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Abstract Background The use of radiologic imaging methods in postmortem practice has been advent since the discovery of X-rays. However, with advancement in technology and the emergence of multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT), computed tomography angiography (CTA) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in clinical radiology, several centers around the world have begun using these methods as an adjunct to conventional autopsy. The aim of this study is to introduce a modified protocol for whole-body postmortem computed tomography angiography (PMCTA) based on body weight and neck approach as an alternative to the different PMCTA approaches currently available as most previous studies concentrated on the use of femoral approach for whole-body PMCTA with neck approach for selective or targeted PMCTA. Methods This was a prospective, double-blinded, cross-sectional study performed on 60 subjects with a mean age of 45.6 years and weight ranging between 43 and 112 kg utilizing ionized water-soluble contrast medium mixed with polyethylene glycol (polyethylene glycol 200). Results PMCTA using neck dissection showed promising results with good image quality and diagnostic capabilities assisting the forensic pathologists in determining the final cause of death with a strong correlation between both radiologists and pathologists in 86.7% of cases. Conclusions This study showed that the modified infusion protocol based on body weight using the neck approach provided a good depiction of the vascular system down to the level of the small supplying vessels similar to the other different approaches for PMCTA.

This study investigated the influence of multiliteracy in opaque orthographies on phonological awareness. Using a visual rhyme judgement task in English, we assessed phonological processing in three multilingual and multiliterate populations who were distinguished by the transparency of the orthographies they can read in (N = 135; ages 18–40). The first group consisted of 45 multilinguals literate in English and a transparent Latin orthography like Malay; the second group consisted of 45 multilinguals literate in English and transparent orthographies like Malay and Arabic; and the third group consisted of 45 multilinguals literate in English, transparent orthographies, and Mandarin Chinese, an opaque orthography. Results showed that all groups had poorer performance in the two opaque conditions: rhyming pairs with different orthographic endings and non-rhyming pairs with similar orthographic endings, with the latter posing the greatest difficulty. Subjects whose languages consisted of half or more opaque orthographies performed significantly better than subjects who knew more transparent orthographies than opaque orthographies. The findings are consistent with past studies that used the visual rhyme judgement paradigm and suggest that literacy experience acquired over time relating to orthographic transparency may influence performance on phonological awareness tasks.

Background: Ultrasonographic (USG) measurements of the liver length, gallbladder wall thickness (GBWT), diameters of the inferior vena cava (IVC), portal vein (PV), and pancreas are valuable and reliable in diagnosis hepatobiliary and pancreas conditions. This study is aimed to determine the normal values of liver length, GBWT, AP diameters of the IVC and PV, AP diameter of the head and body of the pancreas. Methods: A prospective cross–sectional study was carried out in this study. A total of the 408 participants were randomly recruited using a systematic method. According to the USG reports, the subjects who had normal USG report for liver, biliary system, and pancreas were described as normals, whereas the subjects who had hepatobiliary diseases such as fatty liver, liver cysts, hemangioma, cirrhosis, gallbladder wall thickening, acute cholecystitis, gallstones, and polyps were recorded as abnormal subjects. Results: Of the 408 participants with a mean of 52.6 ± 8.4 years old. Of those, 294 (72.1%) participants were normal and 114 (27.9%) subjects were reported as abnormal. More than half of the study population was males, 52.9% versus 47.1% of females. There was a significant difference of liver length, head, and body of the pancreas between genders (P = 0.004, 0.002, and P < 0.001, respectively). Moreover, the pancreatic body only was significantly correlated with age (P = 0.026). There also was a significant difference of the liver length, head, and body of the pancreas between normal and abnormal subjects (P < 0.001, P = 0.007, and P < 0.001). Conclusion: Liver length, diameter of the head, and body of the pancreas were significantly associated with gender and hepatobiliary diseases. In addition, only the diameter of the body of the pancreas was significantly correlated with age.

