Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of beta-glucanase produced by transformed Lactobacillus strains on the intestinal characteristics and feed passage rate of broiler chickens fed barley-based diets. Supplementation of transformed Lactobacillus strains to the diet of chickens significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the intestinal fluid viscosity by 21 to 46% compared with chickens fed an unsupplemented diet or a diet supplemented with parental Lactobacillus strains. The relative weights of pancreas, liver, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, ceca, and colon were reduced (P < 0.05) by 6 to 27%, and the relative length of duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and ceca was reduced (P < 0.05) by 8 to 15%. Histological examination of the intestinal tissues showed that the jejunal villus height of chickens fed a diet supplemented with transformed Lactobacillus strains was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of chickens fed other dietary treatments. The transformed Lactobacillus strains were found to reduce (P < 0.05) the time of feed passage rate by 2.2 h. Supplementation of transformed Lactobacillus strains to the diet improved the intestinal characteristics and feed, passage rate of the chickens.
Fasciolopsiasis is a disease caused by the largest intestinal fluke, Fasciolopsis buski. The disease is endemic in the Far East and Southeast Asia. Human acquires the infection after eating raw freshwater plants contaminated with the infective metacercariae. There has been no report of fasciolopsiasis either in man or in animal in Malaysia. We are reporting the first case of fasciolopsiasis in Malaysia in a 39-year-old female farmer, a native of Sabah (East Malaysia). This patient complained of cough and fever for a duration of two weeks, associated with loss of appetite and loss of weight. She had no history of traveling overseas. Physical examination showed pallor, multiple cervical and inguinal lymph nodes and hepatosplenomegaly. Laboratory investigations showed that she had iron deficiency anemia. There was leukocytosis and a raised ESR. Lymph node biopsy revealed a caseating granuloma. Stool examination was positive for the eggs of Fasciolopsis buski. The eggs measure 140 x 72.5 microm and are operculated. In this case, the patient did not present with symptoms suggestive of any intestinal parasitic infections. Detection of Fasciolopsis buski eggs in the stool was an incidental finding. She was diagnosed as a case of disseminated tuberculosis with fasciolopsiasis and was treated with antituberculosis drugs and praziquantel, respectively.
Thalassemia is the commonest hemoglobinopathy in Malaysia. Patients with thalassemia major are transfusion dependent, and a large proportion of them will require splenectomy. As this particular group of patients is immunocompromized, overwhelming sepsis is a recognized complication. We report a series of three patients who all developed intra-abdominal abscesses following splenectomy.
Three new fully dehydrogenated naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids, the 7,1'-coupled ent-dioncophylleine A (3a), the likewise 7,1'-coupled 5'-O-demethyl-ent-dioncophylleine A (4), and the 7,8'-linked dioncophylleine D (5), have been isolated from the leaves of the recently described Malaysian highland liana Ancistrocladusbenomensis. All of them lack an oxygen function at C-6; this so-called Dioncophyllaceae-type structural subclass had previously been found only in naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids from West and Central African plants. Moreover, compounds 3a and 4 are the first fully dehydrogenated, i.e., only axially chiral, naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids of this type that are optically active; compound 5, by contrast, is fully racemic, due to its configurationally unstable biaryl axis. The structural elucidation was achieved by spectroscopic and chiroptical methods. Biological activities of these alkaloids against different protozoan parasites are described.
