The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale最新文献

{"title":"Contribution of Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate to Predict Disease Severity and Outcome in COVID-19 Patients.","authors":"Celali Kurt,&nbsp;Arzu Altunçeki Ç Yildirim","doi":"10.1155/2022/6510952","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/6510952","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>The use of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to determine disease severity and prognosis is limited. This study aimed to interrogate the diagnostic and prognostic role of ESR compared to other acute-phase reactants.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This retrospective cross-sectional study included 493 confirmed and hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients. Pneumonia, radiological severity, oxygen, intensive care requirements, mortality, ESR, and other acute-phase reactant values were recorded. Logistic regression and ROC analysis identified the effect of ESR on mortality and the sensitivity and specificity of the optimal cutoff values of ESR for the prediction of pneumonia, intensive care needs, and mortality and compared these with values for CRP.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of patients, 346 (70.2%) had pneumonia, 98 (19.9%) required intensive care, 183 (37.1%) required oxygen support, and 62 (12.6%) died. ESR data were obtained for 278 patients. Among patients, 80.2% had ESR above 20 mm/h, with a median value of 53 (interquartile range: 49). ESR was higher among those with pneumonia (<i>p</i> < 0.001), requiring oxygen (<i>p</i> < 0.001), and requiring intensive care (<i>p</i>=0.003) compared to those without these, and in exitus patients (<i>p</i>=0.043) compared to survivors. Logistic regression analysis identified that ESR did not impact mortality. ROC analysis found the AUC, cutoff, sensitivity, and specificity results of ESR for pneumonia were 0.827, 37 mm/h, 77%, and 78%; for intensive care were 0.625, 50 mm/h, 74%, and 52; and for mortality were 0.606, 51 mm/h, 71%, and 49%, respectively. However, ROC analysis values for CRP were superior to ESR for all these categories.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>ESR increased in COVID-19 patients in the presence of pneumonia and severe disease; however, it was not prognostic. Sensitivity and specificity values for pneumonia, intensive care requirements, and mortality were lower than those for CRP.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"6510952"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9388309/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40433154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prevalence of <i>Treponema Pallidum</i> Antibody among Volunteer Blood Donors in China.","authors":"Xiaofan Zheng,&nbsp;Wei Ding,&nbsp;Xia Ling,&nbsp;Jie Shi,&nbsp;Jie Dong,&nbsp;Guangshu Yu,&nbsp;Yan Chen,&nbsp;Rui Li,&nbsp;Lihong Xu,&nbsp;Xiaotao Li,&nbsp;Hong Zhu,&nbsp;Faming Zhu,&nbsp;Wei Hu","doi":"10.1155/2022/1668703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1668703","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Infection with syphilis is still a major public health problem. The precise data for syphilis seroprevalence in the populations will help to develop a strategy for prevention and treatment of it. However, the data for syphilis prevalence in continuous years among volunteer blood donors in China is rare.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A retrospective study for <i>Treponema pallidum</i> (TP) antibody in blood donors was conducted from January 2010 to December 2019 at the Blood Center of Zhejiang Province, China. TP antibody was detected with two different reagents using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the only sample which was reactive in the two reagents was defined as seropositive.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 992,646 volunteer blood donors were analyzed and the positive rate of TP antibody in the blood donors was 0.43%. From 2010 to 2019, the positive rates of TP antibody were 0.53%, 0.51%, 0.51%, 0.43%, 0.36%, 0.18%, 0.11%, 0.12%, 0.11%, and 0.10%, respectively. The positive rates of TP antibody were significantly different among blood donor age group (<i>p</i> < 0.001), with the highest positive rate in 45-54-years-old group (0.93%). The positive rates of TP antibody in male and female blood donors were 0.44% and 0.41%, respectively. The positive rate was 0.57% among the first-time blood donors, which was significantly higher than that of the repeat blood donors (0.17%). The positive rate of TP antibody in blood donors decreased gradually with the increase of educational level.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The syphilis seroprevalence is low in the blood donors of the Hangzhou area, and the positive rate of blood donors is associated with age, educational level, and times of blood donation. Increasing the number of repeat blood donations is helpful to improve blood safety.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"1668703"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9378002/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40636088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Immunological Nonresponders in Wuhan, China.","authors":"Enze Lei,&nbsp;Shuna Jin,&nbsp;Wei Ni,&nbsp;Manlin Feng,&nbsp;Yanhe Luo,&nbsp;Lianguo Ruan,&nbsp;Mingzhong Xiao,&nbsp;Jianzhong Liu","doi":"10.1155/2022/5638396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/5638396","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>CD4⁺ cell recovery is hampered in some human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients, despite a successful highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with suppressed viral replication. We investigated the factors that might have hindered the CD4⁺ cell recovery in these patients.