Conjunctival and nasal microflora in patients on topical cyclosporine for dry eye

Introduction: Dry eye is a common ocular condition causing discomfort and visual disturbances. Anti-inflammatory agents like Cyclosporine A (CsA) are often used in its treatment. However, the impact of CsA on ocular flora remains understudied. This research aimed to evaluate changes in conjunctival and nasal microflora in patients receiving topical cyclosporine for dry eye. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, conjunctival and nasal samples were collected from two groups of dry eye patients. Group 1 consisted of 38 patients using CsA eye drops, while Group 2 included 34 patients using preservative-free artificial tear drops. Bacterial cultures were grown from the samples, and the identified organisms underwent antibiotic susceptibility testing. Additionally, alpha diversity metrics were employed to assess the diversity of bacterial species in the samples. Results: Bacterial growth was observed in 75% of conjunctival samples and 97.22% of nasal samples. Staphylococcus epidermidis was the predominant organism in both groups. Alpha diversity analysis showed no significant differences in Shannon diversity and OTU richness between the groups for most bacterial species. Antibiotic susceptibility tests revealed no substantial variations in resistance patterns between the groups. Conclusion: This study provides valuable insights into the impact of CsA eye drops on conjunctival and nasal flora in dry eye patients. The findings suggest that CsA does not significantly influence the composition, diversity, or antibiotic resistance patterns of ocular flora. Long-term topical cyclosporine treatment for dry eye does not significantly impact conjunctival microflora or lead to antibiotic resistance. These results have important implications for the safe use of CsA in patients undergoing ocular treatments, particularly those at risk of intraocular infections.

Real-life outcomes for oral disease-modifying treatments of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients: Adherence and adverse event profiles from Marmara University

BACKGROUND

To have country-wide information about multidrug resistance (MDR) in isolates from community-acquired urinary tract infections (CAUTI) of Turkey, in terms of resistance rates and useful options.

METHODS

We used a geocode standard, nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS), and a total of 1588 community-acquired isolates of 20 centres from 12 different NUTS regions between March 2019 and March 2020 were analysed.

RESULTS

Of the 1588 culture growths, 1269 (79. 9%) were Escherichia coli and 152 (9.6%) were Klebsiella spp. Male sex, advancedage, and having two or more risk factors showed a statistically significant relation with MDR existence (p < 0.001, p: 0.014, p < 0.001, respectively) that increasing number of risk factors or degree of advancing in age directly affects the number of antibiotic groups detected to have resistance by pathogens. In total, MDR isolates corresponded to 36.1% of our CAUTI samples; MDR existence was 35.7% in E. coli isolates and 57.2% in Klebsiella spp. isolates. Our results did not show an association between resistance or MDR occurrence rates and NUTS regions.

DISCUSSION

The necessity of urine culture in outpatient clinics should be taken into consideration, at least after evaluating risk factorsfor antibacterial resistance individually. Community-acquired UTIs should be followed up time- and region-dependently. Antibiotic stewardship programmes should be more widely and effectively administrated.

Can Hemogram Parameters Predict a Positive PCR Result in COVID-19?

Objective: Quick diagnosis of COVID-19 has been an important factor to manage the ongoing pandemic at hospitals and other health facilities. We aimed to investigate the effects of PCR test on hemogram parameters in COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods: We collected hemogram data of 120 nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal combo swab PCR positive and 119 PCR negative patients admitted to our hospital’s COVID-19 clinics with COVID-19 symptoms between 1 April 2020 and 24 June2020. Results: Age, MPV and NLR were found to be higher; hemoglobin, neutrophil, lymphocytes, basophil, platelet, PCT, WBC levels were lower in PCR positive cases. The highest sensitivity, 75 % is found on WBC count with cut off 7.15. Conclusion:Lower leukocyte count than 7.15, lower neutrophil count than 4.91, greater NLR than 2.95, lower platelet than 221.5 may give an idea about the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 21 No. 02 April’22 Page : 391-397

Can Hemogram Parameters Predict a Positive PCR Result in COVID-19?

Objective: Quick diagnosis of COVID-19 has been an important factor to manage the ongoing pandemic at hospitals and other health facilities.We aimed to investigate the effects of PCR test on hemogram parameters in COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods: We collected hemogram data of 120 nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal combo swab PCR positive and 119 PCR negative patients admitted to our hospital’s COVID-19 clinics with COVID-19 symptoms between 1 April 2020 and 24 June2020. Results: Age, MPV and NLR were found to be higher; hemoglobin, neutrophil, lymphocytes, basophil, platelet, PCT, WBC levels were lower in PCR positive cases.The highest sensitivity, 75 % is found on WBC count with cut off 7.15. Conclusion: Lower leukocyte count than 7.15, lower neutrophil count than 4.91, greater NLR than 2.95, lower platelet than 221.5 may give an idea about the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.20(5) 2021 p.118-124

Problems encountered in conventional HIV 1/2 Algorithms: lack of necessity for immunoblot assays to confirm repeated ELISA reactive results

BACKGROUND

The use of conventional (serologically based) HIV 1/2 diagnostic algorithms has become controversial in recent years.

