Browse publications by year: 2015

  1. Jalilolghadr S, Javadi A, Mahram M, Farshidgohar M, Javadi M
    Malays J Med Sci, 2015 Nov;22(6):32-39.
    PMID: 28223883
    BACKGROUND: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) is increasing worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of MetSyn and insulin resistance (IR) in children and adolescents in Qazvin, Iran.

    METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 338 children and adolescents aged 10-18 years old who were selected by a multistage cluster random sampling method. We performed standardised measurements of variables including waist circumference (WC), blood pressure, plasma glucose level, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), triglycerides, and insulin. MetSyn was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation criteria. IR was estimated by the homeostatic model assessment.

    RESULTS: Of the 338 total subjects, 172 were female. The overall prevalence of MetSyn and IR were 3.4% and 18.2%, respectively. There was no sex difference for the prevalence of MetSyn. A total of 185 subjects (56.4%) had one or two components of MetSyn. The most common component was low HDL levels in both sexes, which was followed by high WC in females and high fasting plasma glucose levels in males.

    CONCLUSION: The lack of a standard definition of MetSyn in children and adolescents combined with the geographical and socioeconomic differences make it difficult to compare the results from different studies. Modification of lifestyle habits is an important strategy in preventing MetSyn and IR.

  2. Shetty SD, Bairy LK
    J Adv Pharm Technol Res, 2015;6(4):165-9.
    PMID: 26605157 DOI: 10.4103/2231-4040.165012
    The issue of male germ line mutagenesis and the effects on developmental defects in the next generation has become increasingly high profile over recent years. Mutagenic substance affects germinal cells in the testis. Since the cells are undergoing different phases of cell division and maturation, it is an ideal system to study the effect of chemotherapeutic agents. There are lacunae in the literature on the effect of sorafenib on gonadal function. With background, a study was planned to evaluate the effects of sorafenib on sperm count and sperm motility in male Swiss albino mice. Male Swiss albino mice were used for the study. The animals were segregated into control, positive control (PC) and three treatment groups. PC received oral imatinib (100 mg/kg body weight) and treatment groups received 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg body weight of sorafenib orally for 7 consecutive days at intervals of 24 h between two administrations. The control group remained in the home cage for an equal duration of time to match their corresponding treatment groups. The animals were sacrificed at the end of 1(st), 2(nd), 4(th), 5(th), 7(th), and 10(th) weeks after the last exposure to drug, respectively. Sperm suspensions were prepared and introduced into a counting chamber. Total sperm count and motility were recorded. There was a significant decrease in sperm count and sperm motility by sorafenib which was comparable with the effect of PC imatinib. Sorafenib adversely affects sperm count and sperm motility which are reversible after discontinuation of treatment.
  3. Jiraungkoorskul K, Jiraungkoorskul W
    Trop Life Sci Res, 2015 Dec;26(2):15-25.
    PMID: 26868707
    A traditional Thai medicinal extract from Cassia siamea was evaluated with respect to its larvicidal properties by determining the median lethal concentration (LC50) at 24, 48, 72 and 96 h against the fourth instar larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus, which is a carrier of mosquito-borne diseases, by studying the histopathological alterations. The 24, 48, 72 and 96 h LC50 values were 394.29, 350.24, 319.17 and 272.42 ppm, respectively. The histopathological lesions after exposure to 25% of the 24-h LC50 were observed primarily in the midgut of the larva. Lesions with edema, swelling, and deformation or elongation of the epithelial cells were observed. Moreover, cells protruding into the lumen and absent microvilli were also found in some areas. The present study reveals that aqueous C. siamea leaf extracts have natural biopesticide properties.
  4. Trongsakul S
    Malays Fam Physician, 2015;10(1):11-8.
    PMID: 26425290
    OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between cognitive impairment and depressive mood in Thai elderly with type 2 diabetes at primary care centres.

