Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 176 adolescents aged between 13 and 19 years of age with the majority being Malay and Muslim. The Brief Reasons for Living for Adolescents (BRFL-A), Jalowiec Coping Scale and Suicide Ideation Scale were employed.
Results: The results showed that the reasons for living and palliative coping strategy correlated negatively with suicide ideation; although, further analysis using multiple regression revealed that family alliance and optimistic and palliative coping strategies were found to be significant reasons for living that protect adolescents from suicidal thoughts. Also, those adolescents who used emotive and evasive coping strategies had higher suicidal ideation.
Conclusion: Cultural and social values continue to play an important role in protecting adolescents in Malaysia from suicidal behaviour.
Methods: Three vegetable oils with different fat-soluble anti-oxidant contents were selected and par-fried potato strips were fried in these oils. Acrylamide in the French fries at different frying times (at 180 °C) and over 10 consecutive frying sessions were measured. The anti-oxidant contents and quality degradation of oils were monitored before and after the 5th and 10th consecutive frying sessions.
Results: The effect of the fat-soluble anti-oxidants in red palm oil on the acrylamide was more apparent when a prolonged frying time was used for consecutive frying sessions than when different frying conditions were used. Using red palm oil, acrylamide concentration in French fries significantly dropped to the lowest level, at 524 ng g-1, after the 10th frying session. The β-carotene content after the 10th frying session was the highest in red palm oil.
Conclusion: The use of red palm oil for deep-fat frying French fries can be a mitigation strategy to reduce acrylamide formation, but further studies are necessary to investigate the influence of different types of fat-soluble anti-oxidants on the inhibition of acrylamide formation.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted via retrospective review of outpatients' medical records. Details regarding ADRs were identified by a pharmacist and verified by a consultant respiratory physician.
Results: A total of 91 cases, out of 210 patients enrolled in this study, were detected with 75 patients (35.7%) experienced at least one ADR. The three most common ADRs detected were cutaneous adverse drug reactions (CADRs) (21.0%), drug-induced hepatitis (DIH) (7.1%) and gastrointestinal disturbance (4.8%). Pyrazinamide was the most common causative agent and 15.7% of all TB patients required treatment modification due to ADRs. Females were shown to have a higher tendency to develop ADRs than the males in this study (P = 0.009). The development of ADRs was shown not to affect the TB treatment outcomes (P = 0.955).
Conclusion: The incidence of ADRs in this study was high so it is important to identify the risk factors for ADRs and the individuals who have those risk factors when initiating anti-TB drugs. These individuals require special attention when anti-TB drugs are initiated.
Methods: We included patients with histopathologically diagnosed head and neck cancers who had received radiation, with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-1 and age range of 15-60 years. Patients with prior radiotherapy and chemotherapy, edentulous status, total parotidectomy, sicca syndrome or on xerosis-induced medications were excluded. We assigned 15 patients each to the Oral7® and salt-soda groups.
Results: There was no significant difference in the mean Decayed, Missing and Filling Teeth (DMFT) score between groups. Head and neck cancer patients who were on Oral7® had a significantly better quality of life than those on salt-soda in relation to the swallowing problems, social eating, mouth opening, xerostomia and illness scales. Patients who were on Oral7® had a significantly lower xerostomia score than patients on salt-soda mouthwash. Patients on Oral7® had a significantly lower mucositis score in week 5-7 compared to patients in the salt-soda group.
Conclusion: Oral7® showed advantages over salt-soda solution in relation to reducing xerostomia, easing radiation-induced mucositis, and improving quality of life, despite the non-significant difference in the dental caries assessment.
Methods: We used diffusion MRI and probabilistic tractography to identify the putative white matter connectivity in the brains of 10 CP patients. We tracked the corticospinal tract (CST) of the patients' upper and lower limbs and calculated the white matter connectivity, as indexed by streamlines representing the probability of connection of the CST.
Results: Our results show that diffusion MRI with probabilistic tractography, while having some relation with the clinical diagnosis of CP, reveals a high degree of individual variation in the streamlines representing the CST for upper and lower limbs.
Conclusion: Diffusion MRI with probabilistic tractography provides the state of connectivity from lesioned areas to other parts of the brain and is potentially beneficial to be used as an adjunct to the clinical management of CP, providing a means to monitor intervention outcomes.
Methodology: A total of 123 patients were recruited into this study, comprising 82 patients who underwent a pterional approach and 41 patients who underwent a supraorbital approach. Computed tomography angiograms, the modified Rankin Scale, and the visual analogue scale were administered at 6 months to look for residual aneurysm, functional outcomes, scar tenderness, and cosmetic satisfaction. Complication data were collected from patients' case notes.