This single centre study was designed to demonstrate feasibility, safety and efficacy of the Vivant Z stent (PFM AG, Cologne, Germany). Patients with de novo lesion were recruited. Coronary angioplasty was performed with either direct stenting or after balloon predilatation. Repeated angiogram was performed 6 months later or earlier if clinically indicated. Between January to June 2003, a total of 50 patients were recruited (mean age 55.8 +/- 9 years). A total of 52 lesions were stented successfully. Mean reference diameter was 2.77 mm (+/-0.59 SD, range 2.05-4.39 mm) with mean target lesion stenosis of 65.5% (+/-11.6 SD, range 50.1-93.3%). Forty-six lesions (88.5%) were American College of Cardiologist/American Heart Association class B/C types. Direct stenting was performed in 18 (34.6%) lesions. Mean stent diameter was 3.18 mm (+/-0.41 SD, range 2.5-4 mm), and mean stent length was 14.86 mm (+/-2.72 SD, range 9-18 mm). The procedure was complicated in only one case which involved the loss of side branch with no clinical sequelae. All treated lesions achieved Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 3 flow. Mean residual diameter stenosis was 12.2% (+/-7.55 SD, range 0-22.6%) with acute gain of 1.72 mm (+/-0.50 SD, range 0.5-2.8). At 6 months, there was no major adverse cardiovascular event. Repeated angiography after 6 months showed a restenosis rate of 17% (defined as >50% diameter restenosis). Mean late loss was 0.96 mm (+/-0.48 SD) with loss index of 0.61 (+/-0.38 SD). The restenosis rate of those lesions less than 3.0 mm in diameter was 22.2% compared with 6.25% in those lesions more than 3.0 mm in diameter. The Vivant Z stent was shown to be safe and efficacious with low restenosis rate in de novo coronary artery lesion.
Four new furanoanthraquinones, 2-hydroxymethyl-3,4-[2'-(1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-dihydrofurano]-8-hydroxyanthraquinone, 2-hydroxymethyl-3,4-[1'-hydroxy-2'-(1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-dihydrofurano]-8-hydroxyanthraquinone, 2-hydroxymethyl-3,4-[2'-1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-dihydrofurano]anthraquinone and 2-methyl-3,4-[2'-(1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-dihydrofurano] anthraquinone or capitellataquinone A-D and four known anthraquinones, rubiadin, anthragallol 2-methyl ether, alizarin 1-methyl ether and digiferruginol, together with scopoletin were isolated from the stems of Hedyotis capitellata Wall (Rubiaceae). Lucidin-3-O-beta-glucoside was isolated from the roots of the plant. Characterization of the new compounds was carried out by extensive NMR studies using FGCOSY, FGHMQC, FGHMBC and DEPT-135 in addition to other spectroscopic methods.
Dengue fever (DF) is an acute febrile viral disease frequently presented with headache, bone or joint and muscular pains, and rash. A significant percentage of DF patients develop a more severe form of disease, known as dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF). DHF is the complication of DF. The main pathophysiology of DHF is the development of plasma leakage from the capillary, resulting in haemoconcentration, ascites, and pleural effusion that may lead to shock following defervescence of fever. Therefore, accurate prediction of the day of defervescence of fever is critical for clinician to decide on patient management strategy. To date, no known literature describes of any attempt to predict the day of defervescence of fever in DF patients. This paper describes a non-invasive prediction system for predicting the day of defervescence of fever in dengue patients using artificial neural network. The developed system bases its prediction solely on the clinical symptoms and signs and uses the multilayer feed-forward neural networks (MFNN). The results show that the proposed system is able to predict the day of defervescence in dengue patients with 90% prediction accuracy.
