The BNT162b2 vaccine was found to be effective in eliciting a strong humoral response compared to the other three vaccines. However, challenges still remain in examining the dynamics and durability of immunoprotection in the Moroccan context.

An Unusual Case of Gullo's Syndrome Concomitant with Serious Endometriosis Disease in a Postmenopausal Woman.

Gullo's syndrome is a singular physiological phenomenon defined by an abnormal increase in serum pancreatic enzyme levels that may occur in healthy subjects in the absence of pancreatic disorders. During routine health examination in a 54-year-old postmenopausal woman with severe endometriosis, elevated values of serum amylase and lipase were fortuitously observed (198 and 1461 U/L, resp.). Over five years of regular pancreas surveillance, all clinical, biological, and imaging investigations were normal. However, the pancreatic enzyme levels have shown considerable fluctuations including some episodic transient normalization. The description of this benign pancreatic hyperenzymemia case incidentally associated with endometriosis disease is a very rare clinical situation. More in-depth documentation of this phenomenon may help clinicians to avoid unnecessary diagnostic management approaches and reassure the concerned patients that this affection would not be so worrying.

Prostate-specific Antigen Levels in Moroccan Diabetic Males: A Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown an inverse relationship between diabetes and prostate- specific antigen (PSA) levels. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the PSA levels in the serum of diabetic and non-diabetic Moroccan males. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, four hundred and seventy diabetic and 869 non-diabetic males were screened from January 2015 to April 2016 at Pasteur institute of Morocco. Hemoglobin A1c and Fasting Blood Glucose were measured using high performance liquid chromatography and dry chemistry, respectively. We used a chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay technology to evaluate the levels of Serum PSA and testosterone. RESULTS: Overall, the PSA levels revealed no significant difference between diabetic and non-diabetic males (1.31 ± 0.04ng/mL vs.1.36 ± 0.03ng/mL, p = 0.380, respectively). The PSA levels increased with age both in non-diabetics and diabetics. Moreover, in diabetic subjects, the PSA levels were less age dependent (p =0.002) than in non-diabetic (p < 0.0001). The stratified analysis showed that the PSA was significantly lower in diabetic than in non-diabetic subjects aged between 50-59 years (p= 0.0004). Furthermore, no significant testosterone concentrations were observed in the subjects with or without diabetes (p= 0.904). CONCLUSION: Our results show that the PSA levels are age-dependant in diabetic and non-diabetic males but the PSA levels are affected by diabetes status only in the group aged between 50-59 years.