Gastroenterology & Hepatology Letters

Background. Hepatitis B and C are significant problems in India, especially in certain hotspots such as Haryana state. Since the data derived from the large-scale studies are unavailable, reports from individual centers or blood bank data are largely relied on to get a glimpse of the prevalence rate in India. This retrospective study aims to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B and C based on the data collected from blood banks and passive screening of patients at PGIMS, Rohtak.

Methods. The first half of the dataset which contains routine hepatitis B and C test results was derived from blood banks. The other half of dataset was derived from the passive screening of patients from various outpatient departments and inpatient wards. The samples collected during the passive screening were tested for the positivity for HBsAg or anti-HCV antibody using ELISA tests.

Results. Analysis of the blood bank data revealed that the prevalence rates of HBsAg and anti-HCV antibody positivity were 0.80% and 0.81%, respectively, whereas the rates of the same derived from passive screening data were 5.23% and 5.18%, respectively.

Conclusion. The blood bank data did not depict the exact prevalence of hepatitis B and C. Concerns remain as they could possibly underestimate the rates. As opposed to that, the prevalence rates of passive screening data might possibly resemble to the genuine prevalence. Although it is sometimes inevitable to rely on blood bank data due to data paucity, cautiousness must be exercised when it comes to using this kind of data.

Celiac disease (CD) is a multifactorial and chronic autoimmune disease caused by the ingestion of gluten. Epidemiological studies have shown that the disease is currently becoming more common worldwide. Among the countries, North America, North Europe, and Australia have high prevalence of CD. CD is often confused with other chronic gastrointestinal tract-related diseases. Therefore, it is important to have a broad understanding of the clinicopathological features of CD. This review aims to illustrate the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestation, and diagnosis and treatment of CD.

We reported the unusual case of a 39-year-old man, who presented to a private hospital located at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with intense left iliac fossa abdominal pain. The diagnosis of acute epiploic appendagitis (EA) was made based on the computed tomography (CT) findings of a well-defined ovoid lesion of fat density at the junction of sigmoid and descending colon, with thin hyperdense rim, together with surrounding mesenteric fat, and thickening of the adjacent peritoneum. He was treated conservatively without surgery, and the pain subsided gradually. Our case reaffirmed that careful diagnosis is necessary to avoid invasive surgical interventions that are largely unnecessary as a treatment for acute EA.

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