Background:The utility of QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-G) test in the diagnosis of tuberculosis disease has been validated in high and low tuberculosis-prevalent (TB) countries. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the performance of the QFT-G test in the diagnosis of tuberculosis disease among tuberculosis patients in an intermediate prevalent country.Setting and Design:A retrospective study at the King Abdulaziz Medical City-Riyadh (KAMC-R)Materials and Methods:We retrospectively reviewed all the patients with a diagnosis of pneumonia, including tuberculosis, admitted to KAMC-R between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2013. We included only patients with an available result of the QFT-G test. A total of 142 tuberculosis cases and 226 pneumonia cases were studied, to assess the utility of the QFT-G test in diagnosing tuberculosis cases.Results:Among the tuberculosis (n = 142) cases, the QFT-G tested positive in 68.3%, negative in 23.2%, and indeterminate in 12 cases (8.5%). Of the 226 pneumonia cases, the QFT-G tested positive in only 20.4%, while a majority of 66.4% tested negative, with 30 cases (13.3%) being indeterminate. When we excluded 42 patients with indeterminate results, the QFT-G test achieved a sensitivity of 74.6% [95% CI: 66.09 to 81.65%] and specificity of 76.53 % [95% CI: 69.85 to 82.15%] in the diagnosis of tuberculosis cases.Conclusions:This study concludes that the QFT-G test is a useful tool for detecting tuberculosis disease when used as an adjunct tool for the diagnosis of active TB cases. It certainly cannot be used solely and indiscriminately, separate from other clinical and radiological information, in the diagnosis of active tuberculosis cases.

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Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is the third most common nosocomial infection, associated with higher morbidity and mortality rates as well as increased cost and prolonged hospital stay for patients. Lidocaine, in addition to being a readily available and accessible local anesthetic, has shown antimicrobial and fungicidal activity. Objectives: Assessing the outcome of using 2% lidocaine irrigation in the prevention of abdominal SSI in grade II (clean-contaminated), Grade III (contaminated) wounds. Subjects and Methods: This prospective randomized clinical trial included patients who underwent elective and emergency abdominal surgeries in the Department of General Surgery at Suez Canal University Hospitals. The participants were randomly divided in two groups: A study group, who received sterile saline plus Lidocaine 2%. And a control group, who received sterile saline only to compare the 30-day postoperative infection outcomes among them. Results: 56.8% of participants were males. The mean age of participants was 48.88 ± 10.18 years. The study group patients had statistically significant lower incidents of SSI than the control group (p=0.03). The overall incidence of SSI was 38.6%. The most prevalent sign of the SSI was pus in 35.3% and in 76.5% of the patients' SSI lasted for two weeks. There was no statistically significant difference between both groups regarding their hospital stay duration, laboratory measures, and other postoperative complications. Conclusions: 2% lidocaine application before skin closure in grade II and grade III wounds decreased the incidence of SSI) in patients undergoing abdominal surgery.

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Pulmonary involvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a recognized complication but not often well described in the literature and also in major medical textbooks. Thus, for most medical practitioners who look after RA patients, pulmonary complications are often missed and not given much attention. This article will review the current literature of pulmonary involvement in RA and to increase awareness of its existence.