OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of AD in Malaysian children and to understand the pattern of drug therapy. Such information could be useful to establish the relationship between ethnicity and family history of atopy and the development of associated signs and symptoms.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among children attending kindergartens and nurseries. Standardized questionnaires were filled out by parents.
RESULTS: Overall prevalence of AD was 13.4%. Of 384 participants recruited, the highest prevalence was observed in males, Malays, participants younger than 2 years, and those with atopic background such as asthma, hay fever, and family history of atopic diseases. Calamine and white soft paraffin were the preferred choice of nonprescription drugs, whereas topical hydrocortisone seemed to be the preferred choice of prescription drug in the management of AD.
CONCLUSIONS: The overall prevalence is comparable to that reported in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood Phase One. There is an association between ethnicity and AD prevalence. Topical corticosteroids and emollients are the mainstay of AD management among Malaysians.
Objective: To assess the association of IL-17AG197A and IL-17FA7488G polymorphisms with CRC risk.
Materials and Methods: We performed the genotyping by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method on blood samples from 80 healthy individuals and paraffin-embedded tumor tissues from 70 CRC patients.
Results: Our study showed that IL-17A197AA genotype was significantly associated with an increased CRC risk with odds ratios of 6.08 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.25-16.42, P < 0.001) and 2.80 (95% CI: 1.23-6.35, P = 0.014), in comparison with GG and AG genotypes, respectively. However, IL-17FA7488G polymorphism was not significantly associated with CRC risk (P = 0.102). No significant association of IL-17AG197A and IL-17FA7488G polymorphisms with patient and tumor variables was found.
Conclusion: This report from Malaysia shows the relationship of IL-17A197AA genotype with susceptibility to CRC.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study consisted of 21 pregnant women with hypertension and 23 without hypertension. The gestational age ranged from 28 to 39 weeks (hypertensive) and 32 to 40 weeks (normotensive). The paraffin embedded formalin fixed placenta tissue blocks were retrieved from the pathology archives. Endocan immunohistochemistry was performed on tissue sections of full thickness and maternal surface of the placenta. The endocan expression was determined in fetal endothelial cells, maternal endothelial cells, cytotrophoblasts, syncytiotrophoblasts and decidual cells. The differences in endocan expression in placenta between hypertensive and normotensive subjects were evaluated by Pearson chi-square test and t-test were used in the statistical analysis.
RESULTS: The endocan expression was significantly higher in fetal endothelial cells (P
Methods: Eighty (40 right-sided and 40 left-sided) formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded primary CRC were immunohistochemically studied for CD133, a putative CRC stem cell marker, and MMR proteins MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2. CD133 expression was semi-quantitated for proportion of tumor immunopositivity on a scale of 0-5 and staining intensity on a scale of 0-3 with a final score (units) being the product of proportion and intensity of tumor staining. The tumor was considered immunopositive only when the tumor demonstrated moderate to strong intensity of CD133 staining (a decision made after analysis of CD133 expression in normal colon). Deficient MMR (dMMR) was interpreted as unequivocal loss of tumor nuclear staining for any MMR protein despite immunoreactivity in the internal positive controls.
Results: CD133 was expressed in 36 (90.0%) left-sided and 28 (70.0%) right-sided tumors (p 0.05).
Conclusion: Proficient MMR correlated with high levels of CD133-marked putative cancer stem cells in both right- and left-sided tumors, whereas significantly lower levels of CD133-marked putative cancer stem cells were associated with deficient MMR status in colorectal carcinomas found on the right.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, cases of ovarian and breast cancer with clinical status of T2DM were selected over a 10-year period in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. Immunohistochemical staining for IGFBP-rP1 was performed on paraffin-embedded tissues and the results were correlated with the patient's demographic and clinicopathological data.
RESULTS: A total of 152 breast cancer patients were recruited into the current study with 33.5% (51/152) patients were positive T2DM. Most of the breast cancer patients with T2DM were IGFBP-rP1-negative (66.7%, 34/51). The IGFBP-rP1 expression was significantly difference between breast cancer subjects with and without T2DM (p<0.001). There was no significant association of IGFBP-rP1 expression with data on the demographic and clinicopathological profiles of patients with breast cancer. Meanwhile, positive IGFBP-rP1 expression was evident in 44 out of 108 (40.74%) ovarian cancer cases. Among these cases, 36 were T2DM. In contrast to breast cancer cases, IGFBP-rP1 was mostly expressed among ovarian cancer patients with T2DM (66.7%, 24/36, p < 0.001). However, the -positive expression was not significantly associated with any sociodemographic and clinicopathological features of ovarian cancers.
CONCLUSIONS: Majority of breast cancer patients with T2DM did not express IGFBP-rP1. In contrast, majority of the ovarian cancer patients with T2DM expressed IGFBP-rP1.