This research focuses on creating a standardized nasal cavity model of adult Malaysian females. The methodology implemented in this research is a new approach compared to other methods used by previous researchers. This study involves 26 females who represent the test subjects for this preliminary study. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis was carried out to better understand the characteristics of the standardized model and to compare it to the available standardized Caucasian model. This comparison includes cross-sectional areas for both half-models as well as velocity contours along the nasal cavities. The Malaysian female standardized model is larger in cross-sectional area compared to the standardized Caucasian model thus leading to lower average velocity magnitudes. The standardized model was further evaluated with four more Malaysian female test subjects based on its cross-sectional areas and average velocity magnitudes along the nasal cavities. This evaluation shows that the generated model represents an averaged and standardized model of adult Malaysian females.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide and a frequent finding on ultrasound examination. NAFLD is considered as the liver component of metabolic syndrome and is linked to accelerated atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. No data from systematic studies regarding the prevalence of NAFLD are available for the Malaysian population. One hundred eighty untreated hypercholesterolemic volunteers underwent blood and ultrasound examinations to evaluate their livers. NAFLD was diagnosed in 102 subjects (56.7%) with similar prevalences between sexes. Of the 102 positive subjects 82 (80.4%) were graded as mild, 17 (16.7%) as moderate and 3 (2.9%) as severe fatty liver cases. Elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels were found in 13 of 180 subjects (7.2%), while elevated AST and ALT levels were seen in 30 (16.7%) and 22 (12.2%) of the180 subjects, respectively.