Validity of Serum Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 in Diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Case-Control Study from Iraq

Objective: To assess validity of serum matrix metaloprotinase 9 (s.MMP 9) in diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)Patients and methods: This case control study was conducted on 50 RA patients ( 10 males and 40 females) diagnosed by a rheumatologist according to American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1987 revised criteria or ACR- European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) 2010 Criteria and compared with 25 healthy controls (5 male and 20 female) matched in age and sex. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were recorded. S.MMP9 was measured using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) KIT in both groups.Results: No significant difference between patients and controls in age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) (p>0.05). Serum MMP9 was significantly higher in patients with RA than controls (188.4 ± 24.5 ng/ml vs 21.98 ± 7.87ng/ml, p<0.05).The optimum cut-off value of serum MMP9 that can differentiate between patients with RA from controls was 78.522ng/ml using Receiver Operating characteristic curve (ROC) test, with P value >.0001 and AUC was 1.00) with nearly 100% sensitivity and specificity. At cut-off value ≥34.038 we got the highest sensitivity 100% with specificity 96% and Accuracy 98.7%. And At cut-off value ≥125.479 we had got the highest specificity 100% with sensitivity 98% and Accuracy 98.7%.Conclusions: serum MMP9 was significantly higher in patients with RA than healthy controls. Serum MMP9 was a valid measure to differentiate between RA patients and healthy controls. This may be beneficial for early diagnosis of RA and subsequent a new promising treatment. Keywords: Matrix metalloproteinase 9. Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory arthritis, Matrix metalloproteinas

Adapted LZW Protocol for ‎ ECG Data Compression

خوارزمية الـ(LZW) هي واحدة من طرق ضغط البيانات المستخدمة في عدة تطبيقات كضغط بيانات تخطيط القلب الكهربائي( ECG) لتقليل حجمها مما يسهل عملية نقلها عبر الشبكة. بما ان بيانات الـ(ECG) الخاصة بالمرضى تنقل عبر الشبكة طول الوقت لذلك ظهرت الحاجة الى تقليل حجمها من اجل ضمان وصولها بالسرعة الممكنة  لقاعدة البيانات. في هذه البحث نحن نهتم بطريقة الـ (LZW) التي هي واحدة من اهم واشهر طرق ضغط البيانات وقد اقترحنا بروتوكول لتحسين الطريقة التي تعتمدها خوارزمية الـ(LZW) في خزن المؤشرات الخاصة بالبيانات المضغوطة. البروتوكول المقترح يمكن ان يقلل حجم المؤشر لخوارزمية الـ(LZW). تم اعتماد خمس عينات اخذت من بنك المعلومات الخاص بـ(Physionet) لغرض اختبار البروتوكول المقترح. وقد اظهرت نتائج الاختبارت العملية ان البروتوكول المقترح يعطي نسبة ضغط افضل لبيانات الـ(ECG) مقارنة بطريقة الـ(LZW) الاصلية.Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) is a data compression method, which is adopted by many applications likes Electrocardiography (ECG) data to reduce the size of transferred data. Because of the ECG data moves over the network all the time, which means there is a need to reduce its size to improve the network performance. In this paper, we concerned with the LZW method, which is one of the important and famous data compression method. We propose a protocol to improve the way in which the LZW saving an index for the compressed data. The proposed protocol could reduce the size of the index in LZW method. Five samples data groups provided by Physionet are used for evaluation. The experimental result shows that the proposed protocol can give best compression ratio compared with the original method

A comparison of nutritional intake and daily physical activity of girls aged 8-11 years old in Makkah, Saudi Arabia according to weight status

