30 research outputs found
Preoperative evaluation of patients with ovarian masses using the risk of malignancy index 4 model
Objective: To evaluate the performance of the RMI 4 in discriminating benign from malignant ovarian masses.
Study Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Assiut Women Health Hospital- Egypt.
Materials and methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study involving 91 patients at Women\u27s Health Hospital, Assiut University, Egypt during the period between January, 2016 and January, 2017. Women with ovarian masses planned for surgical management were recruited from the outpatient gynecology clinic of the hospital. Risk of malignancy index (RMI 4) was calculated for all study participants. Biopsies obtained from the ovarian masses after surgical intervention were sent to the pathology lab for histopathological examination. The histopathologic diagnosis of the ovarian masses is considered the gold standard for diagnosis.
Results: The mean age of patients in the benign group was 34.83±16.28 years versus 43.43±15.91 in the malignant group. There were 12 postmenopausal patients (15.6%) in the benign group versus 4 postmenopausal patients (28.6%) in the malignant group (p=0.0001). An ultrasound score of 4 was recorded in 85.7% of patients in the malignant group versus only 6.5% in the benign group (p=0.0001). Additionally, tumor size ≥ 7 cm was observed in 85.7% of patients in the malignant group versus 55.8% in the benign group (p=0.0001). The mean value of CA-125 was significantly higher in malignant group than the benign group (142.09±41.50 versus 54.51±32.86 ml, respectively) with p=0.01. RMI 4 had a sensitivity of 75%, specificity of 97.3%, PPV of 85.7%, NPV of 94.8 % and an overall accuracy of 93.4%.
Conclusions: RMI 4 is a simple and reliable tool in the primary evaluation of patients with ovarian masses. It can further be used to discriminate benign from malignant ovarian masses with high sensitivity and accuracy
Molecular detection, phylogenetic analysis and genetic diversity of recently isolated foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype A African topotype, Genotype IV
Background Surveillance for circulating emerging diseases of economic importance has a major role in the rapid response to major pathogen outbreaks. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is one of the significant endemic viruses in Egypt. FMDV is periodically investigated for monitoring evolution and emergence of new variants. The genetic characterization of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus serotype A responsible for recent outbreaks of FMD in Egypt was determined. Methods Samples were collected from different locations and virus isolation was performed using BHK-21 cells. Viral RNA was extracted and samples were screened for FMDV using real-time RT-PCR. DNA sequence analysis was performed and computational and bioinformatics analyses were used to determine the substitution rates and phylogenetic relationship. Results Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of full-length 1D region of FMDV samples collected from different governorates in 2020 showed close similarity to Egyptian FMDV strains from serotype A-African topotype-G-IV with genetic variation of 6.5%. Recently isolated FMDV strains showed high genetic variations from locally used vaccine strains in the major antigenic sites of VP1 region. Conclusions Although, efforts made by the veterinary authorities to implement an effective mass vaccination plan, the recently detected FMDV strains in this study could not be subtyped using the FMDV primers routinely used for molecular serotyping. These dissimilarities raise the alarm for reconsideration of the FMDV isolates used in vaccine manufacture. Clearly close monitoring of FMD in Egypt is urgently required to define the risks of future outbreaks and to ensure appropriate control measures against FMD major outbreaks
Hydrogen-Driven Cage Unzipping of C<sub>60</sub> into Nano-Graphenes
Annealing of C<sub>60</sub> in hydrogen
at temperatures above the
stability limit of C–H bonds in C<sub>60</sub>H<sub><i>x</i></sub> (500–550 °C) is found to result in direct
collapse of the cage structure, evaporation of light hydrocarbons,
and formation of solid mixture composed of larger hydrocarbons and
few-layered graphene sheets. Only a minor part of this mixture is
soluble; this was analyzed using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
MS, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy and found to be a rather complex mixture of hydrocarbon
molecules composed of at least tens of different compounds. The sequence
of most abundant peaks observed in MS, which corresponds to C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub> mass difference, suggests a stepwise breakup
of the fullerene cage into progressively smaller molecular fragments
edge-terminated by hydrogen. A simple model of hydrogen-driven C<sub>60</sub> unzipping is proposed to explain the observed sequence of
fragmentation products. The insoluble part of the product mixture
consists of large planar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as evidenced
by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, and some larger sheets composed of
few-layered graphene, as observed by transmission electron microscopy.
Hydrogen annealing of C<sub>60</sub> thin films showed a thickness-dependent
results with reaction products significantly different for the thinnest
films compared to bulk powders. Hydrogen annealing of C<sub>60</sub> films with the thickness below 10 nm was found to result in formation
of nanosized islands with Raman spectra very similar to the spectra
of coronene oligomers and conductivity typical for graphene