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this retrospective study, we collected the data of all immune nonresponders (INRs) in Wuhan, China, until the end of 2020. A linear model was constructed based on the data from 220 patients with baseline and follow-up records. The response variables in this study were the CD4⁺ cell count increase. The predictor variables considered in this study were those factors likely to affect the CD4⁺ cell recovery.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our findings revealed that the plasma HIV-1 viral load of all patients was suppressed and 87.3% patients' CD4⁺ cells was increased after more than one year of the HAART treatment. In addition, their last follow-up showed a significant reduction in complications. In our results, the body mass index (BMI), number of months since HIV diagnosis to HAART start, and nonuse of co-trimoxazole were negatively correlated with the increase in CD4⁺ cells (<i>P</i> < 0.05). However, there were positive associations between serum creatinine levels and CD4⁺ cell recovery (<i>P</i> < 0.05). Further stratified analyses indicated that the associations between HAART replacement or creatinine usage and CD4⁺ cell growth were only observed in those participants with a BMI <18.5 (<i>P</i> < 0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>An early initiation of HAART and co-trimoxazole preventive therapy (CPT) can promote immune reconstitution. BMI and serum creatinine can serve as monitoring indicators of immune reconstitution prognosis after the HAART.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"5638396"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9377976/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40636087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elevated Salivary Inflammatory Biomarkers are Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Severity.","authors":"Hanadi Abdullah Alwafi,&nbsp;Soad Shaker Ali,&nbsp;Sunil Babu Kotha,&nbsp;Layla Waleed Abuljadayel,&nbsp;Maha Ibrahim,&nbsp;Ibrahim Rashad Noor Elahi,&nbsp;Hebah Abdullah Alwafi,&nbsp;Mohammed S Almuhayawi,&nbsp;Matthew D Finkelman,&nbsp;Nagla A El-Shitany","doi":"10.1155/2022/1543918","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1543918","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>High levels of inflammatory cytokines in serum have been reported in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is growing interest in recognizing the role of inflammatory biomarkers in saliva in diagnosing systemic diseases. This study assumed that estimating biomarkers in saliva samples from patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 would distinguish between mild and severe cases. Saliva was collected from 142 controls and 158 SARS-CoV-2 patients (mild 72 and severe 86) to measure interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), and C-X-C motif chemokine ligand-10 (CXCL-10). IL-6 and CXCL-10 were significantly increased in patients with mild and severe SARS-CoV-2 infections. CRP was significantly increased only in severe SARS-CoV-2 cases. All biomarkers were significantly higher in severe cases than in mild cases (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Among patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, men showed significantly higher CRP and CXCL-10 levels than females (<i>p</i> < 0.01 and 0.05, respectively). In addition, elderly patients (40-80 years) had significantly higher IL-6, CRP, and CXCL-10 (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Patients with diabetes and hypertension showed elevated IL-6, CRP, and CXCL-10 (<i>p</i> < 0.001). There was a significant positive correlation between IL-6, CRP, CXCL-10, and between age, IL-6, CRP, and CXCL-10. Saliva may have a future value in measuring the inflammatory biomarkers associated with the severity of SARS-CoV2 infection and therapeutic monitoring.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"1543918"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9363936/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40611351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Predicting the Spatial-Temporal Distribution of Human Brucellosis in Europe Based on Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Network.","authors":"Li Shen,&nbsp;Chenghao Jiang,&nbsp;Minghao Sun,&nbsp;Xuan Qiu,&nbsp;Jiaqi Qian,&nbsp;Shuxuan Song,&nbsp;Qingwu Hu,&nbsp;Heilili Yelixiati,&nbsp;Kun Liu","doi":"10.1155/2022/7658880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7658880","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Brucellosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by brucellae or other bacteria directly invading human body. Brucellosis presents the aggregation characteristics and periodic law of infectious diseases in temporal and spatial distribution. Taking major European countries as an example, this study established the temporal and spatial distribution sequence of brucellosis, analyzed the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of brucellosis, and quantitatively predicted its epidemic law by using different traditional or machine learning models. This paper indicates that the epidemic of brucellosis in major European countries has statistical periodic characteristics, and in the same cycle, brucellosis has the characteristics of piecewise trend. Through the comparison of the prediction results of the three models, it is found that the prediction effect of long short-term memory and convolutional long short-term memory models is better than autoregressive integrated moving average model. The first mock exam using Conv layer and data vectorizations predicted that the convolutional long short-term memory model outperformed the traditional long short-term memory model. Compared with the monthly scale, the prediction of the trend stage of brucellosis can achieve better results under the single model prediction. These findings will help understand the development trend and liquidity characteristics of brucellosis, provide corresponding scientific basis and decision support for potential risk assessment and brucellosis epidemic prevention and control, and reduce the loss of life and property.