Western Desert region between Cairo and Fayoum in Egypt is a geologically interesting area due to its active seismicity status and the continuous bidirectional urban expansions ongoing northward and ...southward growth. This work aims to develop a geological model of the region by combining magnetic intensity data (aeromagnetic) and potential field data (airborne gravity) with magnetotelluric (MT) data to offer decision-makers an additional evaluation tool for long-term future planning. Applying a number of filters to aerial gravity and magnetic data allowed us to calculate the subsurface density distribution and structure of the area between Cairo and Fayoum. In addition, the surface of the crust was imaged down to a depth of 6 km using a 3-D inversion of gravity data. Magnetotelluric data were gathered at eight locations over the NS-extended Cairo-Fayoum Road profile. MT data were inverted in 2-D to generate a resistivity model that defines the subsurface structure of the researched region. The subsurface geometry in the MT-derived resistivity model agrees with the results of airborne potential measurements, and no consideration was given to any faults that may have been undetected from the potential maps. Long-term seismological observations indicated that the likely active sources of earthquakes are limited to the recognized main faults and that the ongoing “1185 buildings” construction project did not and will not cause unanticipated seismicity. The paper concludes that urban growth is secure so long as the earthquake codes are rigorously considered while planning civil projects. The northern study region must be regularly monitored for induced seismicity. On the Cairo-Fayoum Road's western side, the middle sector of the study area is the safest place for future civil developments.
Nine Magnetotelluric stations and 198 Land-Magnetic points were conducted within reclamation regions at the western and southwestern areas of the New Sphinx City, Egypt. The main target is to explore ...the deep groundwater aquifer (Nubian Aquifer), and its reserves. This was interpreted with integrated data available from thirteen water wells within the studied area. Their depths range from 160 to 773 m. We noticed that the wells don’t reach the Nubian Aquifer and the groundwater in the area comes from the Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous, the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene Limestone, and the Oligo-Miocene aquifers, which contain brackish/saline water. The groundwater table ranges between 128-170 m from the topographic-controlled ground surface. Structurally, the area is dissected by two major thrust faults trending in the NE-SW direction, while there is one major normal fault trending in the NW-SE direction. The results showed that the basement relief ranges between -2250 to -4650 m below mean sea level. The Nubian Aquifer extends through the central region within the area according to the results of Nine Magnetotelluric data. It is bounded by the two inverted faults within the Kattaniya inverted basin which is gradually thinning in the southward direction to disappear completely at the Gindi basin. It is partitioned into two units; the upper one was found at an average depth range between -1760 to -2245 m with an average thickness of about 485 m, while the lower unit depth ranges between -2800 to -3825 m with an average thickness of about 1025 m.
Background
Detection of ‘spontaneous’ portosystemic collateral veins (PSCV) serves as an important tool in diagnosing portal hypertension (PTHN) and predicting prognosis. Multidetector computed ...tomography (MDCT) imaging is noninvasive and allows accurate assessment of variceal site and size. So, this study was conducted to assess the role of MDCT in predicting, detecting and grading gastroesophageal varices in correlation with endoscopy in cirrhotic patients in relation to other portosystemic collaterals.
Methods
Analytical cross-sectional prospective study was conducted on 100 cirrhotic patients. All patients were subjected to history taking, upper gastrointestinal endoscopic assessment, and triphasic CT or contrast-enhanced CT assessment of abdomen and pelvis.
Results
Patients who had esophageal varices in MDCT show a statistically significant difference (
p
= 0.016) with its endoscopic grading. There was good agreement between endoscopy and MDCT in diagnosing grade of esophageal varices as
k
= 0.882. The presence of ascites, splenic size, and esophageal vein diameter serve as clinically significant predictors of esophageal varices. Splenic size showed a significant difference according to endoscopic grades of EV (esophageal varices) as
p
= 0.031 as patients with no varices had splenic size of (15.9 ± 1.4) cm, patients with grade I had a mean splenic size of (15.2 ± 8.7) cm, patients with grade II had mean splenic size of (16.9 ± 1.8) cm and patients with grade III had mean splenic size of (18 ± 4.2) cm, while other veins diameters showed increase with advanced grades of EV but with statistically insignificant differences as
p
> 0.05.
Conclusions
Multidetector CT features of the presence of PSCVs, splenic size, and ascites are accurate predictors of PTHN in either EVs presence or absence. MDCT can be an excellent alternative for patients who are contraindicated for endoscopy. Moreover, it can be potential screening tool for early detection of esophageal varices in very early stage of chronic liver disease and in the early care of patient with varices. MDCT remains the most applicable noninvasive diagnostic tool for patients with portosystemic collaterals.
Background
Initial reports from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic described children as being less susceptible to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) than adults. ...Later on, a severe and novel pediatric disorder termed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) emerged. Pediatric patients with SARS-CoV-2 are at risk for critical illness with severe pulmonary COVID-19 and MIS-C. Both are described as two distinct conditions, and the differentiation between them was the scope of many studies. In this report from Egypt, we will describe two unique pediatric cases presented by combined manifestations of severe pulmonary COVID-19 and MIS-C.
Case presentation
Two patients presented with severe pulmonary COVID-19 evident by pulmonary symptoms, signs, and advanced CO-RADS stage in lung CT were simultaneously fulfilling the clinical criteria of MIS-C including fever, multi-system affection, increased inflammatory markers in addition to the proved COVID-19 by positive serologic tests for SARS-CoV-2 but PCR was negative. Both patients responded well to immune-modulation therapy by IVIG and steroids and discharged well under closed follow-up.
