The present study explores the ability of modified soda lignin (MSL) extracted from oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) in removing lead (II) ions from aqueous solutions. The effect of contact time, point zero charge (pH(pzc)) and pH of the solution, initial metal ion concentration and adsorbent dosage on the removal process were investigated. Furthermore, the MSL is characterized by SEM, XRF, FT-IR and surface area analysis. Equilibrium adsorption isotherms and kinetics were investigated. The experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models of adsorption. The kinetic data obtained at different initial concentrations were analyzed using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models. The results provide strong evidence to support the hypothesis of adsorption mechanism.
Eurycoma longifolia (E. longifolia), a herb commonly consumed for its aphrodisiac properties, is widely used by Asian males. This may include hypertensive patients receiving propranolol which may cause sexual dysfunction as one of its side-effects. There is no published study of the potential pharmacokinetic interaction between propranolol and the herb.
There is an association between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and DNA damage to sperm. Researchers believe that ROS is always present at the sperm's head. The variation of ROS concentration within the area has an impact on the integrity of the DNA.
We studied the efficacy of two surgical methods used for the treatment of intracranial subdural empyema (ISDE) at our centre. A cross-sectional study (1999-2005) of 90 patients with non-traumatic supratentorial ISDE revealed that the two surgical methods used for empyema removal were burr hole/s and drainage (50 patients, 55.6%) and a cranial bone opening procedure (CBOP) (40 patients, 44.4%). Patients in the CBOP group had a better result in terms of clinical improvement (chi-squared analysis, p=0.006) and clearance of empyema on brain CT scan (chi-squared analysis, p<0.001). Reoperation was more frequent among patients who had undergone burr hole surgery (multiple logistic regression, p<0.001). The outcome and morbidity of ISDE survivors were not related to the surgical method used (p>0.05). The only factor that significantly affected the morbidity of ISDE was level of consciousness at the time of surgery (multiple logistic regression, p<0.001). We conclude that CBOP and evacuation of the empyema is a better surgical method for ISDE than burr hole/s and drainage. Wide cranial opening and empyema evacuation improves neurological status, gives better clearance of the empyema and reduces the need for reoperation. Level of consciousness at the time of presentation is a predictor of the morbidity of ISDE. Thus, aggressive surgical treatment should occur as early as possible, before the patient deteriorates.
Recently, many cases related to viral gastroenteritis outbreaks have been reported all over the world. Noroviruses are found to be leading as the major cause of outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis. Patients with the acute gastroenteritis normally found to be positive with norovirus when stools and vomit were analyzed. This paper reviews various activities and previous reports that describe norovirus contaminated in various food matrixes and relationship between food handlers. Lately, a numbers of norovirus outbreaks have been reported which are involved fresh produce (such as vegetables, fruits), shellfish and prepared food. Food produces by infected food handlers may therefore easily contaminated. In addition, food that required much handling and have been eaten without heat treatment gave the high risk for getting foodborne illnesses. The standard method for detection of norovirus has already been available for stool samples. However, only few methods for detection of norovirus in food samples have been developed until now.
We report experimental results demonstrating the variation of optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of laser lines in Brillouin-Raman fiber laser against Raman pump power (RPP) variation. The reduction of OSNR is attributed to the spectral broadening of laser lines depending on the RPP. The spectral broadening is owing to the effect of the interaction between laser lines and turbulent waves (nonlinear interaction between longitudinal cavity modes). In our experiment, the worst OSNR is obtained at 650 mW RPP as a result of maximum spectral broadening when the Brillouin pump wavelength is fixed at 1555 nm. On the other hand, the OSNR improvement is obtained for RPP beyond 650 mW due to the effect of red-shift, the Raman peak gain is shifted away from the laser lines generated around 1555 nm thus reduces the spectral broadening effect.
