Acne scarring usually causes cosmetic and psychological problems. Our aim of the study was to compare the efficacy of microneedling alone, intradermal injection of platelet rich plasma (PRP) alone and combined microneedling with PRP in the treatment of atrophic post‐acne scars. Thirty adult patients with facial post‐acne scars were randomly recruited and divided into two groups: A and B. Group A: included 15 patients; the left sides of their faces were treated with microneedling by dermapen followed by PRP while on the right side of the faces microneedling alone was performed. Group B: included 15 patients; the left sides of their faces were treated with microneedling by dermapen followed by PRP while the right sides of the faces were treated with intradermal injection of PRP. For both groups, the treatment session was repeated every 3 weeks until clearance of the atrophic acne scars or for four sessions …

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of death and morbidity; it may be accompanied by oxidative stress and inflammation with or without underlying genetic etiology. Finding circulating biomarkers for COPD that can help early diagnosis and predict exacerbation and association with respiratory functions has been challenging. There were 40 healthy participants and 60 COPD patients in this research. The rs2070600 gene variant was examined by PCR-RFLP. Circulating sRAGE and annexin A1 levels were determined by ELISA. GSH and MDA were determined by

Immunotherapy represents a promising therapeutic option for treatment of warts. Different concentrations of Candida antigen (1/100 and 1/1000) and zinc sulfate 2% were not previously compared regarding their efficacy in treatment of cutaneous warts. The present study compared the safety and efficacy of intralesional candida antigen versus intralesional 2% zinc sulfate for treatment of cutaneous warts. This prospective controlled clinical trial included one hundred and five patients presented with common, plantar, and plane warts. Patients were divided randomly into three groups, each group included 35 patients. Group 1 were treated with intralesional candida antigen (Ag) 1/100, Group 2 were treated with intralesional candida Ag 1/1000, and Group 3 were treated with intralesional zinc sulfate 2%. This study found that target warts of group 1 displayed higher rate of complete clearance compared to group 2 and group 3 (94.3%, 77.1, 74.2%), respectively. The present study concluded that intralesional immunotherapy with Candida antigen was more effective than Intralesional 2% zinc sulfate in treatment of cutaneous warts and less painful. Clinical trial registration number is (Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT03158168).

Background and aim

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common bacterial infection in pregnancy and is associated with premature delivery and low birth-weight infants. We aimed to determine the virulence factors of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) strains isolated from pregnant women with or without clinical signs and symptoms of UTI and their association with antimicrobial resistance pattern.  

Methods

Isolation and detection of UPEC isolates, antimicrobial susceptibility followed by phenotypic detection of ESBL and biofilm production. Virulence and resistant genes were amplified by PCR.

Results

Urine samples collected from 432 pregnant women of which significant bacteriuria represented 155/432 (35.9%). Patients were divided into 4 groups: cystitis, pyelonephritis, asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) and insignificant bacteriuria. UPEC was the most frequent organism 58/155 (37.4 %). The highest resistance rates were against ceftazidime and lowest resistance was to fosfomycin. ESBL producing UPEC represented 24/58 (41.4%) of samples while biofilm formation was 32/58 (55.2%). Moreover, 54/58 (93.1%) of UPEC isolates were found to be MDR. However, 53.1% of positive biofilm isolates were ESBL positive, all biofilm-producing isolates were MDR. Generally, fimH, fyuA and iutA genes were the most frequently detected virulence genes. Pap G and afa genes were significantly higher among patients with pyelonephritis. Pap G, and IutA genes were more frequent in positive biofilm group.

Conclusion

Most of the isolates were MDR. Fosfomycin can be used precautionary in resistant cases. Biofilm producing isolates were more …

Healthcare providers (HCPs) in COVID-19 epidemic face stressful workload of disease management, shortage of protective equipment and high risk of infection and mortality. These stressors affect greatly their mental health. The aim is to identify working conditions among Egyptian HCPs during COVID-19 epidemic as well as stigma and worry perceptions from contracting COVID-19 infection and their predictors. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 565 HCPs. Data was collected through Google online self-administered questionnaire comprised seven parts: demographics characteristics, knowledge and attitude of COVID-19, working condition, worry of contracting COVID-19 at work, discrimination intention at work for COVID-19 patients, stigma assessment using impact stigma, and internalized shame scales. The vast majority of HCPs (94.7%) were worried from contracting COVID-19 at work. Risk factors for perceiving severe worry from contracting COVID-19 were expecting infection as a severe illness, believing that infection will not be successfully controlled, improbability to continue working during the pandemic even if in a well/fit health, high discrimination intention and impact stigma scales. Significantly high impact stigma scores were detected among those aged < 30 years, females, workers primarily in sites susceptible for contracting COVID-19 infection, those had severe worry from contracting infection at work, and high internalized shame scale. The risk factors for perceiving higher internalized shame scores were not having a previous experience in working during a pandemic, high discrimination intention towards COVID-19 …