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This review article presents fractional derivative cancer treatment models to show the importance of fractional derivatives in modeling cancer treatments. Cancer treatment is a significant research area with many mathematical models developed by mathematicians to represent the cancer treatment processes like hyperthermia, immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. However, many of these models were based on ordinary derivatives and the use of fractional derivatives is still new to many mathematicians. Therefore, it is imperative to review fractional cancer treatment models. The review was done by first presenting 22 various definitions of fractional derivative. Thereafter, 11 articles were selected from different online databases which included Scopus, EBSCOHost, ScienceDirect Journal, SpringerLink Journal, Wiley Online Library, and Google Scholar. These articles were summarized, and the used fractional derivative models were analyzed. Based on this analysis, the merit of modeling with fractional derivative, the most used fractional derivative definition, and the future direction for cancer treatment modeling were presented. From the results of the analysis, it was shown that fractional derivatives incorporated memory effects which gave it an advantage over ordinary derivative for cancer treatment modeling. Moreover, the fractional derivative is a general definition of all derivatives. Also, the fractional models can be applied to different cancer treatment procedures and the most used fractional derivative is the Caputo as well as its non-singular kernel versions. Finally, it was concluded that the future direction for cancer treatment modeling is the adoption of fractional derivative models corroborated with experimental or clinical data.

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.

BackgroundMagnetic 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.ResultsComparing the lesion load measurement at various brain anatomical regions showed a significant difference among those three methods (p< 0.05).ConclusionDIR 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.

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 &lt, 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 &lt, 0.001), axillary lymph nodes excision (&gt, 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 &lt, 0.001). The total of skinfold thickness of the affected forearm was also significantly higher than the unaffected arms (p &lt, 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.

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

Introduction The survival rate of female breast cancer survivors has been reported to be higher than other types of cancer in Malaysia. Nonetheless, breast cancer survivors face new challenges from unwanted side effects of treatment or management such as fatigue, psychological disturbance, or arm swelling, which can lead to the decline of quality of life (QOL). This study aims to adapt the Malay version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) to evaluate the QOL and to test its reliability and validity in Malaysian breast cancer survivors. Methods The Malay version of the FACT-B, with Disabilities of Arms, Shoulders and Hands (DASH), and Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety-Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS) were distributed to female breast cancer survivors which were recruited on a voluntary basis, from cancer support groups based in selected states in Malaysia. Reliability was assessed based on internal consistency (Cronbach's α), whereas concurrent validity was examined by comparing domains in FACT-B with DASH and PHQ-ADS. Finally, total scores of each domain were analysed between lymphedema and without lymphedema groups for known-group validity. Results A total of 113 breast cancer survivors agreed to participate (response rate = 100%) in the study. Our results showed that the Cronbach's α value for Malay FACT-B is 0.88, and each domain ranged from 0.62 to 0.88. A strong correlation was found between the physical well-being domain of FACT-B with DASH. Meanwhile, the breast cancer scale (BCS) displayed significant correlation with the instrument, Patient Health Questionnaire- Anxiety Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS), indicating that multiple factors including psychological distress were measured in the BCS domain. Furthermore, the instrument was able to detect differences in physical, functional and QOL between participants from lymphedema and without lymphedema groups. Conclusion The Malay version of the FACT-B demonstrated reliable properties and is effective in assessing QOL and can be applied in Malaysian breast cancer survivors.

The aim of this study was to implement and evaluate the outcomes of chemotherapy counselling based on the "Managing Patients on Chemotherapy" module on self-esteem and psychological affect (anxiety, depression) of cancer patients by pharmacists in ten selected government hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia.A randomized control trial was conducted among 2120 cancer patients from April 2016 to January 2017 in ten selected government hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia. Cancer patients were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received chemotherapy counselling by pharmacists based on the "Managing Patients on Chemotherapy" module. The outcomes were assessed at baseline, 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups after counselling. In the course of data analysis; independent sample t-test, chi-square and two-way repeated measures ANOVA were conducted.Mean scores of self-esteem in the intervention group had significant difference in comparison with those of the control group in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups after counselling (P 0.0001). Also, among those with depression and anxiety at baseline, there was reduction in depression and anxiety scores after the 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups after counselling (p 0.05).Repetitive counselling by pharmacists based on the "Managing Patients on Chemotherapy" module had positive effect on improving self-esteem and psychological affect of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Peninsular Malaysia.This module can be used for all Malaysian cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to improving self-esteem and psychological affect.

