MyMedR

Displaying all 11 publications

Abstract:

Sort:

Multiple bilateral renal abscesses in a previously healthy young patient

Tang RY, Cheong BM

Med J Malaysia, 2017 08;72(4):250-251.
PMID: 28889140 MyJurnal

The incidence of renal abscesses is not common. Patients usually have risk factors like diabetes mellitus or an underlying condition which predisposes to urinary tract infections. We report a case of a previously healthy young girl with multiple bilateral renal abscesses. Ultrasonography revealed multiple renal abscesses with a possible differential diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease with infected cysts. No renal calculi were seen. CT-scan of kidneys confirmed the diagnosis. Blood and urine cultures were repeatedly negative. She was treated with two weeks of intravenous antibiotics followed by another four weeks of oral Ciprofloxacin. No surgical intervention was carried out. Repeated ultrasound at six months showed complete resolution of all the renal abscesses.
Design of a data processing method for the farmland environmental monitoring based on improved Spark components

Tang R, Aridas NK, Talip MSA

Front Big Data, 2023;6:1282352.
PMID: 38053722 DOI: 10.3389/fdata.2023.1282352

With the popularization of big data technology, agricultural data processing systems have become more intelligent. In this study, a data processing method for farmland environmental monitoring based on improved Spark components is designed. It introduces the FAST-Join (Join critical filtering sampling partition optimization) algorithm in the Spark component for equivalence association query optimization to improve the operating efficiency of the Spark component and cluster. The experimental results show that the amount of data written and read in Shuffle by Spark optimized by the FAST-join algorithm only accounts for 0.958 and 1.384% of the original data volume on average, and the calculation speed is 202.11% faster than the original. The average data processing time and occupied memory size of the Spark cluster are reduced by 128.22 and 76.75% compared with the originals. It also compared the cluster performance of the FAST-join and Equi-join algorithms. The Spark cluster optimized by the FAST-join algorithm reduced the processing time and occupied memory size by an average of 68.74 and 37.80% compared with the Equi-join algorithm, which shows that the FAST-join algorithm can effectively improve the efficiency of inter-data table querying and cluster computing.
Paper-based sample-to-answer molecular diagnostic platform for point-of-care diagnostics

Choi JR, Tang R, Wang S, Wan Abas WA, Pingguan-Murphy B, Xu F

Biosens Bioelectron, 2015 Dec 15;74:427-39.
PMID: 26164488 DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2015.06.065

Nucleic acid testing (NAT), as a molecular diagnostic technique, including nucleic acid extraction, amplification and detection, plays a fundamental role in medical diagnosis for timely medical treatment. However, current NAT technologies require relatively high-end instrumentation, skilled personnel, and are time-consuming. These drawbacks mean conventional NAT becomes impractical in many resource-limited disease-endemic settings, leading to an urgent need to develop a fast and portable NAT diagnostic tool. Paper-based devices are typically robust, cost-effective and user-friendly, holding a great potential for NAT at the point of care. In view of the escalating demand for the low cost diagnostic devices, we highlight the beneficial use of paper as a platform for NAT, the current state of its development, and the existing challenges preventing its widespread use. We suggest a strategy involving integrating all three steps of NAT into one single paper-based sample-to-answer diagnostic device for rapid medical diagnostics in the near future.
A 5-year retrospective study of melioidosis cases treated in a district specialist hospital

Tang RY, Lim SH, Lam JE, Nurasykin S, Eileen T, Chan YW

Med J Malaysia, 2019 12;74(6):472-476.
PMID: 31929471

INTRODUCTION: Melioidosis is caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, a gram-negative aerobic bacillus, found in the soil and surface water. Treating melioidosis has been a challenge in district hospitals due to high usage of broad spectrum antibiotics and prolonged hospitalisation. This study is to review the patients' demography, clinical presentations and microbiological data.
METHODS: A 5-year retrospective study was carried out on patients admitted with culture positive for melioidosis from year 2013 to 2017 in Hospital Teluk Intan, Perak.
RESULTS: There were a total of 46 confirmed cases of melioidosis. Majority of the patients were working in the agricultural and farming (28.6%), and factories (25.7%). Thirty-one patients had diabetes mellitus (71.1%). Presentations of patients with melioidosis included pneumonia (54.3%), skin and soft tissue infection (19.6%), deep abscesses (15.2%) and bone and joint infections (13%). An average of 5.8 days was needed to confirm the diagnosis of melioidosis via positive culture. However, only 39.4% of these patients were started on ceftazidime or carbapenem as the empirical therapy. The intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate for melioidosis was 46% and the mortality rate was 52%. Our microbial cultures showed good sensitivity towards cotrimoxazole (97.1%), ceftazidime (100%) and carbapenem (100%).
CONCLUSION: Melioidosis carries high mortality rate, especially with lung involvement and bacteremia. Physicians should have high clinical suspicion for melioidosis cases to give appropriate antimelioidosis therapy early.
Application of Gelatin Composite Coating in Pork Quality Preservation during Storage and Mechanism of Gelatin Composite Coating on Pork Flavor

Li H, Tang R, Mustapha WAW, Liu J, Hasan KMF, Li X, et al.

