Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune demyelinating neurodegenerative central nervous system disorder. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prophylactic effect exerted by the ...one‐time intraperitoneal injection of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) 1 × 106 and 14‐day intraperitoneal injection of methylprednisolone (MP) 40 mg/kg in an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). EAE was induced by intradermal injection of rat spinal cord homogenate with complete Freund's adjuvant in Swiss mice. Results of MSCs and MP‐treated mice showed a significantly milder disease and fewer clinical scores compared to control mice. They suppressed tumor necrosis factor‐alpha and myeloperoxidase and increased interleukin 10, whereas thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and nitric oxide brain contents were reduced to comparable levels between treatment groups. Brain content of GSH was significantly higher in MSCs‐treated mice than control mice. It is evident that MSCs have relevant prophylactic effect in an animal model of MS and might represent a valuable tool for stem cell based therapy in MS.
Negative effects on growth indices had been reported in children treated with interferon for chronic viral hepatitis. Forty chronic hepatitis C virus-infected adolescents, 12-17 years of age, were ...treated with sofosbuvir/daclatasvir therapy for 12 weeks. The intent-to-treat sustained virologic response rate at 12 weeks after end of treatment was 39/40 (97.5%). Unlike interferon-based therapy, we did not detect significant negative effects on linear growth or weight. Contrarily, a trend to increased appetite and insignificant weight gain was observed, but further larger studies are needed to confirm. See Video-Abstract, http://links.lww.com/ASAIO/A381.
The contraceptive use profile is poorly understood in some Gulf Arabian countries, including Saudi Arabia. The present study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices related to ...contraceptive use among women of childbearing age in Jazan city, Saudi Arabia. An observational, analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among a random sample of 450 women in Jazan city. The data were obtained through personal interviews using a questionnaire that included questions on women's level of knowledge about contraception methods, their attitudes towards contraception methods, and their practices. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics techniques using the SPSS program. The prevalence of ever having used contraceptives was significantly different according to age group, job status, children ever born, and the number of pregnancies (
< 0.05 for all). On the other hand, the prevalence of desire to use the contraceptives in the future was high, at 70.9%, with a 95% CI 66.5-74.9. It differed significantly according to age group and job status (
< 0.05 for both). The most familiar and usable types of contraceptives were pills (36.3%) and intrauterine devices (24.4%). When asked their reasons for using contraceptives, 53.8% of participants cited child spacing and 21.8% improving child health. Logistic regression revealed that the use of contraception among women was more associated with the 20-34 age group COR = 7.7, 95% CI = 4.4-13.5,
< 0.001 than the 15-24 age group. Having more than one pregnancy and having more than one child were also associated with increased use of contraceptive methods (
< 0.001 for both). These results indicate there is a high level of awareness about contraceptives, a positive attitude toward them, and good practices for the use of them among Saudi women in Jazan. More efforts are needed to improve women's awareness for better utilization of the available services.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is renowned for its high incidence of type-2 diabetes mellitus, with a prevalence rate of around 33%, which is expected to increase to 45.8% by 2030. Engagement in regular ...physical activity has been shown to significantly attenuate non-communicable diseases including type-2 diabetes. However, the overall rate of physical inactivity among Saudi Arabian adults is currently 80.5%, owing to time pressures, high-density traffic, poor air quality, lack of suitable exercise places/sports facilities, lack of social/friends support, gender, cultural barriers, low self-confidence, lack of time and environmental factors. Previous analyses have shown that home-based activity interventions can be effective. Therefore, given the aforementioned barriers to physical activity in Saudi Arabia; a home-based physical activity may be an ideal solution in type-2 diabetic patients. This manuscript describes the study protocol for a randomized control trial, examining the effects of a home-based physical activity intervention in Saudi Arabian adults with type-2 diabetes. The study will recruit 62 individuals with type-2 diabetes from the Jazan region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who will be individually randomized to either a physical activity or control group. This 24-week investigation will involve 12-weeks of physical activity in the physical activity group and feature three examination points i.e., baseline, 12-weeks and 24-weeks (follow-up). The primary study outcome is the between-group difference in blood HbA1c levels relative to controls. Secondary outcomes measures will be between-group differences in anthropometric, blood lipid, physical fitness, and patient-reported quality of life outcomes pertinent to type-2 diabetes. Statistical analysis will be conducted on an intention-to-treat basis. The trial has been granted ethical approval by Jazan University, Health Research Ethics Committee (REF: 2177) and formally registered as a trial (NCT04937296). We expect dissemination of the study findings from this investigation to be through publication in a leading peer-reviewed journal.
Background and objectives Gastric cancer is responsible for more than 10% of cancer-related deaths worldwide and remains the second most common cause of cancer-related death. Surgical resection is ...considered the most effective treatment for early gastric cancer, but its value remains debatable for patients with advanced disease. Adjuvant therapy is still considered the main line of management of these patients. Some studies had reported that palliative gastrectomy may have a beneficial effect for survival and quality of life in patients with advanced disease. On the contrary, many studies had reported that palliative gastrectomy was associated with significant morbidity and poor quality of life. Our study aims to evaluate the value of palliative gastrectomy with systemic chemotherapy in comparison with systemic chemotherapy alone in the management of cases of advanced gastric cancer.
Patients and methods Between May 2015 and May 2020, patients with advanced gastric cancer (T4N1-3 M0, T1-4N3M0, and any T or N with M1) were prospectively included in this study. Enrolled patients were assigned either to have palliative gastrectomy followed by systemic chemotherapy or to have systemic chemotherapy alone. The patients were followed up regularly after treatment. Postoperative parameters, disease-specific mortality, mean survival, and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were used to assess the outcomes.
