Lowered Serum Triglyceride Levels among Chronic Hepatitis B-Infected Patients in Ghana

Dyslipidemia is a common finding in most studies of liver diseases. Little is however known about the effect of the two pathological stages of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection – chronicsymptomatic and asymptomatic – on the distribution of serum lipids in CHB infection. We conducted a study on CHB-infected patients attending specialist care at the Gastro-Intestinal (GI) Clinic at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) during a 7-month period. 64 participants were randomly sampled over the period. On the basis of serological and liver enzyme assays, participants were categorised as chronic asymptomatic, chronic symptomatic and healthy individuals. The relationship between the hosts pathological stage of infection were evaluated with the indices of lipid metabolism – LDL, HDL, triglyceride, and total serum cholesterol using ANOVA. The 64 volunteers recruited in the study were found to consist of 18 patients (28.1%) who were chronic symptomatic, 35 patients (54.7%) who were chronic asymptomatic hepatitis B, and 11 (17.2%) were healthy subjects. Significant overall male dominance was observed among all categories of population enrolled (p=0.0063). Serum triglyceride levels decreased more among the CHB-infected population compared to the healthy individuals (p=0.0010) with value lowest among the chronic symptomatic population. Basal serum cholesterol, HDL, and LDL were unaffected by the disease. This work reveals that serum triglyceride is significantly lowered in CHB infection and that the extent of this decrease in host is independent of the pathological stage of the infection.Keywords: chronic hepatitis B, lipid metabolism, triglyceride, chronic symptomati

Elevated rates of horizontal gene transfer in the industrialized human microbiome

Industrialization has impacted the human gut ecosystem, resulting in altered microbiome composition and diversity. Whether bacterial genomes may also adapt to the industrialization of their host populations remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the extent to which the rates and targets of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) vary across thousands of bacterial strains from 15 human populations spanning a range of industrialization. We show that HGTs have accumulated in the microbiome over recent host generations and that HGT occurs at high frequency within individuals. Comparison across human populations reveals that industrialized lifestyles are associated with higher HGT rates and that the functions of HGTs are related to the level of host industrialization. Our results suggest that gut bacteria continuously acquire new functionality based on host lifestyle and that high rates of HGT may be a recent development in human history linked to industrialization.Peer reviewe

Synchronous rhabdomyosarcoma of the testis and kidney: A case report and review of the literature

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the commonest soft tissue sarcoma in both children and adolescents representing 40% of such tumours in North America and more than 50% in Africa. The involvement of the paratesticular tissue, testis and the kidney are generally rare and more so when it is occurring synchronously. We present a case of 22 year old male with inguinoscrotal swelling, fever and abdominal distention who was diagnosed as having obstructed left inguinoscrotal hernia and a right renal mass. The patient had surgery, and a diagnosis of synchronous rhabdomyosarcoma of the left testis, paratesticular tissue and right kidney was made by histology and immunohistochemistry