    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two-hundred and eighty three (283) older people with type 2 diabetes were enrolled in this study. Mini-Cog and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) Thai 2002 were used to measure cognitive impairment while Thai geriatric screening test (TGDS) was used to measure depressive mood in all participants. Spearmen correlation was applied to determine the relationship between cognitive function and depressive mood.

    RESULTS: There was a positive relationship between cognitive impairment and depressive mood in older people with type 2 diabetes. The scores from Mini-Cog and MMSE Thai 2002 were negatively correlated with TGDS scores while adjusting for the effects of age and years of education with rs = -0.1, p = 0.06 and rs = -0.2, p<0.01, respectively. Although it showed an inverse relationship of the scores between cognitive and depressive mood screening tests, the results between the tests were positive when interpreting the test scores. It means that the higher score in Mini-Cog and MMSE Thai 2002 (non-cognitive impairment) were associated with the lower score in TGDS (non-depressed mood).

    CONCLUSION: The finding of this study showed that older people with type 2 diabetes who had cognitive impairment seemed to have depressive mood. Hence, these two co-morbidities should be considered in order to give an optimal care to older people with diabetes.

  5. Kamath MG, Prakash J, Tripathy A, Concessao P
    J Clin Diagn Res, 2015 Jan;9(1):CL01.
    PMID: 25737982 DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2015/11021.5471
  6. Muangthong A, Youpensuk S, Rerkasem B
    Trop Life Sci Res, 2015 Apr;26(1):41-51.
    PMID: 26868592
    Endophytic nitrogen fixing bacteria were isolated from the leaves, stems and roots of industrial variety (cv. U-Thong 3; UT3), wild and chewing sugarcane plants grown for 6 weeks in nitrogen (N)-free sand. Eighty nine isolates of endophytic bacteria were obtained on N-free agar. An acetylene reduction assay (ARA) detected nitrogenase activity in all 89 isolates. Three isolates from the chewing (C2HL2, C7HL1 and C34MR1) sugarcane and one isolate from the industrial sugarcane (UT3R1) varieties were characterised, and their responses to different yeast extract concentrations were investigated. Three different responses in nitrogenase activity were observed. Isolates C2HL2 and C7HL1 exhibited major increases with the addition of 0.005% yeast extract, C34MR1 exhibited no response, and UT3R1 exhibited a significant decrease in nitrogenase activity with 0.005% yeast extract. In all the isolates, nitrogenase activity decreased with further increase of the yeast extract to 0.05%. The highest nitrogenase activity was observed in isolates C2HL2 and C7HL1, which had 16S rRNA gene sequences that were closely related to Novosphingobium sediminicola and Ochrobactrum intermedium, respectively.
  7. Al-Ameen Z, Sulong G
    Interdiscip Sci, 2015 Feb 06.
    PMID: 25663110
    In computed tomography (CT), blurring occurs due to different hardware or software errors, and hides certain medical details that are present in an image. Image blur is difficult to avoid in many circumstances and can frequently ruin an image. For this, many methods have been developed to reduce the blurring artifact from CT images. The problems with these methods are the high implementation time, noise amplification and boundary artifacts. Hence, this article presents an amended version of the iterative Landweber algorithm to attain artifact-free boundaries and less noise amplification in a faster application time. In this study, both synthetic and real blurred CT images are used to validate the proposed method properly. Similarly, the quality of the processed synthetic images is measured using the Feature Similarity Index (FSIM), Structural Similarity (SSIM) and Visual Information Fidelity in Pixel Domain (VIFP) metrics. Finally, the results obtained from intensive experiments and performance evaluations show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, which has potential as a new approach in medical image processing.
  8. Adeshina AM, Hashim R
    Interdiscip Sci, 2015 Feb 06.
    PMID: 25663112
    Stroke is a cardiovascular disease with high mortality and long-term disability in the world. Normal functioning of the brain is dependent on the adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients to the brain complex network through the blood vessels. Stroke, occasionally a hemorrhagic stroke, ischemia or other blood vessel dysfunctions can affect patients during a cerebrovascular incident. Structurally, the left and the right carotid arteries, and the right and the left vertebral arteries are responsible for supplying blood to the brain, scalp and the face. However, a number of impairment in the function of the frontal lobes may occur as a result of any decrease in the flow of the blood through one of the internal carotid arteries. Such impairment commonly results in numbness, weakness or paralysis. Recently, the concepts of brain's wiring representation, the connectome, was introduced. However, construction and visualization of such brain network requires tremendous computation. Consequently, previously proposed approaches have been identified with common problems of high memory consumption and slow execution. Furthermore, interactivity in the previously proposed frameworks for brain network is also an outstanding issue. This study proposes an accelerated approach for brain connectomic visualization based on graph theory paradigm using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), extending the previously proposed SurLens Visualization and Computer Aided Hepatocellular Carcinoma (CAHECA) frameworks. The accelerated brain structural connectivity framework was evaluated with stripped brain datasets from the Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States. Significantly, our proposed framework is able to generates and extracts points and edges of datasets, displays nodes and edges in the datasets in form of a network and clearly maps data volume to the corresponding brain surface. Moreover, with the framework, surfaces of the dataset were simultaneously displayed with the nodes and the edges. The framework is very efficient in providing greater interactivity as a way of representing the nodes and the edges intuitively, all achieved at a considerably interactive speed for instantaneous mapping of the datasets' features. Uniquely, the connectomic algorithm performed remarkably fast with normal hardware requirement specifications.
  9. Koh PS, Chan AC, Cheung TT, Chok KS, Dai WC, Poon RT, et al.
    HPB (Oxford), 2015 Oct 16.
    PMID: 26473770 DOI: 10.1111/hpb.12495
    BACKGROUND: This study aims to assess if radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has any oncological superiority over transarterial chemoembolization(TACE) on post-hepatectomy recurrence.

