Prevalence of hepatitis C infection and risk factors in hospitalized diabetic patients: results of a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Although there may exist a nosocomial risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, this risk has not been fully investigated thus far and its magnitude is unknown. The aim of this multicenter cross-sectional study was to evaluate the prevalence of, and risk factors for, hepatitis C infection in consecutive hospitalized patients with diabetes and to assess the nosocomial risk and magnitude of HCV infection in these patients.

Patients And Methods: Consecutive hospitalized patients with diabetes seen in 11 French hepatogastroenterology and diabetology departments were studied.

[Listeria monocytogenes liver abscess. In a diabetic patient].

Most liver abscesses are caused by Enterobacteriaceae, sometimes associated with anaerobes. Listeriosis is an exceptional cause of liver abscess, usually in a context of disseminated infections. We report the case of a diabetic woman who had liver abscess due to Listeria monocytogenes.

[Prolonged delta antigen in the blood without occurrence of anti-delta antibodies in 2 immunosuppressed patients].

Delta coinfection or superinfection in a patient with chronic hepatitis B is characterized by a very transient delta antigenemia and an early seroconversion of IgM to IgG anti-delta. The persistent expression of delta antigen in the liver can be associated with acute, severe, or chronic hepatitis. In our two patients, delta antigenemia persisted respectively 10 weeks and 14 months with aggravation of liver histopathologic lesions without seroconversion.

[Acute rheumatic fever in New Caledonia. Clinical and epidemiological aspects].

Rheumatic fever is frequently encountered in tropical countries. Its distribution, incidence and consequences, notably on the heart, were studied in Nouvelle-Calédonie (South Pacific) on the basis of 76 patients with acute attack. The data were compared with those obtained in controls of the same age, sex and ethnic origin.

T cell subsets in rheumatic fever in New Caledonia.

T cell subsets were evaluated in 76 New-Caledonian patients with recent onset rheumatic fever. A significant but modest decrease of OKT4+ cells and increase of OKT8+ cells was noted, leading to a decreased OKT4/OKT8 ratio. These changes were observed irrespective of the presence of carditis.