MyMedR

The state of lipid control in patients with diabetes in a public health care centre

Wong JS, Tan F, Lee PY

Asia Pac J Public Health, 2007;19(3):16-21.

PMID: 18330400 DOI: 10.1177/101053950701900304

Achieving treatment targets has been difficult in treating diabetic patients. This cross-sectional study describes the lipid profiles of patients with diabetes mellitus at a public primary health care centre in Sarawak, Malaysia. The targets for lipid control were based on the International Diabetes Federation recommendation (2002). 1031 patients (98% Type 2 Diabetes) were studied. Fasting lipid profiles were available in 990 (96%) patients. The mean total cholesterol was 5.3 +/- 1.0 mmol/L, Triglycerides 1.90 +/- 1.26 mmol/L, HDL-C 1.28 +/- 0.33 mmol/L and LDL-C 3.2 +/- 0.9 mmol/L. Overall, 22% of patients achieved the treatment target for LDL-C level < 2.6mmol/L. 67% of patients had HDL-C > 1.1 mmol/L and 42% of patients had a target TG level below 1.5 mmol/L. Of the 40% of patients who received lipid-lowering drug, 17% achieved LDL-C target, 50% had LDL-C 2.6-4.4 mmol/ L and 33% have LDL-C > 4.0 mmol/L. For the remaining 60% not receiving any lipid lowering therapy, 68% had LDL-C between 2.6-4.0 mmol/L and 7% had LDL-C level > 4 mmol/L. Dyslipidemia is still under-treated despite the availability of effective pharmacological agents and the greatly increased risk of cardiovascular diseases in diabetic patients.

Detection of microsporidia in local HIV-positive population in Malaysia

Lono A, Kumar S, Chye TT

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 2011 Jul;105(7):409-13.

PMID: 21596411 DOI: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2011.03.006

The HIV-positive population, due to their immuno-compromised nature, is considered more susceptible to parasitic infections than other populations. However despite the reports of other opportunistic pathogens such as Cryptosporidium and tuberculosis reported in vulnerable communities, microsporidia have not been highlighted in the local HIV-positive population in Malaysia. This study aimed to provide preliminary information on the prevalence of microsporidia in the local HIV-population. Microsporidia were detected in 21/247 (8.5%) stool samples from the HIV-infected individuals, a significantly higher (P-value <0.05) prevalence than in the control group, in which 5/173 (2.9%) were positive. HIV patients were 3x more at risk for acquiring microspordium (OR: 3.12; 95% CI 1.15-8.44). Spores were ellipsoid in shape with outlines that stained dark pink with the interior a lighter shade. Approximately 21% of the positive specimens were from individuals in the 40-49 years age group. Ten individuals who were positive for microsporidia were also positive for other enteric parasites such as Blastocystis hominis and Giardia lamblia. We detected Encephalitozoon intestinalis DNA following nested PCR from three of 10 samples analysed, as demonstrated by an amplicon of 370bp. From the findings reported, it appears that microsporidial infection in humans may actually be more common than reported. We strongly advocate greater emphasis on personal hygiene through public education on personal hygiene and the consumption of boiled or filtered water.

Prevalence of microsporidia in an indigenous Orang Asli community in Pahang, Malaysia

Lono A, Kumar GS, Chye TT

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 2010 Mar;104(3):214-8.

PMID: 19716577 DOI: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2009.07.006

Microsporidia are ubiquitous parasites thought to be closely related to fungi. Their presence in the environment means that humans are frequently exposed to infection. Stool samples were collected from 151 indigenous villagers from the eastern state of Pahang in 2005. The samples were concentrated with water-ether sedimentation, stained with modified trichrome stain and examined under oil-immersion microscopy. Thirty-two specimens (21.2%) were positive for microsporidia. Microsporidia were observed as ovoid or rounded ovoid shapes measuring approximately 1mum, with a bright pink outline containing a central or posterior vacuole. PCR amplification with specific primers on microscopy-positive specimens amplified Encephalitozoon intestinalis DNA from five of the ten specimens used.

Reporting of adverse drug reactions: predictors of under-reporting in Malaysia

Aziz Z, Siang TC, Badarudin NS

Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf, 2007 Feb;16(2):223-8.

PMID: 16947117

Malaysia like many other countries worldwide uses spontaneous reporting systems as a mean of collecting data on suspected adverse drug reaction (ADR). However, compared to other countries, which use the system, the reporting rate in Malaysia is very low. Why some physicians do not report ADRs is not well understood.

Aspiration of breast abscess under ultrasound guidance: outcome obtained and factors affecting success

Elagili F, Abdullah N, Fong L, Pei T

Asian J Surg, 2007 Jan;30(1):40-4.

PMID: 17337370

To assess ultrasonographically (US) guided needle aspiration of breast abscesses as an alternative to surgical incision and drainage.

Fulltext Neurothekeoma palpebrae in association with multiple superficial angiomyxomas: Tegumental Angiomyxoma-Neurothekeoma syndrome (TAN syndrome)

Kah TA, Yong KC, Annuar FH

Clin Pract, 2011 Jul 01;1(3):e67.

PMID: 24765328 DOI: 10.4081/cp.2011.e67

We report a case of 10-year-old Indian girl with history of multiple superficial angiomyxoma, presented with three months history of painless right upper lid swelling. There were no visual dysfunctions. Previously, the patient had multiple superficial angiomyxoma (left pinna, left upper cheek, left upper limb, chest, right axilla, hard palate) and epidermal cyst (chin). The histopathological specimens were negative to S-100 protein antibody. Systemic review and family history was unremarkable. Excision biopsy and upper lid reconstruction were performed. Intraoperatively the tumor was multilobulated, firm, well encapsulated and did not invade the underlying tarsal plate. Histopathological features of the upperlid tumor were consistent with nerves sheath myxoma (neurothekeoma). To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of neurothekeoma in association with multiple superficial angiomyxoma.

Fulltext Canaliculitis in supernumerary puncta and canaliculi

Yong KC, Kah TA, Annuar FH

Clin Pract, 2011 Jul 01;1(3):e59.

PMID: 24765320 DOI: 10.4081/cp.2011.e59

We report the first case of supernumerary puncta and canaliculi presented with canaliculitis. A-59 year-old gentleman presented with painful swelling of the left lower lid for a week, which was associated with epiphora. The swelling was confined to the nasal aspect of the left lower lid (0.5×0.5 mm) with inflamed overlying skin. Two puncta (0.5 mm apart) were noted. The outer punctum at the normal anatomical position was a cul-de-sac while the inner punctum it the caruncle was patent. We described the embryology leading to supernumerary puncta and canaliculi to explain the paradoxical patency of the abnormally located punctum as well as the pathomechanism leading to canaliculitis. The patient was treated with oral cloxacillin 500 mg, 6 hourly for 5 days; the cellulitis subsided after three days.

Fulltext Antioxidant effects of Etlingera elatior flower extract against lead acetate - induced perturbations in free radical scavenging enzymes and lipid peroxidation in rats

Jackie T, Haleagrahara N, Chakravarthi S

BMC Res Notes, 2011;4:67.

PMID: 21414212 DOI: 10.1186/1756-0500-4-67

Etlingera elatior or 'pink torch ginger' (Zingiberaceae) are widely cultivated in tropical countries and used as spices and food flavoring. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant effects of Etlingera elatior against lead - induced changes in serum free radical scavenging enzymes and lipid hydroperoxides in rats.

Fulltext Osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis in Stevens-Johnson syndrome: a case report

Sc R, I T, T TD

Int J Ophthalmol, 2011;4(2):212-5.

PMID: 22553646 DOI: 10.3980/j.issn.2222-3959.2011.02.23

To report a successful osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis (OOKP) procedure in a case of end stage of corneal blindness due to Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS).

Fulltext An epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of leptospirosis associated with swimming, Beaufort, Sabah

Koay TK, Nirmal S, Noitie L, Tan E

Med J Malaysia, 2004 Oct;59(4):455-9.

PMID: 15779577

From October 13 to October 21, 1999, a total of 46 males, aged 8 to 19 years, were admitted to Beaufort Hospital after swimming in the creek near an oil palm plantation in Kampung (Kg) Kebatu, Beaufort. Thirty (30) presented with symptoms including fever, vomiting, bodyache, giddiness, headache, chest pain and cough, while 16 others, were asymptomatic. One, a 15 year old boy, died from haemorrhagic shock secondary to pulmonary haemorrhage. The onset of the illness was from 11 October to 19 October 1999. A case-control study found that the outbreak was associated with swimming in the creek (p<0.0001). A total of 44 paired sera samples were sent for microscopic agglutination test (MAT), 5 pairs showed sero-conversion, 3 pairs had 4 fold rise in titre and 18 pairs were positive at >320. The findings indicated that Leptospirosis was the cause of the outbreak of this illness and the contaminated creek water was the source of the infection. The occurrence of flooding and stagnation in the creek following the heavy rainfall during the first week of October 1999 could have contributed to the timing of the outbreak.

Morphological and biochemical changes of andrographolide-induced cell death in human prostatic adenocarcinoma PC-3 cells

Kim TG, Hwi KK, Hung CS

In Vivo, 2005 May-Jun;19(3):551-7.

PMID: 15875775

Andrographolide was extracted and purified from Andrographis panicula using hexane and water partitioning followed by ethyl acetate extraction and chromatography. It showed selective cytotoxicity to prostate cancer PC-3 cells in vitro. The morphological and biochemical changes induced by the extract in carcinoma PC-3 cell death were studied. In andrographolide-treated cells, evidence of apoptosis such as cell shrinkage and surface microvilli loss after 4-hour treatment and chromatin condensation and fragmentation in H&E-stained cells between 4 to 8 hours after treatment were observed. Under electron microscopy, membrane blebbing and apoptotic bodies formation were seen after 8-hour treatment. Using immunocytochemistry staining and cellular caspase-3 activity assay, andrographolide-treated cells showed considerable caspase-3 activation and caspase-8 in PC-3 cells at 4 and 2 hours after treatment, respectively. This suggests andrographolide-induced cell death was achieved through the apoptotic pathway, via the activation of an extrinsic caspase cascade.

Determination of the herbicide fluroxypyr in oil matrices

Muhamad HB, Ai TY, Sahid IB

J Environ Sci Health B, 2008 Feb;43(2):134-40.

PMID: 18246505 DOI: 10.1080/03601230701795072

The purpose of this study was to develop a method for the determination of fluroxypyr (4-amino-3,5-dichloro-6-fluro2-pyridyloxyacetic acid) residue in palm oil namely crude palm oil (CPO) and crude palm kernel oil (CPKO). The method involves the extraction of the herbicide from the oil matrix followed by low temperature precipitation and finally quantification of the residues using the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The extraction efficiency of the method was evaluated by conducting recovery studies. The recovery of fluroxypyr from the fortified CPO samples ranged from 78%-111% with the relative values for the coefficient of variation ranging from 1.4 to 8.6%. Furthermore, the recovery of fluroxypyr from the spiked CPKO samples ranged from 91-107% with the relative values for the coefficient of variation ranging from 0.6 to 4.5%. The minimum detection limit of fluroxypyr in CPO and CPKO was 0.05 microg/g. The method was used to determine fluroxypyr residues from the field-treated samples of CPO and CPKO. When fluroxypyr was used for weed control in oil palm plantations no residue was detected in CPO and CPKO irrespective of the sampling interval and the dosage applied at the recommended or double the manufacturer's recommended dosage.

Green ultrasonication-assisted extraction of microalgae Chlorella sp. for polysaturated fatty acid (PUFA) rich lipid extract using alternative solvent mixture

Hui GT, Meng TK, Kassim MA

Bioprocess Biosyst Eng, 2023 Oct;46(10):1499-1512.

PMID: 37580470 DOI: 10.1007/s00449-023-02917-x

Conventionally, microalgal lipid extraction uses volatile organic compounds as an extraction solvent. However, these solvents are harmful to human and environmental health. Therefore, this study evaluated the feasibility of alternative green solvents, namely, ethanol, dimethyl carbonate (DMC), cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME), and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) in lipid extraction from Chlorella sp. via ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). This study indicated that extraction parameters, such as ethanol-to-2-MeTHF ratio, solvent-to-biomass ratio, temperature, and time, significantly affected the crude lipid yield (P

Internal jugular vein measurements: an alternative ultrasonic approach in estimating volume status of emergency department patients

Chun Chau T, Nik Muhamad NA

Eur J Emerg Med, 2023 Oct 01;30(5):374-375.

PMID: 37650741 DOI: 10.1097/MEJ.0000000000001056

Comparison of the Vietnamese Diet with Diets from Other Countries for Sarcopenia

Quoc LPT, Ngoc NTB

Malays J Med Sci, 2023 Aug;30(4):213-214.

PMID: 37655150 DOI: 10.21315/mjms2023.30.4.18

Prediction of toxicity outcomes following radiotherapy using deep learning-based models: A systematic review

Tan D, Mohd Nasir NF, Abdul Manan H, Yahya N

Cancer Radiother, 2023 Sep;27(5):398-406.

PMID: 37482464 DOI: 10.1016/j.canrad.2023.05.001

PURPOSE: This study aims to perform a comprehensive systematic review of deep learning (DL) models in predicting RT-induced toxicity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature review was performed following the PRISMA guidelines. Systematic searches were performed in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane and Embase databases from the earliest record up to September 2022. Related studies on deep learning models for radiotherapy toxicity prediction were selected based on predefined PICOS criteria.

RESULTS: Fourteen studies of radiotherapy-treated patients on different types of cancer [prostate (n=2), HNC (n=4), liver (n=2), lung (n=4), cervical (n=1), and oesophagus (n=1)] were eligible for inclusion in the systematic review. Information regarding patient characteristics and model development was summarized. Several approaches, such as ensemble learning, data augmentation, and transfer learning, that were utilized by selected studies were discussed.

