: Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), as a life-threatening bleeding among all kinds of congenital bleeding disorders (CBDs), is a rare manifestation except in factor XIII (FXIII) deficiency, which is accompanied by ICH, early in life, in about one-third of patients. Most inherited platelet function disorders (IPFDs) are mild to moderate bleeding disorders that can never experience a severe bleeding as in ICH; however, Glanzmann's thrombasthenia, a common and severe inherited platelet function disorder, can lead to ICH and occasional death. This bleeding feature can also be observed in grey platelet syndrome, though less frequently than in Glanzmann's thrombasthenia. In hemophilia, intracerebral hemorrhage is affected by various risk factors one of which is the severity of the disease. The precise prevalence of ICH in these patients is not clear but an estimated incidence of 3.5-4% among newborns with hemophilia is largely ascertained. Although ICH is a rare phenomenon in CBDs, it can be experienced by every patient with severe hemophilia A and B, FXIII deficiency (FXIIID), FVIID, FXD, FVD, FIID, and afibrinogenemia. Upon observing the general signs and symptoms of ICH such as vomiting, seizure, unconsciousness, and headache, appropriate replacement therapies and cranial ultrasound scans must be done to decrease ICH-related morbidity and mortality.

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Background: SARS-CoV-2 antigen assays offer a rapid mean to diagnose and isolate infected individuals. However, their utility in population-level screening is unknown.Objectives: The performance of two antigen tests in detecting SARS-CoV-2 was assessed among individuals randomly selected in the community.Study Design: A prospective study that performed head-to-head comparison of two SARS-CoV-2 antigen assays. Individuals were recruited during community SARS-CoV-2 screening over 10 working days. Demographic and clinical data were collected. Standard Q COVID-19 Ag test, a point-of-care chromatographic assay, was conducted immediately, and then the sample was transported to the virology laboratory to perform PCR and the LIAISON SARS-CoV-2 Ag chemiluminesence immunoassay.Results: respiratory samples from 991 individuals were collected, and 62 were positive by PCR. Inconclusive PCR results were observed in 19 samples and were excluded. The median age of participants was 40.2 years (IQR 32.3–47.8), and 932 (94%) were males. Most (77.4%) of infections were asymptomatic. The sensitivity and the specificity of the LIAISON assay were 43.3% (95%CI 30.6–56.8) and 99.9% (95%CI 99.3–100). The Standard Q assay had lower sensitivity (30.6%, 95%CI 19.6–43.7) but similar specificity (98.8%, 95%CI, 97.8–99.4). Similarly, the LIAISON assay had higher positive predictive value (96.3%, 95%CI 81–99.9% vs. 63.3%, 95%CI, 43.9–80.1%). Both assays performed better in symptomatic patients and among samples with a low-cycle threshold (Ct < 25).Conclusion: In our setting of random community surveillance, rapid antigen testing of nasopharyngeal swabs by either LIAISON SARS-CoV-2 Ag (DiaSorin) or Standard Q COVID-19 Ag (SD Biosensor) was less sensitive to detecting SARS-CoV-2 than the TaqPath COVID-19 RT-PCR.

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Congenital factor (F) XIII deficiency is a rare coagulation factor deficiency that is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. FXIII deficiency presents various clinical manifestations, such as intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), which is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality. As ICH can occur in the neonatal period, prenatal diagnosis (PND) is an effective way to reduce neonatal ICH and its associated fatal consequences. In this study, we investigated a noninvasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) method, cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA), for PND in FXIII deficiency. This study was conducted on seven pregnant women in the first trimester. After extraction of cffDNA from maternal plasma, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was performed to find the underlying F13A gene mutations previously identified in the family members. PCR-RFLP was also performed on postnatal DNA samples. Sanger sequencing was performed to confirm the results. Four cases were heterozygous for F13A gene mutations, whereas three were unaffected. PCR-RFLP results for cffDNA and postnatal DNA samples were identical, and Sanger sequencing confirmed the results. cffDNA is a noninvasive and effective method for PND in congenital FXIII deficiency. Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis