Role of L- glutamine and crizanlizumab in sickle cell anaemia painful crisis reduction

BackgroundPatients with sickle cell disease, frequently ‎ suffer from intense painful episodes. Till recently hydroxyurea was the only available medical therapy that approved for reduction of painful episodes.AimsTo summarize the available data from randomized controlled trials that aim to evaluate the efficacy of newly approved L-‎glutamine‎ (alters redox state of red blood cells ‎‎[RBCs]) ‎and ‎crizanlizumab (‎(anti-P-selectin)‎)‎ ‎on vaso-occlusive episodes in Sickle cell disease ‎ patients.Methods PubMed, ‎Google Scholar, and EBSCO ‎ databases were ‎‎systematically search for relevant articles. The terms ‎ ‎ ‎ L-glutamine, sickle cell disease, sickle cell ‎anaemia,‎ ‎‎crizanlizumab ‎and vaso-occlusive episodes‎ were used.Results Out of Four-hundred seventy-two records, only three fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Two trials were aimed to evaluate the efficacy of L-glutamine therapy on the frequency of painful crises in sickle cell anaemia patients. Both studies showed that L-glutamine therapy significantly reduce the frequency of VOEs. Only one trial examined the ability of crizanlizumab on VOEs reduction, and showed crizanlizumab successful reduce the occurrence of VOEs.‎ConclusionNewer agent ‎with different mechanism of action, such as ‎L-glutamine, ‎and crizanlizumab may consider if ‎hydroxyurea not effective or not ‎tolerable

Oral semaglutide adequate glycaemia control with safe cardiovascular ‎profile

BackgroundType 2 diabetes is a chronic and progressive disease that ‎associated with series complication such as major adverse ‎cardiovascular events. Adequate glycaemic control proven ‎to reduce this risk. Orally administered semaglutide ‎promising medication in managing patient with type 2 ‎diabetes.‎AimsTo assess the cardiovascular safety and efficacy of semaglutide, a recently approved glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) for type 2 diabetes.Methods Pub Med, ‎Google Scholar, and EBSCO ‎ databases were ‎systematically search for relevant articles. The terms‎ diabetes‎, Glucagon-like peptide, semaglutide‎ were used. Out of hundred twenty-two records, only ‎four fulfilled ‎the inclusion criteria.Results Four placebo-controlled studies with oral semaglutide ‎were included. Single study concern about the cardiovascular safety of oral semaglutide ‎and showed that, ‎compared with placebo, semaglutide ‎ was not associated ‎with increased in the cardiovascular events. On the other ‎hand, the remaining trials shown that, semaglutide ‎ can ‎effectively control the blood glucose as evident by ‎reduction in HA1c.ConclusionOral semaglutide can effectively and safely lower blood glucose without increase in the major adverse ‎cardiovascular events‎‎ (MACE).

A novel framework for G/M/1 queuing system based on scheduling-cum-polling mechanism to analyze multiple classes of self-similar and LRD traffic

Provisioning guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) in multiservice wireless internet is challenging due to diverse nature of end-user traffic (e.g., voice, streaming video, interactive gaming) passing through heterogeneous interconnected domains with their own policies and procedures. Numerous studies have shown that multimedia traffic carried in wireless internet possesses self-similar and long-range dependent characteristics. Nonetheless, published work on wireless traffic modeling is merely based on traditional Poisson traffic distribution which fails to capture these characteristics and hence yield misleading results. Moreover, existing work related to self-similar traffic modeling is primarily based on conventional queuing and scheduling combinations which are simple approximations.This paper presents a novel analytical framework for G/M/1 queuing system based on realistic internet traffic distribution to provide guaranteed QoS. We analyze the behavior of multiple classes of self-similar traffic based on newly proposed scheduling-cum-polling mechanism (i.e., combination of priority scheduling and limited service polling model). We formulate the Markov chain for G/M/1 queuing system and present closed form expressions for different QoS parameters i.e., packet delay, packet loss rate, bandwidth, jitter and queue length. We develop a customized discrete event simulator to validate the performance of the proposed analytical framework. The proposed framework can help in building comprehensive service level agreements for heterogeneous wireless domains