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"7658880"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9365592/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40611350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Baricitinib for the Management of SARS-CoV-2-Infected Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials.","authors":"Sivananthan Manoharan,&nbsp;Lee Ying Ying","doi":"10.1155/2022/8332819","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8332819","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Baricitinib is known to reduce mortality and disease progression in COVID-19 patients; however, the data are inconsistent. Therefore, it needs to be explored to further understand the clinical benefits of this drug in the management of COVID-19 patients. Does baricitinib statistically significantly reduce mortality and disease progression in COVID-19 patients? To answer these questions, three databases known as ScienceDirect, PubMed/MEDLINE, and Scopus and other sources, such as preprint (medRxiv) and reference lists, were thoroughly searched. Four randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Based on the meta-analysis, baricitinib statistically significantly reduced mortality with the risk ratio (RR) of RR = 0.74 [95% CI: 0.58 to 0.94; <i>p</i> = 0.01] and moderately high heterogeneity, where <i>I</i> ² = 62% and <i>p</i> = 0.05. On the other hand, RR = 0.84 [95% CI: 0.75 to 0.95; <i>p</i> = 0.005] with insignificant heterogeneity of <i>I</i> ² = 20% and <i>p</i> = 0.28 was found for disease progression. Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) analysis revealed that three out of four articles were ranked as high-quality articles with low RoB. Based on the evidence grading, the overall certainty of evidences was moderate. In conclusion, baricitinib statistically significantly reduced mortality and disease progression in COVID-19 patients when the patients were treated with baricitinib at a dosage of 2 mg or 4 mg for a maximum duration of 14 days.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"8332819"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9346539/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40689141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Relation between Immunological Features and the Positive SARS-CoV-2 Nucleic Acid in Patients with Nonsevere COVID⁃19.","authors":"Dong Zhang,&nbsp;Xueren Li,&nbsp;Haibai Sun,&nbsp;Lixia Shi,&nbsp;Shouchun Peng","doi":"10.1155/2022/4270096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4270096","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The novel coronavirus nucleic acid results are the core indicators of illness monitoring. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between immunological features and positive SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid by analyzing the clinical and immunological features in nonsevere COVID-19 cases.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Data from nonsevere COVID-19 patients admitted to Haihe Hospital from May 2020 to June 2021 were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>(1) A total of 122 cases were reviewed in the present study, including 38 mild and 84 moderate cases. The average age of mild cases was significantly different from moderate cases (<i>P</i> < 0.001). Eight patients complained of hyposmia and it was more frequent in mild cases (<i>P</i> < 0.001). The nucleic acid positive duration (NPD) of nonsevere novel coronavirus was 20.49 (confidence interval (CI) 17.50-3.49) days. (2) The levels of specific IgM and IgG for COVID-19 were higher in mild cases than in moderate cases (<i>P</i>=0.023 and <i>P</i>=0.047, respectively). (3) The correlation analysis with antibodies and T-cell subtypes showed that the lymphocyte (LYM) count, T cells, CD4⁺T cells, and CD8⁺T cells had a linear correlation with NPD. (4) Among the 93 patients monitored, 62 COVID-19 cases presented a progressive rise of specific IgM and IgG. The daily increase rates of IgM and IgG were 38.42% (CI 28.22-48.61%) and 24.90% (CI 0.23-29.58%), respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The levels and daily increase rates of specific IgM and IgG against the virus can vary between cases. The NPD presented a linear correlation with the LYM, T cells, CD4⁺T cells, and CD8+T cells. Hence, more attention should be paid to these indicators in clinical practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"4270096"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9338729/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40662779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stroke in Patients with Schistosomiasis: Review of Cases in Literature.","authors":"Valeria Silvestri,&nbsp;Vivian Mushi,&nbsp;Billy Ngasala,&nbsp;Jacqueline Kihwele,&nbsp;Deodatus Sabas,&nbsp;Lorenzo Rocchi","doi":"10.1155/2022/3902570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3902570","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Cerebral vascular comorbidities may occur in patients with schistosomiasis, as described in case reports. <i>Aim and Methods.</i> We have summarized general clinical and neurological features in patients with stroke associated with schistosomiasis, through a review of case reports in the literature. <i>Investigation Outcomes.