Prevalence of occult hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus infections in Turkish hemodialysis patients

1st John H Dirks Chronic Renal Disease Prevention on Prevention Strategies for Chronic Kidney Disease in Latin America -- NOV 21-23, 2005 -- Vallarica, CHILEkarakan, tarkan/0000-0003-1561-8789; Mert, Ali/0000-0001-8945-2385WOS: 000242523200018PubMed: 17162434Background and Objective. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are important causes of morbidity and mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Although their exact prevalence is not known, HBV and HCV viral infections and occult viral hepatitis are frequent in these patients. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of occult HBV and HCV infections in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Materials and Methods. One hundred and eighty-eight end-stage renal disease patients on maintenance hemodialysis (100 male, mean age 49 29 [16-80] years, and mean duration of hemodialysis 98 66 [12-228] months) were enrolled in this study. Scrological markers for HBV and HCV were determined with immunoenzymatic assay (ELISA) by using commercial diagnostic kits (Access and BioRad, Beckman-Coulter). HCV-RNA (Cobas Amplicor HCV kit) and HBV-DNA (Artus GmbH HBV kit) were determined quantitatively by polymerase chain reaction. Results. Among the patients screened, 25 (13.3%) had HBV infection alone and 38 (20.2%) had HCV infection alone, while seven (3.7%) had dual infection of both viruses. Serological markers for occult hepatitis B and occult hepatitis C were positive in five (2.7%) and nine (4.8%) of the patients, respectively. Isolated anti-HBc was positive in 12 (6.4%) of all patients, three (7.9%) of the patients with anti-HCV and two (40%) of the patients with occult hepatitis B. Isolated anti-HBc positivity was more frequent in patients with occult hepatitis B than in those without (40% [2/5] vs. 5.5% [10/183], p=0.002). None of the patients with HCV had occult hepatitis B. Conclusions. Both occult and non-occult forms of HCV infection are more prevalent than HBV infection in hemodialysis patients. Especially the patients with isolated anti-HBc positivity should be tested for probable occult hepatitis B infection

Does sex influence the diagnostic evaluation of autism spectrum disorder in adults?

It is unknown whether sex influences the diagnostic evaluation of autism spectrum disorder, or whether male and female adults within the spectrum have different symptom profiles. This study reports sex differences in clinical outcomes for 1244 adults (935 males and 309 females) referred for autism spectrum disorder assessment. Significantly, more males (72%) than females (66%) were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder of any subtype (x2 = 4.09; p = 0.04). In high-functioning autism spectrum disorder adults (IQ > 70; N = 827), there were no significant sex differences in severity of socio-communicative domain symptoms. Males had significantly more repetitive behaviours/restricted interests than females (p = 0.001, d = 0.3). A multivariate analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction between autism spectrum disorder subtype (full-autism spectrum disorder/partial-autism spectrum disorder) and sex: in full-autism spectrum disorder, males had more severe socio-communicative symptoms than females; for partial-autism spectrum disorder, the reverse was true. There were no sex differences in prevalence of co-morbid psychopathologies. Sex influenced diagnostic evaluation in a clinical sample of adults with suspected autism spectrum disorder. The sexes may present with different manifestations of the autism spectrum disorder phenotype and differences vary by diagnostic subtype. Understanding and awareness of adult female repetitive behaviours/restricted interests warrant attention and sex-specific diagnostic assessment tools may need to be considered