Real-time monitoring and precise diagnosis of the severity of Dengue infection is needed for better decisions in disease management. The aim of this study is to use the Bioimpedance Vector Analysis (BIVA) method to differentiate between healthy subjects and severe and non-severe Dengue-infected patients. Bioimpedance was measured using a 50 KHz single-frequency bioimpedance analyzer. Data from 299 healthy subjects (124 males and 175 females) and 205 serologically confirmed Dengue patients (123 males and 82 females) were analyzed in this study. The obtained results show that the BIVA method was able to assess and classify the body fluid and cell mass condition between the healthy subjects and the Dengue-infected patients. The bioimpedance mean vectors (95% confidence ellipse) for healthy subjects, severe and non-severe Dengue-infected patients were illustrated. The vector is significantly shortened from healthy subjects to Dengue patients; for both genders the p-value is less than 0.0001. The mean vector of severe Dengue patients is significantly shortened compare to non-severe patients with a p-value of 0.0037 and 0.0023 for males and females, respectively. This study confirms that the BIVA method is a valid method in differentiating the healthy, severe and non-severe Dengue-infected subjects. All tests performed had a significance level with a p-value less than 0.05.
Bioimpedance analysis is a noninvasive, low cost and a commonly used approach for body composition measurements and assessment of clinical condition. There are a variety of methods applied for interpretation of measured bioimpedance data and a wide range of utilizations of bioimpedance in body composition estimation and evaluation of clinical status. This paper reviews the main concepts of bioimpedance measurement techniques including the frequency based, the allocation based, bioimpedance vector analysis and the real time bioimpedance analysis systems. Commonly used prediction equations for body composition assessment and influence of anthropometric measurements, gender, ethnic groups, postures, measurements protocols and electrode artifacts in estimated values are also discussed. In addition, this paper also contributes to the deliberations of bioimpedance analysis assessment of abnormal loss in lean body mass and unbalanced shift in body fluids and to the summary of diagnostic usage in different kinds of conditions such as cardiac, pulmonary, renal, and neural and infection diseases.
In the past few decades, the air temperature of built environment and energy demand of buildings has been increased, particularly in summer. As a consequence, the number of heat waves, heat-related mortality and morbidity have increased. The wide application of air conditioning and high level of energy use are inevitable to save people's lives, particularly in hot and temperate climates. Under these circumstances, this study offers a scoping review of the articles published between 2000 and 2020 to evaluate the role of green roofs in building energy use in hot and temperate climates. Given the ongoing trend of urban overheating, the scope of this review is limited to hot-humid, temperate and hot-dry climate zones. This scoping review shows the benefits of green roofs for reducing the demand of building energy in different climate zones and highlights the higher magnitude of energy saving in temperate climates than hot-humid or hot-dry climates provided that the green roofs are well-irrigated and uninsulated. According to the review of the articles published between 2000 and 2020, the reduction in cooling load is maximum (mean 50.2%) in temperate climate zones for well-irrigated green roofs. The effectiveness in saving cooling load reduces in hot-humid and hot-dry climate zones with means of 10% and 14.8% respectively. Green roof's design elements also strongly influence the potential in saving energy, and the effectiveness is heavily influenced by background climatic conditions. The findings of this study assist building designers and communities to better understand the amount of energy savings due to green roofs and present the results in different climates quantitatively.
The human papilloma virus (HPV) is known to be a major causative agent of cervical cancers and warts, limited study has been conducted on its associated factors among health care students and professionals in Malaysia. The present study was carried to explore the knowledge, understanding, attitude, perception and views about HPV infection and vaccination. A total of 576 respondents were recruited to complete a self-administered questionnaire through convenience sampling across Malaysia. 80.% and of the females respondents exhibited a positive attitude towards knowledge and understanding and 60% exhibited a positive towards attitude, perception and views. Almost 65% of the population were in agreement that HPV can be transmitted sexually, and 56.7% felt strongly that sexually active persons should essentially be vaccinated. The corresponding values were somewhat lower among the male respondents. Regression analysis suggested that knowledge and understanding were strong associated with gender, age, and occupation. Attitude, perception and views were also evidently associated with gender and age. The Ministry of Health should take steps to improve awareness among the citizens. Efforts should be made to educate people on the risk of HPV as a sexually transmitted diseases associated with HPV, and on the availability of discounted and safe HPV vaccines in government hospitals to increase the uptake rate of HPV vaccines among the Malaysian population.