CONCLUSION: Deep learning techniques are able to produce a consistent performance for toxicity prediction. Future research using large and diverse datasets and standardization of the study methodologies are required to improve the consistency of the research output.

Smartic: A smart tool for Big Data analytics and IoT

Sayeed S, Ahmad AF, Peng TC

F1000Res, 2022;11:17.

PMID: 38269303 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.73613.1

The Internet of Things (IoT) is leading the physical and digital world of technology to converge. Real-time and massive scale connections produce a large amount of versatile data, where Big Data comes into the picture. Big Data refers to large, diverse sets of information with dimensions that go beyond the capabilities of widely used database management systems, or standard data processing software tools to manage within a given limit. Almost every big dataset is dirty and may contain missing data, mistyping, inaccuracies, and many more issues that impact Big Data analytics performances. One of the biggest challenges in Big Data analytics is to discover and repair dirty data; failure to do this can lead to inaccurate analytics results and unpredictable conclusions. We experimented with different missing value imputation techniques and compared machine learning (ML) model performances with different imputation methods. We propose a hybrid model for missing value imputation combining ML and sample-based statistical techniques. Furthermore, we continued with the best missing value inputted dataset, chosen based on ML model performance for feature engineering and hyperparameter tuning. We used k-means clustering and principal component analysis. Accuracy, the evaluated outcome, improved dramatically and proved that the XGBoost model gives very high accuracy at around 0.125 root mean squared logarithmic error (RMSLE). To overcome overfitting, we used K-fold cross-validation.

Survey on tick infestation in stray dogs in localities of Malaysia

Yan LY, Peng TL, Goni MD

Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports, 2024 Jan;47:100952.

PMID: 38199695 DOI: 10.1016/j.vprsr.2023.100952

The close relationship between dogs and humans has led to concerns regarding the transmission of zoonotic pathogens through ectoparasites such as ticks. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of ticks and the intensity on stray dogs with specific risk factors (size, sex, neutering status, body part). Additionally, identifying the predilection sites of ticks on stray dogs was crucial for developing an effective tick control program in Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 64 stray dogs from Kelantan and Selangor States. These dogs were subjected to integumentary examinations, collecting 431 ticks comprising Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. "tropical lineage" and Haemaphysalis bispinosa from 53 infested dogs. The overall occurrence of tick infestation was 82.81% (53/64), with an average intensity of 8.13 ticks (range: 1-17) per stray dog. All the potential risk factors considered in this study showed no statistically significant result (P value >0.05). The head, ear, and neck were the most preferred attachment sites for ticks. These findings underscore the importance of implementing tick control programs for stray dogs, which serve as reservoirs of ticks and tick-borne pathogens for owned dogs and humans.

Fulltext Evaluating the clinical relevance of codon 594 (g>a) polymorphism of estrogen receptor alpha in knee osteoarthritis

Tawonsawatruk T, Mulpruek P, Hamilton D, Wajanavisit W, Tan S

Malays Orthop J, 2014 Mar;8(1):37-40.

PMID: 25347522 DOI: 10.5704/MOJ.1403.016

It has been reported that oestrogen receptor alpha (ER-α) polymorphisms are associated with knee osteoarthritis (OA). In this study, we assessed whether there was any association between the codon 594 (G>A) polymorphism in ER-α and radiographic features of OA or patient function. Radiographs, WOMAC score and patient reported time of symptom onset were assessed in 194 patients presenting for total knee replacement at Ramathibodi hospital over a one year period. ESR-1 genotyping was assessed. There were 107 (55.15%) patients with common homozygote (GG), 78 (40.20%) patients with heterozygote (GA) and nine (4.65%) patients with rare homozygote (AA). There was poor correlation (r = <0.2) between group difference in the radiographic parameters, time of onset of symptom , or in WOMAC scores. This polymorphism is not associated with the clinical features of knee osteoarthritis. The role of this polymorphism is unlikely then to be used as a biological marker predicting the progression of knee OA.

Fulltext A feasibility study on bedside upper airway ultrasonography compared to waveform capnography for verifying endotracheal tube location after intubation

Adi O, Chuan TW, Rishya M

Crit Ultrasound J, 2013;5(1):7.

PMID: 23826756 DOI: 10.1186/2036-7902-5-7

In emergency settings, verification of endotracheal tube (ETT) location is important for critically ill patients. Ignorance of oesophageal intubation can be disastrous. Many methods are used for verification of the endotracheal tube location; none are ideal. Quantitative waveform capnography is considered the standard of care for this purpose but is not always available and is expensive. Therefore, this feasibility study is conducted to compare a cheaper alternative, bedside upper airway ultrasonography to waveform capnography, for verification of endotracheal tube location after intubation.

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