Etiology of Hydronephrosis in adults and children: Ultrasonographic Assessment in 233 patients

Objectives:

Hydronephrosis (HN) is dilatation of the collecting system of the kidney due to obstruction of urine outflow. This study intended firstly, to investigate the efficacy of ultrasound (US) imaging to determine the cause of HN, and secondly, to list the causes of HN.

Methods:

In this retrospective study, 233 patients with HN were scanned to determine the cause of the HN in the period from 1^st January 2016 to 31^st October 2017. Categorical results were written as frequencies and percentages.

Results:

Out of 233, 91.41% were adults and 8.58% were children (P<0.001), 66.10% were male and 33.90% were female (P<0.001). In 55.36%, HN was in the right kidney and 44.64% was in the left (P=0.116). Exactly 58% of patients were suffering from grade-2, 21.5% grade-3, 11.6% grade-1, and 8.2% grade-4 HN. US imaging can determine the cause of HN in 70.4% of patients. Kidney or ureteric calculi were the cause of HN in 54.1% of cases, reflux was in 7.3%, and pelviureteric junction (PUJ) stenosis was in 3.9%.

In cases of calculi induced HN, 25.3% of the calculi were in the vesicoureteric (VUJ) junction, 21.5% were in the renal pelvis, 6.4% were in the PUJ or upper ureter, and only 0.9% were in the middle ureter.

Conclusion:

Ultrasound imaging can determine the cause of HN in more than two thirds of patients. Calculi are the most common cause of HN even in children and are most common in the VUJ junction.

Coronavirus infections in horses in Saudi Arabia and Oman

Equine coronaviruses (ECoV) are the only coronavirus known to infect horses. So far, data on ECoV infection in horses remain limited to the USA, France and Japan and its geographic distribution is not well understood. We carried out RT‐PCR on 306 nasal and 315 rectal swabs and tested 243 sera for antibodies to detect coronavirus infections in apparently healthy horses in Saudi Arabia and Oman. We document evidence of infection with ECoV and HKU23 coronavirus by RT‐PCR. There was no conclusive evidence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in horses. Serological data suggest that lineage A betacoronavirus infections are commonly infecting horses in Saudi Arabia and Oman but antibody cross‐reactivities between these viruses do not permit us to use serological data alone to identify which coronaviruses are causing these infections.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus seroprevalence in domestic livestock in Saudi Arabia, 2010 to 2013

In Saudi Arabia, including regions of Riyadh and Al Ahsa, pseudoparticle neutralisation (ppNT) and microneutralisation (MNT) tests detected no antibodies to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in sheep (n= 100), goats (n= 45), cattle (n= 50) and chickens (n= 240). Dromedary camels however, had a high prevalence of MERS-CoV antibodies. Bovine coronavirus (BCoV) infected sera from cattle had no cross-reactivity in MERS-CoV ppNT or MNT, while many dromedary camels’ sera reacted to both BCoV and MERS-CoV. Some nevertheless displayed specific serologic reaction profiles to MERS-CoV.