MyMedR

Subclinical atherosclerosis among rheumatoid arthritis patients without overt cardiovascular risk factors

Sahari NS, Shaharir SS, Ismail MR, Rajalingham S, Mohamed Said MS

Mod Rheumatol, 2014 Nov;24(6):920-5.

PMID: 24645724 DOI: 10.3109/14397595.2014.891497

OBJECTIVE: To determine the associated factors of subclinical atherosclerosis measured with carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients without any overt traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors.
METHODS: Forty RA patients with matched age and gender healthy controls were recruited. Carotid ultrasound was performed to all subjects. CIMT was considered to be abnormally thickened if it was more than the 75th percentile matched for age and sex reference values. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the association between the sociodemographics and disease characteristics of RA with thickened CIMT.
RESULTS: Abnormally thickened CIMT were observed in 11 RA patients (27.5%) and in 4 control subjects (10%), p = 0.04. It was highly prevalent among RA patients with active disease (54.5% vs 17.2%), p = 0.02. Patients with thickened CIMT also tend to have erosive disease, p = 0.06. Seropositive rheumatoid factor (RF) patients also had significantly higher CIMT values as compared with sero-negative patients, p = 0.03. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that active disease was independently associated with thickened CIMT.
CONCLUSIONS: RA patients are at risk for subclinical atherosclerosis despite absence of traditional CV risk co morbidities and active disease was the independent factor associated with it.
KEYWORDS: Atherosclerosis; Carotid intima media thickness; Disease activity; Rheumatoid arthritis
Study site: Rheumatology Clinic, Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Betel-quid dependence domains and syndrome associated with betel-quid ingredients among chewers: an Asian multi-country evidence

Lee CH, Chiang SL, Ko AM, Hua CH, Tsai MH, Warnakulasuriya S, et al.

Addiction, 2014 Jul;109(7):1194-204.

PMID: 24650227 DOI: 10.1111/add.12530

Betel-quid (BQ) contains biologically psychoactive ingredients; however, data are limited concerning the symptoms and syndrome of BQ dependence among chewers. The aims of this study were to evaluate the ingredients-associated BQ dependence syndrome and country-specific chewing features and behaviour for BQ dependence among chewers from six Asian communities.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Fulltext The relationships between thyroid hormones and thyroid-stimulating hormone with lipid profile in euthyroid men

Chin KY, Ima-Nirwana S, Mohamed IN, Aminuddin A, Johari MH, Ngah WZ

Int J Med Sci, 2014;11(4):349-55.

PMID: 24578612 DOI: 10.7150/ijms.7104

Alteration in lipid profile is a common observation in patients with thyroid dysfunction, but the current knowledge on the relationship between lipids and thyroid hormone levels in euthyroid state is insufficient. The current study aimed to determine the association between thyroid hormones and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) with lipid profile in a euthyroid male population.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

The Sarawak lupus cohort: clinical features and disease patterns of 633 SLE patients in a single tertiary centre from East Malaysia

Teh CL, Ling GR, Aishah WS

Rheumatol Int, 2015 Jan;35(1):153-7.

PMID: 24906574 DOI: 10.1007/s00296-014-3057-4

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been well studied in West Malaysian populations but lacking in East Malaysian populations. The aim of this study was to examine the clinical features and disease patterns of patients with SLE in a multiethnic East Malaysian population in Sarawak. All SLE patients who were treated in Sarawak General Hospital were reviewed in a retrospective longitudinal study using a standard protocol from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2013. There were a total of 633 patients in our study with the female to male ratio of 12:1. Our study patients were of multiethnic origins with predominant Chinese ethnic group. They had a mean age of 36.9 ± 13.2 years and a mean duration of illness of 7.2 ± 6.0 years. The main involvements were haematological (74.2 %), malar rash (64.0 %) and renal (58.6 %). Chinese patients were less likely to have discoid lupus, pleuritis and pericarditis, while Malay patients were more likely to have arthritis. Bidayuh patients were more likely to have oral ulcer. Secondary antiphospholipid syndrome was more common in Chinese. The majority of patients were in clinical remission with low SDI. There were 58 deaths (9.2 %) during 2006-2013 with the main causes of death being flare of disease and infection.

Study site: Sarawak General Hospital

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Fulltext PIK3CA gene amplification and PI3K p110α protein expression in breast carcinoma

Firoozinia M, Zareian Jahromi M, Moghadamtousi SZ, Nikzad S, Abdul Kadir H

Int J Med Sci, 2014;11(6):620-5.

