Syphilis in patients of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at Medical University of Warsaw in 2015 – epidemiological and clinical characteristics, and coexistence of other sexually transmitted diseases

Introduction . Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can be asymptomatic or associated with various symptoms including systemic manifestations. A total of 1,253 cases of syphilis were registered in Poland in 2015. Syphilis frequently coexists with HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases. Objective . Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the population of patients treated for syphilis in the Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Medical University of Warsaw, and to evaluate the coexistence of other sexually transmitted diseases with special reference to HIV infection. Material and methods . The retrospective study involved an analysis of information included in medical files of 411 consecutive patients treated for syphilis in the Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Medical University of Warsaw, in 2015. Results . As many as 92% of the analyzed patients treated for syphilis were males, and 72.5% were men who have sex with men. Eighty-one percent of the subjects were between 21 and 40 years of age. Out of 325 patients with known HIV test results, 26.5% were HIV-positive. Evaluation of coexistence of other sexually transmitted diseases was difficult because of incomplete data, however gonorrhoea (7.8%) and hepatitis C virus infection (2.7%) were diagnosed more often in the studied group of patients with syphilis than in the general population. Hepatitis C virus infection was found in 6% of individuals co-infected with syphilis and HIV. Conclusion . The results confirm the need to screen patients with syphilis for HIV infection, and HIV-positive patients for syphilis

The association between 38 previously reported polymorphisms and psoriasis in a Polish population: High predicative accuracy of a genetic risk score combining 16 loci.

To confirm the association of previously discovered psoriasis (Ps) risk loci with the disease in a Polish population and to create predictive models based on the combination of these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).Thirty-eight SNPs were genotyped in 480 Ps patients and 490 controls. Alleles distributions were compared between patients and controls, as well as between different Ps sub-phenotypes. The genetic risk score (GRS) was calculated to assess the cumulative risk conferred by multiple loci.We confirmed associations of several loci with Ps: HLA-C, REL, IL12B, TRIM39/RPP21, POU5F1, MICA. The analysis of ROC curves showed that GRS combining 16 SNPs at least nominally (uncorrected P0.05). In order to assess the total risk conferred by GRS-N, we calculated ORs according to GRS-N quartile - the Ps OR for top vs. bottom GRS-N quartiles was 12.29 (P<1 x 10-6). The analysis of different Ps sub-phenotypes showed an association of GRS-N with age of onset and family history of Ps.We confirmed the association of Ps with several previously identified genetic risk factors in a Polish population. We found that a GRS combining 16 SNPs at least nominally associated with Ps had a significantly better discriminatory ability than HLA-C or GRS combining SNPs associated with Ps after the Bonferroni correction. In contrast, adding additional SNPs to GRS did not increase significantly the discriminative power

SNPs associations with psoriasis.

<p>SNPs associations with psoriasis.</p

Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients.

<p>Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients.</p

Association of GRS-N with psoriasis sub-phenotypes.

<p>Association of GRS-N with psoriasis sub-phenotypes.</p

Comparison of ROC curves for prediction of psoriasis with the use of different genetic risk scores (GRS).

<p>GRS-ALL- GRS combining all 38 SNPs; GRS-0.1- GRS combining 19 SNPs associated/with a trend toward association with psoriasis; GRS-N- GRS combining 16 SNPs at least nominally associated with psoriasis in our cohort; GRS-B- GRS combining 6 SNPs which remained significantly associated with psoriasis after Bonferroni correction; GRS-HLA- GRS including only rs4406273 (a proxy for <i>HLA-Cw*</i>060). AUC- area under the curve.</p

The risk of psoriasis in GRS-N quartiles relative to the first quartile.

<p>The risk of psoriasis in GRS-N quartiles relative to the first quartile.</p

Comparison of ROC curves for prediction of psoriasis with the use of different genetic risk scores: GRS-N, GRS-HLA and GRS-N(+)HLA(-).

<p>GRS-N- GRS combining 16 SNPs at least nominally associated with psoriasis; GRS-HLA- GRS including only rs4406273 (a proxy for <i>HLA-Cw*0602</i>); GRS-N(+)HLA(-) (GRS-N without rs4406273). AUC- area under the curve.</p