Results A total of 35 patients completed the study, including 20 patients in the surgery group and 15 in the systemic chemotherapy group. Partial gastrectomy was done in nine cases, and total gastrectomy was done in 11 cases. Seven (35%) patients had postoperative complications, and two (10%) cases of postoperative mortality were recorded. The mean survival length of patients of the surgery group was 11.3±1.6 months, which was significantly longer than that of the patients who received systemic chemotherapy alone (7.3±1.1 months). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the overall survival probability estimate in the surgery group was 32.8% at 1 year and 12.4% at 2 years, compared with 15.9% at 1 year and 0% at 2 years in the chemotherapy group, with difference being statistically significant.
Conclusion Palliative gastrectomy can be done in patients with advanced gastric cancer with acceptable morbidity and mortality rates. It may provide a survival benefit in select cases of advanced gastric cancer when combined with systemic chemotherapy.
Several COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and authorized for emergency use by various regulatory agencies worldwide. Objective: to compare the adverse effects and safety of confirmed COVID-19 ...vaccines in Saudi Arabia and provide a centralized database of suspected adverse reactions and safety profiles to these vaccines. In this cross-sectional study, the study was conducted among the 633 vaccinated participants living in Saudi Arabia through an online questionnaire. Their age group was between 15-85 years old. The study indicated that 55% of the participants were infected with COVID-19, and 33% were infected before vaccination. 10% of our study participants had two or more related comorbidities, commonly hypertension, respiratory problems, and diabetes mellitus. The most frequent side effects of these vaccines are fatigue, headaches, fever, myalgia, arthralgia, pain, tenderness, and swelling at the injection site, especially after the first dose. Commonly systemic side effects presented in young female participants, 15-30 years old. This study postulates a database about the possibility of developing COVID-19 vaccine adverse effects based on age, gender, comorbidities, and vaccine type. More research must be done to understand more clearly the association between developing adverse effects and risk factors. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford/AstraZeneca
The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of endometrial scratch on the pregnancy rate among women with previous failed intrauterine insemination (IUI). A systematic search was done in ...PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and ISI web of science from inception to November 2021. We selected randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that compared endometrial scratch in the intervention group versus placebo or no intervention in the control group among infertile women with previous failure of IUI regarding different pregnancy outcomes. Revman software was utilized for performing our meta-analysis. Our main outcomes were biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and live birth rates. Five RCTs met our inclusion criteria with a total number of 989 patients. We found endometrial scratch significantly improved the biochemical and clinical pregnancy rates in comparison with the control group among women with previous IUI failure (p < 0.001). Moreover, the live birth rate was significantly increased among the endometrial scratch group (RR = 2.00, 95% CI 1.20, 3.34, p = 0.008). In conclusion, endometrial scratch is effective in improving pregnancy outcomes among women with previous IUI failure. More trials are required to confirm our findings.
In dry turning operation, various parameters influence the cutting force and contribute in machining precision. Generally, the numerical cutting models are adopted to establish the optimum cutting ...parameters and results are substantiated with the experimental findings. In this paper, the optimal turning parameters of AA2024-T351 alloy are determined through Abaqus/Explicit numerical cutting simulations by employing the Johnson-Cook thermo-viscoplastic-damage material model. Turning simulations were verified with published experimental data. Considering the constrained and nonlinear optimization problem, the artificial neural networks (ANN) were executed for training, testing, and performance evaluation of the numerical simulations data. Two feedforward backpropagation neural networks were developed with ten hidden neutrons in each hidden layer. The Log-Sigmoid transfer function and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm were applied in the model. The ANN models were studied with four input parameters: the cutting speed (200, 400, and 800 m/min), tool rake angle (5°, 10°, 14.8°, and 17.5°), cutting feed (0.3 and 0.4 mm), and the contact friction coefficients (0.1 and 0.15).The two target parameters include the tool-chip interface temperature and the cutting reaction force. The performance of the trained data was evaluated using root-mean-square error and correlation coefficients. The ANN predicted values were compared both with the Abaqus simulations and the published experimental findings. All of the results are found in good approximation to each other. The performance of the ANN models demonstrated the fidelity of solving and predicting the optimum process parameters.
Background
Few data are available on the characteristics of infective endocarditis (IE) cases in Egypt. The aim of this work is to describe the characteristics and outcomes of IE patients and ...evaluate the temporal changes in IE diagnostic and therapeutic aspects over 11 years.
Results
The IE registry included 398 patients referred to the Endocarditis Unit of a tertiary care facility with the diagnosis of possible or definite IE. Patients were recruited over two periods; period 1 (
n
= 237, 59.5%) from February 2005 to December 2011 and period 2 (
n
= 161, 40.5%) from January 2012 to September 2016. An electronic database was constructed to include information on patients’ clinical and microbiological characteristics as well as complications and mortality. The median age was 30 years and rheumatic valvular heart disease was the commonest underlying cardiac disease (34.7%). Healthcare-associated IE affected 185 patients (46.5%) and 275 patients (69.1%) had negative blood cultures. The most common complications were heart failure (
n
= 148, 37.2%), peripheral embolization (
n
= 133, 33.4%), and severe sepsis (
n
= 100, 25.1%). In-hospital mortality occurred in 108 patients (27.1%). Period 2 was characterized by a higher prevalence of injection drug use-associated IE (15.5% vs. 7.2%,
p
= 0.008), a higher staphylococcal IE (50.0% vs. 35.7%,
p
= 0.038), lower complications (31.1% vs. 45.1%,
p
= 0.005), and a lower in-hospital mortality (19.9% vs. 32.1%,
p
= 0.007).
Conclusion
This Egyptian registry showed high rates of culture-negative IE, complications, and in-hospital mortality in a largely young population of patients. Improvements were noted in the rates of complications and mortality in the second half of the reporting period.
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