Background: India is a tropical country with a high burden of febrile zoonotic/infectious illnesses, scrub typhus being such a cause with multiple epidemics reported from different regions of the country. Objective: This study was plotted to document the clinical and diagnostic manifestations, treatment, and outcomes of scrub typhus in the sub-Himalayan region of India and to compare the results with other Indian and Asian studies. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective observational study involving collection of data for 54 IgM ELISA-confirmed in-patient cases of scrub typhus at a tertiary care institute in Uttarakhand, India, from their case records. Results: The majority of patients were from rural background. Housewives constituted 28 (51.85%) patients. The most common symptoms were due to involvement of gastrointestinal tract in the form of abdominal pain in 39 (72.22%) and vomiting in 29 (53.7%) patients. Central nervous system involvement in the form of altered sensorium in 14 (25.9%) patients and pulmonary involvement as cough in 28 (51.85%) patients was observed. An eschar was found in 7 (12.96%) patients and upper eyelid edema in 40 (74.07%) patients. The most common laboratory abnormality documented was elevation of liver transaminases (aspartate aminotransferase > alanine aminotransferase), 40 (74.07%), and blood urea levels, 47 (87.03%). There was no difference in the clinical presentation, severity, or mortality in pregnant females when compared with nonpregnant females. One (1.45% mortality) died in our study. Conclusion: Scrub typhus is an important cause of acute febrile illness with variable, often nonspecific and multisystem involvement. Early recognition and antibiotic administration are the key to reduce complications and mortality, especially for a primary care physician.

The human epidermal growth factor receptors (HERs) are expressed abundantly in the human body. The tumorigenic potential of HER2/neu is linked to its overexpression, amplification or somatic mutation. The HER2 gene amplification leading to protein overexpression has been reported in 25–30% of breast cancers and 10–30% of gastric/gastroesophageal cancers. While HER2 is a well-documented predictive, prognostic, and therapeutic marker in breast and gastric/gastroesophageal cancers, its relevance has also been demonstrated in multiple other malignancies. In this article, we will conduct an extensive review of current data pertaining to HER2 amplification, overexpression, or mutation in cancers other than breast and gastric cancers.

While the relative efficacy of remdesivir as a therapeutic agent in selected patients with COVID-19 has been established, safety concerns have been raised regarding potential nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. Our main objective was to investigate the kidney- and liver-related safety outcomes in patients with COVID-19 treated with remdesivir in a public hospital in New York. A propensity score-matched retrospective study was conducted in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 from 1 June 2020 to 10 March 2021. A total of 927 patients were included in this study (remdesivir: 427, non-remdesivir: 500; women: 51.8%; median age 61 years; median BMI: 28.5 kg/m²). Matching without replacement yielded a cohort of 248 patients (124 in each group). In the matched cohort, the remdesivir group had a significantly lower rate of acute kidney injury (AKI) (12.1% vs. 21.8%, p = 0.042), a lower rate of acute liver injury (ALI) on the verge of statistical significance (7.3% vs. 14.5%, p = 0.067), and non-significantly lower death rate (13.7% vs. 16.1%, p = 0.593) compared to the non-remdesivir group. Multivariable analyses revealed that patients treated with remdesivir were found to be associated with a significantly lower likelihood for AKI (OR: 0.40; 95% CI: 0.24–0.67, p < 0.001), no association was found for ALI (OR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.35–1.30, p = 0.241), while a trend towards an association of patients treated with remdesivir with a lower likelihood for in-hospital death was observed (OR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.32–1.01, p = 0.053). In conclusion, no safety concerns with regards to renal and liver outcomes were raised in patients with COVID-19 treated with remdesivir. Instead, there were signals of possible nephroprotection and improved in-hospital mortality.

INTRODUCTION Aggressive NK-cell leukemia ( ANKL) is a systemic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer (NK) cells frequently associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) which has been grouped under histiocytic/dendritic neoplasms in the 2008 WHO classification of hematopoietic neoplasms. Due to rarity of diagnosis, the current available literature is limited to case reports and case series. This population-based study using Surveillance Epidemiology and End result program (SEER) is the largest to explore demographic characteristics, survival patterns and long-term outcomes in patients with ANKL in the United States. MATERIALS AND METHODS We utilized SEER 18 November 2020 submission database to select all patients (> 1 years of age) diagnosed from 2000-2018 with ANKL using International Classification of Diseases for Oncology edition 3 (ICD-O-3) code of 9948/3. Patients were divided into various cohorts based on age (80 years), sex, race (Caucasians, African American, Asian/Pacific islander and American Indians/Alaska natives) and median household income of county of residence (< $ 50,000 vs > $50,000). We used SEER*stat to calculate age adjusted incidence rate using 2000 US standard population. Kaplan Meier curve was utilized to calculate 5-year overall survival. Cox proportional hazard model was used for multivariate analysis of factors associated with survival and p<0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS A total of 140 patients were identified with ANKL. The median age at diagnosis is 58 years. The crude, age-adjusted to 2000 US standard population and age-specific incidence rate of HCD in Unites states is < 1/100, 000 respectively. The incidence in males is 1.9 times that of females- 92 males (65.7%) and 48 females (34.2%). Between 2001-2018, minimum number of cases were diagnosed in 2010 (n=2).Out of the cohort, 107 patients were White (76.4%), 21 patients were Asian or Pacific islander (15 %), 9 patients were African Americans (6.4%) and 3 patients were American Indian/Alaska native (2.1%). The median overall survival was 7 months (95% CI; 0-16). Survival rates at 1year, 2 years and 5 years were found to be 45.3% , 37.1 % and 31.1% respectively [Figure 1]. 5 year overall survival rates are as follows- Whites ( 69.7% ), Blacks ( 63.1%), American Indian (59.9%), Asian or Pacific Islander ( 66.8%). On multivariate analysis, black race was associated with poor outcomes (p 0.008), whereas sex, income and age had no significant effect on cancer outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that ANKL is a rare hematological malignancy in general population with a poor median survival of less than one year. Males are twice more likely to be affected than females with poor outcomes in africo-americans.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a severe disorder of systemic immune dysregulation which can be primary or secondary to autoimmune disorders, malignancy, or infections. We hereby describe a case of a 23-year-old male with severe hepatitis along with pancytopenia and prolonged fever of unknown origin that developed HLH triggered by staphylococcal urinary tract infection. This is a discussion of this unusual disease and its presentation and the diagnostic difficulties which may be encountered in general clinical practice.

Background: Integrated 18F-FDG, PET-CT has shown somewhat variable sensitivity and specificity for nodal staging in tuberculosis endemic areas. This variation is mainly because PET scans show falsely increased 18F-FDG uptake in inflammatory nodes, which may be observed in lymph nodes containing calcification or showing higher attenuations than those of surrounding vessels on unenhanced CT scans. The AIM of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of PET-CT for mediastinal nodal staging in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in a tuberculosis-endemic country.