</i> A total of eight case reports were retrieved. The mean age of patients was 36.42 ± 16.7 (19 to 56 years), four females, three males, and one anonymous sex. Eosinophilia was the most frequent feature at presentation, followed by cardiac abnormalities, confusion, fever, ataxia, hemiplegia, headache, urticaria, dysphasia, and memory impairment. Patients usually present with watershed infarction or intracranial vasculitis. In one case, extracranial carotid arteries presented with inflammation and stenosis. The patient's serology was positive on admission in five cases. Full neurological recovery was reported in three cases, and partial improvement in another three. In two cases, information on neurological outcomes was incomplete. Stroke in schistosomiasis can be caused by haemodynamic impairment, direct lesion to the arterial wall, vasa vasorum obliterative endarteritis, contiguity with a focus of inflamed tissue, or inflammatory intimal damage. Schistosomiasis needs to be included in the differential diagnosis of stroke in people living or coming back from endemic areas.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Further studies addressing the noncommunicable comorbidity issues related to this condition are needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"3902570"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343201/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40667727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Investigation of HBV Pre-S/S Gene Mutations in Occult HBV Infected Blood Donors with anti-HBs Positive.","authors":"Yan Guo,&nbsp;Yu Lan,&nbsp;Yuanyuan Jing,&nbsp;Bin Cai,&nbsp;Hanshi Gong,&nbsp;Yixin Zhang,&nbsp;Yong Duan","doi":"10.1155/2022/1874435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1874435","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The coexistence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis B surface antibodies (anti-HBs) in occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) is a contradictory phenomenon, and the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. The characteristics of pre-S/S mutations in OBI genotypes B and C (OBI_B and OBI_C) in the presence or absence of anti-HBs were analyzed extensively in this study. <i>Methodology</i>. The amino acid substitutions of envelope proteins of 21 OBI strains, including 4 HBs (+) OBI_B, 6 HBs (-) OBI_B, 6 HBs (+) OBIc, and 5 HBs (-) OBI_C samples, were analyzed and fully compared among groups of HBV genotypes and the presence of anti-HBs.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The mutation rates in pre-S1, pre-S2, and S proteins of OBI_C were significantly higher than wild-type HBV (wt-HBV) genotype C strains, but only the mutation rate of S protein in OBI_B was significantly higher compared to wild-type HBV genotype B. The mutation rates in S protein of anti-HBs (-) OBI were higher than anti-HBs(+) OBI samples (4.40% vs. 2.43% in genotype B, <i>P</i> > 0.05; 6.81% vs. 3.47% in genotype C, <i>P</i> < 0.05). For these high-frequency substitutions in the pre-S/S region, the mutations sN40S and sK122R were found in 27.3% and 45.5% of anti-HBs (-) OBI strains, respectively. 7 substitutions were uniquely found in OBI_C strains and 9 substitutions were commonly detected in OBI_B and OBI_C strains.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results suggested that the mutations might occur randomly and were not selected by antibody pressure.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"1874435"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325327/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40666071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biomarkers of Inflammation among Patients with COVID-19: A Single-Centre Prospective Study from Prishtina, Kosovo.","authors":"Hatixhe Latifi-Pupovci,&nbsp;Sadie Namani,&nbsp;Blerina Ahmetaj-Shala,&nbsp;Artina Pajaziti,&nbsp;Gramoz Bunjaku,&nbsp;Lindita Ajazaj Berisha,&nbsp;Valentin Gegaj,&nbsp;Afrim Kotori","doi":"10.1155/2022/4461647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4461647","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>SARS-CoV-2 infection involves the phase of viral replication and inflammatory response predicting the severity of COVID-19. The aim of the study was to analyze the association between IL-6 and hematological and inflammatory parameters and outcomes of patients with COVID-19. Plasma interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels and other inflammatory and hematological parameters were analyzed in 86 adult patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Kosovo. The median age of patients was 61.50 (49.75-67.25) years. Over half of patients were categorised as severe (58%) and had comorbidities (69%) with hypertension being the most common. The overall mortality rate was 4.7%. The distribution of biochemical parameters across disease severity groups was significantly different for C-reactive protein (CRP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), white blood cells (WBC), and granulocytes with higher median values in more severe and critically ill patients whereas lower percentage of lymphocytes, monocytes, and platelet count in severe and critically ill patients. IL-6 levels were increased in 63% of patients with significant differences in the distribution across the following groups; age, disease severity, hospitalisation status, pulmonary infiltrates, oxygen therapy, and hypertension status. IL-6 significantly correlated with CRP, LDH, CK, ESR, and percentages of granulocytes. IL-6 and other inflammatory and hematological parameters were strongly associated with disease severity and may predict the outcome of the SARS-CoV-2 infection.</p>","PeriodicalId":520793,"journal":{"name":"The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale","volume":" ","pages":"4461647"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9298187/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40549335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}