Abstract Background Obesity rates in Saudi Arabia are amongst the highest in the world. It is known that teenage girls are less active than teenage boys, but less is known about the diet and activity patterns in younger girls. Therefore this study sought to investigate dietary intake and daily physical activity in girls aged 8-11 years old in Saudi Arabia. Methods This was a cross- sectional observational study conducted in seven schools across the city of Makkah. A total of 266 girls had anthropometric measurements taken including height, weight, waist circumference and body fat estimations. Dietary assessment using a 4 day unweighed diet diary was undertaken in 136 of these participants, and 134 agreed to monitor their physical activity for the 4 days using an accelerometer. After exclusion for under-reporting, 109 remained in the dietary analysis and 78 in the physical activity analyses. Differences in means between BMI groups were determined using one-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey test. Multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to look at the effect of multiple variables on body weight. Results A total of 30% of participants were classified obese or overweight. There was a significant difference in the mean daily energy intake between the BMI groups with the obese group having the highest energy, fat, carbohydrate and protein intake (obese group: 2677 ± 804 kcal/d; healthy weight group: 1806 ± 403 kcal/d, p < 0.001), but the percentage contribution of the macronutrients to energy intake remained the same across the BMI groups. There were no differences in number of steps taken per day or time spent in moderate to vigorous intensity exercise according to BMI category. Most of the girls did not meet daily physical activity guidelines (5969 to 6773 steps per day and 18.5 - 22.5 mins per day of moderate to vigorous activity). Multiple linear regression showed that energy intake positively predicted body weight (Beta = 0.279, p =0 .001), whereas, total energy expenditure per kg of body weight and family income had a significant negative influence on body weight (Beta = −0.661, p < 0.001; −0.131, p = 0.028 respectively). Conclusions The results of this cross sectional analysis suggest that obesity in girls aged 8-11 years is linked to excessive energy intake from all macronutrients and the majority of girls in all weight categories are inactive. Research should be conducted to further investigate causal relationships in longitudinal studies and develop interventions to promote dietary change and activity that is culturally acceptable for girls in Saudi Arabia

Integration of Evidence Based Medicine into a Medical Curriculum

The College of Medicine at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) was established in January 2004. The four-year curriculum was based on the Problem Based Learning (PBL) format and involved the web-based graduate medical program adopted from the University of Sydney, Australia. At KSAU-HS, one additional semester was added to the beginning of this curriculum to prepare the students in English language skills, PBL, Information Technology and Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). EBM is part of the Personal and Professional Development (PPD) theme of the medical curriculum and is integrated into each stage of the medical curriculum. These modifications of the University of Sydney curriculum are presented here as a model of EBM integration into a college of medicine curriculum

Microfluidics-based super-resolution microscopy enables nanoscopic characterization of blood stem cell rolling.

Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) homing occurs via cell adhesion mediated by spatiotemporally organized ligand-receptor interactions. Although molecules and biological processes involved in this multistep cellular interaction with endothelium have been studied extensively, molecular mechanisms of this process, in particular the nanoscale spatiotemporal behavior of ligand-receptor interactions and their role in the cellular interaction, remain elusive. We introduce a microfluidics-based super-resolution fluorescence imaging platform and apply the method to investigate the initial essential step in the homing, tethering, and rolling of HSPCs under external shear stress that is mediated by selectins, expressed on endothelium, with selectin ligands (that is, CD44) expressed on HSPCs. Our new method reveals transient nanoscale reorganization of CD44 clusters during cell rolling on E-selectin. We demonstrate that this mechanical force-induced reorganization is accompanied by a large structural reorganization of actin cytoskeleton. The CD44 clusters were partly disrupted by disrupting lipid rafts. The spatial reorganization of CD44 and actin cytoskeleton was not observed for the lipid raft-disrupted cells, demonstrating the essential role of the spatial clustering of CD44 on its reorganization during cell rolling. The lipid raft disruption causes faster and unstable cell rolling on E-selectin compared with the intact cells. Together, our results demonstrate that the spatial reorganization of CD44 and actin cytoskeleton is the result of concerted effect of E-selectin-ligand interactions, external shear stress, and spatial clustering of the selectin ligands, and has significant effect on the tethering/rolling step in HSPC homing. Our new experimental platform provides a foundation for characterizing complicated HSPC homing

Systematic development of an autonomous robotic car for fire-fighting based on the interactive design approach

