Annals of Saudi medicine
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Annals of Saudi medicine · May 2012
ReviewUpdate on diabetes diagnosis: a historical review of the dilemma of the diagnostic utility of glycohemoglobin A1c and a proposal for a combined glucose-A1c diagnostic method.
The role of glycohemoglobin A1c (A1c) for the diagnosis of diabetes has been debated for over three decades. Recently, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) has recommended adding A1c as an additional criterion for diabetes diagnosis. ⋯ This proposal is based on the non-overlapping of the advantages and disadvantages of these individual tests. The cost-effectiveness of this method remains to be tested.
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Annals of Saudi medicine · May 2012
Expression of testis-specific genes, TEX101 and ODF4, in chronic myeloid leukemia and evaluation of TEX101 immunogenicity.
Cancer-testis (CT) antigens are a group of antigens with a restricted expression in normal tissues, except testis, and they have aberrant expression in different tumors. This pattern of expression has made them promising targets for immunotherapy and cancer detection. Our aim was to find new members of this group that might be useful as markers in the detection of cancer and immunotherapy. ⋯ TEX101 and ODF4 are CT genes useful for detection of CML. Unlike many CT genes, overexpression of TEX101 was not shown to induce immunologic responses in these samples. According to the previous studies, overexpression of TEX101 leads to suppression of cancer invasion and metastasis; thus, the induction of the expression of TEX101 in cancer by epigenetic mechanisms may be a treatment strategy.
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Annals of Saudi medicine · Mar 2012
Case ReportsIntestinal lymphangiectasia in a patient with infantile systemic hyalinosis syndrome: a rare cause of protein-losing enteropathy.
Infantile systemic hyalinosis (ISH) is a rare autosomal recessive disease. Typically, ISH patients present with progressive painful joint contractures, intractable diarrhea, hyperpigmented skin lesions, and peri-anal fleshy nodules. ⋯ His main clinical finding was protein-losing enteropathy due to intestinal lymphangectasia. This report is intended to enhance awareness about the gastrointestinal tract presentation of ISH.
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Annals of Saudi medicine · Mar 2012
Association of genetic polymorphisms of glutamate decarboxylase 2 and the dopamine D2 receptor with obesity in Taiwanese subjects.
It has been proposed that glutamate decarboxylase 2 and the dopamine D2 receptor are involved in the brain reward cascade to increase carbohydrate craving and cause eating disorders. We investigated the association between the polymorphisms of the GAD2 and DRD2 genes and obesity with a higher body mass index (BMI) in Taiwanese patients. ⋯ The study demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the frequency of the GAD2 (+83987 T/A) and DRD2 (S311C) genes between cases and controls in Taiwanese subjects.
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Annals of Saudi medicine · Jan 2012
2009 H1N1 influenza A in children: a descriptive clinical study.
The 2009 H1N1 was a new influenza virus causing illness in people. Especially those younger than 5 years of age and those who have high-risk medical conditions are at increased risk for influenza-related complications. In the present study, we describe the clinical presentation of the H1N1 cases attending Jeddah Clinic Hospital-Al Kandarah (JCH-K) in the time period from October 2009 to January 2010, and identified the high-risk age groups. ⋯ Even though the majority of cases of the 2009 pandemic influenza A H1N1 were mild, a severe disease does occur in children. In view of delayed PCR results, clinical presentation and lymphopenia were used as diagnostic criteria to start antiviral treatment as early as possible. No deaths were attributed to the 2009 pandemic.