Aspergillus Iris Granuloma: A Case Report with Review of Literature

We report the case of a 25-year-old male patient who presented with complaints of redness, photophobia, and decreased vision in the right eye of a week's duration. Slit-lamp biomicroscopic examination revealed a cream-colored, irregular elevated inferior iris mass, extending on to the anterior lens surface. Differential diagnoses of a fungal granuloma, a medulloepithelioma, and an amelanotic melanoma were considered. An excisional biopsy of the mass was performed through a superior clear corneal incision. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of the aqueous humor showed a positive pan fungal genome. Histopathology of the biopsied mass showed a giant cell granuloma with surrounding numerous branching, septate hyphae. Culture growth revealed Aspergillus fumigatus We report this case because of the rarity of Aspergillus iris granuloma as a primary presentation of endogenous Aspergillosis and review the relevant literature. Absence of a significant systemic history compounded the diagnostic dilemma in our patient. Definitive differentiation of this rare entity from a foreign body, amelanotic melanoma, and other inflammatory conditions such as sarcoidosis and tuberculosis, may be possible only on microbiological and histo-pathological evaluation.     

Clinical features of patients with mild systemic lupus erythematosus.

Clinical features of 16 patients with mild systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were compared with those of 21 control patients with moderate or severe disease. Age at the time of diagnosis of SLE was higher in mild disease group. The incidence of the coexistence of Sj?gren's syndrome (SS) at the time of diagnosis of SLE was higher in patients who later developed mild disease. Anti-Sm antibody and decreased levels of C3, C4, and CH50 occurred less frequently in patients with mild disease. SLE patients with the coexistence of SS at the time of diagnosis of SLE may represent a subset with a benign prognosis.     

Electroconvulsive therapy and subdural hemorrhage

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was used to treat severe depressive illness in two patients, one of whom had undergone recent neurosurgery for subdural hemorrhage (SDH) and another with a concurrent SDH in the absence of raised intracranial pressure. Although the second patient died 1 month after the completion of ECT, in neither case did ECT extend the SDH or lead to other intracranial complications. It would seem that ECT can be performed safely in the presence of SDH without mass effect or after surgical drainage of SDH, although clinicians should proceed cautiously in close collaboration with neurosurgical colleagues, review neuroimaging scans at regular intervals during and after the course of ECT, and use the dose-titration method of treatment with unilateral electrode placement away from the site of the lesion or surgery to minimize adverse effects.     

Meningoencephalitis associated with COVID-19: a systematic review

Journal of NeuroVirology - With the growing number of COVID-19 cases in recent times. significant set of patients with extra pulmonary symptoms has been reported worldwide. Here we venture out to...     

Pernicious anemia in a young Bahraini female

Pernicious anemia (PA) is an autoimmune disorder associated with atrophic gastritis, presence of antibodies to gastric parietal cells and intrinsic factor (IF) and vitamin B2 malabsorption leading to megaloblastic anemia. It has a comparatively higher prevalence in people of North European origin, is uncommon in Arabs and usually affects the elderly. This report, the first from Bahrain, describes a rare case of PA in young female. The presenting symptoms, clinical and laboratory features were similar to those described in classical elderly Caucasian patients. No association with any other autoimmune disease was detected.     

Semen separation technique monitored with greater accuracy by B-body test.

A fluorescent staining technique, the B-body test, is utilized to ascertain the proportion of male and female spermatozoa in separated semen. This test is also used to monitor progress of Thermal Convection Counterstreaming Sedimentation and Forced Convection Galvanization processes for separating heavier electropositive (female) and lighter electronegative (male) spermatozoa into the two constituent fractions. Biological field tests using separated semen with 1,115 cows resulted in 510 progeny showing close correlation in the percentage of male versus female and B-body positive in the male spermatozoa fractions, while a control group with nonseparated semen, usually 46% B-body positive, yielded 55% male offspring and 72.0% pregnancy. Thus, the accuracy of the separation techniques has been established to the extent of producing more females with heavier and electropositive and more males with the lighter and electronegative spermatozoa fractions. However, the pregnancy rate slopes downward as the positive electropotential and density of the spermatozoa are successively increased.