Recent Publications

A new coronavirus infection, COVID-19, has recently emerged, and has caused a global pandemic along with an international public health emergency. Currently, no licensed vaccines are available for COVID-19. The identification of immunodominant epitopes for both B- and T-cells that induce protective responses in the host is crucial for effective vaccine design. Computational prediction of potential epitopes might significantly reduce the time required to screen peptide libraries as part of emergent vaccine design. In our present study, we used an extensive immunoinformatics-based approach to predict conserved immunodominant epitopes from the proteome of SARS-CoV-2. (Sumit Mukherjee, Dmitry Tworowski, Rajesh Detroja, Sunanda Biswas Mukherjee, Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern)

This report shows that angioedema of the hands and feet, in patients with CSU, can mimic arthritis/arthralgia. This can lead to unnecessary and ineffective treatment and to a delay of effective treatment. The clinical implications of these findings include that patients with CSU who report episodes of joint pain should be assessed for recurrent angioedema and treated appropriately.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health challenge, affecting as much as 8 to 18% of the world population. Identifying childhood risk factors for future CKD may help clinicians make early diagnoses and initiation of preventive interventions for CKD and its attendant comorbidities as well as monitoring for complications. The purpose of this review is to describe childhood risk factors that may predict development of overt kidney disease later in life. 

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is associated with decreased appetite. The ghrelin hormone is one of the major regulators of appetite. This study evaluates appetite and ghrelin levels in patients with IDA, to investigate the change in appetite and ghrelin following intravenous iron therapy.

The aortic valve (AV) is the most commonly affected valve in valvular heart diseases (VHDs). The objective of the study is to identify microRNA (miRNA) molecules expressed in VHDs and the differential expression patterns of miRNA in AVs with either calcification or rheumatism etiologies. (Nofar Asulin, Natalia Volinsky, Liza Grosman-Rimon, Erez Kachel, Leonid Sternik, Ehud Raanani, Roman Altshuler, Inbar Ben-Zvi, Nufar Margalit,  Shemy Carasso,  Izhak Haviv, Offer Amir)

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is underutilized globally despite evidence of clinical benefit. Major obstacles for wider adoption include distance from the rehabilitation center, travel time, and interference with daily routine. Tele-cardiac rehabilitation (tele-CR) can potentially address some of these limitations, enabling patients to exercise in their home environment or community.

Evaluates the clinical and physiological outcomes as well as adherence to tele-CR in patients with low cardiovascular risk and to assess exercise capacity, determined by an exercise stress test, using a treadmill before and following the 6-month intervention.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is more frequent in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared with age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. SLE is an autoimmune disease that is more prevalent in women (9:1). Women tend to develop CVD in post-menopausal years; however, women with SLE may develop endothelial dysfunction and CVD at a younger age in the pre-menopausal years. 

Studies the endothelial function of adult-onset SLE patients from the north of Israel (the Galilee region) and to determine whether modern management (including biological treatments) changes the risk of developing CVD.

Upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are prevalent among patients after -bariatric surgeries. Gastroscopy is an important procedure to investigate symptoms. Our primary aim was to evaluate the yield, effectiveness and safety of gastroscopy procedure obtained in a 3-months period after bariatric operation for exploring upper GI symptoms origin. (Amir Mari, Tawfik Khoury, George Daud, Ahmad Lubany, Mohammad Safadi, Wisam Sbeit, Rinaldo Pellicano, Mahmud Mahamid)

Reported by Avi Peretz, President of the Israel Society for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (ISCLS).

White blood cells (WBCs) play a major role in inflammation, with effects on the vascular wall, the microvascular blood flow, and endothelial cells and endothelial function. Previous studies have shown that a high WBC count may increase the risk of cardiovascular complication rate and mortality after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between preoperative WBC count and the post-CABG clinical outcome.

A walking blood bank (WBB) refers to the use of fellow combatants for battlefield blood donation. This requires pretesting combatants for infectious diseases and blood type. A fundamental prerequisite for this technique is that the donating soldier will suffer minimal physiological and mental impact. The purpose of the current study is to assess the effect of blood shedding on battlefield performance.

The airborne combat search and rescue unit (CSAR) has successfully implemented a low titer group O whole blood (LTOWB) program for the pre-hospital treatment of bleeding patients, and as its experience grows this product will be made available to other units and in civilian hospitals.

Congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) can cause significant neurologic manifestations and other untoward sequelae. Neither the current epidemiology nor the disease severity of CT in Israel is known.

Evaluates the performance of Influ A + B K-SeT®, a rapid influenza antigen detection kit, in order to determine whether its implementation as a point-of-care test in the emergency room (ER) is justified.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a major cause of chronic liver disease. Several extrahepatic manifestations have been reported in relation to NAFLD. However, data regarding pancreatobiliary manifestation are scarce. This study aims to explore the association of pancreatobiliary manifestation with NAFLD.