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. العوامل المؤثرة على تدرجات مرض تشمع الكبد الغير كحولي المغموض بواسطة جهاز السونار في مركز الفحص في مدينة كلانك فالي في ماليزيا م.م عبد الستار عارف م. د. صفوان سعيد محمد د. هتيما ابو حسن د. حياتي خضر شاهر د. رملة محمد ابراهيم د. نورال نادية محمد م.م .د. سارة قحطان محمد صالح أ.د. روزي محمود الخلاصة: الخلفية : يعتبر مرض الكبد الدهني غير الكحولي (NAFLD) مرضًا شائعًا في العالم ، خاصةً في الدول الغربية والمتقدمة. ينمو بسرعة في منطقة آسيا والمحيط الهادئ. الاهداف : هذه الدراسة قد صممت لتحديد العلاقة بين العوامل الخطرة ودرجات مرض الكبد الدهني الغير كحولي بين البالغين الماليزيين. المرضى وطرق العمل : دراسة المسح المقطعي المستقبلية قد نفذت في هذا البحث . تم تسجيل 628 بالتتابع شخص ممن حضروا في الفحوص الطبية في المركز الصحي الحضري. جميع المستجيبين خضعوا للفحص البدني ، اختبارات الدم ، والتقييمات السريرية والموجات فوق الصوتية للبطن. كما تم استخدام استبيان يملى من قبل المريض نفسه في هذه الدراسة. النتائج : من مجموع 628 "قد خضعوا للفحوصات الصحية" ، تم تشخيص 235 شخصًا (37.4٪) مصابون بمرض الكبد الدهني غير الكحولي. كانت جنس الإناث والعرق الصيني السائد في مجتمع الدراسة لدينا. من أولئك الذين لديهم مرض الكبد الدهني الغير كحولي ، أكثر من نصف الأشخاص (63.4) كان لديهم درجة متوسطة من مرض الكبد الدهني غير الكحولي. بلغ متوسط عمر مجتمع الدراسة 54.54 ± 6.69 سنة. تم العثور على اختلافات في مؤشر كتلة الجسم (BMI) ونسبة الخصر إلى الورك (WHR) لتكون كبيرة بين درجات مرض الكبد الدهني غير الكحولي (P

The most common cause of the chronic liver disease is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study was designed to compare a mean subcutaneous tissue thickness (SCTT) and hepatic echo-intensity attenuation rate (HEIAR) among NAFLD grades. Sonography was carried out on 628 consecutive subjects. The distance between the skin surface and the liver capsule was measured and was labelled the SCTT. Also, the ultrasound of HEIAR was retrospectively quantified on an image archiving. HEIAR was calculated as the difference between mean intensity of echo for two regions of interest (ROIs) in near- and far-fields divided by the distance between these two ROIs multiply by frequency of the probe. Of the 628, 235 subjects were diagnosed with NAFLD. The age range was 45 – 75 years with mean 54.5 ± 6.7 years. There was a significant difference of mean SCTT among NAFLD grades (p

One of the sources of death among women is breast cancer. It is well known that Mammogram is the best method for breast cancer detection. Subsequently, there are solid requirements for the improvement of computer aided diagnosis (CAD) systems to assist radiologists in making decision. In this paper, the curvelet changes is proposed to classify the breast cancer. Curvelet refers to multi-level change which have the characteristics of directionality and anisotropy. It splits several characteristic impediments of wavelet to edges of an image. Two component extraction techniques were created associated with curvelet and wavelet coefficients to separate among various classes of breast. Finally, the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifiers were utilized to decide if the district is unusual or ordinary. The adequacy of the suggested strategies has been implemented with Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) data images. All the dataset is utilized by the suggested strategies. Then calculations have been applied with both curvelet and wavelet for correlation test were performed. The general outcomes show that curvelet change shows superior compared to the wavelet and the thing that matters is measurably noteworthy.