    METHODS: From 2002 to 2011, 60.15% of 823 patients developed recurrence after hepatectomy for HCC. One hundred and two patients with recurrence underwent RFA (n = 42) or TACE (n = 60) for tumour size ≤5 cm and number of lesions ≤ 3 when tumours were not resectable or transplantable. Those with renal impairment, portal vein thrombosis and poor liver reserve were excluded. The primary outcome was overall survival, which was determined using log-rank test and Kaplan-Meier plots performed. Categorical data were analysed using the chi-square test and continuous variable were analysed using the Mann-Whitney U-test.

    RESULTS: Demographics and primary tumour characteristics were similar in both groups (P > 0.05). Overall survival (OS) after an initial hepatectomy and salvage treatment for recurrence was similar (P > 0.05) in both groups with a 5-year OS after salvage treatment for RFA and TACE at 24.1% and 25.7%, respectively. For patients with the second recurrence after salvage treatment, an interchangeable treatment strategy of RFA and TACE conferred a better survival outcome than a stand-alone treatment with RFA or TACE (P < 0.05).

    CONCLUSIONS: RFA and TACE may be equally effective for intrahepatic recurrence after hepatectomy when the tumour size is ≤ 5 cm and ≤ 3 lesions when re-resection or salvage transplantation is not considered feasible.

