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On 2 March 2020, Tunisia has reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19. Since then, the disease has affected about 700 persons in the country. The purpose of our study was to report epidemiological, clinical, radiological and therapeutic features of patients with 2019-nCoV infection admitted in the pneumology department.We extracted the data of the consequetive 20 patients managed in the department of pneumology B at Abderrahmen Mami hospital, from March, 26 to April, 8, 2020.The median age was 61 years old [41-85]. There were 9 men and 11 women. Underlying disorders were observed in 16 patients (80%). Five patients were health care workers. Three patients did not have any known exposure. Common symptoms included fever (100%), shortness of breath (70%) and cough (70%). Computed tomography scans showed bilateral ground glass opacities in 7/9 cases. Fifteen patients received both chloroquine and azithromycin. Fourteen patients (70%) were discharged before April, 8, 2020. Reported complications were: hypokalemia (3 cases), pulmonary embolism (2 cases) and QT prolongation (1 case). One patient died from acute cardiac injury.Knowing the different aspects of moderate and severe forms of the disease can contribute to advance in infection control strategies.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A state of low-grade inflammation accompanies the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic events. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleotropic pro-inflammatory cytokine that modulates the development of acute coronary syndromes (ACSs), partly by destabilizing coronary atherosclerotic plaques. We have examined the contribution of the -174G>C IL-6 promoter variant on the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) among Tunisians. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Study subjects included 418 CAD patients and 406 age- and sex-matched controls. IL-6 genotyping was done by PCR–restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS The frequency of the -174C allele (mutant) was lower in Tunisians than in Europeans, and the distribution of -174 G>C genotypes was similar between CAD patients and control subjects. Moreover, compared to GG genotype carriers, -174C allele carriage did not increase the CAD relative risk (odds ratio and 95% confidence interval=1.09 and 0.80-1.49), which remained nonsignificant after adjusting for traditional risk factors for CAD (age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes and obesity). CONCLUSION The -174G>C IL-6 promoter variant is not associated with an increased risk of CAD among Tunisians.

The contribution of human platelet antigen (HPA)-1 (GPIIb/IIIa), HPA-2 (GPIb/IX), and HPA-3 (GPIIb/IIIa) polymorphisms to the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) was investigated in 341 CAD patients and 316 matched control subjects. HPA genotyping was performed by PCR-SSP. Regression analysis was employed in assessing the contribution of these variants to CAD risk. The frequency of HPA-1b (P = .009) and HPA-3b (P = .004) alleles, and HPA-1a/1b (P = .045), HPA-1b/1b (P = .007), and HPA-3b/3b (P = .008) genotypes were higher in patients than control subjects. No significant association was demonstrated between the HPA variants and 1-, 2- and 3-vessel disease. HPA-1b/2a/3b (Pc = .021) and HPA-1b/2b/3a (Pc = .002) haplotypes were positively associated with CAD, thereby conferring a disease susceptibility nature to these haplotypes. Multivariate analysis confirmed the positive association of HPA-1b/2a/3b (aOR = 3.72; 95% CI = 1.49-9.28), and in addition identified HPA-1b/2a/3a (aOR = 2.49; 95% CI = 1.06-5.86) to be positively associated with CAD, after adjusting for a number of covariates. Our results demonstrate positive association of HPA variants and specific HPA-1/HPA-2/HPA-3 haplotypes with CAD in Tunisians.

Introduction: Multimodality imaging can help rule in/out the diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in patients with significant left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy. Case Presentation: We describe a 73-year-old woman referred to us for consultation because of a giant negative T wave on her electrocardiography. Echocardiography revealed diffuse severe hypertrophy associated with hypertrophied anterolateral papillary muscles with a bifid head and with extensive wall insertion into the apicolateral segment. Three-dimensional echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance confirmed these data. Importantly, automated function imaging determined the global longitudinal strain at -10.2%. Conclusions: According to our multimodality imaging approach, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was the most probable diagnosis.