Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 10-15% of women worldwide, and screening is recommended by clinical guidelines. In Malaysia, nurses in maternal and child health (MCH) clinics provide postpartum care.
Aim: To determine nurses' level of knowledge, beliefs and practices regarding PPD and factors associated with screening practices.
Methods: A cross-sectional study using universal sampling was conducted on nurses from seven government MCH clinics in Malaysia. Data was collected from March until April 2016 through a self-reported questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with having ever performed PPD screening.
Results: Of the 108 nurses, 55.6% scored above the median total knowledge score (17 out of 24 points). Despite a high proportion of nurses believing that they were responsible for PPD screening (72.2%), counselling depressed mothers (72.2%) and referring mothers for further treatment (87.0%), only 64.8% and 51.9% were confident in recognizing PPD and counselling depressed mothers, respectively. Only 25.9% had ever practiced PPD screening, which was associated with beliefs concerning screening taking too much time (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=0.13, 95% confidence interval [CI]= 0.02-0.74, P=0.022) and that screening is their responsibility (AOR=14.12, 95%CI=1.65-120.75, P=0.016).
Conclusion: More than half of the nurses scored above the median total knowledge score and had positive beliefs towards PPD screening. However, PPD screening practices were poor, and this outcome was associated with their beliefs regarding time and responsibility.
Anesthesia-related drugs cause various side effects and health-related illnesses after surgery. In particular, neurogenerative disorder is a common problem of anesthesia-related drugs. A patient gets anesthesia as a requirement of the preoperative evaluation to diagnose the medical illness, which is caused by anesthetic drug treatment. Different blood-based biomarkers help in identifying the changes appearing in patients after anesthesia treatment. Among them, tau protein is a sensitive biomarker of neurodegenerative diseases, and the fluctuations in tau proteins are highly associated with various diseases. Furthermore, researchers have found unstable levels of tau protein after the anesthesia process. The current research has focused on quantifying tau protein via impedance spectroscopy to identify the problems caused by anesthesia-related drugs. An impedance spectroscopy electrode was modified into a multiwalled carbon nanotube, and an amine-ended aptamer was then attached. This electrode surface was used to quantify the tau protein level and reached the detection limit of 1 fM. The determination coefficient was found to be y = 369.93x + 1144.9, with R2 = 0.9846 in the linear range of 1 fM-1 nM. Furthermore, tau protein spiked human serum was clearly identified on the immobilized aptamer surface, indicating the specific detection.
CHEK2 is a protein kinase that is involved in cell-cycle checkpoint control after DNA damage. Germline mutations in CHEK2 gene have been associated with increase in breast cancer risk. The aim of this study is to identify the CHEK2 gene germline mutations among high-risk breast cancer patients and its contribution to the multiethnic population in Malaysia. We screened the entire coding region of CHEK2 gene on 59 high-risk breast cancer patients who tested negative for BRCA1/2 germline mutations from UKM Medical Centre (UKMMC), Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) and Hospital Putrajaya (HPJ). Sequence variants identified were screened further in case-control cohorts consisting of 878 unselected invasive breast cancer patients (180 Malays, 526 Chinese and 172 Indian) and 270 healthy individuals (90 Malays, 90 Chinese and 90 Indian). By screening the entire coding region of the CHEK2 gene, two missense mutations, c.480A>G (p.I160M) and c.538C>T (p.R180C) were identified in two unrelated patients (3.4%). Further screening of these missense mutations on the case-control cohorts unveiled the variant p.I160M in 2/172 (1.1%) Indian cases and 1/90 (1.1%) Indian control, variant p.R180C in 2/526 (0.38%) Chinese cases and 0/90 Chinese control, and in 2/180 (1.1%) of Malay cases and 1/90 (1.1%) of Malay control. The results of this study suggest that CHEK2 mutations are rare among high-risk breast cancer patients and may play a minor contributing role in breast carcinogenesis among Malaysian population.
The partner and localizer of breast cancer 2 (PALB2) is responsible for facilitating BRCA2-mediated DNA repair by serving as a bridging molecule, acting as the physical and functional link between the breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) and breast cancer 2 (BRCA2) proteins. Truncating mutations in the PALB2 gene are rare but are thought to be associated with increased risks of developing breast cancer in various populations.
BACKGROUND: In Asia, breast cancer is characterised by an early age of onset: In Malaysia, approximately 50% of cases occur in women under the age of 50 years. A proportion of these cases may be attributable, at least in part, to genetic components, but to date, the contribution of genetic components to breast cancer in many of Malaysia's ethnic groups has not been well-characterised.