MeSH terms: Dengue/physiopathology*; Humans; Neural Networks (Computer)*; Severe Dengue/physiopathology*
The present study investigated the action of des-aspartate-angiotensin I (DAA-I) on the pressor action of angiotensin II in the renal and mesenteric vasculature of WKY, SHR and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Angiotensin II-induced a dose-dependent pressor response in the renal vasculature. Compared to the WKY, the pressor response was enhanced in the SHR and reduced in the STZ-induced diabetic rat. DAA-I attenuated the angiotensin II pressor action in renal vasculature of WKY and SHR. The attenuation was observed for DAA-I concentration as low as 10(-18) M and was more prominent in SHR. However, the ability of DAA-I to reduce angiotensin II response was lost in the STZ-induced diabetic kidney. Instead, enhancement of angiotensin II pressor response was seen at the lower doses of the octapeptide. The effect of DAA-I was not inhibited by PD123319, an AT2 receptor antagonist, and indomethacin, a cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor in both WKY and SHR, indicating that its action was not mediated by angiotensin AT2 receptor and prostaglandins. The pressor responses to angiotensin II in mesenteric vascular bed were also dose-dependent but smaller in magnitude compared to the renal vasculature. The responses were significantly smaller in SHR but no significant difference was observed between STZ-induced diabetic and WKY rat. Similarly, PD123319 and indomethacin had no effect on the action of DAA-I. The findings reiterate a regulatory role for DAA-I in vascular bed of the kidney and mesentery. By being active at circulating level, DAA-I subserves a physiological role. This function appears to be present in animals with diseased state of hypertension and diabetes. It is likely that DAA-I functions are modified to accommodate the ongoing vascular remodeling.
This study aims to determine the prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition and its association with soil-transmitted helminthiases in Orang Asli (Aborigine) children in Selangor, Malaysia. The results obtained from 368 children aged 2-15 years showed that the overall prevalence of mild and significant underweight was 32.1% and 56.5% respectively. The prevalence of mild stunting was 25.6% while another 61.3% had significant stunting. The overall prevalence of mild and significant wasting was 39.0% and 19.5% respectively. The overall prevalence of ascariasis, trichuriasis and hookworm infection were 61.9%, 98.2% and 37.0% respectively and of these 18.9%, 23.5% and 2.5% of the children had severe infection of the respective helminthes. The overall prevalence of giardiasis was 24.9%. The present study vividly shows that stunting and underweight are highly prevalent among Orang Asli children and therefore of concern in this community. In this population intestinal parasitic infections, especially severe trichuriasis and giardiasis, were identified as the main predictors of stunting and wasting respectively, in addition to age between 2 to 6 years.
Two Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) isolates, NP1SSH and NP2K were obtained from a severe infectious bursal disease (IBD) outbreak in Nepal in 2002. The hypervariable (HV) region of VP2 gene (1326 bp) of the isolates was generated by RT-PCR and sequenced. The obtained nucleotide sequences were compared with those of twenty other IBDV isolates/strains. Phylogenetic analysis based on this comparison revealed that NP1SSH and NP2K clustered with very virulent (vv) IBDV strains of serotype 1. In contrast, classical, Australian classical and attenuated strains of serotype 1 and avirulent IBDV strains of serotype 2 formed a different cluster. The deduced amino acid sequences of the two isolates showed a 98.3% identity with each other and 97.1% and 98.3% identities, respectively with very virulent IBDV (vvIBDV) isolates/strains. Three amino acids substitutions at positions 300 (E-->A), 308 (I-->F) and 334 (A-->P) within the HV region were common for both the isolates. The amino acids substitutions at positions 27 (S-->T), 28 (I-->T), 31 (D-->A), 36 (H-->Y), 135 (E-->G), 223 (G-->S), 225 (V-->I), 351 (L-->I), 352 (V-->E) and 399 (I-->S) for NP1SSH and at position 438 (I-->S) for NP2K were unique and differed from other IBDV isolates/strains. NP1SSH and NP2K showed highest similarity (97.8%) with the BD399 strain from Bangladesh as compared with other vvIBDV isolates/strains. We conclude that the NP1SSH and NP2K isolates of IBDV from Nepal represent vvIBDV of serotype 1.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and their adverse effects on the gastric mucosa are yet another set of unresolved medical problems. This study examined the effects of various antioxidants on several gastric parameters after a single exposure to indomethacin. Forty-eight male rats of the Sprague-Dawley (200-250 g) strain were randomly divided to receive a single antioxidant (tocopherol, tocotrienol, or ubiquinone) or a combination of two (tocopherol-tocotrienol, tocopherol-ubiquinone or tocotrienol-ubiquinone) for 28 days. The rats were then challenged with a single dose of indomethacin and killed six hours later. Findings showed that the severity of gastric lesions was comparable in all groups. Only groups that received a combination of antioxidants exhibited reduced lipid peroxidation compared with all other groups (p < 0.05). The combination groups had a higher level of gastric prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) content compared with all other groups (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference among the groups in the gastric acid concentration and the glutathione/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) ratio. We conclude that although supplementation of these antioxidants in combination had desirable effects on lipid peroxidation and gastric PGE2 level, they did not reduce the lesions produced by indomethacin.
