Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis

 #

 #

 #

Tuberculosis (TB) of the spine (Pott’s disease) is the commonest and most dangerous form of skeletal TB. Delay in establishing diagnosis and management can cause spinal cord compression and spinal deformity resulting in serious neurological deficit and bad prognosis. This was a prospective hospital-based study investigating the data on hundred cases of Pott’s disease presented to Khartoum Teaching Hospital during the period from 2008 to 2010. 60 patients were females and 40 were males. The mean age of our patients was ± 41. The course of the disease was progressive and of gradual onset in the majority of the cases. 76% of our study group was presented with neurological deficits ranging from lower limb anesthesia, numbness, trunk weakness, root pain, muscle pain and flexion spasm.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a small DNA virus, which was found a half century ago. No useful and convenient

in vitro infection system for HBV has hampered detailed analysis of HBV life cycle, which leads to development of HBV related diseases. Here, Yan et al. reported this November, 2012 that a Sodium Taurocholate Cotansporting Polypeptide called also NTCP was a receptor for HBV and established an HBV in vitro infection system using ordinary hepatocellular carcinoma derived cell lines. This finding will shed light on total elucidation of the HBV life cycle and lead to development of new anti-HBV drugs.