Introduction: Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) is the second most common cancer among men in Malaysia. Establishing local data will help to improve the treatment strategies and lower the anxiety and depression level among NPC patients. Our aim was to compare the level of symptoms of anxiety and depression and the coping strategies employed between NPC and cancer-free patients. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study with universal sampling was conducted on 22 NPC patients and 30 cancer-free patients from the Oncology and Radiotherapy Department and Ear, Nose and Throat clinic of Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) between 12 to 29 May 2008. In this study, the symptoms of depression and anxiety were obtained by using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) while Brief COPE questionnaire was used to understand patients’ coping strategies. Results: The prevalence of NPC was higher in the Chinese, men, aged between 40 and 59 years, and those from the lower income group. The levels of anxiety and depression symptoms were found to be higher in the NPC group as compared to the cancer-free group. However, only the level of depression was found significantly related to the NPC group (p=0.002). This study also found that the two comparison groups were
using different types of coping strategies. The NPC patients mainly used ‘acceptance’ as their coping strategy while the comparative group most often used ‘religion’. Among the types of coping strategies reported by the patients, ‘use of instrumental support’ type was found to be associated with a lower level of anxiety (p = 0.035) and ‘humour’ type was associated with lower depressive symptoms (p = 0.269). On the contrary, ‘selfblame’ type was associated with both anxiety (p =0.0001) and depression (p = 0.001) symptoms. In addition, patients with different gender, ethnicity, educational levels, and
monthly income were also found to have significant differences in their levels of anxiety and depression as well as type of coping strategies. Conclusions: NPC patients had higher anxiety and depression levels as compared to the comparative group. Different socio-demographic backgrounds and different types of coping strategies had an influence on patients resulting in different levels of anxiety and depression.
Study site: ENT clinic, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Objective: Previous studies have shown milk to contain cancer inhibitors. In this context, this study was conducted to screen the potential cytotoxic properties of four different types of milk, namely cow's milk, goat's milk, mare's milk and human milk.
Methods: In evaluating the cytotoxic properties of milk, two different human leukemia cell lines namely, Raji and CEM-SS were used. The treated and untreated cells of milk were cultured at 37°C in 5% CO2 for 5 days according to standard guidelines. The CellTiter 96® Aqueous (MTS) assay was carried out on the first, third and fifth days to measure cell viability. The percentage of cell viability was determined by comparing the optical density of the treated cells against the untreated controls. One-way ANOYA at p
Kehilangan jisim tulang adalah lebih ketara selepas menopaus. Jangka masa menopaus dan umur yang meningkat dikaitkan dengan penurunan jisim tubuh tanpa lemak, peningkatan lemak badan dan peningkatan berat badan. Kajian ini melihat sumbangan relatif jisim tubuh tanpa lemak dan lemak badan ke atas ketumpatan mineral tulang (KMT) di kalangan 139 wanita Cina posmenopaus sihat di Kuala Lumpur. KMT di kawasan seluruh tubuh, tulang belakang ( L2-L4), leher femur dan keseluruhan tulang pinggul diukur dengan alat dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DxA). Hasil kajian mendapati 80% daripada wanita posmenopaus Cina mempunyai jisim tulang yang rendah (osteopenia) manakala 8% daripada mereka mengalami osteoporosis di bahagian tulang belakang atau tulang pinggul. Secara keseluruhan, lemak badan mempunyai korelasi yang positif dengan KMT di semua bahagian diukur (keseluruhan tubuh, r = 0.265, p < 0.001; tulang belakang r = 0.214, p < 0.05, leher femur, r = 0.254, p < 0.001; keseluruhan tulang pinggul r = 0.332, p < 0.001). Jisim tubuh tanpa lemak juga mempunyai korelasi yang positif dengan KMT kebanyakan kawasan diukur (keseluruhan tubuh, r = 0.239, p < 0.001; leher femur r = 0.365, p < 0.001; keseluruhan tulang pinggul r = 0.352, p < 0.001) kecuali tulang belakang. Analisis regresi menunjukkan lemak badan dapat meramal KMT pada keseluruhan badan (p < 0.0001) dan tulang belakang (p < 0.005) manakala jisim tubuh tanpa lemak dapat meramal KMT pada tulang femur dan tulang pinggul (p < 0.0001). Hasil kajian menunjukkan kedua-dua lemak tubuh dan jisim tubuh tanpa lemak memainkan peranan dalam mempengaruhi KMT, di mana lemak badan memainkan peranan yang lebih di kalangan wanita posmenopaus. Oleh itu, wanita posmenopaus perlu elakkan mempunyai berat badan yang terlalu rendah (kurang lemak badan) dan mengekalkan jisim tubuh tanpa lemak untuk mencegah osteoporosis.
