Effect of progressive prone plank exercise program on diastasis of rectus abdominis muscle in postpartum women: A randomized controlled trial

Diastasis of Rectus Abdominis (DRA) muscle is a concerning health issue that commonly affects female within pregnancy and postpartum time, persistent lower back pain and pelvic instability are common consequences to DRA. Thus, this study was conducted to examine the effect of progressive prone plank exercises on narrowing the inter-Rectus distance (IRD) in postpartum women diagnosed with (DRA). A prospective, randomized, single-blind, controlled trial was conducted at the Faculty of Physical Therapy Clinic of Beni-Suef University. Fifty postpartum women presented with (DRA) of at least 2 finger widths assigned into 2 equal groups (A&B). A Toshiba Xario100, 8–12 MHz ultrasonography was used to accurately measure IRD before and after 8 weeks of the exercise program. Group (A), received progressive prone plank exercise program and advice relevant to DRA as well as wore abdominal binder, while group (B) continued their ordinary lifestyle after receiving advice and wearing abdominal binder as group (A).The study results revealed a statistical significant decrease within each group and between groups in IRD (p < .05) above and below the umbilicus both at rest and during Rectus Abdominis (RA) contraction, with a significantly narrower IRD in favoured of participants of group (A) (p < .05). To sum it up, progressive prone plank exercise program is very effective in decreasing IRD in postpartum women presented with DRA

The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Review of Taxonomy, Genetics, Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Control

A pneumonia outbreak with unknown etiology was reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019, associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. The causative agent of the outbreak was identified by the WHO as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), producing the disease named coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). The virus is closely related (96.3%) to bat coronavirus RaTG13, based on phylogenetic analysis. Human-to-human transmission has been confirmed even from asymptomatic carriers. The virus has spread to at least 200 countries, and more than 1,700,000 confirmed cases and 111,600 deaths have been recorded, with massive global increases in the number of cases daily. Therefore, the WHO has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The disease is characterized by fever, dry cough, and chest pain with pneumonia in severe cases. In the beginning, the world public health authorities tried to eradicate the disease in China through quarantine but are now transitioning to prevention strategies worldwide to delay its spread. To date, there are no available vaccines or specific therapeutic drugs to treat the virus. There are many knowledge gaps about the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2, leading to misinformation. Therefore, in this review, we provide recent information about the COVID-19 pandemic. This review also provides insights for the control of pathogenic infections in humans such as SARS-CoV-2 infection and future spillovers

Seroprevalence of hepatitis B and C virus infections among health students and health care workers in the Najran region, southwestern Saudi Arabia: The need for national guidelines for health students

BACKGROUND: The objectives of the study were to study the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections among health college students (HS) and health care workers (HCWs) in the Najran Region of south-western Saudi Arabia and to study the students’ knowledge of occupational exposure to blood-borne viral infections. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of a representative sample of 300 HS and 300 HCWs was conducted. RESULTS: An overall seroprevalence of HBV of 1.7% and 8.7% was found among HS and HCWs, respectively. Two-thirds of HS (66.7%, 200) and 23.3% (70) of HCWs lack anti-HBs and are susceptible to HBV infection. An overall seroprevalence of HCV of 0% and 0.3% was found among the HS and HCWs, respectively. The present study indicates poor knowledge among HS and moderate knowledge among HCWs regarding occupationally transmitted blood-borne diseases, safe injection practices, and standard precautions to prevent occupationally transmitted blood-borne infections. CONCLUSION: It is mandatory to develop a structured program to raise awareness among HS, and current health colleges’ curricula should be upgraded to address these issues early. The HS should be considered new recruits to health services in terms of their initial screening for blood-borne infections and vaccination against HBV. The development of a novel continuing medical education and pre-employment awareness program for HCWs is recommended to address the following: blood-borne diseases transmitted occupationally, standard precautions to prevent occupationally transmitted blood borne infections, and safe injection practices

Study the Influence of Treatment Interruptions in the Radical Irradiation of Breast Cancer

Hypofractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) in breast cancer treatment regimen (40 Grey /15 fractions/3 weeks) is more convenient for patients, especially those coming from remote areas to radiotherapy facilities and for healthcare providers, than conventional fractionation (50 Gy/25 fractions/5weeks). So the effect of radiotherapy interruption on treatment outcome (loco-regional control (LRC)&amp; overall survival (OS)) during hypofractionated schedule is the issue of our study. Materials and Methods: We studied retrospectively 174 female patients with breast cancer who received PORT at the Clinical Oncology &amp; Nuclear Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt, from January-2012 to December-2016. We determined the treatment outcome (OS&amp;LRC) from the follow-up (FU) of the studied patients, as the patient still survived or died, and recurrence till now occurred or not, and were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier (K-M) method and Logrank test, respectively. Then we calculated surviving fraction (SF) and tumor control probability (TCP) with regard to biologically effective dose (BED), for all patients, using breast cancer radiobiological parameters. Results: When comparing patients without radiotherapy gap with patients with radiotherapy gaps, the results showed a decrease in LRC rate in patients with radiotherapy treatment interruptions by 15 % (P=0.019, a significant value), but no detrimental effect on OS because of the very limited number of the studied patients. Curves of the relationship between (SF&amp;OTT) and (TCP&amp;OTT) confirmed the detrimental effect of unscheduled gap during radiotherapy fractions on the treatment outcome. Also we found a significant-P value for (marital status, start day of radiotherapy fractions, time, number, and duration of gaps); it means these factors affect LRC during radiotherapy interruptions.Conclusions: Interruptions during postoperative hypofractionated irradiation of 7breast cancer (40 Gy/15 fractions/3weeks) should be avoided and if they are inevitable, they should not be prolonged more than two days, as they will adversely affect the treatment outcome (LRC)

Effect of Differential Code Biases on the GPS CORS Network: A Case Study of Egyptian Permanent GPS Network (EPGN)

The Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS) Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) are popular and have become increasingly dense throughout the world. One of the important factors affecting the GPS accuracy is the ionosphere Total Electron Content (TEC). The hardware Differential Code Biases (DCB), inherited in both Global Positioning System satellites and receivers, influence the total electron content estimation accuracy. DCB can be estimated using GPS data themselves or during the GPS data processing. The effect of DCB on CORS results are studied here using nine CORS stations from the Egyptian Permanent GPS Net (EPGN). Bernese software version 5.0 is used for data analysis. Three strategies are applied to the data. The first strategy is using a special MATLAB code to estimate DCB which in turn is introduced as known input in Bernese. Using Bernese itself to estimate the DCB along with the ionosphere is the second method. The third way is to totally ignore the DCB.  The three solutions are compared based on ratio of ambiguity resolutions, standard deviations, error ellipse, and closure errors. The results indicate that the worst solution is obtained when ignoring the DCB. Both Bernese estimation and known DCB solutions are similar and gives good results. For example, the ratio of un-resolved ambiguity for baseline between Marsa-Alam and Arish is about 0.3096 for Bernese estimated DCB while it is about 0.5643 when ignoring DCB. Hence it is recommended to consider the DCB when processing GPS data for precise applications