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  1. Haslinda MS, Aiyub Z, Bakar NK, Tohar N, Musa Y, Abdullah NR, et al.
    Trop Biomed, 2015 Mar;32(1):129-39.
    PMID: 25801263
    An antiplasmodial screening of Phyllanthus debilis and Phyllanthus urinaria was carried out. The medicinal plants were extracted and evaluated for in vitro antiplasmodial activity against D10 (chloroquine-sensitive, CQS) and Gombak A (chloroquine-resistant, CQR) strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The methanolic crudes from the soxhlet extraction were active against both strains however, P. urinaria (IC50 8.9 μg/ml with CQR strain) exhibited better anti-malarial activity compared to P. debilis (IC50 12.2 μg/ml with CQR strain). Furthermore, the methanolic crude of P. urinaria obtained by the cold extraction has good anti-malarial activity towards CQS (IC50 4.1 μg/ml). The concentration of macronutrients (calcium and magnesium) and trace metals (copper, manganese, iron and zinc) from three Phyllanthus species i.e. P. debilis Klein ex Wild., Phyllanthus niruri L., P. urinaria L. and Alpinia conchigera Griff. were determined using microwave digestion method and analyzed by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Standard Reference Material 1547 (peach leaves) was used to validate the method throughout this study. The recovery values were in the range of 80% to 120% which were in very good agreement with the certified values. The three Phyllanthus species and leaves of A. conchigera showed the highest concentration of calcium compared to other metals and macronutrients studied. The significant presence of all the important macronutrients and trace metals which are essential for human health and well-being substantiate their use medicinally in traditional practices.
  2. Mohd Salleh H, Ablat A, Chong SL, Hazni H, Tohar N, Fauzi N, et al.
    Naturwissenschaften, 2024 Apr 01;111(2):20.
    PMID: 38558027 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-024-01907-7
    The Zingiber zerumbet rhizomes are traditionally used to treat fever, and the in vitro inhibitory effect of ethyl acetate extract from Zingiber zerumbet rhizomes (EAEZZR) against DENV2 NS2B/NS3 (two non-structural proteins, NS2 and NS3 of dengue virus type 2) has been reported earlier. This study was carried out to establish an acute toxicity profile and evaluate the anti-fever (anti-pyretic) activities of EAEZZR in yeast-induced fever in rats. The major compound of EAEZZR, zerumbone, was isolated using chromatographic methods including column chromatography (CC) and preparative thin-layer chromatography (PTLC). Additionally, the structure of zerumbone was elucidated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), liquid chromatography mass spectrometer-ion trap-time of flight (LCMS-IT-TOF), infrared (IR), and ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy. The toxicity of EAEZZR was evaluated using Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Test Guideline 425 (OECD tg-425) with minor modifications at concentrations EAEZZR of 2000 mg/kg, 3000 mg/kg, and 5000 mg/kg. Anti-fever effect was determined by yeast-induced fever (pyrexia) in rats. The acute toxicity study showed that EAEZZR is safe at the highest 5000 mg/kg body weight dose in Sprague Dawley rats. Rats treated with EAEZZR at doses of 125, 250, and 500 mg/kg exhibited a significant reduction in rectal temperature (TR) in the first 1 h. EAEZZR at the lower dose of 125 mg/kg showed substantial potency against yeast-induced fever for up to 2 h compared to 0 h in controls. A significant reduction of TR was observed in rats treated with standard drug aspirin in the third through fourth hours. Based on the present findings, ethyl acetate extract of Zingiber zerumbet rhizomes could be considered safe up to the dose of 5000 mg/kg, and the identification of active ingredients of Zingiber zerumbet rhizomes may allow their use in the treatment of fever with dengue virus infection.
  3. Ong PS, Tan LK, Mat H, Tohar N, Fathi AM, Kosenin NMA, et al.
    Mediterr J Rheumatol, 2024 Jun;35(2):234-240.
    PMID: 39211017 DOI: 10.31138/mjr.050723.fla
    OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to establish the incidence of liver abnormalities in psoriatic arthritis patients and identify the factors that contributed to this condition.

    METHODS: This is a longitudinal cohort study. Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients with liver enzymes abnormalities were identified. Our control group consisted of PsA patient from the same cohort who had no history of liver abnormalities. Factors associated with liver abnormalities were identified using univariate and multivariate analysis.

    RESULTS: A total of 247 of PsA patients were included and out of those, 99 developed liver enzymes abnormalities. The mean age of the patients was 56 years old (±13.5) with 56.1% female and 39.4% Indian descendants. The univariate logistic regression demonstrated that disease duration of PsA (OR=1.06, 95% CI=1.01 - 1.10, p=0.012), diabetes mellitus (OR=2.16, 95% CI=1.26 - 3.70, 0.005) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) (OR=3.90, 95% CI = 1.44 - 10.53, p=0.007) were associated with abnormal liver function in PsA patients. No association was found with both conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or biologics.

    CONCLUSION: Liver enzymes abnormalities in PsA patients were linked to disease duration, diabetes mellitus and NAFLD. For these high-risk populations, vigilant monitoring of liver function tests is vital for early detection and intervention.

  4. Nordin MNB, Jayaraj VJ, Ismail MZH, Omar ED, Seman Z, Yusoff YM, et al.
    Cureus, 2025 Jan;17(1):e77342.
    PMID: 39944445 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.77342
    OBJECTIVE: This study explores machine learning (ML) for automating unstructured textual data translation into structured International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 codes, aiming to identify algorithms that enhance mortality data accuracy and reliability for public health decisions.

    METHODS: This study analyzed death records from January 2017 to June 2022, sourced from Malaysia's Health Informatics Centre, coded into ICD-10. Data anonymization adhered to ethical standards, with 387,650 death registrations included after quality checks. The dataset, limited to three-digit ICD-10 codes, underwent cleaning and an 80:20 training-testing split. Preprocessing involved HTML tag removal and tokenization. ML approaches, including BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), Gzip+KNN (K-Nearest Neighbors), XGBoost (Extreme Gradient Boosting), TensorFlow, SVM (Support Vector Machine), and Naive Bayes, were evaluated for automated ICD-10 coding. Models were fine-tuned and assessed across accuracy, F1-score, precision, recall, specificity, and precision-recall curves using Amazon SageMaker (Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA). Sensitivity analysis addressed unbalanced data scenarios, enhancing model robustness.

    RESULTS: In assessing ICD-10 coding with ML, Gzip+KNN had the longest training time at 10 hours, with BERT leading in memory use. BERT performed best for the F1-score (0.71) and accuracy (0.82), closely followed by Gzip+KNN. TensorFlow excelled in recall, whereas SVM had the highest specificity but lower overall performance. XGBoost was notably less effective across metrics. Precision-recall analysis showed Gzip+KNN's superiority. On an unbalanced dataset, BERT and Gzip+KNN demonstrated consistent accuracy.

    CONCLUSION: Our study highlights that BERT and Gzip+KNN optimize ICD-10 coding, balancing efficiency, resource use, and accuracy. BERT excels in precision with higher memory demands, while Gzip+KNN offers robust accuracy and recall. This suggests significant potential for improving healthcare analytics and decision-making through advanced ML models.

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