A survey on the diversity of marine macrogastropoda
in Pulau Songsong, Pulau Bidan and Pulau Telor on the
Northern Straits of Malacca was conducted. Specimens
were collected on rocky shores following NaGISA protocol
and the number of marine macrogastropod were recorded.
Distances and the number of the same species were
converted into Relative Abundance unit (individuals per
100 m2
). A total of 15 species of marine macrogastropoda
were found from seven families namely Neritidae,
Trochidae, Ceriitidae, Littorinidae, Turbinidae, Muricidae
and Potamididae. Seven macrogastropoda species were
newly recorded from these three islands. Morula marginatra
was the most dominant species and Pulau Songsong had
the highest genera and species diversity among the three
islands. (Copied from article).
Important bioactive molecules are molecules that are pharmacologically active derived from natural sources and through chemical synthesis. Over the years many of such molecules have been discovered through bioprospective endeavours. The discovery of taxol from the pacific yew tree bark that has the ability in stabilising cellular microtubules represents one of the hallmarks of success of such endeavours. In recent years, the discovery process has been aided by the rapid development
of techniques and technologies in chemistry and biotechnology. The progress in advanced genetics and computational biology has also transformed the way hypotheses are formulated as well as the strategies for drug discovery. Of equal importance is the use of advanced drug delivery vehicles in enhancing the efficacy and bioavailability of bioactive molecules. The availability of suitable animal models for testing and validation is yet another major determinant in increasing the prospect for
clinical trials of bioactive molecules.
Objective: To determine the perception of medical students towards mentor-mentee system in Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of UNIMAS. Method: It was a cross-sectional study involving all 104 second year and 80 fifth year medical students. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic details, general perceptions on mentor-mentee system, academic support, personal development, and emotional and psychological support was distributed. The data was analysed using the SPSS version 19. Result: Majority of the subjects had a positive outlook towards the mentor-mentee system with a range of 45.6% to 57%. Three of the top rated perceptions were ‘mentor analyses mentee’s examination results and provides constructive feedback’, ‘mentor advises how to improve academic performance’, and ‘mentor gives encouragement and support for the challenges faced’ (66.8%, 68.0% and 62.9% respectively). Pre-cinical medical students had significantly better perception on mentor-mentee system than clinical students (p≤0.002) while those with non-clinician mentors significantly had better perceptions than those with clinician mentors (p≤0.003) on the system. No significant difference was found between the perceptions of males and females for all components (p=0.234 to 0.722). Conclusion: The mentor-mentee system was found to be successful as more than half of the respondents had posititve perception on the system and its aspects. However, pre-clinical students benefited more compared to clinical students, which reflects the need to look at the support given to clinical students. It was recommended that future studies should incorporate the perceptions of mentors.
Three groups of people with different clinical histories and manifestations to house dust were skin tested with Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus extracts. The results showed close correlation between positive skin tests and clinical sensitivity to dust. The correlation was not, however, perfect and, although D. pteronyssinus is a major factor in house dust allergy, it does not appear to be the sole antigen involved.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is important among vas-cular surgical patients. Its effect can be devastating resulting in limb amputation and mortality. We performed a retrospective patients record analysis to determine the pat-tern of MRSA infection among vascular surgical patients in Hospital Kuala Lumpur from January 2005 to December 2007. We also attempted to identify the factors asso-ciated with poor clinical outcome after such infection. There were 999 patients who underwent vascular surgeries in HKL within the analysis period. Of these 24 patients (2.4%) were detected to have MRSA surgical site infection. The infection was commoner among cigarette smokers, patients with diabetes melitus and those who had previous vascular surgery. Most infections occurred in the emergency surgery category and manifested as wound breakdown. Fifty-four percent of the infected pa-tients ended with graft removal, amputations or death. MRSA infection complicating vascular surgery resulted in poor clinical outcome. This serious threat requires intensi-fied preventive measures.
Hematospermia is a distressing disorder in sexually active men resulting in great concern to the patient. We report an unusual case of hematospermia with an atypical presentation, involving a 54-year-old man presented with acute urinary retention after sexual intercourse. Although the causes are widely known, arteriovenous malformation as the cause of this disorder has not much been reported in the literature. Transcatheter embolization of internal pudendal artery is a promising option for hematospermia caused by arterial fistula or bleeding.
