Annals of Saudi medicine
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Annals of Saudi medicine · May 2013
Observational StudyThe burden of Rotavirus gastroenteritis among hospitalized pediatric patients in a tertiary referral hospital in Jeddah.
To evaluate the burden of Rotavirus gastroenteritis (GE) among pediatric hospital admissions. ⋯ Rotavirus infection is the most important causative organism of GE in our community that accounted for 42.9% of children hospitalized for GE in our study, either alone or with other infections. Among our patients, vaccination against Rotavirus appeared to be protective against Rotavirus GE. In view of the high disease prevalence among children, locally and worldwide, we recommend routine Rotavirus vaccination as the most effective available means of control despite improvement in sanitation and hygiene.
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Taste or gustation is one of the 5 traditional senses including hearing, sight, touch, and smell. The sense of taste has classically been limited to the 5 basic taste qualities: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami or savory. Advances from the Human Genome Project and others have allowed the identification and determination of many of the genes and molecular mechanisms involved in taste biology. ⋯ Although less clear in humans, transient receptor potential ion channels are thought to mediate salty and sour taste; however, other targets have been identified. Furthermore, taste receptors have been located throughout the body and appear to be involved in many regulatory processes. An emerging interplay is revealed between chemical sensing in the periphery, cortical processing, performance, and physiology and likely the pathophysiology of diseases such as diabetes.
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Annals of Saudi medicine · May 2013
Case ReportsHeterosexual precocity: rare manifestation of virilizing adrenocortical oncocytoma.
Adrenocortical oncocytomas are extremely rare, and most of the tumors are benign and nonfunctioning. To our knowledge, only 30 cases have been reported in English published studies, and most patients are 40 to 60 years of age. ⋯ We report a case of functioning adrenocortical oncocytoma in a 3 1/2-year-old female child who presented with premature pubarche, clitoromegaly, and increased serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and testosterone. She was managed successfully with right adrenalectomy, and the tumor histology was consistent with adrenal oncocytoma.