Relation of Advanced Glycation End Products and Primary Open Angle Glaucoma Progression

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between oxidative stress and advanced glycation end products in patients suffering from different stages primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and complications of glaucoma progression. Forty five patients suffering from POAG classified into three stages; mild, moderate and advanced as well as fifteen healthy "non- diabetic subjects" (age and sex matched healthy controls) were selected from the outpatient clinic in the Research Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO) Giza Egypt.nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), ascorbic acid (vitamin C), α-tocopherol (vitamin E), catalase activity (CAT), reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) were estimated in all studied groups. A significant increase in MDA, NO and AGEs levels was detected in mild, moderate and advanced glaucoma compared to control, also significant decreases in vitamin C, vitamin E, GSH, and SOD activities were found in mild, moderate and advanced glaucoma compared to control. No significant change was found in catalase activity in all groups compared to control. Statistical significant positive correlations were found between intra ocular pressure (IOP) and disease severity. this study clearly demonstrated increased accumulation of AGEs, lipid peroxidation products along with impairment of the antioxidant status in patients with primary open angle glaucoma.We suggest that AGEs measurement could be used as a diagnostic marker in primary screening programs for diagnosis and prediction of the development and progression of glaucoma

HCV Infection among Saudi Population: High Prevalence of Genotype 4 and Increased Viral Clearance Rate

HCV is a major etiological agent of liver disease with a high rate of chronic evolution. The virus possesses 6 genotypes with many subtypes. The rate of spontaneous clearance among HCV infected individuals denotes a genetic determinant factor. The current study was designed in order to estimate the rate of HCV infection and ratio of virus clearance among a group of infected patients in Saudi Arabia from 2008 to 2011. It was additionally designed to determine the genotypes of the HCV in persistently infected patients. HCV seroprevalence was conducted on a total of 15,323 individuals. Seropositive individuals were tested by Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HCV assay to determine the ratio of persistently infected patients to those who showed spontaneous viral clearance. HCV genotyping on random samples from persistently infected patients were conducted based on the differences in the 5′untranslated region (5′UTR). Anti-HCV antibodies were detected in 7.3% of the totally examined sera. A high percentage of the HCV infected individuals experienced virus clearance (48.4%). HCV genotyping revealed the presence of genotypes 1 and 4, the latter represented 97.6% of the tested strains. Evidences of the widespread of the HCV genotype 4 and a high rate of HCV virus clearance were found in Saudi Arabia

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p<0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p<0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised

Semi-modified carrot diet alleviates the toxicity effects of dimethoate in albino rats

Background: Dimethoate is an effective organophosphate pesticide that used heavily against a broad range of insects and mites and is also used indoor to control house flies. Investigators have shown that dimethoate has immunotoxicologic effects and carcinogenic potential. Moreover, it has been shown to cause adverse reproductive effects in rats Objective: The current study was conducted to evaluate the toxicity effects of dermal and oral administration of the technical (TD) and the formulated dimethoate (FD) in rats and the possibility of alleviating the toxicity effects by semimodified diet of carrot as a source of antioxidant agents. Results: Ten groups of albino rats were used in this experiment. Five groups of them fed on standard diet (SD-groups) and the other five fed on semi-modified carrot diet (15% carrot) (MD-groups). In each of these previous groups (SD & MD); one group untreated (served as negative control), the second group ingested orally with TD, the third group ingested orally with FD, the fourth group administered dermally with TD and the fifth group administered dermally with FD. Body weight gain, feed intake, feed efficiency, organs weight, liver glycogen, blood sugar, thyroid hormones (T4 and T3) and lipid profile were estimated. The results revealed that, the treatment with 1/25 LD50 of technical and formulated dimethoate insecticide reduced the values of body weight gain, feed efficiency and body weight gain ratio compared to the control animals. The reduction was higher in the animals treated with the formulated dimethoate compared to the animals treated with the technical dimethoate. In both cases, the oral administration was more effective than the dermal administration. On the other hand, the liver, kidney, heart and spleen weight of the treated animals were higher than the control. The increment of organ weight was higher in formulated dimethoate treated animals compared to the technical treated animals and the oral administration was more effective than the dermal administration. The biochemical analysis showed that the treatment with technical or formulated dimethoate increased the blood glucose level and the thyroid hormones (T3 and T4), while the treatment decreased the liver glycogen contents, total lipids, total cholesterol and total phospholipids. In the same manner, the effect of the formulated dimethoate was more pronounced than the technical dimethoate and the oral ingestion was more effective than the dermal administration. Feeding the animals on the semi-modified carrot diet (15% dried carrot) alleviated the harmful effects of the insecticide, indicated by returning the values of the estimated parameters around the normal values. Conclusion: it can be concluded that, carrot has the potential to reduce the harmful toxicity of dimehoate, thus can be recommended to dimethoate producers, pesticide workers and farm owners, whom expose to this insecticide risk