Epilepsy is known as one of the major challenges for medical science. The sudden appearance of a seizure has been a significant health emergency as it may lead to further complications. Although key advancement have been achieved in terms of pharmacological approaches for epilepsy, many issues remain uncertain. Lipid carriers have been at the forefront, especially in neurodegenerative diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's, dementia, etc. The blood-brain barrier still appears to be a major impediment in the successful treatment of epileptic seizures. This is mainly due to the limited bioavailability of most anti-convulsant drugs. The present review encompasses the issues underlying the current approach for epilepsy drug treatment and highlights the newer, novel, and more precise drug delivery system to manage seizures. The advantage of using a lipid-based delivery system is its superior absorption in the brain cells. Ample evidence shows that reducing the particle size also infuses the drug easily through the blood-brain barrier. The application of liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, metallic nanoparticles, and solid lipid nanoparticles for the treatment and management of epilepsy has been highlighted in the present review. This review will provide an overview of the current status of the treatment and recent advances in the treatment of epilepsy.
Many methods, including solid dispersion, micellization, and inclusion complexes, have been employed to increase the solubility of potent drugs. Beta-cyclodextrin (βCD) is a cyclic oligosaccharide consisting of seven glucopyranoside molecules, and is a widely used polymer for formulating soluble inclusion complexes of hydrophobic drugs. The enzymatic activity of Glycosyltransferase or α-amylase converts starch or its derivatives into a mixture of cyclodextrins. The βCD units are characterized by α -(1-4) glucopyranose bonds. Cyclodextrins possess certain properties that make them very distinctive because of their toroidal or truncated cage-like supramolecular configurations with multiple hydroxyl groups at each end. This allowed them to encapsulate hydrophobic compounds by forming inclusion complexes without losing their solubility in water. Chemical modifications and newer derivatives, such as methylated βCD, more soluble hydroxyl propyl methyl βCD, and sodium salts of sulfobutylether-βCD, known as dexolve® or captisol®, have envisaged the use of CDs in various pharmaceutical, medical, and cosmetic industries. The successful inclusion of drug complexes has demonstrated improved solubility, bioavailability, drug resistance reduction, targeting, and penetration across skin and brain tissues. This review encompasses the current applications of β-CDs in improving the disease outcomes of antimicrobials and antifungals as well as anticancer and anti-tubercular drugs.
Cancer and tumor have been major reasons for numerous deaths in this century across the world. Many strategies have been designed to treat, diagnose, or prevent cancer. The success of chemotherapy largely depends on drug targeting. The advent of nanotechnology has vastly improved drug delivery for targeting and diagnosis. Nevertheless, the accuracy of drug targeting with polymeric nanoparticles has always been questionable. The polymeric nanoparticles synthesized from varieties of lipid-based compounds or combined with vectors, such as liposomes, ethosomes, and transfersomes, may allow the drug to overcome the issue of resistance to drug absorption in biological membranes. The combined effects of lipid-based nanocarriers are known to improve the efficacy and accuracy of polymeric nanoparticles. The present review explores the application of lipid based nanocarriers in the treatment and diagnosis of cancer A special focus is given to the use of lipid-based nanocarriers in the treatment, diagnosis, and mitigation of cancer located in blood, brain, lung, and colon. The treatment of these cancers has always been questionable as the chances of relapse are very high. The review encompasses the use of lipid-based nanocarriers in targeting tissue-specific cancer cells.
Malaysia is a predominant Muslim country and the recent surge in vaccine-preventable disease enticed us to conduct a survey to measure the Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Muslim parents toward vaccination process. The data were collected under four segments such as demography, Knowledge, Attitude and Perception. The questionnaire had high internal consistency (0.823) for Cronbach's alpha. The sociodemographic determinants such as marital status (OR = 1.12; 0.91-1.38;p
Inclusion complexes require higher concentration of Beta cyclodextrins (βCD) resulting in increased formulation bulk, toxicity, and production costs. This systematic review offers a comprehensive analysis using Quality by design (QbD) as a tool to predict potential applications of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a ternary substance to address issues of inclusion complexes. We reviewed 623 documents from 2013 to 2023 and Eighteen (18) research papers were selected for statistical and meta-analysis using the QbD concept to identify the most critical factors for selecting drugs and effect of PVP on inclusion complexes. The QbD analysis revealed that Molecular weight (MW), Partition coefficient (Log P), and the auxiliary substance ratio directly affected complexation efficiency (CE), thermodynamic stability in terms of Gibbs free energy (ΔG), and percent drug release. However, Stability constant (Ks) remained unaffected by any of these parameters. The results showed that low MW (250), median Log P (6), and a βCD: PVP ratio of 2:3 would result in higher CE, lower G, and improved drug release. PVP improves drug solubility, enhances delivery and therapeutic outcomes, and counteracts increased drug ionization due to decreased pH. In certain cases, its bulky nature and hydrogen bonding with CD molecules can form non-inclusion complexes. The findings of the study shows that there is potential molecular interaction between PVP and β-cyclodextrins, which possibly enhances the stability of inclusion complexes for drug with low MW and log P values less than 9. The systematic review shows a comprehensive methodology based on QbD offers a replicable template for future investigations into drug formulation research.