Abstract Background Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the diagnostic imaging modalities employing in lesion detection in neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Advances in MRI techniques such as double inversion recovery (DIR) made it more sensitive to distinguish lesions in the brain. To investigate the lesion load on different anatomical regions of the brain with MS using DIR, fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) sequences. A total of 97 MS patients were included in our retrospective study, confirmed by neurologist. The patients were randomly selected from the major hospital in Saudi Arabia. All images were obtained using 3T Scanner (Siemens Skyra). The images from the DIR, FLAIR, and T2WI sequence were compared on axial planes with identical anatomic position and the number of lesions was assigned to their anatomical region. Results Comparing the lesion load measurement at various brain anatomical regions showed a significant difference among those three methods (p < 0.05). Conclusion DIR is a valuable MRI sequence for better delineation, greater contrast measurements and the increasing total number of MS lesions in MRI, compared with FLAIR, and T2WI and DIR revealed more intracortical lesions as well; therefore, in MS patients, it is recommended to add DIR sequence in daily routine imaging sequences.

Pressure Ulcers (PUs) are localized tissue damage that usually occur over the soft tissue of body prominence when a subject is exposed to prolonged external mechanical loading. Several studies have proposed that skin blood flow response (SBFR) can be used in PU evaluation to determine tissue ischemic accumulation due to insufficient time of tissue recovery. In previous study, twenty one Sprague Dawley rats weigh 388-481g that were divided into three different group have been used to investigate the trends of SBFR signal using time domain features like peak reactive hyperaemia (RH), time to peak RH and area under the RH curve as well as frequency domain features like peak power spectral density (PSD) and total PSD. However, the results indicate that both frequency domain features are not effective at determining individual insufficient recovery time. In this study, Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) based features such as average amplitude and relative amplitude based on Morlet wavelet function scale 200 are investigated. The results show that the samples representing inconsistent trend of average amplitude for metabolic frequency range are dominant in all short (3 samples) , moderate (4 samples) and prolonged groups (4 samples), while no clear pattern can be established for relative amplitude. Hence both features may not suitable at distinguishing between sufficient and insufficient recovery time due to the low percentage in number of samples.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a significant key to diagnose and monitor the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) disease. Manual MS-lesion segmentation, expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and patient's meta information can provide a gold standard for research in terms of automated MS-lesion quantification, automated EDSS prediction and identification of the correlation between MS-lesion and patient disability. In this dataset, we provide a novel multi-sequence MRI dataset of 60 MS patients with consensus manual lesion segmentation, EDSS, general patient information and clinical information. On this dataset, three radiologists and neurologist experts segmented and validated the manual MS-lesion segmentation for three MRI sequences T1-weighted, T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR). The dataset can be used to study the relationship between MS-lesion, EDSS and patient clinical information. Furthermore, it also can be used for the development of automated MS-lesion segmentation, patient disability prediction using MRI and correlation analysis between patient disability and MRI brain abnormalities include MS lesion location, size, number and type.

(1) Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of prototype handheld ultrasound compared to automated breast ultrasound, according to the fifth edition of BI-RADS categorization, among females with positive lumps. (2) Methods: A total of 1004 lesions in 162 participants who underwent both prototype handheld ultrasound and automated breast ultrasound were included. Two radiologists and a sonographer independently evaluated the sonographic features of each lesion according to the fifth BI-RADS edition. The kappa coefficient (κ) was calculated for each BI-RADS descriptor and final assessment category. The cross-tabulation was performed to see whether there were differences between the ABUS and prototype HHUS results. Specificity and sensitivity were evaluated and compared using the McNamar test. (3) Results: ABUS and prototype HHUS observers found the same number of breast lesions in the 324 breasts of the 162 respondents. There was no significant difference in the mean lesion size, with a maximum mean length dimension of 0.48 ± 0.33 cm. The assessment of the lesion’s shape, orientation, margin, echo pattern, posterior acoustic features, and calcification was obtained with good to excellent agreements between ABUS and prototype HHUS observers (κ = 0.70–1.0). There was absolutely no significant difference between ABUS and prototype HHUS in assessment of lesion except for lesion orientation p = 0.00. Diagnostic accuracy (99.8% and 97.7–98.9%), sensitivity (99.5% and 98.0–99.0%), specificity (99.8% and 99.6–99.8%), positive predictive value (98.1% and 90.3–96.2%), negative predictive value (90.0% and 84.4–88.7%), and areas under the curve (0.98 and 0.83–0.92; p < 0.05) were not significantly different between ABUS and prototype HHUS observers. (4) Conclusion: According to the fifth BI-RADS edition, automated breast ultrasound is not statistically significantly different from prototype handheld ultrasound with regard to interobserver variability and diagnostic performance.

A mammography provides a grayscale image of the breast. The main challenge of analyzing mammography images is to extract the region boundary of the breast abnormality for further analysis. In computer vision, this method is also known as image segmentation. The variational level set mathematical model has been proven to be effective for image segmentation. Several selective types of variational level set models have recently been formulated to accurately segment a specific object on images. However, these models are incapable of handling complex intensity inhomogeneity images, and the segmentation process tends to be slow. Therefore, this study formulated a new selective type of the variational level set model to segment mammography images that incorporate a machine learning algorithm known as Self-Organizing Map (SOM). In addition to that, the Gaussian function was applied in the model as a regularizer to speed up the processing time. Then, the accuracy of the segmentation’s output was evaluated using the Jaccard, Dice, Accuracy and Error metrics, while the efficiency was assessed by recording the computational time. Experimental results indicated that the new proposed model is able to segment mammography images with the highest segmentation accuracy and fastest computational speed compared to other iterative models.

Coded Aperture (CA) imaging has recently been used in nuclear medicine, but still, there is no commercial SPECT imaging camera based on CA for cancer detection. The literature is rich in examples of using the CA for planar and thin 3D imaging. However, thick 3D reconstruction is still challenging for small lesion detection. This paper presents the results of mosaic modified uniformly redundant array (MURA) mask/antimask CA combined with a maximum-likelihood expectation-maximization (MLEM) algorithm. The MLEM is an iterative algorithm applied to a mosaic MURA CA mask/antimask for 3D anthropomorphic breast phantom reconstruction, slice by slice. The difference between the mask and the antimask suppresses the background noise to enhance the quality of reconstructed images. Furthermore, all reconstructed slices are stacked to form a 3D breast phantom image from single-projection data. The results of phantom reconstruction with 8 mm, 6 mm, 4 mm, and 3 mm lesions are presented. Moreover, the proposed SPECT imaging camera can reconstruct a 3D breast phantom from single-projection data of the patient’s scanning. To assess the quality of lesions in the reconstructed images, the contrast-to-background ratio (CBR), the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and mean square error (MSE) were measured.

Background: We aimed to assess whether “Managing Patients on Chemotherapy” book is effective to improve quality of life (QOL) of cancer patient via counselling by pharmacist. Methods: A randomized control trial study was run among 2120 cancer patients in public hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia, from Apr 2016-Jan 2018. The treatment group received counselling regarding chemotherapy by using developed module. The data were collected at three time-points: baseline, 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups after counseling by Validated Malay version of the WHOQOL-BREF of questionnaire. Data analyses were done using χ2 and two-way repeated measure ANOVA. Results: The treatment group improved significantly as compared to control group in physical health, psychological health, social relationship, environment and overall QOL (P