Deduced nucleotide sequence of different Saudi HCV strains based on 5′UTR sequences.

<p>Ten selected strains (TAIF.SA1-10) were included. The nucleotide sequence of (TAIF.SA1) was found identical in 75/81 of the examined strains.</p

Seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibodies using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay.

<p>A: The total seroprevalence among the whole tested population. B. HCV seroprevalence in males in comparison to females. Results were analysed using the chi-square and the two-sided P value was 0.0034.</p

Phylogenetic analysis of partial 5′UTR sequences of HCV samples.

<p>HCV prototype sequences from GenBank were included. The evolutionary history was inferred using the Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted in MEGA 4.1.</p

Seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibodies using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay in males and females from May 2008 to May 2011.

<p>Non-significant variation was found between female and male seropositive percentages using <i>t</i> test, (P = 0.1806).</p

Percentage of HCV clearance among HCV infected population and comparison between percentage of clearance between male and females infected patients.

<p>Fisher's Exact Test revealed non-significant variation (P = 0.4714).</p

Global variation in postoperative mortality and complications after cancer surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study in 82 countries

Background: 80% of individuals with cancer will require a surgical procedure, yet little comparative data exist on early outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared postoperative outcomes in breast, colorectal, and gastric cancer surgery in hospitals worldwide, focusing on the effect of disease stage and complications on postoperative mortality. Methods: This was a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of consecutive adult patients undergoing surgery for primary breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer requiring a skin incision done under general or neuraxial anaesthesia. The primary outcome was death or major complication within 30 days of surgery. Multilevel logistic regression determined relationships within three-level nested models of patients within hospitals and countries. Hospital-level infrastructure effects were explored with three-way mediation analyses. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03471494. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and Jan 31, 2019, we enrolled 15 958 patients from 428 hospitals in 82 countries (high income 9106 patients, 31 countries; upper-middle income 2721 patients, 23 countries; or lower-middle income 4131 patients, 28 countries). Patients in LMICs presented with more advanced disease compared with patients in high-income countries. 30-day mortality was higher for gastric cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (adjusted odds ratio 3·72, 95% CI 1·70–8·16) and for colorectal cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (4·59, 2·39–8·80) and upper-middle-income countries (2·06, 1·11–3·83). No difference in 30-day mortality was seen in breast cancer. The proportion of patients who died after a major complication was greatest in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (6·15, 3·26–11·59) and upper-middle-income countries (3·89, 2·08–7·29). Postoperative death after complications was partly explained by patient factors (60%) and partly by hospital or country (40%). The absence of consistently available postoperative care facilities was associated with seven to 10 more deaths per 100 major complications in LMICs. Cancer stage alone explained little of the early variation in mortality or postoperative complications. Interpretation: Higher levels of mortality after cancer surgery in LMICs was not fully explained by later presentation of disease. The capacity to rescue patients from surgical complications is a tangible opportunity for meaningful intervention. Early death after cancer surgery might be reduced by policies focusing on strengthening perioperative care systems to detect and intervene in common complications. Funding: National Institute for Health Research Global Health Research Unit