METHODOLOGY: Given that hereditary breast carcinoma is primarily due to germline mutations in one of two breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, we have characterised the spectrum of BRCA mutations in a cohort of 37 individuals with early-onset disease (
Germline TP53 mutations cause an increased risk to early-onset breast cancer in Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) families and the majority of carriers identified through breast cancer cohorts have LFS or Li-Fraumeni-like (LFL) features. However, in Asia and in many low resource settings, it is challenging to obtain accurate family history and we, therefore, sought to determine whether the presence of early-onset breast cancer is an appropriate selection criteria for germline TP53 testing.
The cost of genetic testing and the limited knowledge about the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in different ethnic groups has limited its availability in medium- and low-resource countries, including Malaysia. In addition, the applicability of many risk-assessment tools, such as the Manchester Scoring System and BOADICEA (Breast and Ovarian Analysis of Disease Incidence and Carrier Estimation Algorithm) which were developed based on mutation rates observed primarily in Caucasian populations using data from multiplex families, and in populations where the rate of breast cancer is higher, has not been widely tested in Asia or in Asians living elsewhere. Here, we report the results of genetic testing for mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes in a series of families with breast cancer in the multi-ethnic population (Malay, Chinese and Indian) of Malaysia.
Early studies of genetic predisposition due to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have focused largely on sequence alterations, but it has now emerged that 4-28% of inherited mutations in the BRCA genes may be due to large genomic rearrangements of these genes. However, to date, there have been relatively few studies of large genomic rearrangements in Asian populations. We have conducted a full sequencing and large genomic rearrangement analysis (using Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification, MLPA) of 324 breast cancer patients who were selected from a multi-ethnic hospital-based cohort on the basis of age of onset of breast cancer and/or family history. Three unrelated individuals were found to have large genomic rearrangements: 2 in BRCA1 and 1 in BRCA2, which accounts for 2/24 (8%) of the total mutations detected in BRCA1 and 1/23 (4%) of the mutations in BRCA2 detected in this cohort. Notably, the family history of the individuals with these mutations is largely unremarkable suggesting that family history alone is a poor predictor of mutation status in Asian families. In conclusion, this study in a multi-ethnic (Malay, Chinese, Indian) cohort suggests that large genomic rearrangements are present at a low frequency but should nonetheless be included in the routine testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2.
In a three-stage genome-wide association study among East Asian women including 22,780 cases and 24,181 controls, we identified 3 genetic loci newly associated with breast cancer risk, including rs4951011 at 1q32.1 (in intron 2 of the ZC3H11A gene; P=8.82×10(-9)), rs10474352 at 5q14.3 (near the ARRDC3 gene; P=1.67×10(-9)) and rs2290203 at 15q26.1 (in intron 14 of the PRC1 gene; P=4.25×10(-8)). We replicated these associations in 16,003 cases and 41,335 controls of European ancestry (P=0.030, 0.004 and 0.010, respectively). Data from the ENCODE Project suggest that variants rs4951011 and rs10474352 might be located in an enhancer region and transcription factor binding sites, respectively. This study provides additional insights into the genetics and biology of breast cancer.
We recently identified a novel susceptibility variant, rs865686, for estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer at 9q31.2. Here, we report a fine-mapping analysis of the 9q31.2 susceptibility locus using 43 160 cases and 42 600 controls of European ancestry ascertained from 52 studies and a further 5795 cases and 6624 controls of Asian ancestry from nine studies. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs676256 was most strongly associated with risk in Europeans (odds ratios [OR] = 0.90 [0.88-0.92]; P-value = 1.58 × 10(-25)). This SNP is one of a cluster of highly correlated variants, including rs865686, that spans ∼14.5 kb. We identified two additional independent association signals demarcated by SNPs rs10816625 (OR = 1.12 [1.08-1.17]; P-value = 7.89 × 10(-09)) and rs13294895 (OR = 1.09 [1.06-1.12]; P-value = 2.97 × 10(-11)). SNP rs10816625, but not rs13294895, was also associated with risk of breast cancer in Asian individuals (OR = 1.12 [1.06-1.18]; P-value = 2.77 × 10(-05)). Functional genomic annotation using data derived from breast cancer cell-line models indicates that these SNPs localise to putative enhancer elements that bind known drivers of hormone-dependent breast cancer, including ER-α, FOXA1 and GATA-3. In vitro analyses indicate that rs10816625 and rs13294895 have allele-specific effects on enhancer activity and suggest chromatin interactions with the KLF4 gene locus. These results demonstrate the power of dense genotyping in large studies to identify independent susceptibility variants. Analysis of associations using subjects with different ancestry, combined with bioinformatic and genomic characterisation, can provide strong evidence for the likely causative alleles and their functional basis.