Abstract Background Cancer is a serious public health problem not only in Malaysia, also worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the determinants of quality of life (QOL) among cancer patients in Peninsular Malaysia. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted among 2120 cancer patients in Peninsular Malaysia, between April 2016 to January 2017. All cancer patients aged 18 years old and above, Malaysian citizens and undergoing cancer treatment at government hospitals were approached to participate in this study and requested to complete a set of validated questionnaires. Inferential statistical tests such as t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to determine the differences between demographic variables, physical effects, clinical factors, psychological effects and self-esteem with the quality of life of cancer patients. Predictor(s) of quality of life were determined by using Multivariate linear regression models. Result A total 1620 out of 2120 cancer patients participated in this study, giving a response rate of 92%. The majority of cancer patients were female 922 (56.9%), Malays 1031 (63.6%), Muslim 1031 (63.6%), received chemotherapy treatment 1483 (91.5%). Overall, 1138 (70.2%) of the patients had depression and 1500 (92.6%) had anxiety. Statistically significant associations were found between QOL and clinical factors, physical side effects of cancer, psychological effects and self-esteem (p

Objective: To compare the diagnostic performance of the automatic breast volume scanner (ABVS) against the handheld ultrasound (HHUS) in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions. Methods: A systematic search and review of studies involving ABVS and HHUS for breast cancer screening were performed. The search involved the data taken from Scopus, PubMed, and science direct databases and was conducted between the year 2011 to 2020. The prospective method was used in determining the inclusion and exclusion criteria while the evidence level was determined using the BI-RADS categories for diagnostic studies. In addition, the parameters of specificity, mean age, sensitivity, tumor number, and diagnostic accuracy of the ABVS and HHUS were summarized. Results: No systematic review or randomized controlled trial were identified in the systematic search while one cross-sectional study, eight retrospective studies, and 10 prospective studies were found. Sufficient follow-up of the subjects with benign and malignant findings were made only in 10 studies, in which only two had used ABVS and HHUS after performing mammographic screening and MRI. Analysis was made of 21 studies, which included 5448 lesions (4074 benign and 1374 malignant) taken from 6009 patients. The range of sensitivity was (0.72–1.0) for ABVS and (0.62–1.0) for HHUS; the specificity range was (0.52–0.98)% for ABVS and (0.49–0.99)% for HHUS. The accuracy range among the 11 studies was (80–99)% and (59–98)% for the HHUS and ABVS, respectively. The identified tumors had a mean size of 2.1 cm, and the detected cancers had a mean percentage of 94% (81–100)% in comparison to the non-cancer in all studies. Conclusions: The evidence available in the literature points to the fact that the diagnostic performance of both ABVS and HHUS are similar with reference to the differentiation of malignant and benign breast lesions.

Abstract The evolution of nanomaterial in science has brought about a growing increase in nanotechnology, biomedicine, and engineering fields. This study was aimed at fabrication and characterization of conjugated gold-cockle shell-derived calcium carbonate nanoparticles (Au-CSCaCO3NPs) for biomedical application. The synthetic technique employed used gold nanoparticle citrate reduction method and a simple precipitation method coupled with mechanical use of a Programmable roller-ball mill. The synthesized conjugated nanomaterial was characterized for its physicochemical properties using transmission electron microscope (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). However, the intricacy of cellular mechanisms can prove challenging for nanomaterial like Au-CSCaCO3NPs and thus, the need for cytotoxicity assessment. The obtained spherical-shaped nanoparticles (light-green purplish) have an average diameter size of 35 ± 16 nm, high carbon and oxygen composition. The conjugated nanomaterial, also possesses a unique spectra for aragonite polymorph and carboxylic bond significantly supporting interactions between conjugated nanoparticles. The negative surface charge and spectra absorbance highlighted their stability. The resultant spherical shaped conjugated Au-CSCaCO3NPs could be a great nanomaterial for biomedical applications.

