RANTES and IL-6 should be investigated as potential therapeutic targets in the control of rheumatic PAH. Improved understanding of the contribution of RANTES and IL-6 to adverse postoperative complications can lead to improved patient outcome.

Background: As Mobile Phones (MPs) aren’t cleaned routinely and have been touched during patient’s examination, they may become contaminated with hospital pathogens. Objectives: Screen MPs of Health care workers (HCWs) for pathogens and verify the effect of disinfectants in their decontamination. Methods: A questionnaire was submitted by 160 HCWs in Tanta University Hospitals. Samples were taken from their MPs and subjected to pour plate counting before and after disinfection. Standard identification and antibiotic susceptibility of isolates were done. Results: Colony count was greater in MPs used while caring for patients or inside restroom, and was less in regularly cleaned MPs. All tested disinfectants reduced the colony count significantly. Pathogens were isolated from 84.38% of samples and 36.25% of them were Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDROs). Conclusion: Using MPs at critical care areas and restroom may contribute to their contamination with pathogens. Regular disinfection of MPs can reduce this contamination.

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Objective: Determination of whether serum resistin in lean rheumatoid arthritis patients correlates with disease activity and radiological joint damage or not. Subjects and Methods: 75 subjects were included; 25 patients diagnosed with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 25 patients with inactive RA, and 25 healthy individuals served as control. All were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, routine laboratory investigations and determination of serum resistin level. Plain X-ray of both hands and feet for RA patients and assessed according to Larsen score. Results: There was a significant increase in serum resistin level in active RA when compared to inactive RA and controls. Resistin also showed a significant positive correlation with DAS 28 score, ESR, CRP, RF, anti CCP, TC, TG, LDL, but the correlation with Larsen score was not significant. Conclusion: There is association between serum resistin level and disease activity, suggesting that it may be useful in evaluating RA disease activity. [Egypt J Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, 2015; 3(2): 121-126]

Infectious diseases that Enterobacteriaceae cause are spreading on a wide scale. Examples of these infections are gastrointestinal tract infections, meningitis, pneumonia, septicemia, urinary tract infections, and wound infections. Antibiotic resistance among Enterobacteriaceae is a critical problem that makes treatment difficult. Tigecycline is a broad spectrum antibiotic that is effective against multi-drug resistant organisms (MDR) and may be beneficial in the therapy of infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae. This study aims to evaluate the in vitro activity of tigecycline against clinical isolates of Enterobacteriaceae species and detect the possible resistance mechanisms of them against βlactams. The sensitivity of different isolates to antibiotics was determined by standard disc diffusion method. Phenotypic detection of resistance mechanisms such as extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL), AmpC, ESBL& AmpC co-producers and metallo β-lactamase (MBL) β-lactamases enzymes producer isolates was investigated. A total of eighty three Enterobacteriaceae clinical isolates were collected. The common bacteria isolated were Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Multidrug resistance was found in 59.04% of tested isolates. The isolates were resistant to sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and impenem. The highest resistance was found to sulfamethoxazoletrimethoprim followed by ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and imipenem. Phenotypic detection of resistance mechanisms revealed that 69.4% of clinical isolates were ESBL producers, 12.2% were AmpC producers, and 8.2% were ESBL and AmpC co-producers, while 10.2% were MBL producers. There was no resistance found to tigecycline among all Enterobacteriaceae isolates tested. This study showed that tigecycline has potent in vitro activity against ESBL, AmpC, combined ESBL and AMPC and MBL β-lactamases producing Enterobacteriaceae.