Profile of Pterygium Cases Seen at a Tertiary Referral Hospital in The Philippines

Pterygium is a wing-shaped, fibrovascular degeneration of the bulbar conjunctiva that grows toward and over the cornea. It may cause irregular astigmatism, visual impairment, irritation, and cosmetic problems. Dryness, inflammation, and exposure to wind and dust or other irritants may be risk factors for its development but its pathogenesis is most strongly correlated with ultraviolet exposure making it more common in tropical countries near the equator (Agahan, 2010., Al-Bdour, 2004., Cajucom Uy, 2010., Chen, 2015., Droutsas, 2010., Essuman, 2014., Fernandes, 2005). It has also been reported several times that increasing age, male gender, outdoor occupation, and systemic factors like hypertension are risk factors suggesting a multifactorial etiology for this condition (Gris, 2000., Küçükerdönmez, 2007., Kurna, 2013). In a systematic review and meta-analysis done by Liu et al which included 20 countries, the geographic pooled prevalence rate of pterygium was around 10% in the general population (Essuman, 2014).

A case of heavy chain deposition disease complicated by acquired angioedema

Heavy Chain Deposition Disease (HCDD) is rare, and presents with renal failure, proteinuria, hematuria, hypertension, and often hypocomplementemia. HCDD may mimic the pathology of immune complex, crescentic glomerulonephritis, with isolated heavy chain deposits along mesangial, glomerular, and tubular Basement Membranes (BMs), without associated light chains. The predominant heavy chain subtype is gamma. Rare cases of alpha and mu subtypes have also been reported. Immunofluorescence for heavy chains alone is diagnostic. Renal pathology includes mesangial matrix expansion, hypercellularity, and nodular sclerosis resembling diabetic glomerulosclerosis. Fewer than 40 cases have been reported. We report a case of HCDD with the novel complication of acquired angioedema.

Molecular characterization of plasmid mediated genes among S. aureus strains isolated from clinical and non-clinical sources, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

The study isolated and characterized clinical and non-clinical S. aureus strains in Ile-Ife, Nigeria using phenotypic and molecular methods. Eight hundred and fifty samples of different cultures were taken from clinical and nonclinical sources. The clinical sources were the routine specimens of wound swabs, urine, stool, blood and sputum from the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology laboratory of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex (OAUTHC) Ile-Ife.

The non-clinical samples were obtained from the nasal cavity of apparently healthy food handlers at restaurants in Obafemi Awolowo University campus and food vendors in Ile-Ife central market. Samples were cultured on mannitol salt agar and incubated at 37°C for 24-48 hours. S. aureus were isolated and identified based on mannitol fermentation, Gram's reaction, positive results for catalase, coagulase and DNAse tests. Susceptibility of the isolates to nine different antibiotics was tested using the disk diffusion technique. Molecular detection of plasmid, mec A, nuc genes was carried out on representative isolates using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).