Abstract Background Cancer is now becoming a leading cause of death. Chemotherapy is an important treatment for cancer patients. These patients also need consultation during their treatment to improve quality of life and decrease psychological disorders. The objectives of the study were to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a chemotherapy counseling module by pharmacists among oncology patients on their quality of life and psychological outcomes in Malaysia. Method A single-blind randomized controlled trial was carried out among 162 oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy from July 2013 to February 2014 in a government hospital with oncology facilities in Malaysia. Participants were randomized to either the intervention group or the control group. Chemotherapy counseling using the module on ‘Managing Patients on Chemotherapy’ by Pharmacists was delivered to the intervention group. The outcome measures were assessed at baseline, first follow-up and second follow-up and third follow-up post-intervention. Chi-square, independent samples t-test and two-way repeated measures ANOVA were conducted in the course of the data analyses. Results In assessing the impact of the chemotherapy counseling module, the study revealed that the module along with repetitive counseling showed significant improvement of quality of life in the intervention group as compared to the control group with a large effect size in physical health (p = 0.001, partial Ƞ2 = 0.66), psychological (p = 0.001, partial Ƞ2 = 0.65), social relationships (p = 0.001, partial Ƞ2 = 0.30), and environment (p = 0.001, partial Ƞ2 = 0.67) and decrease in the anxiety (p = 0.000; partial Ƞ2 = 0.23), depression (p = 0.000; partial Ƞ2 = 0.40). Conclusion The module on ‘Managing Patients on Chemotherapy’ along with repetitive counseling by pharmacists has been shown to be effective in improving quality of life and decreasing anxiety and depression among oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. Trial registration number National Medical Research Register (NMRR) of Malaysia and given a registration number NMRR-12-1057-12,363 on 21 December 2012.

The edible bird nest (EBN) from Aerodramus fuciphagus has been consumed as a Chinese traditional food for health and medicinal purposes due to its elevated nutritional value. The present study focused on the influence of characterization and extraction methods on protein profiling, which could be a guideline for grading the EBN. The proposed extraction method is similar to the common food preparation methods of consumers and thus can accurately establish the bioactive protein available upon human consumption. The characterization includes physicochemical analysis (physical, morphology, elemental composition, and microbial content) and chemical analysis (crude protein and amino acid). The morphology of half-cup EBN was found to be uniformly shaped and rich in calcium as compared to rough surface of stripe-shaped EBN, and there was no significant microbial growth in both types of EBN. The crude protein and amino acid content in half-cup EBN were significantly higher than stripe-shaped EBN. The full stew (FS) and stew (SE) extraction methods produced a maximal yield of soluble protein. Sialic acid content in SE extract (8.47%, w/w) and FS extract (7.91%, w/w) were recorded. About seven parent proteins (39.15 to 181.68 kDa) were identified by LC-MS/MS Q-TOF, namely 78 kDa glucose-regulated protein, lysyl oxidase-3, Mucin-5AC-like, acidic mammalian chitinase-like, 45 kDa calcium-binding protein, nucleobindin-2, and ovoinhibitor-like. In conclusion, the characteristics and extraction methods influence the availability of bioactive protein and peptides, demonstrating the potential usage of EBN in improving its biological activities and nutritional properties.

Edible bird’s nest (EBN) produced by Aerodramus fuciphagus has a high demand for nutritional and medicinal application throughout the world. The present study was to evaluate the authentication of a man-made house EBN, which are half cup and stripe-shaped by FTIR. Next, both samples were compared according to their metabolite, nutritional, and mineral composition. The results indicated that the FTIR spectra of both EBN samples were identical and similar to the reference, suggesting the authenticity of the EBN used. The metabolites that contribute to the possible medicinal properties of EBN were found by using GC-MS. The results of the proximate analysis, followed by the standard AOAC method, inferred that both EBN shapes to be rich in crude protein and carbohydrate contents. However, the proximate composition between the half cup and stripe-shaped EBN showed significant differences. Major mineral elements detected were calcium and sodium, and magnesium contents were significantly different between both EBN. Additionally, the half cup and stripe-shaped EBN had a low level of heavy metal content than the maximum regulatory limit as set by the Malaysian Food Act 1983. This study concludes that the nutritional composition varied between the samples and thus suggests that nutrient content should be considered as criteria for the grading requirement of commercialized EBN.