Leydig and Sertoli cells of the immature lesser mouse deer testes, obtained in East Malaysia, were observed using light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The testes were fixed in 5% glutaraldehyde, post-fixed in 1% OsO4, dehydrated in ethanol, and embedded in Araldite M. Serial semi-thin sections were cut, stained with toluidine blue and observed using light microscopy. Serial ultra-thin sections were cut, stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate, and examined using TEM. As a result, ultrastructurally, two types of underdeveloped filament bundles were infrequently recognized in Leydig cells, but not in other testicular cells. One type was the underdeveloped bundles of actin filaments (approximately 5 nm in diameter), which were found in the nucleus of Leydig cells. The other type was the underdeveloped bundles of intermediate filaments (approximately 10 nm in diameter), which were found in the cytoplasm of Leydig cells. A multivesicular nuclear body (MNB)--specifically present in the Sertoli cell nucleus of ruminant testes--was infrequently observed. The MNB is situated in the vicinity of nuclear membrane, still in an underdeveloped stage.
Characteristic immune profiles have been demonstrated in gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. However, the genetic basis of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease remains unclear.
MeSH terms: Histocompatibility Antigens Class II/genetics*; Barrett Esophagus/genetics*; Barrett Esophagus/immunology; Female; Gastroesophageal Reflux/genetics; Gene Frequency; Histocompatibility Testing; Humans; Malaysia; Male; Middle Aged; Prospective Studies; Cohort Studies; Histocompatibility Antigens Class I/genetics*; Genetic Predisposition to Disease/genetics*; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/genetics*
In this paper, we propose to use the autoregressive (AR)-based interpolator with Wiener filter and apply the idea to scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. The concept for combining the AR-based interpolator with Wiener filtering comes from the essential requirement of Wiener filtering for accurate and consistent estimation of the power of the noise in images prior to filter implementation. The resultant filter is called AR-Wiener filter. The proposed filter is embedded onto the frame grabber card of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) for real-time image processing. Different images are captured using SEM and used to compare the performances of the conventional Wiener and the proposed AR-Wiener technique.
OBJECTIVE:A cross-sectional study design was utilized to examine factors associated with obesity in Chinese-American children.
SUBJECTS:Chinese-American children (8 to 10 years old) and their mothers (N = 68) in California participated in the study.
MEASUREMENTS:Mothers completed demographic information, the Family Assessment Device, Attitudes Toward Child Rearing Scale, and Suinn-Lew Asian Self-identity Acculturation Scale. Children's body mass index was measured, and children completed a self-administered physical activity checklist, Food Frequency Questionnaire, and the Schoolagers' Coping Strategies Inventory.
RESULTS:Results indicated three variables that predicted children's body mass index: older age, a more democratic parenting style, and poor communication (R2=.263, F=8.727, p = .0001). Children whose mothers had a low level of acculturation were also more likely to be overweight than were children whose mothers were highly acculturated.
CONCLUSION:This study revealed that children's ages, a democratic parenting style, and poor family communication contribute to increased body mass index in Chinese-American children. Other factors related to children's BMI and dietary intake include acculturation level of the mother and family affective responses. Future studies should examine the change in BMI over time and in different age groups and why parenting and family communication impact children's body weight.