Fire incidences are classed as catastrophic events, which mean that persons may experience mental distress and trauma. The development of a robotic vehicle specifically designed for fire extinguishing purposes has significant implications, as it not only addresses the issue of fire but also aims to safeguard human lives and minimize the extent of damage caused by indoor fire occurrences. The primary goal of the AFRC is to undergo a metamorphosis, allowing it to operate autonomously as a specialized support vehicle designed exclusively for the task of identifying and extinguishing fires. Researchers have undertaken the tasks of constructing an autonomous vehicle with robotic capabilities, devising a universal algorithm to be employed in the robotic firefighting process, and designing a fuzzy controller algorithm that can be used in all expected scenarios. The use of a fuzzy logic algorithm in this design demonstrates the usefulness of this system, all factors are involved in which cases are previously identified and taught, as well as the overall map of the premises have been uploaded so that the system can identify the exact place of the fire source, and two types of fire have also been examined. When the performance of the foam pump, water pump, and robotic car motors is compared to the data from the flam sensor, temperature sensor and GPS data, it demonstrates a high responsiveness in terms of applying the appropriate approach based on the type of fire due to the probable action for which the system has been trained. This will have the benefit of shortening the required process for fire extinguishment and using the appropriate fire extinguishing tools. This technology may be used to put out flames, deploy in different areas, and handle a variety of fire scenarios inside building

Longitudinal investigation of training status and cardiopulmonary responses in pre- and early-pubertal children

PurposeThe presence of a maturational threshold that modulates children’s physiological responses to exercise training continues to be debated, not least due to a lack of longitudinal evidence to address this question. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction between swim-training status and maturity in nineteen trained (T, 10 ± 1 years, −2.4 ± 1.9 years pre-peak height velocity, 8 boys) and fifteen untrained (UT, 10 ± 1 years, −2.3 ± 0.9 years pre-peak height velocity, 5 boys) children, at three annual measurements.MethodsIn addition to pulmonary gas exchange measurements, stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output ( Q˙) were estimated by thoracic bioelectrical impedance during incremental ramp exercise.ResultsAt baseline and both subsequent measurement points, trained children had significantly (P &#60; 0.05) higher peak oxygen uptake (year 1 T 1.75 ± 0.34 vs. UT 1.49 ± 0.22; year 2 T 2.01 ± 0.31 vs. UT 1.65 ± 0.08; year 3 T 2.07 ± 0.30 vs. UT 1.77 ± 0.16 l min−1) and Q˙ (year 1 T 15.0 ± 2.9 vs. UT 13.2 ± 2.2; year 2 T 16.1 ± 2.8 vs. UT 13.8 ± 2.9; year 3 T 19.3 ± 4.4 vs. UT 16.0 ± 2.7 l min−1). Furthermore, the SV response pattern differed significantly with training status, demonstrating the conventional plateau in UT but a progressive increase in T. Multilevel modelling revealed that none of the measured pulmonary or cardiovascular parameters interacted with maturational status, and the magnitude of the difference between T and UT was similar, irrespective of maturational status.ConclusionThe results of this novel longitudinal study challenge the notion that differences in training status in young people are only evident once a maturational threshold has been exceeded

Lessons learned from COVID-19 Lockdown: An ASPED/MENA Study on Lifestyle Changes and Quality of Life during Ramadan Fasting in Children and Adolescents living with Type 1 Diabetes

Background: Lockdown was a unique experience that affected many aspects of life, particularly during the challenge of Ramadan fasting (RF). Studying this can increase understanding of the effects of lifestyle changes on quality of life (QoL) for children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) during RF. Methods: A cross-sectional study that assessed the effect of lockdown on lifestyle and QoL on fasting children living with T1D during Ramadan in the Middle East and North Africa region (2020-2021). We compared the child (self) and parent (proxy) reports using PEDQoL v3.0 disease specific questionnaire during lockdown and non-lockdown periods, and assessed correlations with lifestyle changes using regression and gap analyses. Results: A total of 998 reports from 499 children with T1D aged 8-18 years (study=276, control=223), and their parents during RF in lockdown and non-lockdown periods. Fathers were more involved in their children’s care during lockdown (p=0.019). Patients had better compliance with treatment (p= 0.002), a reversed sleep pattern (p= 0.033), increased food intake (p=<0.001) and less exercise (p<0.001). Children and parents perceived better QoL during lockdown (p=<0.001) with no differences between their reports in “Diabetes Symptoms”, “Treatment Adherence” and “Communication” domains. Self and proxy reports were different in all domains during non-lockdown (p-values <0.001- 0.009). In gap analysis, although not statistically significant, the gap was approximated between children’s and parents’ perceptions in all domains during lockdown. Conclusion: COVID-19 lockdown had a positive impact on QoL of children living with T1D during RF, possibly due to lifestyle changes and superior psychosocial family dynamics