Search

Purpose Atherosclerotic stenosis of the extracranial carotid artery accounts for approximately 20% of all strokes. Both carotid artery endarterectomy and carotid artery angioplasty with stenting (CAAS) are recommended for symptomatic patients with 50% or more stenosis or asymptomatic patients with 70% or more stenosis. CAAS is under-reported in Saudi Arabia, as evidenced by a thorough literature search. In this article, we aim to share our experience of CAAS to call for the necessity of conducting more research on stroke and emphasize the local need of utilizing more endovascular treatments like CAAS. Materials and Methods A retrospective single-center observational study was conducted at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The inclusion criteria consisted of all adult patients (18 years and above) with carotid stenosis who were treated with CAAS. Results A total of 16 patients were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 66.9±13.5 years (range 30–87 years). All patients were symptomatic (had a previous stroke or transient ischemic attack). The procedure was successful in 14 patients (87.5%), while it failed in 2 patients (12.5%) due to technical reasons. All patients had no stroke or myocardial infarction within 30 days of the procedure. Conclusion Despite the advancement in medicine with free healthcare services in Saudi Arabia, the interventional procedures for secondary prevention of strokes are underutilized. Collaboration between different hospitals will be extremely helpful since few centers in each city are providing such treatments by an expert neurointerventionist and/or strokologist. The good selection of candidates, optimal management of comorbid conditions, and multidisciplinary care may improve outcomes and reduce mortality.

Objectives: Faculty members are the most important resource in any institution of higher education as medical education has been, and continues to be, a priority for medical colleges in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to assess faculty members’ perceptions of faculty development programmes (FDPs) in supporting important goals in medical education. In addition, this study aimed to assess faculty members’ perceived needs. Methods: This crosssectional study was conducted between August 2016 and August 2017 and involved participants from six universities in Saudi Arabia’s Western Province. The survey consisted of 31 items designed to assess FDP effectiveness and 49 items designed to assess needs in FDPs. Results: A total of 210 faculty members participated in the study (response rate = 52.5%) and identified 49 needs. Faculty members perceived personal improvement in delivering medical education and the provision of greater educational involvement as the most effective considerations in an FDP. The respondents considered 13 needs to be of utmost importance; the remaining were considered important. Conclusion: This study assessed and identified faculty needs and important skills to consider when establishing an FDP. Furthermore, it provided information addressing the needs of, or gaps between, current and desired conditions in medical education in Saudi Arabia. The study also identified the most important elements (i.e. personal improvement) of faculty-perceived effectiveness for a successful FDP in medical education. Keywords: Faculty; Program Development; Needs Assessment; Perception; Medical Education; Saudi Arabia.

الملخص: أهداف البحث: تتغير المعرفة الطبية باستمرار مما يشكل ضغطا على المعلمين لتكييف استراتيجيات تعليمية مناسبة لأسلوب تعلم طلابهم. لذلك، قد يساعد تحديد أسلوب تعلم طلاب الطب المعلمين في تطوير استراتيجيات التدريس لتحقيق مخرجات أفضل. كان الغرض من هذه الدراسة هو تحديد أسلوب تعلم طلاب جامعة علوم صحية، وتقييم العلاقة بين أسلوب التعلم والرضا عن الأنشطة التعليمية. طرق البحث: أُجْريت هذه الدراسة الوصفية المستعرضة في كليات الطب والعلوم الطبية التطبيقية، بجامعة الملك سعود بن عبد العزيز للعلوم الصحية بجدة. استخدمنا أسلوب ديفد كولب للتعلم والدراسة الاستقصائية المعدلة عن رضا الطلاب من كلية موط للمجتمع في ميشيجن. تم توزيع استبانة ذاتية التعبئة لجميع المشاركين واستخدام أسلوب التعلم والبيانات الديموغرافية كمتغيرات تنبئية. واعتبار مستوى رضا الطلاب المتغير الناتج. النتائج: شارك ٣٥٩ طالبا (متوسط العمر ١٩.٠ +/- ١.٤ عاما، ٥٣.٥٪ ذكور). كان أسلوب التعلم الأكثر شعبية الأسلوب التوافقي (٢٩.٢٪)، يليه الأسلوب الاستيعابي (٢٧.٩٪) والأسلوب التشعبي (٢٥.٦٪)، في حين أن الأسلوب التقاربي (١٧.٣٪) كان أسلوب التعلم الأقل تفضيلا. أظهرت درجات رضا الطلاب أنهم راضون بشكل عام، بدرجة متوسطة قيمتها ٦٤.٤٪. وُجد أن الذكور لديهم رضا أعلى في جميع المتغيرات مقارنة بالإناث. الاستنتاجات: لم تستطع هذه الدراسة العثور على أسلوب تعلم غالب أو اختلاف رضا عبر أساليب التعلم بين طلاب العلوم الصحية. وبالتالي، فإن البرامج التعليمية الحالية بجامعة الملك سعود بن عبد العزيز للعلوم الصحية تلبي أساليب تعلم الطلاب ورضاهم. يحتاج المعلمون إلى توسيع استراتيجياتهم لتشمل تعليمات لبناء بيئة تعليمية فعالة. Abstract: Objectives: Medical knowledge is constantly changing; this puts pressure on educators to adapt instructional strategies to their students' learning styles (LSs). Therefore, identifying the LSs of medical students could help teachers to develop teaching strategies to achieve better outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine the LSs of health science university students, and to assess the relationship between LSs and student satisfaction with educational activities. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the Colleges of Medicine and Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) Jeddah. We used Kolb's LS and a modified Student Satisfaction Survey from Mott Community College, Michigan. All participants received self-administered questionnaires; LS and demographic data were used as predictor variables. Students' satisfaction levels were considered the outcome variable. Results: A total of 359 students were recruited (mean age 19.0 ± 1.4 years; 53.5% males). The most popular LS was Accommodator (29.2%), followed by Assimilator (27.9%) and Diverger (25.6%), while the Converger style (17.3%) was the least preferred LS. The satisfaction scores of the students showed that they were generally satisfied with a mean score of 64.4%. Males were found to have higher satisfaction across all variables than females (p = 0.002). Conclusions: This study could not find a predominant LS or satisfaction difference across LSs among health science students. Thus, the current educational programmes in KSAU-HS meet students' LSs and satisfaction. Educators need to broaden their strategies for instruction, so as to build an effective learning environment. الكلمات المفتاحية: أساليب تعلم, رضا الطلاب, طلاب الطب, توافقي, استيعابي, Keywords: Accommodator, Assimilator, Learning styles, Medical students, Student satisfaction

