Diagnosing Crohn's Disease in Presumed Cryptoglandular Perianal Fistulas: An Expert Delphi Consensus on Early Identification of Patients at Risk of Crohn's Disease in Perianal Fistulas (PREFAB).

Background: The aim of this Delphi study was to reach consensus on a new clinical decision tool to help identify or exclude Crohn's disease (CD) in patients with perianal fistula(s) (PAF).

Methods: A panel of international experts in the field of proctology/Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) were invited to participate. In the first round (electronic survey), participants were asked to anonymously provide their opinion probing 1) the relevance and use of clinical characteristics suggestive of underlying CD, 2) the use of faecal calprotectin (FCP) for screening for CD and 3) on the diagnostic work-up for CD in PAF patients with raised clinical suspicion.

Virulence and Replicative Fitness of HIV-1 Transmitted/Founder (T/F) Viruses Harbouring Drug Resistance-Associated Mutation.

The biological characteristics of early transmitted/founder (T/F) variants are crucial factors for viral transmission and constitute key determinants for the development of better therapeutics and vaccine strategies. The present study aimed to generate T/F viruses and to characterize their biological properties. For this purpose, we constructed 18 full-length infectious molecular clones (IMCs) of HIV from recently infected infants.

Predictive Markers of Incident Tuberculosis in Close Contacts in Brazil and India.

There are insufficient predictors of progression to tuberculosis among contacts. A case-control study within RePORT-Brazil matched 20 QuantiFERON-positive progressors and 40 non-progressors by sex, age, and exposure duration. Twenty-nine cytokines were measured by Luminex in QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus supernatants collected at baseline and evaluated using machine learning for tuberculosis prediction.

Predictive metabolite signatures for risk of progression to active TB from QuantiFERON supernatants of household contacts of TB patients.

The identification of individuals with the greatest risk of progression to active tuberculosis (TB) disease from the huge reservoir of () infected individuals continues to remain an arduous ascent in the global effort to control TB. In a two-year prospective study, we analysed metabolic profiles in the unstimulated and TB antigen stimulated QuantiFERON supernatants of 14 healthy household contacts (HHCs) who progressed to TB disease (Progressors) and 14 HHCs who remained healthy (Non-Progressors). We identified 21 significantly dysregulated metabolites in the TB antigen-stimulated QuantiFERON supernatants of Progressors, of which the combination of Malic acid and N-Arachidonoylglycine had maximum AUC of 0.