OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the antigen relatedness and efficacy of different IB vaccine strains against a challenge with MV and QX-like strains.
METHODS: The antigen relatedness and the ability of different IB vaccine strains in conferring protection against MV and QX-like were assessed based on the clinical signs, macroscopic lesions, and ciliary activity.
RESULTS: The MV strain IBS037A/2014 showed minor antigenic subtype differences with the vaccine virus Mass H120 and 4/91 strains but showed major antigenic subtype differences with the K2 strain. The Malaysian QX-like strain IBS130/2015 showed major antigenic subtype differences with the MV strain IBS037A/2014 and the vaccine strains except for K2. Chickens vaccinated once with Mass (H120) or with non-Mass (4/91 and K2) developed antibody responses with the highest antibody titer detected in the groups vaccinated with H120 and 4/91. The mean ciliary activities of the vaccinated chickens were between 56 to 59% and 48 to 52% in chickens challenged with IBS037A/2014 and IBS130/2015, respectively. The vaccinated and challenged birds showed mild to severe lesions in the lungs and kidneys.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite the minor antigenic subtype differences, a single inoculation with Mass or non-Mass vaccines could not protect against the MV IBS037A/2014 and QX-like IBS130/2015.
CASE PRESENTATION: An 8-month old boy presented with vomiting and was referred to the otorhinolaryngology team based on his mother's suspicion that her child might have ingested a foreign body. Flexible laryngoscopy revealed a phone screen protector at the vallecular region. The foreign body was removed in the operating theatre.
CONCLUSION: Foreign body ingestion should always be suspected in young patients. Consideration of the patient's symptoms, level of lodgement, and type of foreign body will determine whether immediate intervention or a conservative approach is warranted.
CASE PRESENTATION: We discuss our findings in an infant who presented with severe respiratory compromise where incidental intra-operative findings revealed CTS with no cardiopulmonary abnormalities. Because of a lack of resources in the emergency department, we created a tracheostoma and inserted an endotracheal tube.
CONCLUSION: The main aim in treating CTS is to secure the airway and provide sufficient oxygen.
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 28-item instrument which comprised of 5 domains: diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, medications and general issues was designed and tested. One point was given for every correct answer, whilst zero was given for incorrect answers. Scores ranged from 0 to 28, which were then converted into percentage. This was administered to 77 patients with type 2 diabetes in a tertiary hospital, who were on medication(s) for diabetes and who could understand English (patient group), and to 40 pharmacists (professional group). The DHL knowledge instrument was administered again to the patient group after one month. Excluded were patients less than 18 years old.
RESULTS: Flesch reading ease was 60, which is satisfactory, while the mean difficulty factor(SD) was 0.74(0.21), indicating that DHL knowledge instrument was moderately easy. Internal consistency of the instrument was good, with Cronbach's α = 0.791. The test-retest scores showed no significant difference for 26 out of the 28 items, indicating that the questionnaire has achieved stable reliability. The overall mean(SD) knowledge scores was significantly different between the patient and professional groups [74.35(14.88) versus 93.84(6.47), p < 0.001]. This means that the DHL knowledge instrument could differentiate the knowledge levels of participants. The DHL knowledge instrument shows similar psychometric properties as other validated questionnaires.
CONCLUSIONS: The DHL knowledge instrument shows good promise to be adopted as an instrument for assessing diabetic patients' knowledge concerning their disease conditions and medications in Malaysia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in Hospital Kepala Batas (HKB), a district hospital in Penang State, Malaysia, which was the designated regional COVID hospital during the pandemic. It was a retrospective observational study, where children who were admitted from November 2020 to March 2021, and attended follow-up clinics from Jan 2021 to May 2021, were recruited.
RESULTS: This study comprised 90 subjects, from 3 months old to 12 years old, mean of 6.5 years old. When comparing asymptomatic and symptomatic children, children with comorbidities were more likely to be symptomatic with a pvalue of 0.045 using the Pearson Chi-square test. All our patients' symptoms resolved upon discharge. During followup at 2-4 months after COVID-19 infection, all children were reported as back to their usual selves. Fifteen patients had recurrent symptoms. Most of their symptoms pointed towards an acute infection. One patient had two episodes of illness, while the rest had one. The most common symptoms were cough, fever and runny nose. The average duration of illness of these 16 episodes was 4.5 days with a standard deviation of 2.48. None of these symptoms lasted more than seven days. None of them required hospital admission. None of them had recurrent COVID-19 infections. Tweleve out of 72 children who had been going to school stopped physical school after COVID-19 infection. Our findings differed from other studies. These could be due to the limitations that we faced.
CONCLUSION: Most children who contracted COVID-19 infection recovered fully after acute infection, and most of them recovered fully without long-term sequelae.
RESULTS: Having confirmed via histology, haematology and clinical biochemistry analyses that OPP is not toxic to mice, we further explored the gene expression changes caused by OPP through statistical and functional analyses using Illumina microarrays. OPP showed numerous biological activities in three major organs of mice, the liver, spleen and heart. In livers of mice given OPP, four lipid catabolism genes were up-regulated while five cholesterol biosynthesis genes were down-regulated, suggesting that OPP may play a role in reducing cardiovascular disease. OPP also up-regulated eighteen blood coagulation genes in spleens of mice. OPP elicited gene expression changes similar to the effects of caloric restriction in the hearts of mice supplemented with OPP. Microarray gene expression fold changes for six target genes in the three major organs tested were validated with real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and the correlation of fold changes obtained with these two techniques was high (R2 = 0.9653).
CONCLUSIONS: OPP showed non-toxicity and various pleiotropic effects in mice. This study implies the potential application of OPP as a valuable source of wellness nutraceuticals, and further suggests the molecular mechanisms as to how dietary phenolics work in vivo.