Computed tomography (CT) imaging remains the most utilized modality for liver-related cancer screening and treatment monitoring purposes. Liver, liver tumor and liver vasculature segmentation from CT data is a prerequisite for treatment planning and computer assisted detection/diagnosis systems. In this paper, we present a survey on liver, liver tumor and liver vasculature segmentation methods that are using CT images, recent methods presented in the literature are viewed and discussed along with positives, negatives and statistical performance of these methods. Liver computer assisted detection/diagnosis systems will also be discussed along with their limitations and possible ways of improvement. In this paper, we concluded that although there is still room for improvement, automatic liver segmentation methods have become comparable to human segmentation. However, the performance of liver tumor segmentation methods can be considered lower than expected in both automatic and semi-automatic methods. Furthermore, it can be seen that most computer assisted detection/diagnosis systems require manual segmentation of liver and liver tumors, limiting clinical applicability of these systems. Liver, liver tumor and liver vasculature segmentation is still an open problem since various weaknesses and drawbacks of these methods can still be addressed and improved especially in tumor and vasculature segmentation along with computer assisted detection/diagnosis systems.

Background Detection of small breast lesions is a challenging task for radiologists. Computer aided detection (CAD) systems are implemented to aid radiologists in detecting masses and microcalcifications. This has the potential to raise the level of sensitivity in breast cancer detection. Objectives To evaluate a new system to detect suggestions of suspicious small lesions. Methods Small samples were extracted from different tissue types. Texture features were calculated, and the best features were selected using Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) software. Subsequently, 7 selected features were used to form a decision tree. To reduce false negative cases, fuzzy logic was used. In the implementation phase, input images were divided into 8 pixel ´ 8 pixel tiles. For each tile, all selected features were computed as fuzzy inputs. Results To evaluate the technique, the suggested system was applied to 326 images obtained from the National Cancer Society of Malaysia. Based on this application, results showed that the suggested system has an acceptable sensitivity of 85.6% and specificity of 90.7%. Conclusions The fuzzy system is a promising technique for early detection of breast cancer.

The aim of this research is to investigate whether edible bird's nest (EBN) attenuates cortical and hippocampal neurodegeneration in ovariectomized rats. Ovariectomized rats were randomly divided into seven experimental groups (n = 6): the ovariectomy (OVX) group had their ovaries surgically removed; the sham group underwent surgical procedure similar to OVX group, but ovaries were left intact; estrogen group had OVX and received estrogen therapy (0.2 mg kg(-1) per day); EBN treatment groups received 6%, 3%, and 1.5% EBN, respectively. Control group was not ovariectomized. After 12 weeks of intervention, biochemical assays were performed for markers of neurodegeneration, and messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels of oxidative stress-related genes in the hippocampus and frontal cortex of the brain were analysed. Caspase 3 (cysteine-aspartic proteases 3) protein levels in the hippocampus and frontal cortex were also determined using western blotting. The results show that EBNs significantly decreased estrogen deficiency-associated serum elevation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), and they changed redox status as evidenced by oxidative damage (malondialdehyde content) and enzymatic antioxidant defense (superoxide dismutase and catalase) markers. Furthermore, genes associated with neurodegeneration and apoptosis were downregulated in the hippocampus and frontal cortex by EBN supplementation. Taken together, the results suggest that EBN has potential for neuroprotection against estrogen deficiency-associated senescence, at least in part via modification of the redox system and attenuation of AGEs.

