The optimum combination of Musa paradisiaca (MP) and Trigona sp. Honey (TH) in formulating high antioxidant jelly was analysed for total carbohydrate content (CHO), antioxidant capacity (AC), and acceptability via the Response Surface Methodology. Central composite design was employed to optimise the combination effect of two independent variables; namely MP (X1: 20-100%) and TH (X2: 20-100%) on the recovery of three responses; total carbohydrate content (Y1), antioxidant capacity (Y2), and acceptability (Y3). A polynomial model generated a satisfactory fitting of the experimental data with regards to total carbohydrate content (R2
= 0.8974, p < 0.0024), total antioxidant capacity (R2 = 0.9702, p < 0.0001), and acceptability (R2 = 0.9136, p < 0.0001). The optimum combination for maximum recovery of CHO, AC and acceptability were 20% of MP and 20% of TBH, with a predicted CHO of 33 Kcal/5 g, AC of
0.34 nm and acceptability score of 6.16 (< 5: not accepted; > 5: accepted).
Retinal artery macroaneurysm (RAM) is an acquired retinal arteriole dilatation with vision-threatening complications. Diagnosis of this condition can be made clinically, supported by multi-modal imaging modalities, commonly optical coherence tomography (OCT) and dye-based angiography studies which show the lesion itself and the complications to the adjacent retina. We report a case of an 83-year-old patient with renal impairment who had the diagnosis and monitoring of RAM done using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) as an alternative to conventional fluorescein angiography. This case highlighted the use of OCT-A using Cirrus 5000 with AngioPlex (Zeiss, Jena, Germany) as a useful diagnostic and monitoring tool for RAM with its features that enables objective quantification of the disease activity via vessel and perfusion density pre- and post-laser treatment.
OBJECTIVE: The study aims to identify the risk of obtaining a fracture among post-menopausal women with osteopenia and osteoporosis.
METHOD: This work was a cross-sectional study involving a purposive sample of 87 post-menopausal women who attended the orthopedic and menopause clinics of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan. The data were entered into the WHO fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX®) to predict major fracture and risk for hip fracture in 10 years' time.
RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 61.6 years (SD=7.9). Among the respondents, 50.6% had osteopenia and nearly half (48.3%) had osteoporosis. The mean number of menopausal years of the respondents was 11.9 (SD=8.5), ranging between 1 and 44 years. The FRAX findings indicated 9.7% major osteoporotic fracture probability and 3.5% hip fracture probability, which were denoted as high risk. A Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between menopausal years and the FRAX major osteoporotic fracture probability. A significant positive correlation was found between the two, but the correlation was weak (r=0.581, n=87, p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: The present findings indicate that menopausal years have a positive correlation with the risk of obtaining a fracture.
Study site: orthopedic and menopause clinics of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan.