Spontaneous recovery of pancytopenia in an immunosuppres- sed patient infected with Parvovirus B19

Parvovirus B19 infection can be associated with a wide spec-trum of clinical manifestations that mainly depends on the clinical background of the patient. Infection causes severe aplastic effects on bone marrow in immunosuppressive patients. Our patient was using Azathioprine for Crohn Disease when she admitted with malaise and fatigue laboratory tests revealed pancytopenia due to Parvovirus B19 infection . But contrary to expectations patients pancytopenia improved spontaneously without any treatment. Although intravenous immuno-globulin treatment is a safe approach waiting spontaneous recovery of bone marrow may be risky but another option.

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome in a patient with tuberculous peritonitis

Tuberculous peritonitis is an uncommon type of extrapulmonary tuberculosis and can be present in different and rare conditions. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder due to thiamine deficiency which is caused by poor nutrition for any reason. The relationship between tuberculous peritonitis and the Wernicke-Korsakoff has not been declared yet. Therefore, we aim to report a case of tuberculous peritonitis which presented with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

Evaluation of pentraxin-3 in familial Mediterranean fever patients during attack and attack-free periods

INTRODUCTION

Pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) is a prototype of pentraxin proteins that have been shown to be involved in acute phase response. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between PTX-3 levels and familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) disease, and to evaluate PTX-3 as a novel diagnostic marker of FMF.

METHOD

Forty-three male patients diagnosed with FMF and 42 healthy individuals were included in the study. Patients with other inflammatory diseases and patients who used drugs having anti-inflammatory properties were excluded from the research. Blood samples were obtained during both attack and attack-free periods.

RESULTS

Patient attack periods were confirmed by combining physical examination and elevation of acute phase reactants. Acute phase reactants were significantly higher in attack versus attack-free periods (p < 0.01), however PTX-3 levels were not significantly different between the two periods. Additionally, PTX-3 levels in FMF patients were higher than in controls in both attack (917.29 ± 725.29 vs 451.83 ± 291.95, p < 0.01) and attack-free periods (748.23 ± 487.53 vs 451.83 ± 291.95, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

In this study, we showed that PTX-3 levels, in both FMF attack and attack-free periods, were significantly higher than in the control group. Finally, PTX-3 may be a promising biomarker for FMF diagnosis and may predict FMF attacks (Tab. 2, Fig. 2, Ref. 18).