Breast cancer among women has reached an alarming stage compared to 20 years ago. It was found that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) play an important role in the development of breast cancer. SNPs may suppress or activate the functional genes, which then leads to an increased survival of cells due to the suppression of tumour suppressor genes or increased activity in detrimental proteins, resulting in cancers. Recently, breast cancer research is given significant attention due to the increasing number of breast cancer patients in Malaysia each year. However, breast cancer researches in Malaysia are mainly focused on well known breast cancer genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2. There is less emphasis on the other breast cancer contributing genes. This paper was aimed to review the research findings on mutations associated with breast cancer in Malaysian Malay, Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indian as it has never been cumulatively reported and to ascertain the common mutations found in these three major Malaysia ethnicity.

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

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the chronic autoimmune central nervous system disorder that characterized by demyelination of axon in brain cortex and the other grey and white matter regions and it makes several symptoms. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with high sensitivity is the most important preclinical tool for the diagnosis of MS. The aim is to conduct systematic review studies carried out on accuracy of MRI sequences in detecting Multiple Sclerosis (MS) lesions. Methods: This study was systematic review. The related studies accomplished about using MRI in detecting MS lesions in worldwide included by searching in database and journal websites, including PubMed, Google Scholar and Medline. These articles searched by main keywords such as MRI, MS, lesions, sequence, and detecting. Conclusion: Our reviewing study showed that Double Inversion Recovery (DIR) Sequence in MRI has a high sensitivity to detect of lesion of MS. Furthermore, we recommend that the physicians add DIR sequence in routine MR protocols for diagnostic MS in patients.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women worldwide. Early detection of breast cancer can increase treatment options and patients' survivability. Mammography is the gold standard for breast imaging and cancer detection. However, due to some limitations of this modality such as low sensitivity especially in dense breasts, other modalities like ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging are often suggested to achieve additional information. Recently, computer-aided detection or diagnosis (CAD) systems have been developed to help radiologists in order to increase diagnosis accuracy. Generally, a CAD system consists of four stages: (a) preprocessing, (b) segmentation of regions of interest, (c) feature extraction and selection, and finally (d) classification. This paper presents the approaches which are applied to develop CAD systems on mammography and ultrasound images. The performance evaluation metrics of CAD systems are also reviewed.

Tumour invasion and metastasis have been recognized as major causal factors in the morbidity and mortality among cancer patients. Many advances in the knowledge of cancer metastasis have yielded an impressive array of attractive drug targets, including enzymes, receptors and multiple signalling pathways. The present review summarizes the molecular pathogenesis of metastasis and the identification of novel molecular targets used in the discovery of antimetastatic agents. Several promising targets have been highlighted, including receptor tyrosine kinases, effector molecules involved in angiogenesis, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), urokinase plasminogen activator, adhesion molecules and their receptors, signalling pathways (e.g. phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, phospholipase Cγ1, mitogen-activated protein kinases, c-Src kinase, c-Met kinases and heat shock protein. The discovery and development of potential novel therapeutics for each of the targets are also discussed in this review. Among these, the most promising agents that have shown remarkable clinical outcome are anti-angiogenic agents (e.g. bevacizumab). Newer agents, such as c-Met kinase inhibitors, are still undergoing preclinical studies and are yet to have their clinical efficacy proven. Some therapeutics, such as first-generation MMP inhibitors (MMPIs; e.g. marimastat) and more selective versions of them (e.g. prinomastat, tanomastat), have undergone clinical trials. Unfortunately, these drugs produced serious adverse effects that led to the premature termination of their development. In the future, third-generation MMPIs and inhibitors of signalling pathways and adhesion molecules could form valuable novel classes of drugs in the anticancer armamentarium to combat metastasis.

Objectives: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a very common liver disorder in Western countries. As of late, it has been found to be prevalent in Asia as well. It is a benign disease unless it develops into necroinflammation and fibrosis. This study was proposed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of sonography-detected NAFLD among Malaysian adults in Klang Valley, West Malaysia. Study design: An observational cross-sectional study. Methods: The participants were aged between 45 and 75 years who participated in a screening program at the Golden Horses Health Sanctuary in Klang Valley. Lipid profile and anthropometric measurements were collected from the subjects’ medical records. Ultrasound machine and a structured self-administered questionnaire were used as instruments for recruiting data from the subjects. The subjects who consumed alcohol (>140 g/wk for men and >70 g/wk for females), had hepatitis B or C viruses, liver insults, and surgery, and taken lipid-lowering medications were excluded from the study. Results: A total of 628 subjects were analyzed, and 235 (37.4%) subjects were diagnosed with definite NAFLD. They comprised 518 (82.5%) Chinese, 92 (14.6%) Malays, and 18 (2.9%) Indians. Peak prevalence of NAFLD was found in 53 to 60 years age group. The higher prevalence of NAFLD was among men (48.3%) than women (27.3%) and among Indians (61.1%) and Malays (51.1%) than among Chinese (34.2%). NAFLD has been found to be strongly correlated with male sex, high body mass index (≥23.0 kg/m2), hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Conclusion: NAFLD is quite common among adults in Malaysian urban population. The prevalence of NAFLD was inordinately high among the 53 to 60 years age group, male sex, Indians, and Malays (as compared with Chinese). Age >60 years, male sex, high body mass index (≥23.0 kg/m2), hypertriglyceridemia, and diabetes mellitus were proven to be risk predictors for NAFLD.

The treatment of solid tumour remains a major challenge to oncologists. Even when chemotherapy is referred as the best treatment option thus associated with off targeted effect, with doxorubicin widely used but it application is impaired in its high concentration levels resulting in tissue injury, specifically, cardiotoxicity. However, advances in nanomedicine have paved the way for the search for an inorganic biomaterial with the potential to deliver doxorubicin (DOX) safely. Cockle shell-derived calcium carbonate (CaCO3) nanoparticle-loaded with DOX has shown a promising potential in the pre-clinical studies. Thus, this trial is aimed at exploring the effectiveness of DOX-loaded cockle shell-derived calcium carbonate aragonite nanoparticles (CS-CaCO3NP-DOX) on dogs with spontaneous tumours with aim of improving the overall survival rate and quality of life. A prospective single centre, non-blind open clinical trial of repeated doses of CS-CaCO3NP-DOX on dogs with solid tumours was performed. The primary and secondary endpoints were evaluated every three weeks for 15 weeks. There was no major adverse effect observed within the period on the vital parameters, haematological and biochemical profile associated with the formulation. Although, partial response and progressive cRECIST response were recorded in the two cases enrolled within the study period, however, production of osteoid matrix, inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of osteogenic cell death were observed 48 h after treatment. This preliminary finding shows that biogenic CS-CaCO3NP-DOX is potentially effective for treating bone cancer in dogs and improves the quality of life of dogs with solid tumours and further reveals the safety and anticancer efficiency of CS-CaCO3NP-DOX in dogs with solid tumours.

Breast cancer is one of the most important diseases in females worldwide. According to the Malaysian Oncological Society, about 4% of women who are 40 years old and above are involved have breast cancer. Masses and microcalcifications are two important signs of breast cancer diagnosis on mammography. Enhancement techniques, i.e. histogram equalization, histogram stretching and median filters, were used to provide better visualization for radiologists in order to help early detection of breast abnormalities. In this research 60 digital mammogram images which includes 20 normal and 40 confirmed diagnosed cancerous cases were selected and manipulated using the mentioned techniques. The original and manipulated images were scored by three expert radiologists. Results showed that the selected methods have a positive significant effect on image quality.