Breast cancer has been reported to have the highest survival rate among various cancers. However, breast cancer survivors face several challenges following breast cancer treatment including breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL), sexual dysfunction, and psychological distress. This study aimed to investigate the potential risk factors of BCRL in long term breast cancer survivors. A total of 160 female breast cancer subjects were recruited on a voluntary basis and arm lymphedema was assessed through self-reporting of diagnosis, arm circumference measurement, and ultrasound examination. A total of 33/160 or 20.5% of the women developed BCRL with significantly higher scores for upper extremity disability (37.14 ± 18.90 vs. 20.08 ± 15.29, p < 0.001) and a lower score for quality of life (103.91 ± 21.80 vs. 115.49 ± 16.80, p = 0.009) as compared to non-lymphedema cases. Univariate analysis revealed that multiple surgeries (OR = 5.70, 95% CI: 1.21–26.8, p < 0.001), axillary lymph nodes excision (>10) (OR = 2.83, 95% CI: 0.94–8.11, p = 0.047), being overweight (≥25 kg/m2) (OR = 2.57, 95% CI: 1.04 – 6.38, p = 0.036), received fewer post-surgery rehabilitation treatment (OR = 2.37, 95% CI: 1.05–5.39, p = 0.036) and hypertension (OR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.01–5.62, p = 0.043) were associated with an increased risk of BCRL. Meanwhile, multivariate analysis showed that multiple surgeries remained significant and elevated the likelihood of BCRL (OR = 5.83, 95% CI: 1.14–29.78, p = 0.034). Arm swelling was more prominent in the forearm area demonstrated by the highest difference of arm circumference measurement when compared to the upper arm (2.07 ± 2.48 vs. 1.34 ± 1.91 cm, p < 0.001). The total of skinfold thickness of the affected forearm was also significantly higher than the unaffected arms (p < 0.05) as evidenced by the ultrasound examination. The continuous search for risk factors in specific populations may facilitate the development of a standardized method to reduce the occurrence of BCRL and provide better management for breast cancer patients.

We have reported that a bioactive-rich fraction, called EORY, from a combination of supercritical fluid-extracted rice bran oil and palm oil has abundant gamma-oryzanol, tocopherols and tocotrienol. Moreover, EORY has balanced composition of polyunsaturated:saturated fatty acids, with the potential for hypocholesterolaemic and antioxidant effects. However, the bioactive compounds in EORY are lipophilic and therefore pose bioavailability problems. This study evaluated the cardioprotective effects of orally-administered EORY emulsion and its nanoemulsion (NEORY) on diet-induced hypercholesterolaemic rats. NEORY reduced body weight gain, heart weight, lipid parameters and oxidised LDL, and improved HDL better than EORY and simvastatin. NEORY also significantly increased hepatic mRNA expression of HMGCoA reductase, apolipoprotein A1 and LDLR, and lowered apolipoprotein B and LPL. The effects of NEORY on lipid parameters, lipid peroxidation markers and hepatic cholesterol metabolism suggested that it could regulate the risk of cardiovascular disease, possibly due to increased absorption of gamma-oryzanol, tocopherols and tocotrienol.

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a very common liver disease in the world, particularly in Western and developed countries. It is rapidly growing in the Asia- Pacific region. Objectives: This study was designed to determine the association between risk factors and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades among Malaysian adults. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study design was prospectively carried out in this study. Consecutive 628 respondents who attended for a medical checkup at urban health center had been recruited for the study. All respondents had the physical examination, blood tests, clinical assessments, and abdominal ultrasound. A structured self-administered questionnaire has been also used in this study in this survey. Results: From a total of 628 “health screened” subjects, 235 subjects (37.4%) were diagnosed to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Female gender and Chinese race were predominant in our study population. Of those with NAFLD, more than half subjects (63.4) had a moderate grade of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The mean age of the study population was 54.54 ±6.69 years. Differences of the mean body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) were found to be significant among non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades (P< 0.001). Similarly, mean triglycerides (TG) and high-densiy lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels had significant differences among non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades (P< 0.001 and P= 0.016, respectively). Conclusion: the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is common among urban Malaysian adult population. Anthropometric measurements were closely correlated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades. Keywords: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD grades, sonography, urban population. ا

