MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective review concerned data for patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the years 1995 to 2011 collected from the Wilayah Persekutuan Health Office, taken from the cancer notification form (NCR-2), and patient medical records from the Surgical Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). A total of 146 cases were analyzed. All the data collected were analysed using ArcGIS version 10.0 and SPSS version 19.0.
RESULTS: Patients aged 60 to 69 years accounted for the highest proportion of cases (34.2%) and males slightly predominated 76 (52.1%), Chinese had the highest number of registered cases at 108 (74.0%) and staging revealed most cases in the 3rd and 4th stages. Kernel density analysis showed more cases are concentrated up in the northern area of Petaling and Kuala Lumpur subdistricts. Spatial global pattern analysis by average nearest neighbour resulted in nearest neighbour ratio of 0.75, with Z-score of -5.59, p value of <0.01 and the z-score of -5.59. Spatial autocorrelation (Moran's I) showed clustering significant with p<0.01, Z score 3.14 and Moran's Index of 0.007. When mapping clusters with hotspot analysis (Getis-Ord Gi), hot and cold spots were identified. Hot spot areas fell on the northeast side of KL.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated significant spatial patterns of cancer incidence in KL. Knowledge about these spatial patterns can provide useful information to policymakers in the planning of screening of CRC in the targeted population and improvement of healthcare facilities to provide better treatment for CRC patients.
METHODS: MRSA strains were collected and molecularly typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).
RESULTS: PFGE typing on 180 MRSA isolated in UKMMC identified 5 pulsotypes (A-E) and 6 singletons, where pulsotypes B and C were suspected to be divergent clones originating from a single ancestor. This study also showed that most MRSA strains were isolated from swab (119 isolates), followed by blood (22 isolates), tracheal aspirate (11 isolates) and sputum (10 isolates). On the other hand, urine and bone isolates were less, which were 4 and 1 isolates, respectively. The distribution of different pulsotypes of MRSA among wards suggested that MRSA was communicated in surgical and medical wards in UKMMC, with pulsotype B MRSA as the dominant strain. Besides, it was found that most deceased patients were infected by pulsotype B MRSA, however, no particular pulsotype could be associated with patient age, underlying disease, or ward of admittance.
CONCLUSIONS: Five pulsotypes of MRSA and 6 singletons were identified, with pulsotype B MRSA as the endemic strains circulating in these wards, which is useful in establishment of preventive measures against MRSA transmission.
METHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted involving biopsy-proven IgAN patients in clinical remission with matched controls in a Malaysian tertiary centre. Demographic data, routine blood and urine results were recorded. Stool samples were collected and their DNA was extracted by 16S rRNA gene sequencing to profile their gut microbiota.
RESULTS: Thirty-six IgAN patients (13 male; 23 female) with the mean age of 45.5 ± 13.4 years and median estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 79.0 (62.1-92.2) mls/min/1.73m2 with median remission of 7 years were analysed and compared with 12 healthy controls (4 male; 8 female) with the mean age of 46.5 ± 13.5 years and eGFR of 86.5 (74.2-93.7) mls/min/1.73m2. Other demographic and laboratory parameters such as gender, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), haemoglobin, serum urea and serum albumin were comparable between the two groups. There were no significant differences seen in the Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) and alpha diversity (Shannon index) between IgAN and healthy controls. Alpha diversity increased with increasing CKD stage (p = 0.025). Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio was low in both IgAN and healthy cohort. Fusobacteria phylum was significantly increased (p = 0.005) whereas Euryarchaoeota phylum was reduced (p = 0.016) in the IgAN group as compared to the control cohort.
CONCLUSION: Although we found no differences in OTU and alpha diversity between IgAN in remission and control cohort, there were some differences between the two groups at phylum level.
Methods: The first strain isolated from each MSSA infection in HCTM during the year 2009 was included into the study. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and agr group typing were carried out for all strains; virulence gene (cna, seh, TSST-1 and PVL) typing results of the strains were obtained from a previous study. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was done on selected strains from the orthopedic ward. Relationship(s) between different typing methods used in the study was investigated, where a p value of <0.05 indicated significant association between typing methods.
Results: A total of 880 MSSA strains were included into the study. The strains were generally susceptible to most antibiotics, with most of them carrying cna and agr-I (51.6%, n=454; 39.8%, n=350, respectively). A total of 17 PFGE pulsotypes were identified using an 80% similarity cut-off value, where the main pulsotype (pulsotype E) consisted of 24 isolates (23.5%). agr-III strains were found to be usually positive for both cna and seh (p<0.05). In addition, some PFGE pulsotypes were also characteristic of certain virulence genes or agr groups.
Conclusions: We did not identify a dominant MSSA clone circulating in HCTM in 2009. Nevertheless, results from this molecular surveillance will provide good baseline data for the hospital's second S. aureus surveillance planned for the year 2020.