Knowing the hepatic pathological features encountered in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and the fact that extrahepatic manifestations occur only in people with certain characteristics of the immune system, we tried to evaluate, qualitatively and semi-quantitatively, the liver pathological aspects encountered in 96 patients with CHC, previously untreated with Interferon (naïve), who showed or did not show signs of thyroid disorder (TD), hospitalized in the 2 nd Medical Clinic of the Emergency County Hospital, Craiova, Romania, within a period of five years (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012). Following hormonal, immunological, and thyroid ultrasound investigations, 14 (14.58%) of the 96 patients showed signs of TD. The main clinical forms of TD in the studied patients with CHC were autoimmune thyroiditis and subclinical hypothyroidism. In the patients with CHC with TD, we found mild chronic hepatitis in 14.28% of cases, the appearance of moderate chronic hepatitis was found in 71.42% patients, and the appearance of severe chronic hepatitis was found in 14.28% patients, while in the patients with CHC without TD we found chronic mild hepatitis in 62.19% of cases, the appearance of moderate chronic hepatitis was met in 32.92% patients, and the appearance of severe chronic hepatitis was found in 4.87% of patients. Mild and moderate fibrosis were found only in CHC patients without TD in a percentage of 25.6% and 65.85%, respectively, while severe fibrosis was found at 12.19% among CHC patients without TD and 92.85% among CHC patients with TD. The pathological aspect of liver cirrhosis was found only in those with TD (7.14%). In conclusion, the pathological features which define the liver necroinflammatory process, as encountered at the pathological examination in CHC patients with TD are the same as in any active chronic hepatitis, the differences being represented by the higher percentage of the periportal and the preseptal necrosis (piecemeal necrosis), as well as by the higher score of portal inflammation. In addition, the severe hepatic fibrosis and the histopathological appearance of the liver cirrhosis have only defined the cases of CHC with TD.

Background and Aims Bordetella pertussis and B. parapertussis are the causative agents of whooping cough, a re-emerging infectious disease in spite of reasonable vaccination coverage. Specific diagnostic tools were applied for the first time in a Tunisian prospective study in order to get an estimation of the prevalence of Bordetella infections, and to evaluate their use to determine the epidemiological characteristics of these infections in Tunisian infants. Methods Between 2007 and 2011, a total of 626 samples from 599 infants aged < 1 year with and without pertussoid cough were investigated for the presence of B. pertussis/parapertussis using culture and real-time PCR (RT-PCR). When possible, patients' household contacts provided nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPAs) for RT-PCR detection of B. pertussis/parapertussis or single-serum samples for anti-PT IgG quantification. Results All except 1 NPA were negative by conventional culture whereas PCR gave positive signals for 126 specimens (21%): B. pertussis, B. parapertussis and Bordetella spp. were detected in 82, 6 and 4% of the samples, respectively. The simultaneous presence of B. pertussis and B. parapertussis was noted in 8% of the cases. The prevalence of Bordetella infection was 20%. Most of these cases corresponded to patients younger than 6 months old who received < 3 doses of pertussis vaccine. Among the household contacts enrolled in the study, mothers were the likely source of infection in 4 cases. Conclusions This study showed that pertussis is still prevalent in Tunisia and the disease remains a public health problem affecting not only infants but also adults.

WC increase was significantly less in the intervention (1.20 cm +/-0.84) versus control schools (4.17cm +/-0.89) (P<0.0001). Similarly, waist-to-height ratio results showed that the intervention group mean incremental change was significantly less versus the control group for boys (P=0.0002) and girls (P<0.0001). Conclusions Elevated WC is strongly correlated with cardiometabolic disease risk factors and should be monitored in young children as such. School-based obesity prevention interventions show promise in improving weight and potentially cardiometabolic health in elementary-school aged children.