Medical Ethics in Qiṣāṣ (Eye-for-an-Eye) Punishment: An Islamic View; an Examination of Acid Throwing

Physicians in Islamic countries might be requested to participate in the Islamic legal code of qiṣāṣ, in which the victim or family has the right to an eye-for-an-eye retaliation. Qiṣāṣ is only used as a punishment in the case of murder or intentional physical injury. In situations such as throwing acid, the national legal system of some Islamic countries asks for assistance from physicians, because the punishment should be identical to the crime. The perpetrator could not be punished without a physician’s participation, because there is no way to guarantee that the sentence would be carried out without inflicting more injury than the initial victim had suffered. By examining two cases of acid throwing, this paper discusses issues related to physicians’ participation in qiṣāṣ from the perspective of medical ethics and Islamic Shari’a law. From the standpoint of medical ethics, physicians’ participation in qiṣāṣ is not appropriate. First, qiṣāṣ is in sharp contrast to the Hippocratic Oath and other codes of medical ethics. Second, by physicians’ participation in qiṣāṣ, medical practices are being used improperly to carry out government mandates. Third, physician participation in activities that cause intentional harm to people destroys the trust between patients and physicians and may adversely affect the patient–physician relationship more generally. From the standpoint of Shari’a, there is no consensus among Muslim scholars whether qiṣāṣ should be performed on every occasion. We argue that disallowing physician involvement in qiṣāṣ is necessary from the perspectives of both medical ethics and Shari’a law

Kinetic Study of the Hydrolysis of synthesized Ibuprofen Ester and its Biological Activity

It is known that the oral administration of ibuprofen caused an irritation of stomach as a side effect due to its carboxylic moiety. Ibuprofen ester was synthesized by linking the carboxylic moiety of ibuprofen and the hydroxylic group of paracetamol to reduce its side effect. Study the kinetic hydrolysis of prepared ester was examined at different values of physiological pH (1.0, 5.8, 6.4 and 7.4) at 37 ± 0.1 of 1 hour period. Measurements of absorbance were carried out by UV-Visible spectrophotometer to follow the stability of ester, it showed Pseudo first order hydrolysis. The pH- apparent rate profiles of ester was exhibited a good stability at pH 1.0 and pH 5.8. Pharmacological activity in vivo of prepared ester was evaluated in relation to analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity using the acetic acid method and the hind paw oedema inhibition, respectively. Acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin) was used as a reference drug for the above tests. The synthesized ester showed higher analgesic and anti-inflammatory action than aspirin

The effect of different bleaching protocols, used with and without sodium ascorbate, on bond strength between composite and enamel

This in vitro study aims to evaluate whether a solution of 10% sodium ascorbate (SA) may exert a beneficial effect on the bonding of composite to enamel after using different bleaching agents and protocols. Microtensile bond strength (μTBS) was evaluated on 72 freshly extracted human central incisors, divided into eight experimental groups and one control group (total n = 9): Group 1 serves as control (nonbleached). Group 2 was bleached with 5% carbamide peroxide. Group 3 was bleached with 5% carbamide peroxide and then treated with 10% SA. Group 4 was bleached with 10% carbamide peroxide. Group 5 was bleached with 10% carbamide peroxide, then treated with 10% SA. Group 6 was bleached with 16% carbamide peroxide. Group 7 was bleached with 16% carbamide peroxide, then treated with 10% SA. Group 8 was bleached with 6% hydrogen peroxide. Group 9 was bleached with 6% hydrogen peroxide, then treated with 10% SA. All groups were restored immediately after the different treatments using a resin composite. The μTBS values were measured using a universal testing machine and statistical analysis was performed by means of normality and variance analyses, SIDAK test for univariate test and multiple comparisons, and Student test to compare μTBS values of each group with the control. The mean μTBS values in groups 2, 4, 6, 8 were significantly lower than controls. For groups 3, 5, 7, 9, subjected to antioxidant (10% SA) application, all μTBS values increased significantly. However, only for Groups 3 and 5 there was no significant difference with the control. Applying 10% SA for 10 min may improve the bond strength composite/bleached enamel just when whitening is performed with 5% and 10% carbamide peroxide