This study was conducted to identify genotypes related risk factors of Giardia intestinalis in an Orang Asli (aboriginal) community in Pahang, Malaysia. Stool samples were collected from 321 individuals aged between 2 and 76 years old, of whom 160 were males and 161 were females. Faecal samples were processed with trichrome staining technique for the primary identification of G. intestinalis. Molecular identification was carried out by the amplification of a partial SSU rRNA gene using nested PCR. PCR products were purified and genotyped. 42 samples successfully amplified from the 76 positive faecal samples, only 1 was Assemblage A, the rest were Assemblage B. Risk analysis based on the detected genotypes of Giardia using univariate analysis and logistic regression identified three significant risk factors of giardiasis caused by assemblage B which included children =12 years (OR=13.56, 95% CI=1.79-102.64, p=0.012), females (OR=2.52, 95% CI=1.11-5.75, p=0.027) and eating fresh fruits (OR=7.78, 95% CI=1.01-60.00, p=0.049). Assemblage B infection was significantly correlated with clinical symptoms of giardiasis (OR=2.4, 95% CI=1.13-5.12, p=0.019). Females infected with Assemblage B were at higher risk of manifesting gastroenteritis signs and symptoms (OR=3.9, 95% CI=1.50-10.31, p=0.004). It has been concluded that giardiasis is still a public health problem in Orang Asli community and most commonly caused by assemblage B. The dynamic of transmission is most probably anthroponotic which is human to human either directly or indirectly through contaminated food. This route of transmission should be considered in the control strategy of the disease. Mass treatment together with health education could be the most practical intervention for reducing the infection. Those at high risk should receive more attention from public health authorities.
Bone formation is an active process whereby osteoblasts are found on the surface of the newly formed bone. Adhesion to extracellular matrix is essential for the development of bone however not all surfaces are suitable for osteoblast adhesion and don't support osteoblastic functions. The objective of this study was to test the suitability of a collagen based microcarrier which would support osteoblastic functions.
This study was conducted to reassess the risk factors for giardiasis in communities of the Orang Asli (indigenous people) in Pahang, Malaysia. Stool samples were collected from 321 individuals (2-76 years old; 160 males, 161 females). Data were collected via laboratory analysis of faecal samples and a pre-tested standard questionnaire. River water samples were tested for Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts. The overall prevalence of G. intestinalis infection was 23.7%. Children < or =12 years old had the highest infection rate and have been identified as a high risk group (odds ratio (OR)=6.2, 95% CI 1.5-27.0, P<0.005). The risk of getting giardiasis also appeared to be significantly associated with drinking piped water (OR=5.1, 95% CI 0.06-0.7, P<0.005) and eating raw vegetables (OR=2.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.6, P<0.005). In conclusion, sociodemographic factors have always been associated with the high prevalence of Giardia infections in Malaysia. However, the present study also highlights the need to look into the possibility of other risks such as water and food transmission routes. In future, it is necessary that these two aspects be considered in control strategies.
An observational study was carried out to establish the existence of intestinal microsporidiosis among patients with and without gastrointestinal symptoms in Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. A total of 893 faecal specimens from hospitalized patients were examined for microsporidia using a modification of the usual Gram-chromotrope stain technique. One hundred and sixteen (13.0%) patients were positive for microsporidia: 84 (72.4%), 27 (23.3%) and 5 (4.3%) were low, moderate and high excreters of microsporidia spores, respectively. Of the 91 patients with available medical records, microsporidiosis was commonly observed in children aged 0-6 years (26.4%) and adults aged >or=31 years (57.2%). About one-third of this infection was observed in immunocompetent individuals. Among the immunosuppressive group, microsporidia were observed to be more prevalent in patients with haematological malignancy or a combination of malignancy and diabetes mellitus. About 74% of the patients who had microsporidia in their faeces had gastrointestinal symptoms, which could be related to infections or induced by immunosuppressive therapy. The role of microsporidia in causing gastrointestinal symptoms in this population is as yet unclear.