Classification of breast cancer is essential in determining the type of treatment that should be applied. Thus, a Computer Aided Diagnosis (CADx) may assist radiologists in making appropriate decision based on the classification results. In this paper, the classification is divided into two categories; to classify the cancer into benign and malignant (two classes) and to classify the character of the background tissue either fatty, glandular or dense (multi class). The Haralick texture features and Hu Invariants moments were proposed as the features extraction. There are three phases conducted in this study. The first phase is the pre-processing phase. This is followed by the features extraction phase where combination of moment based features with addition of four features was proposed. The final phase is the classification phase by using SVM classifiers. Results obtained shows that the accuracy of the proposed features are 90.5% and 77.5% for two classes and multi class respectively.

Zhiping Hou,1,2 Mustapha Umar Imam,1 Maznah Ismail,1,3 Der Jiun Ooi,1 Aini Ideris,4 Rozi Mahmud5 1Laboratory of Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia; 2Department of Pathology, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia; 4Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia; 5Department ofImaging, Faculty of Medicine andHealth Sciences, Universiti PutraMalaysia, Serdang, Malaysia Abstract: Estrogen deficiency alters quality of life during menopause. Hormone replacement therapy has been used to improve quality of life and prevent complications, but side effects limit its use. In this study, we evaluated the use of edible bird’s nest (EBN) for prevention of cardiometabolic problems in rats with ovariectomy-induced menopause. Ovariectomized female rats were fed for 12 weeks with normal rat chow, EBN, or estrogen and compared with normal non-ovariectomized rats. Metabolic indices (insulin, estrogen, superoxide dismutase, malondialdehyde, oral glucose tolerance test, and lipid profile) were measured at the end of the experiment from serum and liver tissue homogenate, and transcriptional levels of hepatic insulin signaling genes were measured. The results showed that ovariectomy worsened metabolic indices and disrupted the normal transcriptional pattern of hepatic insulin signaling genes. EBN improved the metabolic indices and also produced transcriptional changes in hepatic insulin signaling genes that tended toward enhanced insulin sensitivity, and glucose and lipid homeostasis, even better than estrogen. The data suggest that EBN could meliorate estrogen deficiency-associated increase in risk of cardiometabolic disease in rats, and may in fact be useful as a functional food for the prevention of such a problem in humans. The clinical validity of these findings is worth studying further. Keywords: ovariectomy, lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, antioxidant, aging

This paper uses wavelets in the detection comparison of breast cancer among the three main races in Malaysia: Chinese, Malays, and Indians followed by a system that evaluates the radiologist's findings over a period of time to gauge the radiologist's skills in confirming breast cancer cases. The db4 wavelet has been utilized to detect microcalcifications in mammogram-digitized images obtained from Malaysian women sample. The wavelet filter's detection evaluation was done by visual inspection by an expert radiologist to confirm the detection results of those pixels that corresponded to microcalcifications. Detection was counted if the wavelet-detected pixels corresponded to the radiologist's identified microcalcification pixels. After the radiologist's detection confirmation a new client-server radiologist recording and evaluation system is designed to evaluate the findings of the radiologist over some period of cancer detection working time. It is a system that records the findings of the Malaysian radiologist for the presence of breast cancer in Malaysian patients and provides a way of registering the progress of detecting breast cancer of the radiologist by tracking certain metric values such as the sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operator curve (ROC). The initial findings suggest that no single race mammograms are easier for wavelets' detections of microcalcifications and for the radiologist confirmation even though for this study the Chinese race samples detection average were a few percentages less than the other two races, namely the Malay and Indian races.

