Studies on West Nile virus infection in Egypt Soliman, Atef; Mohareb, Emad; Salman, Diaa ...
Journal of infection and public health,
2010, 2010-00-00, 20100101, 2010-01-01, Volume:
3, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Summary We conducted a prospective cohort study to determine prevalence and incidence of West Nile virus (WNV) in Egypt. Cohorts were established in Upper (UE), Middle (ME), and Lower (LE) Egypt. ...Additionally, a cross-sectional serosurvey was performed in the North (NS) and South (SS) Sinai. Cohorts were bled initially and 1 year later. Sera were tested for WNV-IgG by ELISA and positive sera were confirmed by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Sentinel chicken flocks placed in the above sites were bled monthly for virus isolation and serology. Mosquitoes were collected monthly from the above sites and tested for WNV. Human seroprevalence rates were 35%, 27%, 14% , 1% and 7% in UE, ME, LE, NS and SS, respectively. Seroconversion rates were 18%, 17% and 7% in UE, ME and LE, respectively; 49% of the seroconverters reported undiagnosed febrile illness. Sentinel chickens showed seroconversion in all study sites. WNV was isolated from both sentinel chickens and mosquitoes in cohort sites. This study demonstrates that WNV was actively circulating during the study period in different areas in Egypt and causing febrile illness in a considerable proportion of individuals in the study sites.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Illustrated case report describing the use of commercial honey in the treatment of post-excision malignant melanoma ulceration. The strategy used in Qatar to treat a wound on the foot of a 75 ...year-old Arab man with diabetes is described, and the wound-healing properties of honey are discussed. 28 references
Culture-negative infective endocarditis (CNIE) is a diagnostic dilemma. The study was carried out to estimate the prevalence of CNIE among definite IE cases, to describe the epidemiologic and ...clinical characteristics of CNIE patients and to diagnose the microbial etiology of CNIE using molecular and serological techniques.
Sixty-five definite IE cases were enrolled in a prospective observational study between January and December 2010. CNIE cases were tested by 16SrRNA and seminested PCR for 35 blood samples, serological tests and the study of ten valve tissue specimens.
CNIE constituted 39 (60%) cases. The mean age of CNIE patients was 31years. Male to female ratio was 2.9:1. Healthcare associated IE accounted for 15.4%, native valve IE for 66.7% and intravenous drug abuse for 20.5% of cases. The mitral valve was the most frequently involved (56.4%). Out of 39 CNIE cases, seminested blood PCR detected 12 cases (ten Staphylococci, two Streptococci). Five cases were reactive by serology (three Bartonella, one Coxiella, and one Brucella). Six cases were positive by analysis of valve tissue (three Staphylococci, three Streptococci). The combined results of all diagnostic tools decreased the percentage of non-identified causes of CNIE from 60% to 24.6%.
Our data underlined the role of collecting blood culture before starting antibiotics and the role of seminested PCR in the diagnosis of conventional causes of CNIE. The importance of serology to identify non conventional causes was also highlighted.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This prospective cohort study aimed to assess the influence of stem cell therapy (SCT) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) by using the SF-36 v2 and to elucidate the influence of objective ...clinical variables on subjective HRQOL.
The study included 100 chronic liver disease patients (50 received SCT, and 50 received supportive medical treatment (SMT)). Both groups completed a modified SF-36 v2 form before therapy and at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals. Fifty healthy Egyptian volunteers were enrolled in the study and completed the SF-36 v2 form once.
Both SCT and SMT groups showed significantly lower pretherapy SF 36 v2 scores compared with healthy volunteers. In SCT-treated patients, limited complications were encountered (SF-36 v2 scores showed significant improvement in all domains throughout the follow-up period) compared with the deterioration shown by SMT patients after therapy. A significant association was detected between SF-36 v2 scores and laboratory data in SCT patients during the first month after therapy. The grade of ascites improved during the follow-up in SCT compared with SMT patients. The mean survival time was 277.56 days (95% CI, 246.217 to 308.903) for SMT and 359.300 days (95% CI, 353.022 to 365.578) for SCT patients (log rank, 0.00). Stem cell-treated patients showed no malignancies.