PMID: 24782652 DOI: 10.7150/ijms.8251

A family of PI3Ks is the lipid kinases, which enhance intracellular pools of phosphatidyl inositol 3,4,5-tri-phosphate (PIP3) through phosphorylating its precursor. Amplifications and deletions of genes, as well as somatic missense of the PIK3CA gene have been described in many human cancer varieties, including of the brain, colon, liver, lung and stomach. Immunohistochemistry and Real-time quantitative PCR tests were used to determine the PIK3CA gene amplification (gene copy number) and to detect protein expression, respectively. The results obtained were analysed and the ratio of PIK3CA to β-actin gene copy number was calculated. Positive gene amplification of PIK3CA was appointed as a copy number of ≥4. Also, PI3K p110α protein expression was scored from 0 to 3+ and the scores of 2+ and 3+ were considered as positive for PI3K p110α protein expression. We studied 50 breast carcinoma samples for PI3K p110α protein expression and PIK3CA gene copy numbers. In general, 36 out of 50 (72%) breast carcinoma samples showed a significant increase in PIK3CA gene amplification. 12 out of 50 (24%) showed positive staining, and 38 out of 50 (76%) showed negative staining for PI3K p110α expression. We have identified no significant relationship between PIK3CA amplification, race (p= 0.630) and histological type (p=0. 731) in breast carcinoma, but correlation of PIK3CA amplification and age showed a significant relationship (p=0. 003) between them. No significant relationship has been identified in correlation of PI3K p110α protein expression compared to age (p=0. 284), race (p=0. 546) and histological type (p=0. 285). Amplification of PIK3CA was frequent in breast carcinoma and occurs in stages of breast carcinoma. Our result shows that there is a relationship between gene amplification and age in breast carcinoma. We suggest that PIK3CA is significant in breast tumorigenesis serve as a prevalent mechanism contributes to the oncogenic activation pathway of PIK3CA in breast cancer.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Study of epithelial migration in the tympanic membrane and bony external auditory canal wall in patients with irradiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Santhi K, Prepageran N, Tang IP, Raman R

Otol Neurotol, 2015 Feb;36(2):318-22.

PMID: 24751743 DOI: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000000378

The objectives of this study were to determine the presence of epithelial migration in patients with postirradiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to compare the rate of epithelial migration in the tympanic membrane (TM) and the bony external auditory canal (EAC) of postirradiated NPC ears with normal ears by means of the ink dot method.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Clinical evaluation of the anterior translation of glenohumeral joint using ultrasonography: an intra- and inter-rater reliability study

Joseph LH, Hussain RI, Pirunsan U, Naicker AS, Htwe O, Paungmali A

Acta Orthop Traumatol Turc, 2014;48(2):169-74.

PMID: 24747625 DOI: 10.3944/AOTT.2014.3184

The aim of this study was to investigate the intra- and inter-rater reliability of ultrasonography (US) to measure anterior translation of the humeral head (ATHH) among healthy subjects and patients with sacroiliac joint dysfunction.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Spatial analysis of colorectal cancer cases in Kuala Lumpur

Shah SA, Neoh HM, Rahim SS, Azhar ZI, Hassan MR, Safian N, et al.

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2014;15(3):1149-54.

PMID: 24606433

BACKGROUND: In Malaysia, data from the Malaysian Health Ministry showed colorectal cancer (CRC) to be the second most common type of cancer in 2007-2009, after breast cancer. The same was apparent after looking at males and females cases separately. In the present study, the Geographic Information System (GIS) was employed to describe the distribution of CRC cases in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, according to socio-demographic factors (age, gender, ethnicity and district).

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.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Fulltext A comparison of donor and control group quality of life

Tumin M, Abdul Talib Abdul Mutalib M, Mohd Satar N, Abdullah N, Chong CS, Ng KP, et al.

Ann. Transplant., 2014;19:112-8.

PMID: 24584108 DOI: 10.12659/AOT.889490

Informed consent of prospective donors should include information about the quality of life (QoL) of existing donors, especially those within the relevant country. This study aimed to provide information on Malaysian organ donors' QoL relative to a control group.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Biomechanical analysis of knee laxity with isolated anteromedial or posterolateral bundle-deficient anterior cruciate ligament

Kondo E, Merican AM, Yasuda K, Amis AA

Arthroscopy, 2014 Mar;30(3):335-43.

PMID: 24581258 DOI: 10.1016/j.arthro.2013.12.003

The purpose of this study was to clarify the changes in the kinematics of the knee that result from isolated deficiency of the anteromedial (AM) or posterolateral (PL) bundle.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Fulltext Impact of additional counselling sessions through phone calls on smoking cessation outcomes among smokers in Penang State, Malaysia

Blebil AQ, Sulaiman SA, Hassali MA, Dujaili JA, Zin AM

BMC Public Health, 2014;14:460.

