Thalassemic patients are vulnerable to emotional and behavioral problems. Each patient age group exhibits problems unique to that stage of development, and although up to 80 % of thalassemic patients are likely to have psychological disorders, e.g., anxiety and depression, predictors of these disorders remain poorly understood. The present study was designed to assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression in a sample of Egyptian thalassemic patients and to identify predictors of these psychiatric disorders. A case-control study was conducted in 218 thalassemic patients, with 244 healthy subjects as a control. All patients and control subjects were subjected to thorough evaluation of medical history and clinical examination, and examined by a psychiatrist using the clinician version of the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID-CV), hospital anxiety and depression scale and Coopersmith self-esteem inventory. Abnormal and borderline anxieties were reported by 36.7 and 20.6 % of thalassemic patients, respectively, while abnormal and borderline depressions were reported by 32.1 and 16.1 % of patients, respectively. Hospitalization, low self-esteem, diabetes mellitus and heart failure were independent predictors of anxiety. The independent predictors of depression were heart failure, hospitalization, diabetes mellitus, short stature and delayed puberty. Thalassemic patients were more vulnerable to anxiety and depression, indicating that screening and management for such psychiatric disorders should be considered in treating all such patients.

Background & aims: The rate of mortality from Spontaneous Peritonitis (SP) in cirrhotic patients is still high despite the development of new antibiotic treatments and intensive hospital care. The coexistence of spontaneous fungal peritonitis (SFP) is almost entirely ignored health problem, because it is difficult to be diagnosed at an early stage by conventional culture-based methods. Therefore, this study was designed to employ PCR-based method in evaluating the prevalence of fungal infection in cirrhotic patients with peritonitis who failed to respond to the recommended therapy and to determine its association with in-hospital mortality. Subjects and Methods: A total of 80 cirrhotic patients admitted to the hospital with ascitis (June-2013 to April-2015) were followed in this study. Results: During hospitalization, 23 (42%) of patients had died although they received guideline-driven treatment. The demographics, clinical, hematological, and biochemical data were similar in both mortality and survival groups. However, the incidence of fungus infection was the only significantly elevated parameter in the mortality group than in the survival group (7/23;30% vs.0/32;0%, P = 0.0012). This fungal infection was significantly associated with SP drug resistance development (P = 0.007). Intriguingly, all the cases of fungal infection were detected by PCR-based method while culture-based diagnosis was able to detect the fungal infection in only 4 of these cases indicating a diagnostic sensitivity of 57%. Conclusion: Our results reflect a strong association between SFP and in-hospital mortality in cirrhotic patients with SP that may offer a coherent explanation for the antibiotic treatment failure in such patients. Prompt PCR-detection and antifungal coverage is warranted in these cases.

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Objectives: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of chronic abdominal wall pain (CAWP) in the gastroenterology clinic unit (GCU) and investigated the criteria of CAWP patients.Therapeutic trials to control such annoying problem were investigated. Methods: The study had two stages; the first stage was a cross-sectional analysis of the adult patients who were suffering from chronic abdominal pain. Patients reporting a score value ≥ 10 on the Questionnaire of CAWP in addition to a positive Carnett´s sign were included in this study. Included patients were subjected to study the criteria of CAWP. The second stage was a randomized clinical trial where anti-neuropathic drugs (e.g. pregabalin-carbamazepine-amitriptyline) were used. Results: CAWP was diagnosed in 30.6% of the screened patients. 76% were female. Upper right quadrant pain was reported in 48.1%. Delay in diagnosis was reported to be 9.14±8.9 months. Misdiagnosis as cholecystitis, peptic ulcer disease and irritable bowel syndrome was reported. 94.4 % of treated patients showed a satisfactory response to anti-neuropathic medications. 5.6 % was successfully controlled by local injection. Significant lower Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was reported after 2 weeks and 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 months of the treatment plan implementation when compared to the basal value (p. < 0.001). Conclusions: CAWP was identified in 30.6% of the patients complaining of chronic abdominal pain. Multiple physician consultations, delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis with subsequent mistreatment were common. While, anti-neuropathic drugs are an effective tool in most cases of CAWP, trigger point injection represents an alternative line of treatment.

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