Content validation of the Kamath and Stothard questionnaire for carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis: a cognitive interviewing study

© 2020, The Author(s). Background: Accurate diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is essential for directing appropriate treatment; and for making decisions about work injury claims. The Kamath and Stothard Questionnaire (KSQ) is a self-reported tool used for the diagnosis of CTS. Comprehensibility and comprehensiveness of this questionnaire are critical to diagnostic performance and need to be established. The purpose of the study was to describe how potential respondents, clinicians, and measurement researchers interpret KSQ questions in order to identify and resolve potential sources of misclassification. Methods: Hand therapists, measurement researchers, participants with CTS, and a control group were interviewed using cognitive interviewing techniques (talk aloud, semi-structured interview probes) in Hamilton, Canada. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. A directed content analysis was done to analyze the interviews using a previously established framework. Findings: Eighteen participants were interviewed. Areas, where questions were unclear to some participants, were recorded and categorized into five themes: Clarity and Comprehension (52%), Relativeness (38%), Inadequate Response Definition (4%), Perspective Modifiers (4%), and Reference Point (2%). Respondents also identified several symptoms of CTS that are not covered by the KSQ that might be of diagnostic value, e.g., weakness and dropping items. Conclusion: The content validity of the current iteration of the KSQ was not established. The problematic questions identified in the study have been reported to have low specificity and negative predictive values in a previous quantitative study. The content validity issues identified may explain the poor performance. Recommendations were made to modify the wording of the KSQ and the potential addition of three new questions. Future studies should determine whether the modified questionnaire can provide better diagnostic accuracy and psychometric properties. The results of this study may assist in ruling in or out CTS diagnosis to a wide variety of target audience, such as hand specialists, physical and occupational therapists, as well as family doctors

Use of microarray technology for the detection of a range of RNA viruses in clinical samples

There are many RNA virus pathogens of humans including influenza, parainfluenza, enteroviruses, parechoviruses, coronaviruses, pneumoviruses, and metapneumoviruses. These commonly invade and infect the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, giving rise to acute and chronic respiratory tract infections, and some may also reach the central nervous system (CNS) either via haematogenous or neural routes resulting in a variety of clinical presentations, (e.g. meningitis, encephalitis) which may lead to severe irreparable damage such as poliomyelitis especially in young children. Early correct diagnosis of viral infections is indispensable in order to prevent potential outbreaks which threaten the public health worldwide and might lead to high morbidity and some with significant mortality. Several laboratory techniques such as virus isolation, direct visualization of viral particles, detection of viral antigens and/or nucleic acids, and detection of host immune response (e.g. anti-viral antibodies) to infection, are available for diagnosis, but may have significant drawbacks such as time-inefficiency, cost and certain individual limitations. Microarray technology offers one way to overcome some of these limitations. In this study, a microarray chip containing 7967 oligonucleotides (probes) covering the whole genomes of human enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial viruses, metapneumoviruses and influenza viruses was designed and constructed using both OligoArray and Agilent eArray software, to allow simultaneous detection of any of the above viruses present in any clinical specimen. This virochip was tested against positive controls and clinical samples known to contain RNA nucleic acids of these viruses. Viral RNA was reverse transcribed, and amplified. Considerable effort was expended in trying to optimise a multiple displacement amplification (MDA) protocol for whole genome amplification, and in addition, long-range PCR was also utilised. Amplification products were fragmented, labelled and loaded into a hybridization reaction with the designed viral probes printed on the virochip. The results revealed (i) a number of technical problems associated with MDA; (ii) that some probes either failed to recognise their intended targets, or produced cross-reactive signals with non-intended targets; (iii) that many of the designed probes hybridized to their relevant viral nucleic acids and generated hybridization signals of high fluorescent intensity offering an opportunity to develop this probe array in order to be used for the identification of a wide variety of virus species up to the serogroup level or beyond (if required) specifically those causing CNS and respiratory tract infections