  10. Boyko K, Gorbacheva M, Rakitina T, Korzhenevskiy D, Vanyushkina A, Kamashev D, et al.
    Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun, 2015 Jan 01;71(Pt 1):24-7.
    PMID: 25615963 DOI: 10.1107/S2053230X14025333
    HU proteins belong to the nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) that are involved in vital processes such as DNA compaction and reparation, gene transcription etc. No data are available on the structures of HU proteins from mycoplasmas. To this end, the HU protein from the parasitic mycoplasma Spiroplasma melliferum KC3 was cloned, overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. Prismatic crystals of the protein were obtained by the vapour-diffusion technique at 4°C. The crystals diffracted to 1.36 Å resolution (the best resolution ever obtained for a HU protein). The diffraction data were indexed in space group C2 and the structure of the protein was solved by the molecular-replacement method with one monomer per asymmetric unit.
    MeSH terms: Bacterial Proteins/biosynthesis; Bacterial Proteins/isolation & purification; Bacterial Proteins/chemistry*; Chromatography, Affinity; Crystallization; DNA-Binding Proteins/biosynthesis; DNA-Binding Proteins/isolation & purification; DNA-Binding Proteins/chemistry*; Escherichia coli; Histones/biosynthesis; Histones/isolation & purification; Histones/chemistry; Spiroplasma*; Crystallography, X-Ray; Protein Stability
  11. Engelhardt KR, Gertz ME, Keles S, Schäffer AA, Sigmund EC, Glocker C, et al.
    J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2015 Aug;136(2):402-12.
    PMID: 25724123 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2014.12.1945
    BACKGROUND: Mutations in dedicator of cytokinesis 8 (DOCK8) cause a combined immunodeficiency (CID) also classified as autosomal recessive (AR) hyper-IgE syndrome (HIES). Recognizing patients with CID/HIES is of clinical importance because of the difference in prognosis and management.

    OBJECTIVES: We sought to define the clinical features that distinguish DOCK8 deficiency from other forms of HIES and CIDs, study the mutational spectrum of DOCK8 deficiency, and report on the frequency of specific clinical findings.

    METHODS: Eighty-two patients from 60 families with CID and the phenotype of AR-HIES with (64 patients) and without (18 patients) DOCK8 mutations were studied. Support vector machines were used to compare clinical data from 35 patients with DOCK8 deficiency with those from 10 patients with AR-HIES without a DOCK8 mutation and 64 patients with signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) mutations.

    RESULTS: DOCK8-deficient patients had median IgE levels of 5201 IU, high eosinophil levels of usually at least 800/μL (92% of patients), and low IgM levels (62%). About 20% of patients were lymphopenic, mainly because of low CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell counts. Fewer than half of the patients tested produced normal specific antibody responses to recall antigens. Bacterial (84%), viral (78%), and fungal (70%) infections were frequently observed. Skin abscesses (60%) and allergies (73%) were common clinical problems. In contrast to STAT3 deficiency, there were few pneumatoceles, bone fractures, and teething problems. Mortality was high (34%). A combination of 5 clinical features was helpful in distinguishing patients with DOCK8 mutations from those with STAT3 mutations.

    CONCLUSIONS: DOCK8 deficiency is likely in patients with severe viral infections, allergies, and/or low IgM levels who have a diagnosis of HIES plus hypereosinophilia and upper respiratory tract infections in the absence of parenchymal lung abnormalities, retained primary teeth, and minimal trauma fractures.

    MeSH terms: Adolescent; Adult; Antigens, Bacterial/blood; Antigens, Bacterial/immunology; Antigens, Viral/blood; Antigens, Viral/immunology; Bacterial Infections/complications*; Bacterial Infections/genetics; Bacterial Infections/immunology; Bacterial Infections/mortality; Child; Child, Preschool; Eosinophils/immunology; Eosinophils/pathology; Female; Humans; Immunoglobulin E/blood; Immunoglobulin E/genetics; Immunoglobulin M/blood; Immunoglobulin M/genetics; Infant; Job Syndrome/complications*; Job Syndrome/genetics; Job Syndrome/immunology; Job Syndrome/mortality; Male; Middle Aged; Mutation; Phenotype*; Skin Diseases/complications*; Skin Diseases/genetics; Skin Diseases/immunology; Skin Diseases/mortality; Virus Diseases/complications*; Virus Diseases/genetics; Virus Diseases/immunology; Virus Diseases/mortality; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes/immunology; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes/pathology; Survival Analysis; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/immunology; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/pathology; Lymphocyte Count; Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors/deficiency*; Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors/genetics; Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors/immunology; STAT3 Transcription Factor/genetics; STAT3 Transcription Factor/immunology; Support Vector Machine
  12. Citation: Malaysian Guidelines in the Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections, Fourth Edition. Putrajaya: Ministry of Health, Malaysia; 2015

