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Objective: Kawasaki disease (KD) occurs in five-year-old or younger children. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin plus acetylsalicylic acid therapy on the prevention and treatment of coronary artery lesions and to evaluate the impact of high-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) on the hearing of the patients. Materials and methods: In this retrospective cohort study, 31 patients with KD were followed from January 2012 to December 2015. The clinical, para-clinical, color Doppler echocardiogram and audiometry results were evaluated. Results: Overall, seven cases (22.6%) developed coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) in the acute phase of the disease, of whom only two still had CAA at the end of the treatment (6%). One of the five children with CAA recovery had a delay in the onset of treatment and one of two patients with persistent CAA at the end of treatment was admitted within the first 10 days. There was no evidence-based abnormal liver biochemical test. None of the patients developed sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) on audiometry tests conducted before and after treatment. Conclusion: Recovery of coronary artery lesions was 71.43% after 28 days of the onset of treatment. The distribution of coronary artery aneurysm was not different in terms of the time of the treatment initiation (P-Value = 0.371). None of the children had a sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) 48 hours and 4 weeks after treatment.

The coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is initiated by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has imposed critical challenges to global health. Understanding the kinetic of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM and IgG responses in different subsets of COVID-19 patients is crucial to get insight into the humoral immune response elicited against the virus. We investigated IgM and IgG responses against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) and receptor-binding domain (RBD) of spike protein in two groups of recovered and deceased COVID-19 patients. The levels of IgM and IgG specific to N and RBD proteins were detected by ELISA. N- and RBD-specific IgM was higher in deceased patients in comparison with recovered patients, while there was no significant difference in N- and RBD-specific IgG between the two groups. A significant correlation was observed between IgG and IgM titers against RBD and N, in both groups of patients. These results argue against impaired antibody response in deceased COVID-19 patients.

Since the emergence of novel coronavirus and the disease named as COVID-19 in late December of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, many aspects of this disease have been reported in the literature (mainly pulmonary manifestations). In patients with COVID-19, rheumatic and cardiovascular manifestations and interactions were reported separately, but they were all very rare. This is the report of a 14-year-old teenager with GPA (previously known as Wegner's granulomatosis) who was in remission with immunosuppressive therapy. Post COVID-19 infection, she developed exacerbation of her disease. Besides the rheumatologic manifestations, she developed epigastric pain found to be acute myocardial infarction (MI) that needed primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Background and Aim: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute childhood febrile illness with world­wide incidence and the highest incidence occurs in Asian children, with coronary arteritis being the main complication. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) has also been described as a comp­lication of KD in several articles. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of SNHL in patients with KD treated with intra vein immunoglobellin (IVIG). Methods: In this cross sectional study, we eval­uated 56 patients who received KD treatment between 2011 and 2015 by auditory brainstem evoked response (ABR), pure tone audiometry (PTA), and tympanometry. Also, we evaluated the prevalence of coronary arteritis, the time of beginning IVIG treatment from the onset of fever, the prevalence of thrombocytosis, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in acute or subacute phases of their disease. Results: During audiological evaluation, we found SNHL in one (2.6%) of the 36 patients. Other findings in the acute and subacute phases of KD included: 8 patients (22%) had coronary aneurysm, 17 (47%) thrombocytosis, 25 (69%) had elevated ESR, and the treatment with IVIG within 10 days of fever was done in 19 patients (53%). Conclusion: SNHL is a complication of KD which could extend beyond the treatment time. In this study, the patient with SNHL was treated with KD two years before the study and in the acute phase of KD, he had thrombocytosis > 500,0000, ccoronary artery aneurysm, ESR > 40. The treatment with IVIG was done within the first 10 days of fever onset.

Background: Albinos in Africa are at constant risk of developing skin cancer due to the damage caused by ultra-violet exposure. This study identifies the common skin conditions among albinos in Kenya as a country located along the equator. Methods: In this descriptive study on albino patients who were admitted to Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya the census method was used for sampling and a total of 151 albinos were registered. All necessary data including age, gender, type, site and the number of skin lesions were recorded. Suspected patients with malignant and premalignant lesions were studied individually through skin biopsy and histopathological investigation. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Albinos with serious skin lesions were 121(80%) patients. Females were 64 (52.9%). The frequency of the following premalignant and malignant skin lesions including actinic-cheilitis, solar elastosis, actinic keratosis (AK), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were 17.88%, 11.92%, 37.08%, 7.94% and 5.29%, respectively. Hands (20.52%), face (19.20%), head (18.18%), shoulder (14.56%) and neck (7.94%) were the most affected areas by malignant and premalignant lesions. Conclusions: BCC was the most common type of cutaneous malignancy on the face and shoulders while AK was the most common cutaneous pre-malignancy on the hands and face in albinos in Kenya. Therefore, appropriate physical protection, avoiding any trauma when carrying sharp, heavy or rough instruments by the shoulder and hands, and finally urgent and quality treatment for any lesion even a small erosion and ulcer, especially on exposed areas in albinos, are recommended.

Introduction Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a hereditary inflammatory disorder caused by a mutation in MEFV, a gene which encodes a 781-amino acid protein called pyrin . The classic clinical picture consists of recurrent febrile episodes that are usually of an acute onset, variable frequency, sometimes without a recognized triggering factor, but often occurring with menstruation, emotional stress or strenuous physical activity . FMF is usually an autosomal recessive disorder. The disease affects populations of Mediterranean origin: Ashkenazi Jews, North African Jews, Armenians, Arabs, Italians, and Turks. The gene causing FMF was cloned in 1997 . The gene responsible for FMF (MEFV) is located on the short Abstract