Pericardial cysts occur rarely, with an incidence rate of 1 per 100,000. They are usually detected by chance and clinically silent in most cases. Pericardial cysts are the most common benign tumours of the pericardium and presents by the third or fourth decade of life, and equally common in males and females. In principle, they only require follow-up, however, an enlarging or symptomatic cyst requires surgical removal. We report a case of a 32 year-old Malay lady, who presented with history of recurrent pericardial effusion followed by right pleural effusion. Computed tomography (CT) thorax identified a large mediastinal cyst as the cause of her problem, requiring exploratory thoracotomy.
Coaptive film (i.e., Steri-Strips™) is an adhesive tape used to replace sutures in wound closure. The use of coaptive film for wound closure after long bone fracture fixation has not been well documented in the literature.
Rat bioassay was used to evaluate the nutritional quality of beef burger as influenced by the addition of selected herbs and vegetables. The selected herbs and vegetables used were pucuk ubi (Mannihot esculenta), pucuk gajus (Anacardium occidentale), pegaga (Centella asiatica) and jantung pisang (Musa paradisiaca) as treatment group with casein and skimmed milk as reference. The rats were fed with herbs and vegetables at the rate of 0.5 (low dose) and 25 (high dose) g/kg body weight. The samples were analyzed for proximate analysis, protein quality and protein digestibility. The rats fed with pucuk ubi (high dose) (364.30 ± 25.34 g) indicated the highest mean of increased body weight (121.05 ± 14.65 g) while rats fed with skimmed milk (310.98 ± 18.92 g) showed the lowest mean increase in body weight (88.33 ± 14.25 g). As for the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) value, all the rats fed with herbs diet showed PER values that were significantly lower (p<0.05) compared to the casein. As for the in vivo apparent protein digestibility test, casein showed the highest digestibility value (86.33 ± 4.20) while pucuk gajus (high dose) (59.59 ± 5.41) showed the lowest. As for the in vitro digestibility analyses, casein indicated the highest value for in vitro digestibility (93.84 ± 0.33). Administration of herbs and vegetables at low and high doses show significant effects (p<0.05) on nutritional quality of beef burger. In conclusion, it was found that antinutritional factors in selected herbs and vegetables might affect the nutritional quality of beef burger.
Understanding Macrobrachium rosenbergii ovarian maturation control at the genome level is an important aspect for increasing larvae production. In this study, an ovarian maturation related gene, M. rosenbergii vWD domain and three Kazal-type domains of a gene (MrvWD-Kazal) have been studied. The MrvWD-Kazal gene was isolated using a rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE) method and the relative abundances of MrvWD-Kazal mRNA in the ovary, hepatopancreas, stomach, intestine and gill were determined by using the quantitative PCR technique. The MrvWD-Kazal gene is composed of 2194 bp with an open reading frame (ORF) of 1998 bp encoding 665 amino acids and has great similarity to the M. nipponense vWD-Kazal gene (91%). The qPCR analyses indicated the relative abundance of MrvWD-Kazal mRNA transcript varied among different stages of ovarian function (P < 0.05), but there were no differences abundance in hepatopancreas, stomach, intestine and gill (P> 0.05). In the ovary, relative abundance of MrvWD-Kazal mRNA transcript gradually increased with ovarian maturation from Stages 1 (Spent; 1.00-fold), to 2 (Proliferative; 3.47-fold) to 3 (Premature; 6.18-fold) and decreased at Stage 4 (Mature; 1.31-fold). Differential relative abundances of MrvWD-Kazal mRNA transcript in the ovary indicate the MrvWD-Kazal protein may have an important function in ovarian maturation of M. rosenbergii. The results of this study also indicate the MrvWD-Kazal is not involved in regulation of the reproductive related function of the hepatopancreas, digestive system (stomach and intestine) and respiratory system (gill).
Whole grains play an important role in regulating body weight. However, interventions aimed to increase whole grains consumption have had limited impact on body mass index for age z-score (BAZ) due to insufficient understanding of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) toward whole grains. This survey aimed to evaluate whole grains KAP among schoolchildren, as well as to investigate the associations of whole grains KAP with BAZ among the schoolchildren in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. This cross-sectional survey was conducted among 380 schoolchildren aged 9-11 years, cluster sampled from six randomly selected schools. Data were collected through a validated self-administered guided questionnaire. Body weight and height were measured. A majority of the schoolchildren had normal body weight (56.6%), moderate whole grains knowledge (42.6%), as well as neutral attitudes (66.1%) and poor practices (58.9%) toward whole grains consumption. Significant positive associations were found between knowledge and attitudes (r = 0.337; p