Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) are not obligate pathogens and generally do not cause disease or get transmitted from person to person they are opportunistic organisms that cause disease in immunocompromised individuals. They most commonly cause skin and soft tissue infections, lymphadenitis and lung infections.

Background: CAT and SGRQ are two health related quality of life questioners validated for application in patients with COPD. Our purpose is to study the correlation of these questioners in COPD patients considering separate features of disease including symptom, activity, impact and total score.

Material and Method: Between December 2014 and December 2015 validated Farsi translation of CAT and SGRQ were administered to patients with clinically proven COPD in referral center of Masih Daneshvari hospital, Tehran-Iran. The components of SGRQ score including symptom, activity, impact and total scores were calculated using excel based SGRQ calculator. Informed consent was obtained from patients. CAT questions similar to SGRQ were categorized into symptom (question number 1 to 3), activity (question number 4 and 5), and impact (question number 6 to 8), based on the meaning and concept of the questions. All data was processed by spearman correlation coefficient analysis using SPSS software version 22.

Results: Ninety nine patients [73 male (73.7%) and 26 female (26.3%)] with COPD were studied. Mean age was 57.46 ± 12.17 years old (31-87). The correlation between CAT and SGRQ in all components of questioners including symptom (0.792), activity (r=0.657), impact (r=0.467) and total score (r=0.673) was significant (p< 0.001).

Conclusion: Total scores of Farsi translation of CAT and SGRQ correlated significantly as well as the subdivided questions including symptom, activity and impact. Despite less number of questions, CAT questionnaire is able to reliably assess the different aspects of COPD patients.

Pleural effusion associated with bacterial pneumonia, lung abscess, or bronchiectasis is a parapneumonic effusion. An empyema is pus in the pleural space. The morbidity and mortality in patients with parapneumonic effusion are higher than in patients with pneumonia alone.

It is a cross-sectional observational study of 50 cases with parapneumonic effusion and empyema coming to tertiary care center, previously diagnosed outside or diagnosed on arrival over a period of 2 years (August 2014 - September 2016) with the aim to study their clinical profile.

In the present study, we found that patients have varied clinical symptoms mimicking pneumonia. Among cases from all age group studied, 66% (n-33) had CAP, 30% (n-15) had HAP and 4% (n-2) had VAP. Patients with comorbidities, tobacco and alcohol intake were more prone for developing the disease. 42% (n-21) had complicated parapneumonic effusion and 10% (n-5) had empyema. The overall cure rate was 80% (n-40); surgery was required in 4% (n-2) of patients while 12% (n-6) succumbed during the disease course. We found that 9.1% deaths incurred in patients of CAP whereas death amongst HAP were up to 13.3%. Mortality was highest amongst patients of VAP with parapneumonic effusion. Culture positive pleural fluid grew the following microorganisms- Acinetobacter baumannii (2%), Escherichia coli (2%), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4%), Peptostreptococcus (2%) with multidrug resistance pattern.

The important factors related to poor outcome amongst complicated pleural effusions were mixed bacterial infection with multidrug resistance, poor response to higher antibiotics, presence of bacteraemia and septic shock.

TB and HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) co-infection is one of the public health issues. TB is one of the main life-threatening infection for HIV-infected people whether the status of enrollment to the anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, and a cause of death among these people. The risk of getting TB of HIV-not infected people is 5-10%, but of HIV-infected people it increases up to 50%.

Even Mongolia is the low HIV prevalent country, the HIV, AIDS and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) has increasing trend. By 2017, totally 52 cases of HIV co-infections have been registered of which 6 were DR-TB cases. Out of these cases 50% (3) were aged 45-54 years old, 33% (2) were 25-44 aged people, 17% (1) were 25-34 years old people. But in terms of sex, all were males. Out of registered 6 cases 66% (4) were cases received the first-line TB drugs treatment prior to enrollment in ?? DR-TB treatment. According to DR-TB treatment results, 67% (4) were died, 16.5% (1) were cured, and 16.5% (1) were relapse cases. The mortality among HIV-infected cases that getting DR-TB is high, thus the clinical observation made among cases with the specific clinical manifestations, weak treatment results in order to provide information on the treatment follow-up monitoring and diagnosis for clinical doctors.