Objective Boosting accuracy in automatically discriminating patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and normal controls (NC), based on multidimensional classification of longitudinal whole brain atrophy rates and their intermediate counterparts in analyzing magnetic resonance images (MRI). Method Longitudinal percentage of brain volume changes (PBVC) in two-year follow up and its intermediate counterparts in early 6-month and late 18-month are used as features in supervised and unsupervised classification procedures based on K -mean, fuzzy clustering method (FCM) and support vector machine (SVM). The most relevant features for classification are selected using discriminative analysis (DA) of features and their principal components (PC). Accuracy of the proposed method is evaluated in a group of 30 patients with AD (16 males, 14 females, age ± standard-deviation (SD) = 75 ± 1.36 years) and 30 normal controls (15 males, 15 females, age ± SD = 77 ± 0.88 years) using leave-one-out cross-validation. Results Results indicate superiority of supervised machine learning techniques over unsupervised ones in diagnosing AD and withal, predominance of RBF kernel over lineal one. Accuracies of 83.3%, 83.3%, 90% and 91.7% are achieved in classification by K -mean, FCM, linear SVM and SVM with radial based function (RBF) respectively. Conclusion Evidence that SVM classification of longitudinal atrophy rates may results in high accuracy is given. Additionally, it is realized that use of intermediate atrophy rates and their principal components improves diagnostic accuracy.

This paper presents experimental study to distinguish between malignant and benign tumors in early breast cancer detection using Ultra Wide Band (UWB) imaging. The contrast between dielectric properties of these two tumor types is the main key. Mainly water contents control the dielectric properties. Breast phantom and tumor are fabricated using pure petroleum jelly and a mixture of wheat flour and water respectively. A complete system including Neural Network (NN) model is developed for experimental investigation. Received UWB signals through the tumor embedded breast phantom are fed into the NN model to train, test and determine the tumor type. The accuracy of the experimental data is about 98.6% and 99.5% for permittivity and conductivity respectively. This leads to determine tumor dielectric properties accurately followed by distinguish between malignant and benign tumors. As malignant tumors need immediate further medical action and removal, this findings could contribute to save precious file in near future.

Mammography is a known method for the early detection of breast cancer. However, the mammograms which are in black and white and in the shade of grey have some limitations in portraying the abnormalities. Image segmentation is a very crucial process in detecting abnormalities in computed radiography mammographic images. Active contours which are known as 'snake' are dynamic algorithms which can be used to perform the image segmentation. In order to test the applicability of the snake algorithm in performing segmentation, the breast phantom MRI-156 images are used. Only the breast phantom images at the exposures of 25 kV, 28 kV and 35 kV with milliampere (mAs) of 0.5 are considered. It is found that when the image is divided into four equal regions, the detection of abnormalities in the image is more effective as compared to the image processed as a whole.

Sani Ismaila Muhammad,1,2 Ismail Maznah,1,3 Rozi Binti Mahmud,4 Maher Faik Esmaile,5 Zuki Abu Bakar Zakaria6 1Laboratory of Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Bioscience, 2Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria; 3Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, 4Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, 5Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, 6Department of Pre-clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia Background: Bone mass density is an important parameter used in the estimation of the severity and depth of lesions in osteoporosis. Estimation of bone density using existing methods in experimental models has its advantages as well as drawbacks. Materials and methods: In this study, the X-ray histogram edge detection technique was used to estimate the bone mass density in ovariectomized rats treated orally with germinated brown rice (GBR) bioactives, and the results were compared with estimated results obtained using Archimede’s principle. New bone cell proliferation was assessed by histology and immunohistochemical reaction using polyclonal nuclear antigen. Additionally, serum alkaline phosphatase activity, serum and bone calcium and zinc concentrations were detected using a chemistry analyzer and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Rats were divided into groups of six as follows: sham (nonovariectomized, nontreated); ovariectomized, nontreated; and ovariectomized and treated with estrogen, or Remifemin®, GBR-phenolics, acylated steryl glucosides, gamma oryzanol, and gamma amino-butyric acid extracted from GBR at different doses. Results: Our results indicate a significant increase in alkaline phosphatase activity, serum and bone calcium, and zinc and ash content in the treated groups compared with the ovariectomized nontreated group (P < 0.05). Bone density increased significantly (P < 0.05) in groups treated with estrogen, GBR, Remifemin®, and gamma oryzanol compared to the ovariectomized nontreated group. Histological sections revealed more osteoblasts in the treated groups when compared with the untreated groups. A polyclonal nuclear antigen reaction showing proliferating new cells was observed in groups treated with estrogen, Remifemin®, GBR, acylated steryl glucosides, and gamma oryzanol. There was a good correlation between bone mass densities estimated using Archimede’s principle and the edge detection technique between the treated groups (r2 = 0.737, P = 0.004). Conclusion: Our study shows that GBR bioactives increase bone density, which might be via the activation of zinc formation and increased calcium content, and that X-ray edge detection technique is effective in the measurement of bone density and can be employed effectively in this respect. Keywords: Archimede’s principle, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, X-ray edge detection technique, bone mass density, germinated brown rice bioactives

