Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted disease surveillance systems globally, leading to reduced notifications of other infectious diseases. This study aims to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the infectious disease surveillance system in Klang district, Selangor state, Malaysia. Methods: Data on notifiable diseases from 2014 to 2022 were sourced from the Klang District Health Office. The 11 diseases with more than 100 notifications each were included in the study. For these 11 diseases, a negative binomial regression model was used to explore the effect of the pandemic on case notifications and registrations by year, and a quasi-Poisson regression model was used to explore the changes by week. Results: The results showed a reduction in the number of notifications and registrations for all 11 diseases combined during the pandemic compared with previous years. Changes between expected and observed notifications by week were heterogeneous across the diseases. Discussion: These findings suggest that restrictive public health and social measures in Klang district may have impacted the transmission of other infectious diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. The differential impact of the pandemic on disease notifications and reporting highlights the large ancillary effects of restrictive public health and social measures and the importance of building resilience into infectious disease surveillance systems.

Drowning is the third most common cause of accidental death in children. Various predictors for survival and neurological dysfunction include the age of victim, submersion time, salt versus fresh water, temperature of water, cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene, and time required to hospital arrival. Autonomic dysfunction, in particular heart rate variability in a critically ill patient, has been attributed to good neurological outcomes. We hereby describe a 10-year-old boy who accidentally drowned and developed a substantial heart rate variability with autonomic dysfunction. He was in the need for prolonged vasopressor support but eventually had a good neurological outcome.

Surgery for a symptomatic epiphrenic esophageal diverticulum (EED) typically involves a diverticulectomy with myotomy and partial fundoplication. A 54-year-old male patients presented with postprandial retrosternal pain and regurgitation. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan revealed an 8 × 6 × 7 cm left-sided EED. We planned the EED excision using the da Vinci Xi robot (Intuitive Surgical) from an abdominal transhiatal approach.The lower esophagus was looped, followed by the mobilization of the diverticulum and division of its neck using a robotic stapler. A 7-cm long esophagogastric myotomy was performed on the right side with a Toupet fundoplication. The total operative time was 240 minutes with a blood loss of 200 mL. An oral contrast study on postoperative day 1 showed no leak, and the patient was discharged the next day on an oral soft diet. The robotic transhiatal approach to treat EED is safe and may successfully overcome the difficulties of exposure and reach encountered in conventional laparoscopic surgery.

Objective: Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor-related leukoencephalopathy (CSF1R-L) is a rare adult-onset leukoencephalopathy. Reports of CSF1R-L patients from the Indian subcontinent remain limited. We aimed to report four patients with genetically confirmed CSF1R-L from four Asian Indian families and described their clinical, molecular, and radiological features. Methods: All patients underwent clinical examination, brain magnetic resonance imaging, and whole-exome sequencing to identify causative variants in the CSF1R gene. We also reviewed published reports of Indian patients with CSF1R-L. Results: The age at enrollment ranged from 34 to 40 years. The duration of symptoms ranged from 11 months to 2 years. The chief clinical phenotype in three patients was a rapidly evolving cognitive-behavioral syndrome combined with atypical parkinsonism, and asymmetrical spastic tetraparesis was observed in one patient. We identified four different variants (three missense variants and one in-frame deletion). Radiological findings revealed white matter involvement and diffusion restriction involving the subcortical white matter and pyramidal tracts. Conclusion We expand the literature on CSF1R-L patients from India by reporting four new cases.

Objective: To explore sleep patterns in individuals with essential tremor (ET) and essential tremor plus (ET-Plus) compared with healthy controls and assess differences between ET and ET-Plus, given the lack of established polysomnography (PSG) data on these groups and the potential for sleep disturbances to serve as clinical markers. Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, from November 2021 to August 2023 on 45 patients (26 ET, 19 ET-Plus) and 45 controls. Tremor severity was assessed using The Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale (TETRAS) and Fahn‐Tolosa‐Marin Clinical Rating Scale (FTMRS). Sleep symptoms were assessed via the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Mayo Sleep Questionnaire, restless legs syndrome questionnaire, Berlin questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale 7, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. All patients and controls underwent overnight video PSG. Sleep scoring was manually performed by a trained sleep research technician and the first author following the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2017) guidelines, with data analyzed using R studio. Results: Compared with ET-Plus patients, ET patients had a younger onset age (46.8±11.1 years versus 30.8±16.7 years, respectively). Compared with ET patients, ET-Plus patients had higher TETRAS and FTMRS scores (p<0.005). Compared with controls, both ET patients and ET-Plus patients presented poorer sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, and restless legs syndrome symptoms. PSG findings supported these clinical observations, showing an elevated apnea‒hypopnea index, reduced total sleep time, prolonged REM latency, decreased sleep efficiency, increased N1 stage duration, and reduced N2/N3 durations and percentages in patients versus controls. Conclusion The study highlights significant sleep architecture abnormalities in both ET and ET-Plus patients compared with healthy controls, with no differences between the ET groups.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a multi-level airway disease, and the specific site of obstruction may influence associated conditions such as eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This study aimed to explore the relationship between OSA, ETD, acid reflux, and the anatomical site of obstruction. Methods: Participants were assessed using validated questionnaires for OSA, ETD, and reflux symptoms. The site of upper airway collapse was determined objectively using apneagraphy or sleep MRI. Acid reflux symptoms were evaluated using a standardized reflux symptom questionnaire, and 24-hour pH monitoring was done when indicated. ETD was assessed both subjectively and objectively through the Toynbee maneuver. Results: Sixty-three individuals completed the evaluation. The mean age was 40.4 years, and the mean BMI was 28.1 kg/m2. Retroglossal obstruction was observed in 76.1% (48/63), while 23.9% (15/63) had retropalatal obstruction. ETD was diagnosed in 53% of participants, and GERD in 38% by objective testing. A statistically significant association was found between retroglossal collapse and complete ETD (p=0.02). However, no significant link was noted between the obstruction site and laryngopharyngeal reflux or partial ETD. Additionally, salivary pepsin levels showed no correlation with reflux (p=0.412). Conclusions: OSA is frequently accompanied by ETD and GERD. Notably, retroglossal obstruction appears to be significantly associated with complete ETD, suggesting a potential site-specific impact. These findings underscore the importance of anatomical localization in understanding OSA-related comorbidities and warrant further investigation in larger multicenter studies.

Background/Aims: Accurate assessment of disease activity is crucial for effective management and treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). This study evaluated the correlation between clinical, endoscopic, and histologic measures of disease activity in UC. Methods: Clinical, biochemical, endoscopic, and histologic disease activity was studied in 347 patients with UC. Agreements among various histologic classification systems, namely the Geboes Score (GS), Continuous GS, Nancy Index (NI), and Robarts Histopathology Index (RHI), were analyzed. The predictive accuracy of fecal calprotectin (FC) for endoscopic and histologic remission was assessed. Results: We demonstrate a fair to moderate correlation between clinical, endoscopic, and histologic measures of disease activity in UC. There was a robust concordance among GS, Continuous GS, NI, and RHI in distinguishing between patients in histologic remission or activity. The NI detected 75% of patients who met the remission criteria according to the RHI, whereas the RHI identified all patients in remission as defined by the NI. FC levels below 150 μg/g had >70% accuracy in predicting endoscopic remission. FC levels below 150 μg/g showed ≥80% accuracy, and FC levels below 100 μg/g demonstrated ≥ 85% accuracy in predicting histologic remission, regardless of the scoring index applied. Elevated FC levels were associated with both acute and chronic inflammatory infiltrates in biopsy samples. Conclusions FC is a reliable predictor of histologic remission, with higher accuracy at lower thresholds. The GS, Continuous GS, NI, and RHI demonstrate comparable performance. FC could help stratify patients’ need for colonoscopy for the assessment of endoscopic and histologic remission.