Percutaneous image-guided needle biopsy is typically performed in highly vascular organs or in tumours with rich macroscopic and microscopic blood supply. The main risks related to this procedure are haemorrhage and implantation of tumour cells in the needle tract after the biopsy needle is withdrawn. From numerous conducted studies, it was found that heating the needle tract using alternating current in radiofrequency (RF) range has a potential to minimize these effects. However, this solution requires the use of specially designed needles, which would make the procedure relatively expensive and complicated. Thus, we propose a simple solution by using readily available coaxial core biopsy needles connected to a radiofrequency ablation (RFA) generator. In order to do so, we have designed and developed an adapter to interface between these two devices. For evaluation purpose, we used a bovine liver as a sample tissue. The experimental procedure was done to study the effect of different parameter settings on the size of coagulation necrosis caused by the RF current heating on the subject. The delivery of the RF energy was varied by changing the values for delivered power, power delivery duration, and insertion depth. The results showed that the size of the coagulation necrosis is affected by all of the parameters tested. In general, the size of the region is enlarged with higher delivery of RF power, longer duration of power delivery, and shallower needle insertion and become relatively constant after a certain value. We also found that the solution proposed provides a low cost and practical way to minimizes unwanted post-biopsy effects.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer and its diagnosis on routine stains is usually straightforward, except in some cases where there may be difficulty in distinguishing HCCs from metastatic carcinomas (MC) and cholangiocarcinomas (CC). Hepatocyte Paraffin 1 antibody (Hep Par 1) is a new monoclonal antibody which reacts with normal and neoplastic hepatocytes, and this study aims to determine its specificity and sensitivity in distinguishing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from cholangiocarcinoma (CC) and metastatic carcinomas (MC). Hep Par 1 antibody was applied to 28 cases of HCC, 22 cases of MC from varying sites and 8 CCs, and produced a strong, diffuse, granular, cytoplasmic staining of all benign hepatocytes. 23 out of 28 cases of HCC showed heterogeneously positive staining for Hep Par 1 irrespective of their degree of differentiation, while 2 out of 8 cases of cholangiocarcinoma were positive for Hep Par 1, and all 22 cases of metastatic carcinoma were negative. The sensitivity and specificity of Hep Par 1 for HCC was 82.1% and 93.3% respectively; whereby the antibody was noted to show occasional false positivity in cases of cholangiocarcinoma and non-neoplastic bowel mucosa, while its variable staining in HCC produced false negative results in some small biopsies. Thus, Hep Par 1 should be used in a panel with other antibodies to obtain useful information in distinguishing HCC from CC and MC.
The data distribution system of this project is divided into two types, which are a Two-PC Image Reconstruction System and a Two-PC Velocity Measurement System. Each data distribution system is investigated to see whether the results' refreshing rate of the corresponding measurement can be greater than the rate obtained by using a single computer in the same measurement system for each application. Each system has its own flow control protocol for controlling how data is distributed within the system in order to speed up the data processing time. This can be done if two PCs work in parallel. The challenge of this project is to define the data flow process and critical timing during data packaging, transferring and extracting in between PCs. If a single computer is used as a data processing unit, a longer time is needed to produce a measurement result. This insufficient real-time result will cause problems in a feedback control process when applying the system in industrial plants. To increase the refreshing rate of the measurement result, an investigation on a data distribution system is performed to replace the existing data processing unit.
Leptospirosis is an emerging infectious disease. The differential diagnosis of leptospirosis is difficult due to the varied and often "flu like" symptoms which may result in a missed or delayed diagnosis. Leptospira is the aetiological agent of leptospirosis, a bacterial zoonosis with worldwide distribution. There are over 230 known serovars in the genus Leptospira. The true prevalence of leptospirosis in Malaysia is unknown or underestimated. Our goal was to determine the prevalence for Leptospira infection in rodents in a selected area in Beguk Dam Labis, Segamat, Johor. A study was carried out on 69 serum samples of trapped wild rodents. DNA was extracted from the sera using Leptospira PCR kit (Shanghai ZJ Bio-Tech Co., Ltd). Of 69 rodent serum samples tested by PCR, 9 (13%) showed positive results. In this study we found that (13%) of wild rodents caught in Beguk Dam Labis were infected by Leptospira.
