Determination of Epiphyseal Union Age in the Knee and Hand Joints Bones among the Saudi Population in Taif City

Introduction. The use of radiographic data for determination of age, according to the epiphyseal union stage, is a widely accepted method and considered scientifically approved. The aim of the present work is to estimate the age of epiphyseal union of hand and knee joints bones among Saudi population in Taif City. Subjects and Method. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the Armed Forces Hospitals (4 hospitals) in Taif City. The five-stage method was used for the union assessment. Results. A total of 473 patients’ X-ray images were involved. Approximately three-quarters of the knee and hand images were males’ images (77.25% and 75.41%, resp.). The means of age of stage 3 (age of recent union) in the knee joint were 23.63 ± 3.12 and 21.19 ± 3.41 in males and females, respectively, and 19.84 ± 3.47 and 17.19 ± 1.61 in hand joints for males and females, respectively. There were significant differences between males and females in the means of age for stages 1, 3, and 4 at the knee joint plates and for stages 0, 2, and 3 in the hand joint plates (P values were <0.05). However, by comparing the mean of age for each stage with the previous stage mean in males and females, there was a significant difference between stages 0–4 (P values ≤ 0.0001, ≤0.001, <0.0001, and <0.001, resp.) and stages 2 and 3 (P value = 0.012) in knee joint images for males and females, respectively. In addition, there were significant differences between stages 2–4 in hand joints for males and females (P values ≤ 0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001, and <0.0001, resp.) and stages 0 and 1 for males only (P value = 0.002). Conclusion and Recommendation. This study suggests that the union of epiphyses of knees and hands in Taif City occurs later than other places. More studies must be done with female samples

Diabetes-Related Distress Assessment among Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Background and Objectives. Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases; it is a debilitating and hard to live with. Diabetes-related distress (DRD) refers to the emotional and behavioral changes caused by diabetes. Our study aims to assess the prevalence of DRD among type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients using Diabetes Distress Scale-17 items (DDS-17) and its relation to complications and treatment modalities. Methods. A cross-sectional study of adult T2D patients with follow-up visits at the Diabetes and Endocrinology Center in Taif, Saudi Arabia, between January and July 2017. We excluded patients with other forms of diabetes, untreated hypothyroidism, and psychiatric illness. The total score of DDS-17 was calculated by summing the 17 items’ results and then dividing the total by 17. If the total score was >2, then it was considered as clinically significant results (moderate distress), but if it is ≥3, then it is classified as a high distress. Results. A total of 509 T2D patients with a mean age of 58 ± 14 years were included. The majority of participants were male, married, not college educated, and reported a sedentary lifestyle. We found 25% of the screened T2D patients have moderate to high DRD. Regarding the DRD components, emotional distress was the most prevalent followed by physician-related distress. HabA1c was significantly higher in those with high combined distress and high emotional distress compared to those with mild/moderate distress (p=0.015 and 0.030, resp.). Conclusion. Our study shows that DRD is a medically relevant issue that clinicians need to address. Despite observing a low prevalence of DRD compared to other studies, we found significant correlations between DRD scores and HabA1c, triglyceride levels, BMI, T2D duration, and interval between visits

The Concordance between Myocardial Perfusion Imaging and Coronary Angiography in Detecting Coronary Artery Disease: A Retrospective Study in a Tertiary Cardiac Center at King Abdullah Medical City

Background. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is considered as the leading cause of the cardiovascular fatalities worldwide. CAD is diagnosed by many modalities of imaging such as myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) and coronary angiography (CAG). Methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted that included all patients referred to the KAMC (King Abdullah Medical City) nuclear cardiology lab from its opening until the end of May 2014 (a period of 17 months). A total of 228 patient reports with a history of conducting either CAG or MPI or both were used in this study and statistically analyzed. Results. An analysis of the MPI results revealed that 78.5% of the samples were abnormal. On the other hand, 26.75% of the samples revealed that they were subjected to CAG and MPI. There was a significant and fair agreement between MPI and CAG by using all the agreement coefficients (kappa = 0.237, phi = 0.310, and value = 0.043). The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of MPI with reference to CAG were 97.8%, 20%, and 78.69%, respectively. In addition, positive predictive and negative predictive values were 78.95% and 75%, respectively. Conclusion. In a tertiary referral center, there was a significant agreement between MPI and CAG and a high accuracy of MPI. MPI was a noninvasive diagnostic test that could be used as a gatekeeper for CAG