Objective and Methodology: A single-centre retrospective study aimed at analysing the outcome of laparoscopic bariatric surgery on super-obese Malaysians with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) at 12 months following surgery. Demographic details, glycaemic control and weight-loss parameters were analysed.P < 0.01 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Of the 33 patients, 55% were women and 45% were men with a mean age of 40 ± 11 years and body mass index (BMI) of 59.3 ± 9.0 kg/m2. Majority of patients were of Malay ethnicity (82%). Malaysian-Indians and Malaysian-Chinese each accounted for 9% of total case volume. The three types of laparoscopic bariatric surgery recorded in this study were sleeve gastrectomy (82%), Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (9%) and mini-gastric bypass (9%) with operative time of 103.5 ± 31.1, 135.8 ± 32.6 and 116.2 ± 32.3 min, respectively. Percentage total body weight loss was 33.11% ± 9.44% at 12 months following surgery (P < 0.01). BMI change and percentage excess BMI loss showed similar improvement. Glycosylated haemoglobin and fasting blood sugar decreased from pre-operative values of 7.0% ± 1.0% and 7.0 ± 0.9 mmol/L to 5.6% ± 0.4% and 5.0 ± 0.6 mmol/L at 12 months (P < 0.01). Remission of T2DM was noted in 93% of patients. There was no correlation between weight loss and improvement in glycaemic status.
Conclusion: There are significant weight loss and improvement of glycaemic control at 12 months post-laparoscopic bariatric surgery among super-obese Malaysians.
METHODS: The brain MR images of eight patients with Nipah virus infection were reviewed. All patients tested negative for acute Japanese encephalitis virus. Seven patients had contrast-enhanced studies and six had diffusion-weighted examinations.
RESULTS: All patients had multiple small bilateral foci of T2 prolongation within the subcortical and deep white matter. The periventricular region and corpus callosum were also involved. In addition to white matter disease, five patients had cortical lesions, three had brain stem involvement, and a single thalamic lesion was detected in one patient. All lesions were less than 1 cm in maximum diameter. In five patients, diffusion-weighted images showed increased signal. Four patients had leptomeningeal enhancement and four had enhancement of parenchymal lesions.
CONCLUSION: The brain MR findings in patients infected with the newly discovered Nipah paramyxovirus are different from those of patients with Japanese encephalitis. In a zoonotic epidemic, this striking difference in the appearance and distribution of lesions is useful in differentiating these diseases. Diffusion-weighted imaging was advantageous in increasing lesion conspicuity.