Gels, 2021 Dec 27;8(1).
PMID: 35049558 DOI: 10.3390/gels8010021

Gelatin coating is an effective way to prolong the shelf life of meat products. Aiming at solving the problem of flavor deterioration during the storage of pork at room temperature, pork coating technology was developed to preserve the pork at 25 °C, and the comprehensive sensory analysis of vision, touch, smell, and taste was used to study the effect of coating on preservation of pork flavor. Herein, uncoated (control) and coated pork samples (including gelatin coating and gelatin coating incorporated with ginger essential oil) were analyzed to investigate the integrity of pork periodically during storage at 25 °C for weight loss, color, texture (springiness, chewiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and hardness), microstructure, odor (electronic nose), taste (electronic tongue), volatile flavor substance, and taste ingredients. The results suggested that ginger essential oil (GEO) gelatin coating and gelatin coating can effectively inhibit the loss of water dispersion and slow down the oxidation reaction, coating treatments could significantly (p < 0.05) retarded the weight loss of pork slices, with values of 20.19%, 15.95%, 13.12% for uncoated, gelatin coated, and GEO-gelatin coated samples during 24 h of storage, respectively. Compared with control group, the color, texture, smell, and taste evaluations demonstrated that coating treatments had improved sensory and texture attributes during the storage period. Furthermore, the comprehensive results from the physical property assays (especially the texture), morphological assay and volatile odor assays showed that the GEO-fish gelatin composite coating had better preservation effect on pork flavor than the fish gelatin coating. The study suggests that the gelatin composite coating could be developed as a prospective active packaging to preserve pork meat at room temperature.
Improved sensitivity of lateral flow assay using paper-based sample concentration technique

Tang R, Yang H, Choi JR, Gong Y, Hu J, Feng S, et al.

Talanta, 2016 May 15;152:269-76.
PMID: 26992520 DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2016.02.017

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) hold great promise for point-of-care testing, especially in resource-poor settings. However, the poor sensitivity of LFAs limits their widespread applications. To address this, we developed a novel device by integrating dialysis-based concentration method into LFAs. The device successfully achieved 10-fold signal enhancement in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) nucleic acid detection with a detection limit of 0.1nM and 4-fold signal enhancement in myoglobin (MYO) detection with a detection limit of 1.56ng/mL in less than 25min. This simple, low-cost and portable integrated device holds great potential for highly sensitive detection of various target analytes for medical diagnostics, food safety analysis and environmental monitoring.
Lateral Flow Assay Based on Paper-Hydrogel Hybrid Material for Sensitive Point-of-Care Detection of Dengue Virus

Choi JR, Yong KW, Tang R, Gong Y, Wen T, Yang H, et al.

Adv Healthc Mater, 2017 Jan;6(1).
PMID: 27860384 DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201600920

Paper-based devices have been broadly used for the point-of-care detection of dengue viral nucleic acids due to their simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and readily observable colorimetric readout. However, their moderate sensitivity and functionality have limited their applications. Despite the above-mentioned advantages, paper substrates are lacking in their ability to control fluid flow, in contrast to the flow control enabled by polymer substrates (e.g., agarose) with readily tunable pore size and porosity. Herein, taking the benefits from both materials, the authors propose a strategy to create a hybrid substrate by incorporating agarose into the test strip to achieve flow control for optimal biomolecule interactions. As compared to the unmodified test strip, this strategy allows sensitive detection of targets with an approximately tenfold signal improvement. Additionally, the authors showcase the potential of functionality improvement by creating multiple test zones for semi-quantification of targets, suggesting that the number of visible test zones is directly proportional to the target concentration. The authors further demonstrate the potential of their proposed strategy for clinical assessment by applying it to their prototype sample-to-result test strip to sensitively and semi-quantitatively detect dengue viral RNA from the clinical blood samples. This proposed strategy holds significant promise for detecting various targets for diverse future applications.
Polydimethylsiloxane-Paper Hybrid Lateral Flow Assay for Highly Sensitive Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid Testing

Choi JR, Liu Z, Hu J, Tang R, Gong Y, Feng S, et al.

Anal Chem, 2016 06 21;88(12):6254-64.
PMID: 27012657 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b00195

In nucleic acid testing (NAT), gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based lateral flow assays (LFAs) have received significant attention due to their cost-effectiveness, rapidity, and the ability to produce a simple colorimetric readout. However, the poor sensitivity of AuNP-based LFAs limits its widespread applications. Even though various efforts have been made to improve the assay sensitivity, most methods are inappropriate for integration into LFA for sample-to-answer NAT at the point-of-care (POC), usually due to the complicated fabrication processes or incompatible chemicals used. To address this, we propose a novel strategy of integrating a simple fluidic control strategy into LFA. The strategy involves incorporating a piece of paper-based shunt and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) barrier to the strip to achieve optimum fluidic delays for LFA signal enhancement, resulting in 10-fold signal enhancement over unmodified LFA. The phenomena of fluidic delay were also evaluated by mathematical simulation, through which we found the movement of fluid throughout the shunt and the tortuosity effects in the presence of PDMS barrier, which significantly affect the detection sensitivity. To demonstrate the potential of integrating this strategy into a LFA with sample-in-answer-out capability, we further applied this strategy into our prototype sample-to-answer LFA to sensitively detect the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) in clinical blood samples. The proposed strategy offers great potential for highly sensitive detection of various targets for wide application in the near future.
An integrated paper-based sample-to-answer biosensor for nucleic acid testing at the point of care

Choi JR, Hu J, Tang R, Gong Y, Feng S, Ren H, et al.