    Older version: Third Edition (2008)
    MeSH terms: Humans; Malaysia; Sexually Transmitted Diseases*; Guidelines as Topic
  13. Shamsuddin N, Koon PB, Zakaria SZS, Noor MI, Jamal R
    Int J Public Health Res, 2015;5(2):643-653.
    Validation of instruments is essential when assessing physical activity (PA). The aim of this study was to validate a Malay language version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-M) against Actical accelerometer and to determine its reliability and validity.
    Methods A total of 90 Malay adults aged 35-65 years old participating in The Malaysian Cohort project were recruited for this study. The IPAQ-M is comprised of 12 items, covering vigorous, moderate, walking, sitting and sleeping activities, and was administered on two occasions (Day 1 and Day 9) by interviewing the participants. Participants wore the Actical accelerometer for seven consecutive days between the two interview sessions.
    Results Validity tests showed that time spent in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (min wk-1) from IPAQ-M was significantly correlated with MVPA from accelerometer (rho=0.32, p<0.01). Time spent in vigorous activity (rho=0.44) and total activity (rho=0.36) from IPAQ-M were significantly correlated (p<0.01) with that measured by accelerometer, but no correlation was observed for sedentary behaviour. Reliability tests revealed significant correlations between the two interview sessions for all intensities of PA (rho=0.55 to 0.71, p<0.01). Bland-Altman plots showed that time spent in MVPA for IPAQ-M was significantly different from that measured by accelerometer (mean difference: 98.02 min wk-1; 95% limits of agreement: - 785.33 to 1317.83 min wk-1; p<0.01). When classifying people into meeting PA recommendation, the agreement between the two instruments was fair (κ=0.22).
    Conclusions The IPAQ-M has acceptable validity for MVPA, vigorous and total physical activity, and was reliable for assessing the physical activity of Malay adults.
    Keywords Health care workers - Knowledge - Practice - Universal precaution - Health center.
    Study name: The Malaysian Cohort (TMC) project
    MeSH terms: Adult; Humans; Malaysia; Malaysia/ethnology; Motor Activity*; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Exercise*
  14. Lian T. Chan
    MyJurnal
    Many drugs used in paediatric are often not available in suitable dosage forms and have to be
    extemporaneously prepared by pharmacists to make them suitable for the body weight, body
    surface area, or age of the children. Phenobarbitone is the main anti-epileptic drug (AED) for
    the treatment of seizure in paediatric patients. The objective of this study is to evaluate the
    physicochemical and microbiological stability of an extemporaneously prepared
    Phenobarbitone Oral Suspension using commercially available tablets and X-temp Oral
    Suspension System. The Phenobarbitone Oral Suspension (10mg/ml) was stored at 4ºC and
    30ºC / 75%RH protected from light and were examined at the interval of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 6
    months. The content of Phenobarbitone was determined using a validated high-performance
    liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The visual appearance, odour, pH and specific
    gravity remained fairly unchanged throughout the study period and the content of
    Phenobarbitone remained above 98% of the original concentration throughout the course of
    the study for both temperatures. The extemporaneous preparation was not susceptible to
    microbial contamination. The results from the stability studies confirmed that X-temp Oral
    Suspension is a suitable suspending vehicle for preparing extemporaneous liquid formulation
    of Phenobarbitone Oral Suspension with the added advantage of alcohol-free, colourant-free
    and sugar-free. Based on the data collected, the shelf-life of this liquid formulation is at least
    6 months when stored at 4ºC (refrigeration) and 30ºC / 75%RH (room temperature).
  15. L Anchah
    MyJurnal
    Background: Dual therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel is the standard treatment for acute
    coronary syndrome (ACS). Dual antiplatelet therapy plays an important role in reducing major
    acute, short- and long-term adverse clinical outcomes. Currently, the economic evaluation of
    ticagrelor, a reversible and direct-acting oral antagonist of adenosine diphosphate receptor
    P2Y12 remains unknown.
    Objective: To compare the annual cost of ticagrelor versus branded clopidogrel in patients with
    ACS from a Malaysian health care perspective.
    Methods: The data required for this analysis was obtained from a 2007 study carried out by
    Fong et al. in ACS patients (n=57). Assumptions used for the present analysis were based on
    data from the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (CRP) study, the Study of Platelet Inhibition
    and Patient Outcomes (PLATO) and the National Cardiovascular Disease ACS (NCVD ACS)
    registry of Malaysia. For all calculations, the Ringgit Malaysia (RM) currency and prices as of
    2007 were considered.
    Results: The cost of clopidogrel treatment in post-ACS patients for 30 days was calculated to
    be RM1,381,340 (n=2072; daily cost=RM5.50) and assuming treatment with ticagrelor, the
    cost would be RM1,554,000 (daily cost=RM8.70). Based on PLATO and NCVD ACS 2007,
    it was estimated that major adverse coronary event (MACE) in the form of unstable angina
    (UA) would occur in an additional 21 patients on clopidogrel, which could have been avoided
    with ticagrelor. Extrapolating cost data from CRP study, it was estimated that the annual costs
    for 21 additional cases of UA in terms of annual treatment and readmission would be more
    than RM400,000. Treatment with ticagrelor would thereby be associated with lesser number of
    MACE that can be translated in avoiding annual costs of treatment of UA and result in annual
    cost savings of RM238,856.
    Conclusion: Although direct comparisons were not made, this analysis suggests that ticagrelor
    therapy may be a more cost-saving alternative to clopidogrel in Malaysian patients with ACS.
  16. O'Brien MJ, Burslem DF, Caduff A, Tay J, Hector A
    New Phytol, 2015 Feb;205(3):1083-94.
    PMID: 25358235 DOI: 10.1111/nph.13134
    Drought regimes can be characterized by the variability in the quantity of rainfall and the duration of rainless periods. However, most research on plant response to drought has ignored the impacts of rainfall variation, especially with regard to the influence of nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) in promoting drought resistance. To test the hypothesis that these components of drought differentially affect NSC dynamics and seedling resistance, we tracked NSC in plant tissues of tropical tree seedlings in response to manipulations of the volume and frequency of water applied. NSC concentrations decreased in woody tissues under infrequent-high watering but increased under no watering. A faster decline of growth relative to stomatal conductance in the no watering treatment was consistent with NSC accumulation as a result of an uncoupling of growth and photosynthesis, while usage of stored NSCs in woody tissues to maintain function may account for the NSC decline under infrequent-high watering. NSCs, and specifically stem NSCs, contributed to drought resistance under severe water deficits, while NSCs had a less clear role in drought resistance to variability in water availability. The contrasting response of NSCs to water variability and deficit indicates that unique processes support seedling resistance to these components of drought.
    MeSH terms: Adaptation, Physiological*; Photosynthesis; Rain; Stress, Physiological*; Trees/growth & development; Trees/metabolism*; Water*; Wood; Plant Transpiration; Plant Stems/metabolism*; Seedlings/metabolism; Carbohydrate Metabolism*; Plant Stomata/physiology; Droughts*
  17. Diyes GCP, Karunaratne WAIP, Tomberlin JK, Rajakaruna RS
    Trop Biomed, 2015 Dec 01;32(4):791-795.
    PMID: 33557472