PMID: 24886549 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-460

Studies all over the world reported that smoking relapses occur during the first two weeks after a quit date. The current study aimed to assess the impact of the additional phone calls counselling during the first month on the abstinence rate at 3 and 6 months after quit date among smokers in Penang, Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Driving anger in Malaysia

Sullman MJ, Stephens AN, Yong M

Accid Anal Prev, 2014 Oct;71:1-9.

PMID: 24863369 DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2014.04.019

The present study examined the types of situations that cause Malaysian drivers to become angry. The 33-item version of the driver anger scale (Deffenbacher et al., 1994) was used to investigate driver anger amongst a sample of 339 drivers. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the fit of the original six-factor model (discourtesy, traffic obstructions, hostile gestures, slow driving, illegal driving and police presence), after removing one item and allowing three error pairs to covary, was satisfactory. Female drivers reported more anger, than males, caused by traffic obstruction and hostile gestures. Age was also negatively related to five (discourtesy, traffic obstructions, hostile gestures, slow driving and police presence) of the six factors and also to the total DAS score. Furthermore, although they were not directly related to crash involvement, several of the six forms of driving anger were significantly related to the crash-related conditions of: near misses, loss of concentration, having lost control of a vehicle and being ticketed. Overall the pattern of findings made in the present research were broadly similar to those from Western countries, indicating that the DAS is a valid measure of driving anger even among non-European based cultures.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Antiphospholipid syndrome in Sarawak: real world experience in a developing country

Teh CL, Leong TS

Clin Rheumatol, 2015 Jan;34(1):175-8.

PMID: 24831689 DOI: 10.1007/s10067-014-2671-6

We performed a cross-sectional study of all antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients during an 8-year period (2006-2013) to describe the clinical features, serology profiles, treatment regimes, and outcomes in our center. There were a total of 59 patients in our study with the female to male ratio of 9:1. They have a mean age of 41.6 ± 12.1 years and a mean duration of illness of 38.4 ± 68.5 months. The majority of patients presented with vascular thrombosis (69.5 %) with equal arterial and venous involvements. Twenty-six patients (44.1 %) presented with obstetric complications with recurrent abortions (32.2 %) as the main manifestation. Most patients were on daily warfarin doses of 2-6 mg (91.0 %) with target INR of 2-3. There was neither recurrent thrombosis nor bleeding complications documented. There were 80 % live births following treatment in our patients.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Effects of Religious Behavior on Health-Related Lifestyles of Muslims in Malaysia

Hassan SH

J Relig Health, 2015 Aug;54(4):1238-48.

PMID: 24729099 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-014-9861-z

Religion has become more prominent in shaping attitudes and behavior, but little empirical information is available on the impact of religious behavior in shaping individual Muslims' health-related lifestyle behaviors in developing countries. The present study explores the relationship between religious behavior and the health-related practices of Malaysian Muslims. A convenience sample of 176 Malaysian Muslims was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to develop the model. Result shows that health-related actions are strongly influenced, both directly and indirectly, by the health-related lifestyle choices consumers engaging in on a daily basis in accordance with Islamic teachings.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Darkroom prone provocative test in primary angle closure glaucoma relatives

Zahari M, Ong YM, Taharin R, Ramli N

Optom Vis Sci, 2014 Apr;91(4):459-63.

PMID: 24637481 DOI: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000000220

To evaluate ocular biometric parameters and darkroom prone provocative test (DPPT) in family members of primary angle closure (PAC) glaucoma (PACG) patients and to establish any correlation between these biometric parameters and the DPPT response.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Differences in late cardiovascular mortality following acute myocardial infarction in three major Asian ethnic groups

de Carvalho LP, Gao F, Chen Q, Hartman M, Sim LL, Koh TH, et al.

Eur Heart J Acute Cardiovasc Care, 2014 Dec;3(4):354-62.

PMID: 24598820 DOI: 10.1177/2048872614527007

the purpose of this study was to investigate differences in long-term mortality following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients from three major ethnicities of Asia.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Observational study on patient's satisfactions and quality of life (QoL) among cancer patients receiving treatment with palliative care intent in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia

Sharifa Ezat WP, Fuad I, Hayati Y, Zafar A, Wanda Kiyah GA

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2014;15(2):695-701.

