Our objective was to study the profile of cerebrovascular accidents and proportion of cerebral haemorrhage (CH) among stroke patients. This project was designed after we observed higher incidence of CH in Miri hospital as compared to conventionally reported data.
METHODS: This was a prospective observational study conducted from 1st June 2008 to 31st May 2009. All patients admitted in both male and female wards of the Medical Unit with the first incidence of a stroke were recruited for analysis. CT scan brain was done in all patients.
RESULTS: Total admissions in one year in the medical department were 3204 patients, both male and female together, out of which 215 were due to a first incidence of stroke; Stroke accounted for 6.7% of admissions and 16.8% of deaths in medical unit. 139 (64.7%) were ischaemic strokes and 76 (35.3%) were cerebral haemorrhages. The incidence of CH (35.3%) was high compared to regional data. 71.7% (154) patients had preexisting hypertension. Higher incidence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and aspirin intake was noted in the ischaemic group. Also compliance to treatment for hypertension was better in the Ischaemic group with more defaults in CH category (P<0.01). Significantly more deaths were noted in patients with higher systolic blood pressure on presentation, poor Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and those with dysphagia.
CONCLUSION: Every third stroke was due to cerebral hemorrhage; CH patients were largely unaware of their hypertension or were altogether treatment naïve or defaulters while compliance was far better in ischaemic stroke category.
Colorectal cancer is one of the commonest cancers in the world and it is also a common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Despite advanced treatment strategies, the disease is rarely cured completely due to recurrence. Evidence shows that this is due to a small population of cells, called cancer stem cells (CSCs), in the tumour mass that have the self-renewal and differentiation potential to give rise to a new tumour population. Many pre-clinical and clinical studies have used curcumin and its analogues as anti-cancer agents in various types of cancer, including colorectal cancer. Intriguingly, curcumin and its analogues have also recently been shown to be effective in lowering tumour recurrence by targeting the CSC population, hence inhibiting tumour growth. In this review, we highlight the efficacy of curcumin and its analogues in targeting colorectal CSC and also the underlying molecular mechanism involved. Curcumin, in the presence or absence of other anti-cancer agents, has been shown to reduce the size of tumour mass and growth in both in vivo and in vitro studies by affecting many intracellular events that are associated with cancer progression and CSC formation. An insight into the molecular mechanism has unraveled the mode of action via which curcumin could affect the key regulators in CSC, importantly; (1) the signaling pathways, including Wnt/β-catenin, Sonic Hedgehog, Notch and PI3K/Akt/mTOR, (2) microRNA and (3) the epithelial-mesenchymal transition at multiple levels. Therefore, curcumin could play a role as chemosensitiser whereby the colorectal CSCs are now sensitised towards the anti-cancer therapy, therefore, combination therapy using anti-cancer agent with curcumin could be much more effective than treatment using a single cancer agent. This potential treatment modality can be further developed by employing an effective delivery system using a nanotechnology based approach to treat colorectal cancer.