The main objective of this research is to compare the seating pressure during the driving session between two
different types of national cars. The objective of this research is to conduct object pressure distribution study on
two different types of car seat using CONFORMat (model 5330) with system model CER2, compare and analyse the
results based on object pressure between both car seat. Twelve respondents participated a driving session with
TekscanCONFORMat (model 5330) setup using the same route for both national car. We select two types of national
cars equipped with automatic transmission for this research. The seat pressure on the subject along the journey is
recorded using TekscanCONFORMat Research 7.60 software. Later, comparison made with respect to the seat
pressure experiencedby twelve respondents. The results shows different values of backand seat pressure recorded
among the twelve subjects. Lastly, the results are analysedand discussed at the end of this paper. Model B seat
design has better ability to distribute evenly the pressure to both seat and back. However, results for Model A
showed the pressure is more concentrated on the seat area.
This research was done to evaluate the effect of a commercial exogenous emulsifier
(polyethylene glycol ricinoleate (PEGR)) with high hydrophilic-to-lipophilic balance (HLB)
supplementation to broiler chicken diets on growth performance, digestibility of fat and
apparent metabolisable energy (AME) content in week 1, 3 and 5. A total of 360 one-day-old
male Cobb broiler chicks were assigned in groups of 30 to 12 battery cages. The chicks were
randomly assigned to two dietary treatments, with 6 replicate cages per treatment. The diets
were either standard broiler starter and finisher, with rice bran oil (RBO) as supplemented fat
source or similar diets + 0.05% emulsifier (RBOV). Feed intakes of RBOV groups significantly
increased compared to those of RBO groups from week 2 till 4 while body weights of RBOV
diets significantly increased in week 4 and 5. Both RBOV and RBO groups had similar FCR
except for week 5. Addition of this strongly hydrophilic emulsifier showed no significant
difference in fat digestibility of both RC and RV groups but higher AME was noted for the
treatment than for the control groups at week 5. Therefore, supplementing the exogenous
emulsifier into a broiler diet enriched with rice bran oil improved body weight and AME
content at week 5 with minimal effect on fat digestibility.
Non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) denotes the presence of sterile non-infective vegetation
on structurally normal, or subtly degenerate cardiac valves and is often associated with advanced
malignancies. In gynaecological cancer in particular, NBTE has been most commonly associated
with ovarian cancer.1,2 Here we report a rare but interesting case of NBTE in a patient with locally
advanced cervical adenocarcinoma.
This study presents a preliminary attempt to assess future climate conditions in the Red River Delta (RRD) region. Outputs of the Community Climate System Model version 3.0 (CCSM3) are dynamically downscaled using the Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3). Numerical experiments and analysis are realized for the baseline 1980-1999 and the future 2030-2049 periods with the A1B and A2 emissions scenarios. We first examine the capability of the model in simulating the 20 years mean climate. Temperature and precipitation outputs for the baseline period are compared with observations at the 17 selected meteorological stations in RRD. Results show that temperature patterns are fairly well reproduced but with systematic cold biases. Precipitation is also well simulated during winter - spring and largely underestimated during summer - autumn. Estimation of the future changes of temperature and precipitation as compared to those of the baseline period reveals that annual temperature of the 2030-2049 appears to be warmer than the baseline temperature of about 1.4±0.2ºC. Summer temperature is likely to increase faster than winter temperature in the future. We also notice that precipitation generally decreases throughout the RRD region except the future JJA rainfall projected by the A2 scenario.
The isolation of 66 streptomycetes from rhizosphere soil of chili plants was done for their inhibitory activities against three different dominant species of Colletotrichum namely C. acutatum, C. gloeosporioides and C. capsici. Twenty one streptomycetes strains were active against at least one of the Colletotrichum species. In addition, ten strains that inhibited the in vitro growth of Colletotrichum species showed chitinase activity. Strain P42, which displayed the highest inhibitory activity against all three anthracnose fungi species and high chitinase activity was tested as biological control agent in a greenhouse study. The strain successfully controlled chili anthracnose disease by significantly reducing the disease severity. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain P42 belongs to the Streptomyces rochei clade. The results of the current study showed that rhizosphere-derived soil of chili plants is an important source of bioactive streptomycetes which are antagonistic against Colletotrichum.