    Megaselia scalaris (Loew) is a cosmopolitan polyphagous small fly with the ability of exploiting variety of ecological niches. Different life history stages act as detritivore, parasite, and parasitoid of wider spectrum of plant and animal matter under natural and laboratory conditions. Here, for the first time we present the opportunistic parasitism of M. scalaris on Otobius megnini, which act as a vector of Q fever and is capable of causing paralysis, toxic conditions, otoacariasis and otitis in humans and other animals. Tick samples from the ear canals of 14 thoroughbred horses were brought to the laboratory and several days later, larvae of M. scalaris were found feeding on immature stages of O. megnini. When the development was completed pupae were found attached to adult ticks and all nymphs were found dead. This context reveals the capability of M. scalaris surviving on O. megnini and the risk of their invading ear canals of horses.
    MeSH terms: Adult; Animals; Diptera; Ear Canal; Horses; Humans; Laboratories; Larva; Mite Infestations; Nymph; Otitis; Paralysis; Parasites; Pupa; Q Fever; Ticks; Ecosystem; Argasidae
  18. Dev V, Mahanta N, Baruah BK
    Trop Biomed, 2015 Dec 01;32(4):796-799.
    PMID: 33557473
    Dengue is emerging as major public health concern in northeast India and spreading with increased morbidity. Most cases were recorded in Guwahati metropolitan city of the state of Assam during post-monsoon months (September- December). These comprised all age groups of both sexes with significantly higher incidence of cases in adult males aged 26- 60 years.
    MeSH terms: Adult; Aged; Cities; Dengue; Female; Humans; India; Male; Middle Aged; Morbidity; Public Health; Incidence
  19. Dib JR, Fernández-Zenoff MV, Oquilla J, Rudelli M, Lazarte S, González SN
    Trop Biomed, 2015 Dec 01;32(4):800-804.
    PMID: 33557474
    The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among schoolchildren in Colalao del Valle, a high-altitude community in Tucumán province, Argentina, was investigated. The data revealed a high prevalence of parasitism (79.7%) with no significant differences in distribution by sex or age. Protozoa infections were the most common with Blastocystis hominis being the most prevalent (62.5%), followed by Giardia lamblia (29.7%), Endolimax nana (15.6%), Entamoeba coli (12.5%) and Iodamoeba bütschlii (3.1%). Interestingly, there was an absence of soil-transmitted helminths among the studied population which could be related to climate (variable temperatures, moderate rainfall) and soil type (clay).
    MeSH terms: Altitude; Animals; Argentina; Endolimax; Entamoeba; Helminths; Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic; Protozoan Infections; Soil; Temperature; Prevalence; Giardia lamblia; Blastocystis hominis
  20. Lee BQ, Khor SM
    Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf, 2015 Jan;14(1):48-66.
    PMID: 33401813 DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.12120
    Soy sauce, a dark-colored seasoning, is added to enhance the sensory properties of foods. Soy sauce can be consumed as a condiment or added during the preparation of food. There are 3 types of soy sauce: fermented, acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein (acid- HVP), and mixtures of these. 3-Chloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) is a heat-produced contaminants formed during the preparation of soy sauce and was found to be a by-product of acid-HVP-produced soy sauce in 1978. 3-MCPD has been reported to be carcinogenic, nephrotoxic, and reproductively toxic in laboratory animal testing and has been registered as a chemosterilant for rodent control. 3-MCPD is classified as a possible carcinogenic compound, and the maximum tolerated limit in food has been established at both national and international levels. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview on the detection of 3-MCPD in soy sauce, its toxic effects, and the potential methods to reduce its concentration, especially during the production of acid-HVP soy sauce. The methods of quantification are also critically reviewed with a focus on efficiency, suitability, and challenges encountered in analysis.
    MeSH terms: alpha-Chlorohydrin; Animals; Animals, Laboratory; Carcinogens; Chemosterilants; Condiments; Fermentation; Food; Hot Temperature; Hydrolysis; Rodent Control; Soy Foods
External Links