Clinical significance of hepatic derangement in severe acute respiratory syndrome

AIM: Elevation of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level is commonly seen among patients suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). We report the progression and clinical significance of liver derangement in a large cohort of SARS patient.METHODS: Serial assay of serum ALT was followed in patients who fulfilled the WHO criteria of SARS. Those with elevated ALT were compared with those with normal liver functions for clinical outcome. Serology for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was checked. Adverse outcomes were defined as oxygen desaturation, need of intensive care unit (ICU) and mechanical ventilation and death.RESULTS: Two hundred and ninety-four patients were included in this study. Seventy (24%) patients had elevated serum ALT on admission and 204 (69%) patients had elevated ALT during the subsequent course of illness. Using peak ALT >5×ULN as a cut-off and after adjusting for potential confounding factors, the odds ratio of peak ALT>5x ULN for oxygen desaturation was 3.24 (95%CI 1.23-8.59, P = 0.018), ICU care was 3.70 (95% CI 1.38-9.89, P = 0.009), mechanical ventilation was 6.64 (95%CI 2.22-19.81, P = 0.001) and death was 7.34(95%CI 2.28-24.89, P = 0.001). Ninety-three percent of the survived patients had ALT levels normalized or were on the improving trend during follow-up. Chronic hepatitis B was not associated with worse clinical outcomes.CONCLUSION: Reactive hepatitis is a common complication of SARS-coronavirus infection. Those patients with severe hepatitis had worse clinical outcome.

Follow up of serial urea breath test results in patients after consumption of antibiotics for non-gastric infections

AIM: The widespread use of antibacterial therapy hasbeen suggested to be the cause for the decline in theprevalence of Helicobacter pyloriinfection. This studyexamine the serial changes of urea breath test resultsin a group of hospitalized patients who were givenantibacterial therapy for non-gastric infections.METHODS: Thirty-five hospitalized patients who weregiven antibacterial therapy for clinical infections,predominantly chest and urinary infections, werestudied. Most (91%) patients were given singleantibiotic of either a penicillin or cephalosporin group.Serial 13C-urea breath tests were performed within 24hours of initiation of antibiotics, at one-week and atsix-week post-therapy. H. pylori infection wasdiagnosed when one or more urea breath tests waspositive.RESULTS: All 35 patients completed three serial ureabreath tests and 26 (74 %) were H. pylori-positive. Ten(38 %) H. pylori-infected patients had at least onenegative breath test results during the study period.The medium delta 13C values were significantly lowerat baseline (8.8) than at one-week (20.3) and six-week(24.5) post-treatment in H. pylori-positive individuals(P=0.022). Clearance of H. pyloriat six-week was onlyseen in one patient who had received anti-helicobactertherapy from another source.CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that one-third ofH. pylori-infected individuals had transient false-negative urea breath test results during treatment withantibacterial agent. However, clearance of H. pyloriinfection by regular antibiotic consumption is rare.