SCT positively affects health-related quality of life in cirrhosis patients. The survival rate was significantly improved after SCT.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper is introduced to explore higher education institutions' practices and contents in the Facebook platform in Abu Dhabi during the early period of Covid-19 to gain insights into how and why ...they are utilizing these platforms. It helps in identifying internal opportunities for improving the development of digital content. The paper extracted four academic parameters that shed the light on the content of messages created by public and private universities which were: Promoting online teaching, promoting students service and support, promoting positive vibes, and promoting Covid-19 issues. Promoting positive vibes represents the highest number of posts especially for private universities.
Differentiated thyroid cancers are the most common endocrine malignancy and include three main entities: papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC), and Hürthle cell ...carcinoma (HCC). Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common histologic subtype. Was to review different sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) techniques in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer. We also will compare the detection rates and sensitivity of the different detection methods in these patients and assessment of feasibility and side effects of the different techniques. This study was a cross sectional study, Surgical Oncology Department of National Cancer Institute, Cairo University and Damietta Cancer Center, Ministry of Health and Population. Radionuclide technique (lymphoscintigraphy and gamma probe scanning) was successful in 94.6 % (35/37) of the patients as shown in table 4 and relation between SLN and identification by gamma probe. In the 37 patients, the intraoperative frozen biopsy indicated that 22 patients were experiencing SLN metastases, while post-operative routine pathological examination was able to diagnose three additional patients with lymph node metastases.
In this paper a new design approach is introduced to significantly improve the filter selectivity of lumped band-pass filters, BPF. The filter design is based on an admittance inverter circuit that ...employs a parallel resonant circuit. The admittance inverter proposed in this paper is used to introduce finite frequency zeros at selected frequencies whether below or above pass-band. The design technique introduced not only controls and improves the selectivity of the filter with only few added elements, it also serves to improve the symmetry of the magnitude and group delay response of the filter of interest. To illustrate the design procedure, a top-C coupled filter based on a 5th order low pass Chebyshev prototype is used as reference. The filter is then modified to employ the proposed admittance inverter circuit. The simulation results verify the significant improvement in magnitude and group delay response compared to the standard top-C coupled design.
In this paper, a new design approach is introduced for the design of very wideband band-pass filters with extended stop-bands. The approach is based on interleaving two low-pass filter sections with ...a high-pass filter section. The proposed approach is applied to the realization of a wideband filter in the frequency range from 0.8 GHz to 2.2 GHz. Open circuit stubs from the low-pass filter sections are used to realize finite stop-band transmission zeros. The filter is analyzed using circuit model and the results were verified using full electromagnetic simulations as well as actual measurements. The simulations and measurements show that the proposed design approach results in a wideband filter with very low insertion loss in the pass-band and a very wide stop-band with stop-band rejection of 25 dB or more.
In this paper, a new computationally efficient frequency-domain transmission-line matrix (FDTLM) approach is introduced. The new approach combines the superior features of both the time- and the ...frequency-domain transmission-line matrix (TLM). It is based on a steady-state analysis in the frequency domain using transient analysis techniques and, hence, is referred to as the transient frequency-domain transmission-line matrix (TFDTLM). On the contrary, of all other frequency-domain techniques, the TFDTLM has the advantage of being able to extract all the frequency-domain information in the frequency range of interest from only one simulation. This special feature of the TFDTLM makes it computationally more efficient as compared to any other FDTLM method. The TFDTLM employs digital filter approximations for modeling wave propagation in inhomogeneous frequency dispersive media. The filters can be thought of as some type of compensation equivalent to the stubs in a time-domain transmission-line matrix (TD TLM), yet more accurate and more capable of modeling a wide variety of frequency-dependent material parameters. In addition, the TFDTLM has proven to have superior dispersion behavior in modeling lossy inhomogeneous media as compared to the TD TLM.
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