Many challenges arise in candidaemia treatment which involves emergence of antifungal resistance. New species have been identified due to improved methods of detection and some are resistant to commonly prescribed antifungal agents such as fluconazole and amphotericin B. Therefore, the objective of the study was to observe any changes in the susceptibility patterns and distribution of Candida species. This cross sectional study was conducted at the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in UKMMC, a tertiary teaching hospital. One hundred and fifty one data were collected from the department’s laboratory records from January 2008 to December 2010. The yeasts were identified using ID32C carbohydrate assimilation tests whilst the antifungal susceptibility test was performed using Sensititre® YeastOne® broth microdilution method. Antifungal agents tested included amphotericin B, fluconazole, itraconazole, voriconazole, 5-flucytosine and caspofungin. Out of 151 blood isolates, 47 (31.1%) were Candida albicans and 104 (68.9%) were non-albicans Candida species. Candida tropicalis has surpassed C. albicans as the most commonly isolated Candida species from blood. Overall susceptibility (as compared to 2005-2006 data in brackets) to caspofungin was 99.3% (n/a), 5-flucytosine 97.4% (98%), amphotericin B 94.7% (100%), voriconazole 92.7% (98%), fluconazole 86.8% (90%) and
itraconazole 39.1% (40%). In conclusion, although the isolates were generally still susceptible to amphotericin B and fluconazole, resistance to these drugs is increasing.
This work is aimed to determine the characteristics of activated carbons derived from palm kernel shell (PKS) by microwave-induced zinc chloride activation for dye removal. Activation was performed in a microwave oven at power intensity of 70% for 10 min. The same procedures were repeated for activation using recycled ZnCl2 solution from the first activation. The activated carbons were characterized according to surface area, morphology, functional groups and batch adsorption. The yield for the first activation was 70.7% with surface area of 858m2/g. It was found that the activated carbon prepared using the recycled ZnCl2 still possesses good surface area for methylene blue removal. The adsorption behaviour of the continuous system was well fitted to and could be satisfactorily described by the Yoon and Nelson model.
Disposal of dye wastewater into water streams without treatment endangers human and marine lives. This work focused on the second largest class of textile dyes after azo dyes due to its high resistivity to biodegradation and high toxicity. The photocatalytic degradation of Reactive Blue 4 (RB4), an anthraquinone dye, has been investigated using pure anatase nano titanium (IV) oxide (TiO2). The dye molecules were fully degraded and the addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) enhanced the photodegradation efficiency. It is found that the degradation as the hydroxyl radicals in the bulk solution is sufficient for complete mineralisation. The disappearance of the dye follows pseudo-first-order kinetics. The effect of pH, amount of photocatalyst, UV-light intensity, light source and concentration of hydrogen peroxide was ascertained.
The effect of composition on nickel cobaltites prepared by co-precipitation was investigated. Various compositions were synthesised under different heat treatment conditions. The formation mechanism, lattice parameter and crystallite size were determined by various techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the optimum condition for the formation of single phase nickel-cobalt oxide (NiCo2O4) can be obtained from solution containing Ni: Co ratio of 33.3 mol%: 66.7 mol% with heat treatment at 400 °C. The presence of pure phase NiCo2O4 with the particle size of approximately 34.10 nm was also observed in field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The crystallinity of the synthesized oxides was improved with the increment of Ni content.
Total immunoglobulin E (IgE) has been an indicator for early diagnosis of allergic diseases due the important role of IgE in the sensitization towards allergens. Although total IgE is a common diagnostic test that screens for possible allergic diseases, reports are still lacking on the profile of total IgE levels of allergic patients from the north-east region of Peninsular Malaysia. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the association of total IgE levels with clinico-demographic parameters and whether increasing total IgE levels were associated with certain allergic manifestations in this study cohort. A local cohort of allergic patients (n=71) diagnosed in between 2009 and 2016 in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) were evaluated for the relevance of total IgE levels in allergy diagnosis. Our study did not demonstrate significant association between total IgE with age (p=0.75) or gender (p=0.65). However, we showed that elevated total IgE levels were associated with disease severity. Our data suggests that increasing total IgE levels beyond the conventional cutoff used to define abnormal IgE levels were more commonly associated with patients presenting allergic asthma and skin allergy manifestations. Total IgE level is a useful indicator for diagnosis of allergic diseases. Although total IgE level might not be sufficient to confirm the sensitization status of an individual, it may reflect the severity of the allergic disease suffered and it has a high correlation with positive sIgE values.
Blunt traumatic aortic injury (BTAI) is a crucial diagnosis to be made early in the management of trauma patients with aims to improve survival outcome. The objective of this case report is to highlight and explore the role of imaging especially Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) thorax to diagnose a focal traumatic aortic isthmus pseudoan- eurysm in a young gentleman sustaining high impact thoracic trauma.