Introduction: E-learning is the use of the internet and associated devices for educational purposes without geographical constraints. This study aims to assess the perception of students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, about E-learning as a teaching modality. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2017 and June 2018. The inclusion criteria consisted of healthcare students (medicine, nursing, and college of sciences and health professions). A 40-item closed-ended questionnaire was distributed to the participants and was divided into six main parts: perception, diversity, implications, efficiency, acceptability, and accessibility of E-learning. Results: The response rate was 94.4% (total = 410, retrieved = 387), of which 61.8% (n = 239) stated that they had heard something about E-learning. Meanwhile, 52.2% (n = 202) of students had no idea about virtual patients. Notably, 73.1% (n = 283) agreed that cell phones can be used as a teaching modality, whereas 52.2% (n = 202) opined that cell phones can play a role in stimulating critical thinking among medical students. Sixty percent (n = 232) of students believed that E-learning has the potential to expand educational opportunities. Compared to male students, female students had a higher perception of cheating and fraud (p = 0.039) during E-learning as well as perception of a decline in personal efforts in quest of knowledge (p = 0.032). Conclusion: There is a growing positive perception of E-learning, but the level of acceptance remains low. Further research is required on how to enhance and maximize the confident utilization of ever-increasing opportunities in E-learning. Establishing well-developed E-learning facilities in Saudi educational institutions will tremendously enhance educational opportunities for its students.

Arms influence in myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging has been studied for the last two decades. These studies suggested that arms positioning next to the patient would not show cardiac abnormalities or perfusion defects in SPECT imaging while it would not affect the scan during positron emission tomography (PET) scans. As a recent improvement in Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE), -a Monte Carlo simulation toolkit- a new feature was added to enable the use of STereoLithography (STL). STL files are implanted as an input geometry for most human organs, which would give superior advantages in details compared to analytical geometry shapes. This study is adopting this recent improvement in GATE to study arms effect in SPECT imaging with the consideration of four scenarios; normal heart perfusion imaging with and without arms positioned next to the patient and two of the same scenarios with a perfusion myocardial defected. The results showed that perfusion defect could be observed with arms next to the patient. For image reconstruction, both filtered backprojection (FBP) and iterative technique – maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) were used. The MLEM was performed to analyse the four different patient scenarios. The difference in counts between arms-up and arms-down position for the abnormal case was shown to be less than 6%. The conclusion from this paper is that arm influence during abnormal heart SPECT imaging can be measured and has a minimal contribution to the reconstructed images. Keywords: GATE, Reconstruction, SPECT, Arms, Heart, Myocardial, Perfusion, STL

Summary: Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) is a rare disease, but it is the most common form of sporadic encephalitis. HSE is transmitted through direct contact and developing nosocomial HSE is rarely reported in the literature. Nosocomial HSE is difficult to diagnose due to its non-specific clinical features. In this article, we present a case of nosocomial HSE that was responsible for grave consequence. We also explore its causes, outcome, and give recommendations to avoid such fatal occurrence. We stress on strict adherence to the standard precautions and preventive control measures. Keywords: Encephalitis, Herpes simplex virus, Nosocomial infection, Hospital-acquired infection

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was first discovered in September 2012 in Saudi Arabia. Since then, it caused more than 1600 laboratory-confirmed cases and more than 580 deaths among them. The clinical course of the disease ranges from asymptomatic infection to severe lower respiratory tract illness with multiorgan involvement and death. The disease can cause pulmonary, renal, hematological, and gastrointestinal complications. In this paper, we report neurological complications of MERS-CoV in two adult patients, and we hypothesize the pathophysiology. The first patient had an intracerebral hemorrhage as a result of thrombocytopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and platelet dysfunction. The second case was a case of critical illness polyneuropathy complicating a long ICU stay. In these cases, the neurological complications were secondary to systemic complications and long ICU stay. Autopsy studies are needed to further understand the pathological mechanism.