Background Germinated brown rice (GBR) is gaining momentum in the area of biomedical research due to its increased use as a nutraceutical for the management of diseases. The effect of GBR on the reproductive organs of oophorectomised rats was studied using the gross, cytological, histological and immunohistochemical changes, with the aim of reducing atrophy and dryness of the genital organs in menopause. Methods Experimental rats were divided into eight groups of six rats per group. Groups 1, 2 and 3 (sham-operated (SH), oophorectomised without treatment (OVX) and oophorectomised treated with 0.2 mg/kg oestrogen, respectively) served as the controls. The groups 4,5,6,7 and 8 were treated with 20 mg/kg Remifemin, 200 mg/kg of GBR, ASG, oryzanol and GABA, respectively. All treatments were administered orally, once daily for 8 weeks. Vaginal smear cytology was done at the 7th week on all the rats. The weight and dimensions of the uterus and vagina were determined after sacrifice of the rats. Uterine and vaginal tissues were taken for histology and Immunohistochemical examinations. Results GBR and its bioactives treated groups significantly increased the weight and length of both the uterus and the vagina when compared to Oophorectomised non-treated group (OVX-non-treated) (p Conclusion GBR and its bioactives could be a potential alternative in improving reproductive system atrophy, dryness and discomfort during menopause.

Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease through MRI neuroimaging biomarkers has been used as a complementary marker for traditional clinical markers to improve diagnostic accuracy and also help in developing new pharmacotherapeutic trials. It has been revealed that longitudinal analysis of the whole brain atrophy has the power of discriminating Alzheimer's disease and elderly normal controls. In this work, effect of involving intermediate atrophy rates and impact of using uncorrelated principal components of these features instead of original ones on discriminating normal controls and Alzheimer's disease subjects, is inspected. In fact, linear discriminative analysis of atrophy rates is used to classify subjects into Alzheimer's disease and controls. Leave-one-out cross-validation has been adopted to evaluate the generalization rate of the classifier along with its memorization. Results show that incorporating uncorrelated version of intermediate features leads to the same memorization performance as the original ones but higher generalization rate. As a conclusion, it is revealed that in a longitudinal study, using intermediate MRI scans and transferring them to an uncorrelated feature space can improve diagnostic accuracy.

Background: The risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is increased tremendously among menopausal women, and there is an increasing demand for alternative therapies for managing factors like dyslipidemia that contribute to CVD development. Methods: In this study, Nigella sativa was evaluated for its hypolipidemic effects among menopausal women. In a randomised trial, hyperlipidemic menopausal women were assigned to treatment (n = 19) or placebo groups (n = 18), and given N. sativa or placebo for two months after their informed consents were sought. At baseline, blood samples were taken and at one month intervals thereafter until one month after the end of the study. Results: The results showed that N. sativa significantly improved lipid profiles of menopausal women (decreased total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride, and increased high density lipoprotein cholesterol) more than the placebo treatment over 2 months of intervention. One month after cessation of treatment, the lipid profiles in the N. sativa-treated group tended to change towards the pretreatment levels. Conclusions: N. sativa is thought to have multiple mechanisms of action and is cost-effective. Therefore, it could be used by menopausal women to remedy hypercholesterolemia, with likely more benefits than with single pharmacological agents that may cause side effects. The use of N. sativa as an alternative therapy for hypercholesterolemia could have profound impact on the management of CVD among menopausal women especially in countries where it is readily available.