INTRODUCTION:Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a rare neurological disorder which is increasingly recognized to occur in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of SLE patients with PRES and the associated factors of the poor outcome among them.
METHODS: We investigated SLE patients who developed PRES between 2005-2011 at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. A comprehensive literature search was done to find all published cases of PRES in SLE. Pooled analysis was conducted to identify the factors associated with poor outcome.
RESULTS: There were 103 cases of PRES in SLE published in the literature but only 87 cases were included in the analysis in view of incomplete individual data in the remaining cases. The majority of the cases were Asians (74.2%), female (95.4%) with mean age of 26.3 ± 8.8 years. PRES was highly associated with active disease (97.5%), hypertension (91.7%) and renal involvement (85.1%). We found that 79 patients had a full recovery (90.8%) with a mean onset of full clinical recovery in 5.6 ± 4.1 days. On univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis the predictors of poor outcome, defined as incomplete clinical recovery or death, were intracranial hemorrhage, odds ratio (OR) 14 (1.1-187.2), p=0.04 and brainstem involvement in PRES, OR 10.9 (1.3-90.6), p=0.003.
CONCLUSION: Intracranial hemorrhage and brainstem involvement were the two important predictors of poor outcome of PRES. Larger prospective studies are needed to further delineate the risk of poor outcome among them.
A 16-year-old boy was referred with features of Parkes Weber syndrome (PWS) involving the right lower limb. He had presented at birth with cutaneous vascular malformations (VM) in the right thigh and at the age of 7 years developed congestive cardiac failure, which was controlled with drugs. He received alpha interferon and steroids during this period without any benefit. He defaulted follow-up and at 12 years of age presented with further enlargement of the VM in the right thigh and leg with skin and soft tissue thickening. At this stage, embolization and subsequent excision of the VM were tried, but the surgery was abandoned because of massive hemorrhage. Over the next 4 years, the boy became totally bedridden because of massive increase in the size of the limb, repeated hemorrhages, and secondary infection of the VM. Right hip disarticulation was considered the best option to improve his quality of life. To prevent uncontrollable hemorrhage during surgery, the disarticulation was done under cardiopulmonary bypass with low circulatory flow. Postoperatively, the patient required intensive care nursing for a week. He is presently ambulatory with crutches. Cardiopulmonary bypass with low flow has been used for treating posttraumatic arteriovenous malformations. However, its use in surgery for PWS has not been reported earlier.
In Malaysia, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is diagnosed based on clinical observation with or without muscle biopsy. Molecular analyses of the SMA-related genes have not been available so far. In this preliminary study, we searched for homozygous deletion of Survival Motor Neuron (SMN1) and Neuronal Apoptosis Inhibitory Protein (NAIP) genes in Malay patients with SMA and found homozygous deletion of SMN1 exon 7 and 8 in all the patients while homozygous deletion of NAIP exon 5 was detected in only our type 1 patients but not in the type 3 patient. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first SMA cases diagnosed at the molecular level in Malaysia.
An extensive terrestrial gamma radiation dose (TGRD) rate survey has been conducted in Perak State, Peninsular Malaysia. The survey has been carried out taking into account geological and soil information, involving 2930 in situ surveys. Based on geological and soil information collected during TGRD rate measurements, TGRD rates have been predicted in Perak State using a statistical regression analysis which would be helpful to focus surveys in areas that are difficult to access. An equation was formulated according to a linear relationship between TGRD rates, geological contexts and soil types. The comparison of in situ measurements and predicted TGRD dose rates was tabulated and showed good agreement with the linear regression equation. The TGRD rates in the study area ranged from 38 nGy h(-1) to 1039 nGy h(-1) with a mean value of 224 ± 138 nGy h(-1). This value is higher than the world average as reported in UNSCEAR 2000. The TGRD rates contribute an average dose rate of 1.37 mSv per year. An isodose map for the study area was developed using a Kriging method based on predicted and in situ TGRD rate values.