Use of microarray technology for the detection of a range of RNA viruses in clinical samples

There are many RNA virus pathogens of humans including influenza, parainfluenza, enteroviruses, parechoviruses, coronaviruses, pneumoviruses, and metapneumoviruses. These commonly invade and infect the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, giving rise to acute and chronic respiratory tract infections, and some may also reach the central nervous system (CNS) either via haematogenous or neural routes resulting in a variety of clinical presentations, (e.g. meningitis, encephalitis) which may lead to severe irreparable damage such as poliomyelitis especially in young children. Early correct diagnosis of viral infections is indispensable in order to prevent potential outbreaks which threaten the public health worldwide and might lead to high morbidity and some with significant mortality. Several laboratory techniques such as virus isolation, direct visualization of viral particles, detection of viral antigens and/or nucleic acids, and detection of host immune response (e.g. anti-viral antibodies) to infection, are available for diagnosis, but may have significant drawbacks such as time-inefficiency, cost and certain individual limitations. Microarray technology offers one way to overcome some of these limitations. In this study, a microarray chip containing 7967 oligonucleotides (probes) covering the whole genomes of human enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial viruses, metapneumoviruses and influenza viruses was designed and constructed using both OligoArray and Agilent eArray software, to allow simultaneous detection of any of the above viruses present in any clinical specimen. This virochip was tested against positive controls and clinical samples known to contain RNA nucleic acids of these viruses. Viral RNA was reverse transcribed, and amplified. Considerable effort was expended in trying to optimise a multiple displacement amplification (MDA) protocol for whole genome amplification, and in addition, long-range PCR was also utilised. Amplification products were fragmented, labelled and loaded into a hybridization reaction with the designed viral probes printed on the virochip. The results revealed (i) a number of technical problems associated with MDA; (ii) that some probes either failed to recognise their intended targets, or produced cross-reactive signals with non-intended targets; (iii) that many of the designed probes hybridized to their relevant viral nucleic acids and generated hybridization signals of high fluorescent intensity offering an opportunity to develop this probe array in order to be used for the identification of a wide variety of virus species up to the serogroup level or beyond (if required) specifically those causing CNS and respiratory tract infections

The lymphocyte secretome from young adults enhances skeletal muscle proliferation and migration, but effects are attenuated in the secretome of older adults.

Older people experience skeletal muscle wasting, in part due to impaired proliferative capacity of quiescent skeletal muscle satellite cells which can be reversed by exposure to young blood. To investigate the role of immune cells in muscle regeneration, we isolated lymphocytes from whole blood of young and older healthy volunteers and cultured them with, or without, anti-CD3/CD28 activators to induce release of cytokines, interleukins, and growth factors into the media. The secreted proteins were collected to prepare a conditioned media, which was subsequently used to culture C2C12 myoblasts. The conditioned media from the activated young lymphocytes increased the rate of proliferation of myoblasts by around threefold (P < 0.005) and caused an approximate fourfold (P < 0.005) increase in migration compared with nonactivated lymphocyte control media. These responses were characterized by minimal myotube formation (2%), low fusion index (5%), low myosin heavy chain content, and substantial migration. In contrast, myoblasts treated with conditioned media from activated old lymphocytes exhibited a high degree of differentiation, and multi-nucleated myotube formation that was comparable to control conditions, thus showing no effect on proliferation or migration of myoblasts. These results indicate that secreted proteins from lymphocytes of young people enhance the muscle cell proliferation and migration, whereas secreted proteins from lymphocytes of older people may contribute to the attenuated skeletal muscle satellite cell proliferation and migration