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a potent anticancer agent with cytotoxic effects which limit its clinical usage. This effect is due to its nonselective nature causing injury to the cells as a result of reactive free oxygen radical’s release. Cockleshell-derived calcium carbonate nanoparticle (CS-CaCO3NP) is a pH-responsive carrier with targeted delivery potentials. This study aimed at evaluating the toxicity effects of repeated dose administration of DOX-loaded CS-CaCO3NP in healthy dogs. Fifteen dogs with an average body weight of 15 kg were randomized equally into 5 groups. Dogs were subjected to 5 doses at every 3-week interval with (i) normal saline, (ii) DOX, 30 mg/m2, and the experimental groups: CS-CaCO3NP-DOX at (iii) high dose, 50 mg/m2, (iv) clinical dose, 30 mg/m2, and (v) low dose, 20 mg/m2. Radiographs, electrocardiography, and blood samples were collected before every treatment for haematology, serum biochemistry, and cardiac injury assessment. Heart and kidney tissues were harvested after euthanasia for histological and ultrastructural evaluation. The cumulative dose of DOX 150 mg/m2 over 15 weeks revealed significant effects on body weight, blood cells, functional enzymes, and cardiac injury biomarkers with alterations in electrocardiogram, myocardium, and renal tissue morphology. However, the dogs given CS-CaCO3NP-DOX 150 mg/m2 and below did not show any significant change in toxicity biomarker as compared to those given normal saline. The study confirmed the safety of repeated dose administration of CS-CaCO3NP-DOX (30 mg/m2) for 5 cycles in dogs. This finding offers opportunity to dogs with cancer that might require long-term administration of DOX without adverse effects.

Purpose: This study was conducted in menopausal women to determine the metabolic impact of Nigella sativa. Methods: Thirty subjects who were menopausal women within the age limit of 45-60 were participated in this study and randomly allotted into two experimental groups. The treatment group was orally administered with N. sativa seeds powder in the form of capsules at a dose of 1g per day after breakfast for period of two months and compared to control group given placebo. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were measured at baseline, 1st month, 2nd month and a month after treatment completed to determine their body weight, serum lipid profile and fasting blood glucose (FBG). Results: The treatment group showed slight reduction with no significant difference in body weight changes of the respondents. However, significant (p

Toxicological studies constitute an essential part of the effort in developing an herbal medicine into a drug product. A newly developed thymoquinone-rich fraction nanoemulsion (TQRFNE) has been prepared using a high pressure homogenizer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential acute toxicity of this nanoemulsion in Sprague Dawley rats. The acute toxicity studies were conducted as per the OECD guidelines 425, allowing for the use of test dose limit of 20 mL TQRFNE (containing 44.5 mg TQ)/kg. TQRFNE and distilled water (DW) as a control were administered orally to both sexes of rats on Day 0 and observed for 14 days. All the animals appeared normal, and healthy throughout the study. There was no observed mortality or any signs of toxicity during the experimental period. The effects of the TQRFNE and DW groups on general behavior, body weight, food and water consumption, relative organ weight, hematology, histopathology, and clinical biochemistry were measured. All the parameters measured were unaffected as compared to the control (DW) group. The administration of 20 mL TQRFNE /kg was not toxic after an acute exposure.