Conclusions
Although it is debatable to present simultaneously, MIS-C should be considered in patients presenting with typical clinical findings and concerns for pulmonary COVID-19 once the criteria for MIS-C diagnosis is fulfilled. Starting treatment without delay can favor better prognosis.
Background
We recently adopted a guideline for chronic cough in children in the Egyptian health system. Adapting clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) to the local healthcare setting is a valid ...alternative to de-novo development that can improve their uptake and implementation without demanding a substantial drain on resources. The objective of this study was to adapt evidence-based recommendations from global high-quality CPGs for children with a chronic cough to suit the Egyptian healthcare context.
Methods
We followed the Adapted ADAPTE methodological framework for guideline adaptation. This process includes three phases: set-up, adaptation, and finalization. A guideline adaptation group (GAG) and an external review group including clinical content experts and methodologists conducted the process.
Results
The GAG adapted 10 sections of recommendations from three original CPG(s) including (i) the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) 2006–2020, (ii) the European Respiratory Society (ERS) 2019, (iii) the Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology (KAAACI) 2018. A set of CPG implementation tools was added to enhance implementability including an algorithm, a slide presentation for clinical diagnosis, investigations and treatment of chronic cough, patient education, and online resources.
Conclusion
The adapted CPG provides pediatricians and related healthcare workers with applicable evidence-based recommendations for chronic cough in children in Egypt. The project also highlighted the utility of Adapted ADAPTE and the invaluable collaboration between the clinical and methodological experts for the adaptation of pediatric national guidelines.
Background
We recently adapted a guideline for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in children to the Egyptian health system. Adaptation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to the local ...healthcare context is a valid alternative to de novo development that can upgrade their application without enforcing a major burden on resources. The objective of this manuscript is to elucidate diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of CAP as well as methods used for the adaptation process to produce the 1st National Guideline for Community-Acquired Pneumonia in children in Egypt using Adapted ADAPTE method. The full process was described extensively with all three phases of set up, adaptation, and finalization. An adaptation group and an external review including clinical content experts and methodologists conducted the process.
Results
The authors adapted 10 principal categories of recommendations from three source Clinical Practice Guidelines. Recommendations incorporate; common clinical manifestations, indications for hospitalization and intensive care unit admission, indications for laboratory investigations and radiology in diagnosis, choice of empiric antibiotic therapy in the outpatient and hospitalized children with non-complicated CAP and the duration of therapy, the role of influenza antiviral therapy, follow-up anticipated response to therapy, management of non-responding pneumonia, criteria of safe discharge, and prevention of CAP. Many tools were gathered and established to improve implement ability containing two clinical algorithms for management of non-complicated CAP and for non-responding pneumonia in children, pathway for assessment of severity of CAP in primary care facilities, medication tables, simplified Arabic patient information, PowerPoint slide presentation lecture for management of CAP, and online resources.
Conclusion
The final clinical guideline supports pediatricians and related healthcare workers with evidence-based applicable guidance for managing community-acquired pneumonia in Egypt. This work demonstrated the efficiency of Adapted ADAPTE and highlighted the importance of a cooperative clinical and methodological professional group for adaptation of national guidelines.
Background
Outbreak of a novel corona virus was reported in China on December 2019. Sooner, a global spread was reported and WHO announced a public health emergency of international concern and then ...declared it as a pandemic. Egypt announced the first case on February 14, 2020, and since that time, cases are increasing.
Main body
There is increasing need to simplify the practical approach for pediatricians and other health care workers in a step wise manner; how to deal with COVID-19 cases, how to care for the newborn babies as regards to breastfeeding, and how to ensure safety of health care workers assess their risk of infection and management accordingly. A national practical approach guideline was prepared including case definition, diagnosis, and management of pediatric COVID-19 suspected and confirmed cases in an algorithmic pattern.
Conclusion
Up to the current knowledge, this is a simple and practical guidance for clinical management of children during the current pandemic.
The prompt access to accurate ground-based geomagnetic data is becoming a more crucial requirement. Misallat (29° 30′ 52″ N, 30° 53′ 22″ E) and Abu Simbel (22° 29′ 22″ N, 31° 32′ 41″ E) magnetic ...observatories of Egypt are filling a wide regional gap in the global distribution of geomagnetic observatories. However, both observatories suffer from continuous sources of noise that lead to a minimization of their contribution to geomagnetism. The industrial zone in the north of Misallat observatory resulted in convoluting the observatory records with high-frequency noise that appear, due to aliasing, as low-frequency signals imposed on the natural events of the magnetosphere. On the other side, spikes are frequently occurring in the raw data at Abu Simbel observatory. The goal of this research is to provide a variety of selected filtering approaches for denoising data in both Egyptian geomagnetic observatories and to evaluate their reliability after processing. The applied methods comprise frequency and time domain filters, in addition to the wavelet transform denoising procedure. We applied all of the methods to a selected 1-day sample of typical data from both observatories. The noise is efficiently reduced. The filtered data from the different denoising techniques were ranked according to the root mean square deviation (RMSD) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to evaluate the quality of the filtered data. Furthermore, one-day data samples of a quiet day and a stormy day are processed and then compared with simultaneous INTERMAGNET records from Tamanrasset, Algeria and Pedeli, Greece. So, we are currently able to process the raw data from both magnetic observatories while keeping them as useful as possible for all research and application aspects.
Display omitted
•Data from both geomagnetic observatories of Egypt are investigated.•Characteristic noises are identified at the observatories.•Different Frequency domain and time domain filters are applied to data samples.•The filtered records are correlated with data provided by INTERMAGNET, TAM, PEG.
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