The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel coronavirus infection that has rapidly spread worldwide, causing a pandemic. The main objective of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the prevalence of the most common symptoms and complications of COVID-19. All relevant studies on the clinical complications of COVID-19 have been identified by searching two web databases (i.e., PubMed and Scopus). Afterward, the relevant data were extracted from the selected studies, and then analyzed by the STATA (Version 14) random-effects model. The 30 studies selected for our meta-analysis covered 6,389 infected patients. The prevalence rates of the most common symptoms were as follows:

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Introduction: Graft function early after kidney transplantation is an important parameter in determining the outcome of operation. Urinary and plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a member of the lipocalin protein family, has been advocated as a sensitive, early biomarker for predicting early renal graft after transplantation. The functions of NGAL appears to be expressed in stress conditions and in tissues undergoing involution. It rapidly accumulates in the kidney tubules and urine after nephrotoxic and ischemic insults. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the prognostic role of NGAL early after renal transplantation. Patients and Methods: A total of 37 kidney recipients were enrolled from a teaching centre in Tabriz within a 6-month period of time. Plasma NGAL was measured immediately before and at 6 and 12 hours post-transplantation. Changes of serum creatinine were documented daily within the first week post-operation. Acute kidney injury (AKI)/graft rejection during the first week after transplantation was the outcome variable. Results: There were 22 males (59.5%) and 15 females (40.5%) with the mean age of 34.93 ± 14.97 years (range: 12-59) in the study group. AKI/graft rejection developed in 12 patients (32.4%). The mean post-transplantation plasma NGAL levels and serum creatinine at all time points were significantly higher in patients with AKI/graft rejection. The best prognostic role was found for plasma NGAL at 12 hours (sensitivity = 100%, specificity = 92%; cut-off value = 309 ng/ml), far better than the prognostic accuracy of corresponding serum creatinine (sensitivity = 66.7%, specificity = 61.9%). Conclusion: Plasma NGAL, particularly 12 hours after transplantation, is a very sensitive and specific biomarker for predicting acute renal injury.

Introduction: Behcet’s disease (BD) is a chronic systemic autoinflammatory vasculitis which is handled by the variety of proteins like cytokines. Therefore, cytokines are considered as one of the prototypic factors during inflammatory responses of BD. Consequently, the present study was designed for evaluation of cytokine profiles in Iranian BD cases, including those with and without uveitis. Materials and Method: All cases were divided into three groups based on ophthalmologic exam results: BD with uveitis, BD without uveitis, and recovered uveitis BD. Cases with a history of BD recovery were placed in the group of recovered uveitis. The patients with infectious uveitis as well as other collagen vascular diseases and patients who have used biologics to treat ocular immune-mediated diseases were excluded. Finally, after venous blood sampling, levels of cytokines were quantified and statistical approaches were performed for measurements. Results: Enrolled cases were divided to 26 patients with active uveitis, 25 patients with recovered uveitis and 24 patients without uveitis and interestingly, just IL-2 was the only cytokine that showed statistical difference in patients with BD uveitis in comparison with other groups (pvalue = 0.02). The pair wise comparison showed a significant difference between the patients with and without uveitis groups (pvalue = 0.004) as well as patients with uveitis and recovered uveitis groups (pvalue = 0.002). Discussion: Significant elevation of IL-2 in patients with uveitis (in comparison with recovered or without uveitis cases) demonstrates that it may be one of the main proteins that enroll in the pathophysiology of BD uveitis and may be considered as a new target for refractory disease therapies. Studies with larger samples can help to obtain more accurate conclusions.

Objective: To review the reported cases of kidney injury following vaccination for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with a focus on renal pathology. Methods: We searched for case reports of kidney complications after COVID-19 vaccine in PubMed. Results: A total of 36 articles including 49 case reports were reported. These included minimal change disease (n=17), IgA nephropathy (IgAN) (n=15), IgA nephritis/vasculitis (n=5), ANCA glomerulonephritis/vasculitis (n=5), anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) nephritis (n=2), and 1 case of each granulomatous vasculitis, acute tubulointerstitial nephritis, scleroderma renal crisis, IgG4-related disease nephritis, and primary membranous nephropathy (MN). Conclusion: We give an overview of the reported cases of post-COVID-19 renal complications. Further investigations of the underlying pathogenesis of post-COVID-19 vaccination renal adverse events are required, as prompt workup, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with renal complications may lead to complete remission, prevent kidney failure, and long-term complications such as end-stage renal disease (ESRD). However, these complications are overall extremely rare and the benefit of vaccination outweighs the potential risks.

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Evaluation of anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in comparison with other rheumatic diseases; a nephrology point of view