OBJECTIVES

Sera from patients who underwent verification tests were evaluated because repeated ELISA-reactive results demonstrated a HIV1+HIV2 positive band pattern.

METHODS

The line immunoassay (LIA) test was used for repeated HIV enzyme immunoassays (EIA)-reactive sera in patients at three centers. The Bio-Rad Geenius™ HIV 1/2 and the HIV-1 RNA tests were used. HIV-1 and RNA HIV-2 were investigated using PCR.

RESULTS

LIA was used to evaluate 3,224 out of 10,591 samples with repeated ELISA reactivity (30%). We found that 32 (1%) of the sera, along with HIV1 bands and HIV2 gp36 bands, were positive. Only 28 of the 32 verified serum samples with gp36 bands were repeated, and no gp36 band positivity was detected using the Bio-Rad Geenius™ HIV-1/2 confirmatory assay in these serum samples. The HIV-2 proviral DNAs were also negative. Therefore, we excluded the possibility of HIV1+2 co-infection. All samples from the 32 patients were positive for HIV-1 RNA.

CONCLUSION

Our findings highlight the need to exclude confirmatory tests like the LIA test from the current diagnostic HIV algorithm and replace it with rapid HIV-1 and HIV-2 confirmatory immunochromotographic tests.

Neopterin and soluble CD14 levels as indicators of immune activation in cases with low anti-HCV reactivity and true HCV infection

Neopterin and soluble CD14 (sCD14) are detected at high levels in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. We aimed to evaluate the role of these plasma immune activation biomarkers, for the indirect assessment of immune activation status of patients with low anti-HCV reactivity and a HCV infection. Low anti-HCV reactivity group (LRG, n: 70), true positive HCV infection group (THG, 30) and healthy control group (HCG, 30) were analyzed in this study. We have used ELISA, HCV RIBA/LIA and HCV-RNA methods. Mean neopterin levels were significantly lower in LRG than THG (p <0.001). In contrast, those values were not significantly different from those of HCG (p >0.05). Mean sCD14 were significantly higher in LRG than THG and HCG (p <0.05, p <0.001). Values of 3.95 μg/ml and 5.36 nmol/l for sCD14 and neopterin resulted in the maximum area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC), which were 0.859 (95% CI, 0.745 to 0.935; <0.0001) and 0.788 (95% CI, 0.663 to 0.883; <0.0001), respectively. These cut-offs corresponded to a sensitivity of 73.3% and a specificity of 73.3% for neopterin and of 100% and 76.7% for sCD14. Our results suggest that a specific immunoactivation might be caused by true positive HCV infection. Due to the significant results sCD14 in LRG might be non-specifically affected by some underlying atypical immunohematological pathologies. Only neopterin might be used to exclude low anti-HCV reactivity from a true HCV infection. The use of neopterin but not sCD14 in combination with fourth-generation EIA/CMIA combo tests will be useful when nucleic acid tests are not available for screening blood donors at blood banks.

Neopterin and soluble CD14 (sCD14) levels as immunoactivation markers in aHBc-only cases

Aim: Isolated hepatitis B core antibodies (aHBc)-only pattern complicates the diagnosis of HBV infections. We evaluated neopterin and sCD14 levels in HBV infections. Methods: aHBc-only (n: 102), healthy control (healthy control group [HCG], n: 100), and chronic hepatitis (CHB) groups (n: 70) were investigated. Competitive and sandwich ELISA were used. Results: The mean neopterin levels were significantly lower in the aHBc-only group than those in the CHB group (p = 0.0001). No significant difference was found between the aHBc-only group and the HCG (p = 0.854). The mean sCD14 levels were lower in the aHBc-only group than those in the CHB group (p = 0.0001), but no significant difference was found between the aHBc-only group and HCG (p = 0.402). No significant difference was detected between aHBc-only and HCG for mean sCD14 (p = 0.402) and neopterin levels (p = 0.854). Conclusion: These two biomarkers are not useful for diagnosing the aHBc only pattern.