MeSH terms: Acculturation; Adult; Asian Americans/ethnology*; Asian Americans/statistics & numerical data; Attitude to Health/ethnology; California/epidemiology; Child; Child Welfare/ethnology*; China/ethnology; Communication; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diet Surveys; Emigration and Immigration/statistics & numerical data; Food Habits/ethnology; Hong Kong/ethnology; Humans; Indonesia/ethnology; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Malaysia/ethnology; Mothers/education; Mothers/psychology; Obesity/ethnology*; Obesity/prevention & control; Surveys and Questionnaires; Risk Factors; Taiwan/ethnology; United States; Parenting/ethnology
Heterotopic neuroglial tissue is a rare congenital lesion with predilection in head and neck region. We report a case of a newborn who presented with an oral cavity mass with intracranial extension and later respiratory distress that was successfully excised via transcranial and transcervical approach.
The daily variations in the in situ CO(2) exchange of the reproductive organs of Durio zibethinus trees, growing in an experimental field at University Putra Malaysia (UPM), were examined at different growth stages. Reproductive organs emerged on the leafless portions of branches inside the crown. The photon flux densities (PFD) in the chambers used for the measurements were less than 100 mumol m(-2) s(-1) and were 40% of the PFD outside of the crown. The daytime net respiration rate and the nighttime dark respiration rate were higher at the time of flower initiation and during the mixed stages, when flower buds, flowers, and fruit coexist, than at the flower bud stage. The net respiration rate was lower than the daytime dark respiration rate at given temperatures, especially at the flower bud and fruit stages. Conversely, the net respiration rate was similar to the daytime dark respiration rate at the mixed stage. Photosynthetic CO(2) refixation reduced the daily respiratory loss by 17, 5, 0.3, and 24% at the flower bud, flower initiation, mixed, and fruit stages, respectively.
The aim of the study was to use data from an electronic medical record system (EMR) to look for factors that would help us diagnose acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with the ultimate aim of using these factors in a decision support system for chest pain. We extracted 887 records from the electronic medical record system (EMR) in Selayang Hospital, Malaysia. We cleaned the data, extracted 69 possible variables and performed univariate and multivariate analysis. From the univariate analysis we find that 22 variables are significantly associated with a diagnosis of AMI. However, multiple logistic regression reveals that only 9 of these 22 variables are significantly related to a diagnosis of AMI. Race (Indian), male sex, sudden onset of persistent crushing pain, associated sweating and a history of diabetes mellitus are significant predictors of AMI. Pain that is relieved by other means and history of heart disease on treatment are important predictors of a diagnosis other than AMI. The degree of accuracy is high at 80.5%. There are 13 factors that are significant in the univariate analysis but are not among the nine significant factors in the multivariate analysis. These are location of pain, associated palpitations, nausea and vomiting; pain relieved by rest, pain aggravated by posture, cough, inspiration and exertion; age more than 40, being a smoker and abnormal chest wall and face examination. We believe that these findings can have important applications in the design of an intelligent decision support system for use in medical care as the predictive capability can be further refined with the use of intelligent computational techniques.
MeSH terms: Adult; Age Factors; Chest Pain/diagnosis*; Chest Pain/etiology; Diagnosis, Differential; Exercise Test; Female; Hospital Records/statistics & numerical data; Humans; Malaysia/epidemiology; Male; Middle Aged; Myocardial Infarction/complications; Myocardial Infarction/diagnosis*; Myocardial Infarction/epidemiology; Population Surveillance; Predictive Value of Tests; Regression Analysis; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Severity of Illness Index; Incidence
Treatment and management of congenital as well as post-traumatic trachea stenosis remains a challenge in pediatric surgery. The aim of this study was to reconstruct a trachea with human nasal septum chondrocytes by using the combination of biodegradable hydrogel and non-biodegradable high-density polyethylene (HDP) as the internal predetermined shape scaffold.
To compare the incidence of nasal trauma associated with the use of prong or mask during nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) support in very low birthweight (<1501 g) infants.