PMID: 24568481

The main objective of palliative treatment for cancer patients has been to maintain, if not improve, the quality of life (QoL). There is a lack of local data on satisfaction and QoL among cancer patients receiving palliative treatment in Malaysia. This study covers patients with incurable, progressive cancer disease receiving palliative treatment in a teaching hospital in Kuala Lumpur, comparing the different components of QoL and correlations with patient satisfaction. A cross-sectional survey using Malay validated SF36 QoL and PSQ-18 (Short Form) tools was carried out between July 2012 -January 2013 with 120 cancer patients receiving palliative treatment, recruited into the study after informed consent using convenient sampling. Results showed that highest satisfaction were observed in Communication Aspect (50.6±9.07) and the least in General Satisfaction (26.4±5.90). The Mental Component Summary (44.9±6.84) scored higher when compared with the Physical Component Summary (42.2±7.91). In this study, we found that patient satisfaction was strongly associated with good quality of life among cancer patients from a general satisfaction aspect (r=0.232). A poor significant negative correlation was found in Physical Component (technical quality, r=-0.312). The Mental Component showed there was a poor negative correlation between time spent with doctor (r=-0.192) and accessibility, (r=-0.279). We found that feeling at peace and having a sense of meaning in life were more important to patients than being active or achieving good physical comfort. More studyis needed to investigate patients who score poorly on physical and mental component aspects to understand their needs in order to achieve better cancer care.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Inter-hemispheric EEG coherence analysis in Parkinson's disease: assessing brain activity during emotion processing

Yuvaraj R, Murugappan M, Ibrahim NM, Sundaraj K, Omar MI, Mohamad K, et al.

J Neural Transm (Vienna), 2015 Feb;122(2):237-52.

PMID: 24894699 DOI: 10.1007/s00702-014-1249-4

Parkinson's disease (PD) is not only characterized by its prominent motor symptoms but also associated with disturbances in cognitive and emotional functioning. The objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of emotion processing on inter-hemispheric electroencephalography (EEG) coherence in PD. Multimodal emotional stimuli (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust) were presented to 20 PD patients and 30 age-, education level-, and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) while EEG was recorded. Inter-hemispheric coherence was computed from seven homologous EEG electrode pairs (AF3-AF4, F7-F8, F3-F4, FC5-FC6, T7-T8, P7-P8, and O1-O2) for delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands. In addition, subjective ratings were obtained for a representative of emotional stimuli. Interhemispherically, PD patients showed significantly lower coherence in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands than HC during emotion processing. No significant changes were found in the delta frequency band coherence. We also found that PD patients were more impaired in recognizing negative emotions (sadness, fear, anger, and disgust) than relatively positive emotions (happiness and surprise). Behaviorally, PD patients did not show impairment in emotion recognition as measured by subjective ratings. These findings suggest that PD patients may have an impairment of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity (i.e., a decline in cortical connectivity) during emotion processing. This study may increase the awareness of EEG emotional response studies in clinical practice to uncover potential neurophysiologic abnormalities.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Breast cancer detection from MR images through an auto-probing discrete Fourier transform system

Sim KS, Chia FK, Nia ME, Tso CP, Chong AK, Abbas SF, et al.

Comput Biol Med, 2014 Jun;49:46-59.

PMID: 24736203 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2014.03.003

A computer-aided detection auto-probing (CADAP) system is presented for detecting breast lesions using dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, through a spatial-based discrete Fourier transform. The stand-alone CADAP system reduces noise, refines region of interest (ROI) automatically, and detects the breast lesion with minimal false positive detection. The lesions are then classified and colourised according to their characteristics, whether benign, suspicious or malignant. To enhance the visualisation, the entire analysed ROI is constructed into a 3-D image, so that the user can diagnose based on multiple views on the ROI. The proposed method has been applied to 101 sets of digital images, and the results compared with the biopsy results done by radiologists. The proposed scheme is able to identify breast cancer regions accurately and efficiently.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

Fulltext Midgut malrotation with congenital peritoneal band: a rare cause of small bowel obstruction in adulthood

Low SF, Ngiu CS, Sridharan R, Lee YL

BMJ Case Rep, 2014;2014.

PMID: 24717859 DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2013-202690

Midgut malrotation commonly presents in the neonatal period, and rarely manifests its symptoms in adulthood with an estimated incidence of 0.2-0.5%. Nevertheless, the symptoms are non-specific with no strong pointers towards the clinical diagnosis. Consequently, the diagnosis is usually disclosed with imaging or surgery. We report a case of small bowel obstruction secondary to a congenital peritoneal band with underlying midgut malrotation in a 48-year-old man.

Matched MeSH terms: Middle Aged

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