Neopterin and Soluble CD14 Levels as Indicators of Immune Activation in Cases with Indeterminate Pattern and True Positive HIV-1 Infection

Background

We aimed to evaluate the roles of the plasma immune activation biomarkers neopterin and soluble CD14 (sCD14) in the indirect assessment of the immune activation status of patients with the indeterminate HIV-1 (IHIV-1) pattern and a true HIV-1-positive infection (PCG).

Methods

This cross-sectional and descriptive study included eighty-eight patients with the IHIV-1 pattern, 100 patients in the PCG, and 100 people in a healthy control group (HCG). Neopterin and sCD14 levels were determined by competitive and sandwich ELISA methods, respectively.

Results

Mean neopterin and sCD14 levels among those with the IHIV-1 pattern were significantly lower than among the PCG (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively), but they were similiar to those in the HCG (p = 0.57 and p = 0.66, respectively. Mean neopterin and sCD14 levels among the PCG were found to be significantly higher than among those with the IHIV-1 pattern (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively) and among those in the HCG (p = 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). Neopterin did not have adequate predictive value for identifying those in the PCG (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.534; 95% CI, 0.463–0.605; p = 0.4256); sCD14 also had poor predictive value but high specificity (100%) for identifying those in the PCG (AUC = 0.627; 95% CI, 0.556–0.694; p = 0.0036).

Conclusions

While low levels of these two biomarkers were detected among those with the IHIV-1 pattern, they were found in high levels among those in the PCG. These two markers obviously cannot be used as a sceening test because they have low sensitivies. Taken together, we suggest that neopterin and sCD14 may be helpful because they both have high specificity (92%-100%) as indirect non-specific markers for predicting the immune activation status of individuals, whether or not they have true positive HIV-1.

Serum Neopterin and Procalcitonin Levels in Relationship with Pediatric Burn Wound Infections

Infection and septic complications in burn patients can be monitored by procalcitonin (PCT) and neopterin plasma values. The aim of the study was to investigate serum neopterin and PCT levels with WBC (white blood cell) and CRP (C-reactive protein) levels in patient group (PG) and healthy control group (HCG) and to investigate the relationship of these markers with burn wound infections (BWI). As the PG, 23 patients between 0-12 ages and up to 30% Total Body Surface Area (TBSA) burned and 15 HCG were included. PCT, neopterin, WBC, and CRP results on the first, the seventh, the fourteenth and the 21st day have been compared. During the follow-up period, 11 patients with BWI and 12 patients without BWI were classified as infected and non-infected patients, respectively. PCT and neopterin levels were detected higher in patients with BWI but no significant difference were present. Also, PCT and neopterin levels within the first 24 hours following the burn were detected higher in PG than HCG. CRP and WBC levels were detected high due to burn trauma. PCT and neopterin levels were increased in patients with BWI. PCT levels were increased during the pre-infectious period, while neopterin levels increased during the post-infectious period.

The role of adenovirus 36 as a risk factor in obesity: the first clinical study made in the fatty tissues of adults in Turkey

Obesity which developes due to multifactorial reasons, was associated recently with human Adenovirus-36 (Ad-36). The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Ad-36 antibodies in obese adults and also to investigate the DNA of Ad-36 in their adipose tissue. In this cross-sectional and case-control based study, 49 obese adults, with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m(2), and 49 non-obese adults, with BMI ≤ 25 kg/m(2), applied for esthetic purposes and were included in this study as patient and control groups, respectively. Adipose tissue samples, obtained by the lipoaspiration method, were studied by single-step PCR and nested-PCR methods. Simultaneously, the presence of Ad-36 antibodies and serum leptin and adiponectin levels were assessed by serum neutralization assay (SNA) and ELISA, respectively. Serum samples which didn't cause a cytopathic effect at ≥ 1:8 were accepted as positive. Ad-36 antibody was detected in 6 (12.2%) of 49 patients by SNA and was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Ad-36 DNA was not detected in any of the adipose tissue samples of the patient or control groups. Mean BMI and leptin levels were higher in the Ad-36-positive group, while adiponectin levels were found to be lower in the Ad-36-positive group. Although no statistically significant difference was found in cholesterol and triglyceride levels between the two groups (p > 0.05), lower mean serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels were found in the Ad-36-positive patients. In conclusion, we couldn't detect Ad-36 DNA in adipose tissue; however, we detected significantly higher Ad-36 antibody levels in the obese group compared to the non-obese group, according to the both univariant and multivariant analyses, suggesting that Ad-36 may play a role in obesity. There is a need for new and extended serial, particularly cohort and human-based, studies in order to have a clear understanding of the Ad-36-obesity relationship.