Introduction: Post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) provides information that helps in the determination of the cause of death and corpse identification of disaster victims. One of the methods for corpse identification includes assessment of the body stature. There is a lack of post-mortem imaging studies that focus on the anthropometric assessment of corpses. Our aim was to identify the relationship between cadaveric spine length and autopsy length (AL) among and autopsy length (AL) among a Malaysian population and derive a regression formula for the estimation of corpse body height using PMCT. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively assessed 107 cadavers that had undergone conventional autopsy and PMCT. We made 5 measurements from the PMCT that included cervical length (CL), thoracic length (TL), lumbosacral length (LS), total column length of the spine, excluding the sacrum and coccyx (TCL), and ellipse line measurement of the whole spine, excluding the sacrum and coccyx (EL). We compared these anthropometric PMCT measurements with AL and correlated them using linear regression analysis. Results: The results showed a significant linear relationship existed between TL and LS with AL, which was higher in comparison with the other parameters than the rest of the spine parameters. The linear regression formula derived was: 48.163 + 2.458 (TL) + 2.246 (LS). Conclusions: The linear regression formula derived from PMCT spine length parameters particularly thoracic and lumbar spine gave a finer correlation with autopsy body length and can be used for accurate estimation of cadaveric height. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ever linear regression formula for cadaveric height assessment using only post mortem CT spine length measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Monte Carlo N-Particle code, version 5 (MCNP5) is a general-purpose Monte Carlo code and it can be used for the design of imaging systems. In this paper, a realistic single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) model was developed referred to the SIEMENS Symbia T imaging system. Methods: The most important components of the SPECT camera were modeled, especially a low-energy high-resolution collimator with hexagonal-hole was simulated as closely as possible to its shape and dimensions. The photoelectric effect, Compton and coherent scattering were included in the gamma transport process. In order to validate the SPECT model, specifications in terms of intrinsic spatial resolution, energy resolution, sensitivity, system spatial resolution, and tomography spatial resolution were calculated in comparison with experimental data. Results: Overall results showed good agreements between the simulations and experimental results provided by SIEMENS. The simulated intrinsic resolution and energy resolution matched well with experimental data. The sensitivity measurements from simulation data yielded higher values. For the system spatial resolution, it differed about 3% compared with the experimental result. The tomographic results showed differences of 5.9%, 5.6%, 0.3%, 10.7%, and 0.2% for the five average resolutions, respectively. Conclusion: In summary, the results demonstrated the flexibility and accuracy of MCNP5 to simulate the basic features of SIEMENS Symbia T SPECT Camera and exemplified its potential benefits in protocol optimization and in system design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cockle shell-derived calcium carbonate nanoparticle (CS-CaCO3NP) is a biodegradable carrier with sustained release potential in drug delivery. Doxorubicin is a known potent anticancer associated with off-target effects on healthy cells causing myelosuppression and cardiac dysfunctions. Although many organic nanomaterials are employed for the delivery of doxorubicin. Thus, this study was aimed at evaluating the hematopoietic effects and monitoring of the serum cardiac biomarker upon administration CS-CaCO3NP-DOX in healthy dogs. Methods: A total of 15 healthy dogs with an average body weight of 15-25 kg were randomized into 5 groups (n=3). Dogs were subjected to slow intravenous infusion up to 5 doses every 3 weeks interval with (i) normal saline (control), (ii) doxorubicin 30 mg/m2, (iii) CS-CaCO3NP-DOX (experimental groups) of different concentration (50 mg/m2, 30 mg/m2, & 20 mg/m2). Blood was collected for haematological, biochemical assays and cardiac injury biomarkers assessments. Results: A cumulative dose of 150 mg/m2 of doxorubicin over 15 weeks of duration revealed haematological alterations and serum cardiac biomarkers elevations as compared to experimental groups with no significant hematopoietic alteration and serum cardiac biomarkers in the dog's given equivalent doses of CS-CaCO3NP-DOX over time. Low levels of RBC, WBC, haemoglobin and platelets were observed with free DOX (30 mg/m2) as compared to it equivalent dose of CS-CaCO3NP-DOX. Cumulative dose below CS-CaCO3NPDOX 150 mg/m2 did not show any significant elevation in serum biochemical and cardiac injury biomarkers as compared to the dogs in the control group and dogs given an equivalent dose of the free doxorubicin. Conclusion: The study confirmed the safety of the repeated dose administration of CS-CaCO3NP DOX (30 mg/m2) to dogs with no haematological and cardiotoxic effects. This finding offers great optimism in reducing side effects of DOX in dogs with cancer that may benefit from long term therapeutic regimes of doxorubicin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]