Lab Chip, 2016 Feb 7;16(3):611-21.
PMID: 26759062 DOI: 10.1039/c5lc01388g

With advances in point-of-care testing (POCT), lateral flow assays (LFAs) have been explored for nucleic acid detection. However, biological samples generally contain complex compositions and low amounts of target nucleic acids, and currently require laborious off-chip nucleic acid extraction and amplification processes (e.g., tube-based extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)) prior to detection. To the best of our knowledge, even though the integration of DNA extraction and amplification into a paper-based biosensor has been reported, a combination of LFA with the aforementioned steps for simple colorimetric readout has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we demonstrate for the first time an integrated paper-based biosensor incorporating nucleic acid extraction, amplification and visual detection or quantification using a smartphone. A handheld battery-powered heating device was specially developed for nucleic acid amplification in POC settings, which is coupled with this simple assay for rapid target detection. The biosensor can successfully detect Escherichia coli (as a model analyte) in spiked drinking water, milk, blood, and spinach with a detection limit of as low as 10-1000 CFU mL(-1), and Streptococcus pneumonia in clinical blood samples, highlighting its potential use in medical diagnostics, food safety analysis and environmental monitoring. As compared to the lengthy conventional assay, which requires more than 5 hours for the entire sample-to-answer process, it takes about 1 hour for our integrated biosensor. The integrated biosensor holds great potential for detection of various target analytes for wide applications in the near future.
Fulltext Trophic transfer of silver nanoparticles shifts metabolism in snails and reduces food safety

Dang F, Li C, Nunes LM, Tang R, Wang J, Dong S, et al.

Environ Int, 2023 Jun;176:107990.
PMID: 37247467 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107990

Food security and sustainable development of agriculture has been a key challenge for decades. To support this, nanotechnology in the agricultural sectors increases productivity and food security, while leaving complex environmental negative impacts including pollution of the human food chains by nanoparticles. Here we model the effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) in a food chain consisting of soil-grown lettuce Lactuca sativa and snail Achatina fulica. Soil-grown lettuce were exposed to sulfurized Ag-NPs via root or metallic Ag-NPs via leaves before fed to snails. We discover an important biomagnification of silver in snails sourced from plant root uptake, with trophic transfer factors of 2.0-5.9 in soft tissues. NPs shifts from original size (55-68 nm) toward much smaller size (17-26 nm) in snails. Trophic transfer of Ag-NPs reprograms the global metabolic profile by down-regulating or up-regulating metabolites for up to 0.25- or 4.20- fold, respectively, relative to the control. These metabolites control osmoregulation, phospholipid, energy, and amino acid metabolism in snails, reflecting molecular pathways of biomagnification and pontential adverse biological effects on lower trophic levels. Consumption of these Ag-NP contaminated snails causes non-carcinogenic effects on human health. Global public health risks decrease by 72% under foliar Ag-NP application in agriculture or through a reduction in the consumption of snails sourced from root application. The latter strategy is at the expense of domestic economic losses in food security of $177.3 and $58.3 million annually for countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon. Foliar Ag-NP application in nano-agriculture has lower hazard quotient risks on public health than root application to ensure global food safety, as brought forward by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition with or without macroscopic on-site evaluation: randomized controlled trial

Chong CCN, Lakhtakia S, Nguyen N, Hara K, Chan WK, Puri R, et al.

Endoscopy, 2020 10;52(10):856-863.
PMID: 32498098 DOI: 10.1055/a-1172-6027

BACKGROUND: The use of macroscopic on-site evaluation (MOSE) to estimate the adequacy of a specimen for histological diagnosis during endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided fine-needle tissue acquisition (FNTA) has recently been advocated. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic yield of MOSE compared with conventional EUS-FNTA without rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE).
METHODS: This was an international, multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled study. After providing informed consent, consecutive adult patients referred for EUS-FNTA for solid lesions larger than 2 cm were randomized to a MOSE arm or to a conventional arm without ROSE. A designated cytopathologist from each center performed all cytopathological examinations for that center and was blinded to the randomization results. The primary outcome measure was the diagnostic yield, and the secondary outcomes included sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, diagnostic accuracy, and the rate of procedure-related complications.
RESULTS: 244 patients (122 conventional, 122 MOSE) were enrolled during the study period. No significant differences between the two arms were found in procedure time or rate of procedure-related adverse events. The diagnostic yield for the MOSE technique (92.6 %) was similar to that for the conventional technique (89.3 %; P = 0.37), with significantly fewer passes made (median: conventional 3, MOSE 2; P

Filters

Please provide feedback to Administrator (afdal@afpm.org.my)

External Links