Pregnant women’s use and attitude toward herbal,vitamin, and mineral supplements in an academic tertiary care center,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background

Herbal medicine has been widely utilized by pregnant women despite the limited available evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of that practice. The current available studies, from different countries, estimated that the use of herbal medicine during pregnancy range from 7% up to 96%. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, attitude, source of information, and reasoning behind the use of herbal medicine among pregnant women in Saudia Arabia.

Cough and paradoxical vocal fold motion

OBJECTIVES: The differential diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic cough, paradoxical vocal fold motion, and disordered breathing can be a challenge to most practicing otolaryngologists. Tracheobronchial (ie, asthma, bronchitis, and tracheal stenosis), laryngeal (ie, vocal fold paralysis and neoplasms), and rhinologic (ie, allergies and rhinosinusitis) etiologies are commonly diagnosed and treated effectively. However, occasionally one is faced with patients who are refractory to medical treatment and have no obvious rhinologic, laryngeal or pulmonary cause. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: We conducted a review of the literature. METHODS: We present a thorough review of the current medical literature exploring the complex neurologic mechanisms involved in the production of cough and the relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease, vagal neurapathy, and paradoxical vocal fold motion. RESULTS: The diagnosis and successful treatment of chronic cough can be complex. It requires a thorough understanding of the neurologic mechanisms behind cough excitation and suppression. Successful treatment strategies include aggressive management of the patient's reactive airway disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and, in select cases, paradoxical vocal fold motion. This may involve a well-coordinated effort among pulmonologists, otolaryngologists, gastroenterologists, and speech pathologists. CONCLUSION: Gastroesophageal reflux disease, vagal neuropathy, and paradoxical vocal fold motion are additional causes of chronic cough and disordered breathing that need to be considered, in the absence of obvious laryngotracheal and/or rhinologic pathology. A high index of suspicion is essential in making the diagnosis and formulating an effective multidisciplinary treatment plan for these patients.     

Leptin, lipid and lipid metabolism-related hormones in chronic renal failure in Arabia

SUMMARY: In patients with chronic renal failure (CRF), hyperleptinaemia has been widely reported, but the exact mechanisms leading to elevated leptin levels are unclear. Impaired renal clearance of leptin and the influence of other hormones may be important. In this study, we measured serum leptin levels in 150 patients on haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or in the predialysis phase of CRF. Furthermore, we measured plasma levels of insulin, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), as well as plasma levels of triacylglycerols and total low density lipoprotein (LDL)- and high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol. We observed significantly elevated levels of leptin, particularly in female patients, and leptin was shown to correlate significantly with insulin, total and LDL-cholesterol and log triacylglycerols. Leptin was inversely correlated with GH concentrations, but was not correlated with IGF-1 levels. Despite the multiple correlations established between leptin levels and other variables, only hyperinsulinaemia in CRF seems to be important as a determinator of leptin levels.     

Influence of urbanization of the western coast of the United Arab Emirates on trace metal content in muscle and liver of wild Red-spot emperor (Lethrinus lentjan).

We hypothesized that increased ambient concentrations of metals, as a consequence of escalating urbanization and industrialization of the Gulf region will respond in increased contamination of edible fish species. In this study, we report concentrations of chromium, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead in meat and liver of wild Red-spot emperor (Lethrinus lentjan) from three sampling points at the UAE coast. Analysis was performed by the ICP-MS/microwave digestion. Our study has shown that meat and liver metal content was significantly higher in areas with higher industrial activity, although metal values did not exceed permitted levels of fish for human consumption.     

RASER: a new ultrafast magnetic resonance imaging method.

A new MRI method is described to acquire a T(2)-weighted image from a single slice in a single shot. The technique is based on rapid acquisition by sequential excitation and refocusing (RASER). RASER avoids relaxation-related blurring because the magnetization is sequentially refocused in a manner that effectively creates a series of spin echoes with a constant echo time. RASER uses the quadratic phase produced by a frequency-swept chirp pulse to time-encode one dimension of the image. In another implementation the pulse can be used to excite multiple slices with phase-encoding and frequency-encoding in the other two dimensions. The RASER imaging sequence is presented along with single-shot and multislice images, and is compared to conventional spin-echo and echo-planar imaging sequences. A theoretical and empirical analysis of the spatial resolution is presented, and factors in choosing the spatial resolution for different applications are discussed. RASER produces high-quality single-shot images that are expected to be advantageous for a wide range of applications.     

Preoperative risk stratification using gated myocardial perfusion studies in patients with cancer.

Cancer patients frequently have anemia or an altered coagulation state that may affect their risk stratification for perioperative cardiac events. We performed this study to investigate the incidence of perioperative cardiac events in cancer patients who had abnormal stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) results versus cancer patients with normal MPI results. METHODS: We included 394 consecutive cancer patients with normal (n = 201) or abnormal (n = 193) results on MPI studies performed for preoperative risk stratification. MPI was performed within 6 mo before each patient's scheduled operation. All the patients had surgical procedures requiring general anesthesia, except for 18 who had endoscopic or colonoscopic procedures. We retrospectively reviewed their data for the incidence of major cardiac events intraoperatively and for 1 mo postoperatively. We collected data on their cancer type, risk factors for coronary artery disease, MPI findings, risk of operation, and intraoperative or postoperative major cardiac events, which included death, myocardial infarction (MI), and congestive heart failure (CHF). RESULTS: The patients with abnormal MPI results included 97 with ischemia, 80 with scarring, and 16 with mixed scarring and ischemia. The mean left ventricular ejection fraction and end-diastolic volume were 63.8% +/- 9.8% and 82.0 +/- 53.5 mL in the normal MPI group versus 52.1% +/- 13.1% and 118.1 +/- 53.4 mL in the abnormal-MPI group (P < 0.001). There were 9 major intraoperative or postoperative cardiac events (4.7%) in the patients with abnormal MPI results and none in the patients with normal MPI results (P = 0.001). These major events consisted of 3 deaths, 2 acute MIs, 1 non-Q-wave MI, and 3 cases of CHF. Four of these patients had only scarring on their MPI studies, 3 had ischemia, and 2 had scarring and ischemia. CONCLUSION: Normal MPI results have a high negative predictive value for perioperative cardiac events in cancer patients. Abnormal MPI results, whether demonstrating scarring or ischemia, should prompt appropriate perioperative management in patients with cancer to minimize major cardiac events.