European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of periodontal diseases and their chronic, inflammatory and infectious nature necessitates recognizing the possibility that these infections may have effects somewhere in the body. The concept that oral diseases and systemic diseases influence each other goes back to the theory of “focal infection”. In 1891, Miller published his theory regarding focal infection in which he indicated that microorganisms and their products are able to access parts of the body that are adjacent to or distant from the mouth. The proponents of this concept assume that microorganisms present in dental plaque and their metabolic products may enter the bloodstream, thereby causing many systemic diseases and sometimes resulting in degenerative conditions. Associations have been reported between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, diabetes, preterm low birth-weight babies, respiratory infections and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Introduction: Chronic rhinosinusitis is an inflammatory condition affected the majority
of the patients in the age group ranged between 21 – 30 years. The major clinical
picture of chronic rhinosinusitis is reported to be nasal blockade, headache, purulent
nasal discharge, facial pressure and halitosis.
Materials and Methodology: Those patients with the history of previous nasal surgery,
history of nasal fracture/ trauma, patients with tumours (cancer) of the nose and
paranasal sinuses, pregnant women, those patients who are unfit for CT scan and
patients with allergy to xylocaine anaesthesia are excluded before the start of the study.
After explaining about the study and after getting an informed written consent, 110
patients above the age of 10 years who are clinically diagnosed to have chronic
rhinosinusitis according to the criteria of task force on rhinosinusitis were taken into
account for the present study. Topical 4% xylocaine as anaesthesia and decongestant
using 1 ml topical adrenaline was administered, DNE was done inorder to study the
presence of concha bullosa. All the patients underwent a CT scan to study the presence
of concha bullosa radiologically. All the data were collected and tabulated in an
Microsoft excel sheet. The results are presented in the form of proportions and
percentages. Chi square test was applied for qualitative data. A p value<0.05 was
considered statistically significant.

Background: Establishing whether patients are exposed to a ‘known cause’ is a key
element in both the diagnostic assessment and the subsequent management of
hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP).
Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the burden of hypersensitivity
pneumonitis at a respiratory center.
Methods: 100 patients had been enrolled to the study. Demographic, clinical,
radiological and aetiological data were collected with a random identification code for
each patient in view of maintaining the confidentiality during data collection.
Results: Out of 100 patients, there were 65 females and 35 males. Mean age of the
population was 55.50 years (SD = 10.50) years. 50 patients were less than 65 years of
which 30 were aged between 45 to 60 years while 20 were aged <5 years.
Conclusion: In general, patients with acute disease, if correctly and timely diagnosed
and treated, have a good prognosis, and patients usually improve. By contrast, patients
with subacute/chronic HP (in particular those with bird fancier’s disease) often
progress to irreversible pulmonary fibrosis and may die within a few years after
diagnosis.

Chronic bacterial prostatitis is a persistent infection of the prostate characterized by frequent relapses due to incomplete eradication of the causative organisms, with a negative impact on patient’s quality of life. This study aimed to determine the most common bacterial causative agents and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns in patients with chronic bacterial prostatitis in Duhok, Kurdistan, northern Iraq. A standardMeares-Stamey four-glass test was performed for all males presenting with chronic prostatitis symptoms for more than 3 months. Men with high leukocyte counts and bacterial growth inexpressed prostatic secretion (EPS) and post-prostate massage urine (VB3) samples but negative first-voided (VB1) and midstream urine (VB2) samples were included in the study. The Phoenix system (Becton Dickinson) was used for bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.Staphylococcus spp. were the most prevalent microorganisms in patients with chronic prostatitis (60.8%), followed by Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. (13.7%).Most patients with chronic prostatitis who were diagnosed with Staphylococcus spp. exhibited high resistance tobenzylpenicillin (75.0%), oxacillin (60.5%), and ampicillin (59.0%). Patients diagnosed with Enterococcus spp. showed high resistance to quinupristin-dalfopristin(20.0%), cefoxitin screen (15.7%), clindamycin (16.9%), tetracycline (16.9%), and rifampicin (17.1%). Among those diagnosed with Streptococcus spp., most had resistance to oxacillin (7.4%), tobramycin (8.0%), erythromycin (8.4%), clindamycin (8.4%), tetracycline (8.4%), and mupirocin (12.1%).The patients with E. coli had resistance to extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL)(45.5%) and cefepime (25.0%). In summary, we found that the most prevalent pathogens from patients with chronic bacterial prostatitis are E. coli, Enterococcus spp., and Staphylococcus aureus. Gram-positive isolates showed the highest resistance to benzylpenicillin, fosfomycin, ampicillin, tetracycline, rifampicin, and mupirocin. Moreover, gram-negative bacteria were most resistant to ESBL, cefepime, and ampicillin-sulbactam. To manage this condition, physicians should take into consideration the development of multi-drug resistance among the pathogenic agents.

Rhinoscleroma is a rare chronic infection with granuloma formation which is
precipitated due to recurrent chronic sinusitis. Clinically patient presents with mass or
swelling in upper airways most commonly in nose with obstructive features. Though there are
many tests for its diagnostic evaluation, histology still holds the mainstream modality for its
confirmatory diagnosis.