Experiences of Dermatologists and Patients Regarding Psoriasis and Its Connection to Psoriatic Arthritis in Saudi Arabia

Mohammad I Fatani,1 Ibrahim Al-homood,2 Mohamed Bedaiwi,3 Sahar Al Natour,4 Alper Erdogan,5 Aya Alsharafi,5 Suzan M Attar6 1Department of Dermatology, Heraa Hospital, Mecca, Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 2Department of Rheumatology, King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), Riyadh, Riyadh Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Rheumatology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Dermatology, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Eastern Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 5Eli Lilly and Company, Riyadh, Riyadh Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 6Department of Internal Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Mohammad I Fatani, Department of Dermatology, Heraa Hospital, Al Madinah Al Munawarah Road, Mecca, Makkah, 24227, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Email [email protected]: Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, immune-mediated skin disease that has significant impact on a patient’s quality of life, yet it remains challenging for dermatologists to successfully identify and manage. Without effective screening, diagnosis and treatments, psoriasis can potentially progress to psoriatic arthritis. A descriptive, observational cross-sectional study of Saudi Arabian dermatologists and patients with psoriasis was conducted to explore dermatologist and patient perspectives of psoriasis, including diagnosis, management, disease course and unmet needs.Patients and Methods: This study involved a quantitative questionnaire administered to 31 dermatologists and 90 patients with psoriasis at eight medical centers and was analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: Dermatologists and patients perceived that psoriasis treatment was initiated promptly and that follow-up visits were sufficient. Their perspectives differed in the time to diagnosis and patient reaction, symptom severity, input into treatment goals and educational needs. The dermatologists’ concerns about underdiagnosed psoriasis (13%) were primarily related to patient awareness (87%), physician awareness (58%), and the absence of a regular screening program (52%). Only 31% of patients with psoriasis were highly satisfied with their psoriasis treatment, with 78% experiencing unpleasant symptoms of pain or swelling in joints indicative of psoriatic arthritis. However, only 56% of these patients reported these symptoms to their physicians. When dermatologists were made aware of this difference, referrals to a rheumatologist increased.Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of strengthening psoriasis management by enhancing dermatologist referral and screening practices, adopting a multidisciplinary approach to care, and improving education and resources for physicians and patients. These results can help to inform the improvement of psoriasis screening, diagnosis and treatment strategies and ensure that expectations meet treatment outcomes. Further research exploring the dermatologist and patient perspectives of the disease pathway from psoriasis to psoriatic arthritis and tailor-made treatment approaches is recommended.Keywords: autoimmune disease, disease pathway, patient satisfaction, provider perspectiv

Knowledge and response of the community to premarital screening program (Sickle Cell Anemia\Thalassemia); AlMadinah, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Premarital screening (PMS) is a mandatory laboratory examination before marriage to identify genetic blood and some infectious diseases. Sickle cell anemia (SCA) and thalassemia are genetic disorders caused by errors in the hemoglobin genes and are prevalent in Saudi Arabia OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the knowledge and response of the Al-Madinah community regarding PMS program. METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional study assessed the knowledge and attitude of Al-Madinah community regarding hereditary blood disorders. Thirty-seven interviewers conducted direct and electronic interviews from October 2016 to January 2017. RESULTS: The total number of respondents was 2554, among the participants, 61% noted that PMS can diagnose SCA, 5.3% noted that PMS cannot diagnose SCA, and 33.4% answered “I don't know.” Regarding thalassemia, 50.2% answered that PMS can diagnose thalassemia, 7.4% answered “no,” and 42% answered “I don't know.” Furthermore, 76.4% of the participants answered that PMS can prevent SCA, whereas 71% of the participants answered that PMS can prevent thalassemia. Approximately 88.6% of the participants agreed to undergo elective PMS, 78.2% of them will not marry someone who has SCA or thalassemia, and 79.5% of them will not marry someone with a genetic trait if they themselves have a trait. In terms of raising the community's awareness on various hereditary blood disorders, 95.9%, 93.9%, and 92.5% agreed on the importance of media, medical education in school, and seminars, respectively. CONCLUSION: As half of the population were unaware about the screened diseases, it is necessary to raise the community's awareness on the importance of PMS