Results: The mean operating time for the pterional group was 226 min, compared to supraorbital group, which was 192 min (P = 0.07). Cosmetic satisfaction was significantly higher (P = 0.001) in the supraorbital group. There was no significant difference between the supraorbital and pterional groups' scar tenderness (P = 0.719), residual aneurysm (P = 0.719), or functional outcomes (P = 0.137), and there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of intra-operative and post-operative complications.
Conclusions: The supraorbital group had better cosmetic outcomes and shorter operating times compared to the pterional group.
Methodology: Adult female Wistar rats were time-mated and grouped into three categories: (a) control-given 0.1 mL of normal saline, (b) low-dose nicotine-given 6.88 mg/ kg/d/0.05 mL, and (c) high-dose nicotine-given 13.76 mg/kg/d/0.1 mL in two divided doses. Treatment was given intraperitoneally from gestational days 2 to 6. On postnatal day 15 (P15), the pups were separated from their mothers, anaesthetised and sacrificed, followed by intracardial perfusion with 4% paraformaldehyde. PFC was excised from the brain and processed for tissue histology, histochemistry, and morphology of brain cells.
Results: Gestational nicotine exposure during the first week of gestation in rats significantly reduced birth weights in nicotine-treated groups compared with control; it, however, accelerated body weights, altered neuronal morphology, and elevated astrocytic count significantly, while oligodendroglial count was slightly increased in the PFC of juvenile rats examined at P15.
Conclusion: These alterations revealed that gestational nicotine exposure before the commencement of the cellular processes involved in brain development negatively affects neurodevelopment, and this could result in neurological dysfunctions in later life.
Methods: One hundred and fifty hard-working agricultural farmers from high-prevalence area for CKDu (Madawachchiya) were screened three times for proteinuria; 66 proteinuric and 21 non-proteinuric were identified as the baseline classification. Selected individuals were analysed further for creatinine, protein and cystatin C in urine and creatinine, cystatin C in serum. Urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (UP/UC) was calculated.
Results: Based on creatinine and cystatin C cut-off levels in serum, individuals were classified as high or normal. Diagnosis of two functional markers (creatinine and cystatin C) were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and in terms of sensitivity and specificity using UP/UC as the baseline. Creatinine and cystatin C-based eGFR (estimated Glomerular filtration rate) levels were calculated, and Pearson's correlation coefficient was determined between different eGFR measurements using UP/UC. Mean (SD) UP/UC ratio, serum creatinine, and serum cystatin C levels of the proteinuric subjects were 129.0 (18.4) mg/mmol, 1.35 (0.39) mg/dL, 1.69 (0.58) mg/L. For non-proteniuric individuals, the results were found to be 14.4 (2.28), 1.22 (0.40) mg/dL, 0.82 (0.25) mg/L. The ROC analysis showed excellent accuracy in using cystatin C for identifying proteinuric patients than creatinine area under the curve (AUC): 0.9675, P < 0.001). Cut-off points were identified as 1.015 mg/dL for serum creatinine and 0.930mg/L for cystatin C. Furthermore, cystatin C based Hoek formula showed the better correlation (0.635, P < 0.001) with UP/UC compared with creatinine based modification of diet in renal disease (MDRD) formula.
Conclusion: The study showed elevated serum cystatin C in patients with persisting proteinuria compared with non-responding serum creatinine. Moreover, cystatin C-based eGFR equations were more accurate to determine the kidney function than serum creatinine in proteinuric patients who are vulnerable for CKDu in high-prevalence areas.
Methods: Mice (n = 48) were fed high-fat diet (HFD) for 25 weeks to induce obesity, after which half were maintained on HFD and half switched to low-fat diet (LFD)while they were given normal water (H2O) or 0.1% (w/v) SCE in water at week 0-4 which was increased to 1% (w/v) at week 5-9. Effects of treatment with SCE were compared between HFDH2O, HFDSCE, LFDH2O and LFDSCE groups. Respiratory exchange ratios (RER) were measured at weeks 0, 5 and 10. Food, water intake and body weight were measured weekly. Plasma lipid profile and organ weights were determined at week 10.
Results: SCE had significantly reduced RER at week 9 (P = 0.011). Food intake, body weight, and abdominal adipose tissue weight were not altered by SCE at weeks 5 and 10. However, significant increase in plasma and liver cholesterol (P < 0.050) was observed.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that SCE induced lipolysis and body fat oxidation and increased energy expenditure. Further studies in other animal models should be done to confirm the consistency of these results.