Pregnant women’s use and attitude toward herbal,vitamin, and mineral supplements in an academic tertiary care center,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background

Herbal medicine has been widely utilized by pregnant women despite the limited available evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of that practice. The current available studies, from different countries, estimated that the use of herbal medicine during pregnancy range from 7% up to 96%. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, attitude, source of information, and reasoning behind the use of herbal medicine among pregnant women in Saudia Arabia.

Development of a Device for Removing a Partial Denture in a Patient with Scleroderma

Scleroderma is a chronic disease that has been associated with immune dysfunction. One of the oral manifestations is microsomia, a result of collagen deposition in the perioral tissues. The complexity of treating these patients includes limited mouth opening ability, and difficulty inserting and removing dentures due to finger deformity. This article will describe an appliance specially designed especially for scleroderma patients, which facilitates treatment of the patient with removable partial dentures (RPD).     

Detection of the carrier state of X-linked retinoschisis

We determined the extent of suppressive rod-cone interaction in 11 obligate carriers and eight potential carriers of X-linked retinoschisis from eight families. Despite otherwise normal ophthalmoscopic and functional testing, all of the obligate heterozygous carriers demonstrated a complete absence of normal rod-cone interaction. Of the potential heterozygous carriers, three had normal rod-cone interactions, two had no detectable interaction, and two yielded technically unsatisfactory results. This lack of rod-cone interactions allows heterozygous individuals to be identified clinically and has implications concerning the origin of this inherited disorder.     

Acceleration of hemopoietic recovery after autologous bone marrow transplantation by low doses of peripheral blood stem cells.

Twenty patients with advanced malignant disease submitted to autologous bone marrow transplantation with marrow either unpurged (10 patients) or purged in vitro with mafosfamide (10 patients) after ablative chemotherapy, received simultaneously autologous peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) collected during one to three 3 h cytapheresis procedures. The kinetics of the hematological recovery of these patients were compared to those of a group of patients suffering from similar diseases and grafted in the same institution with either unpurged marrow only (14 patients) or purged in vitro with mafosfamide (six patients). The median times to reach 10(9)/l leukocytes, 0.5 x 10(9)/l polymorphs, and 50 x 10(9)/l platelets were reduced by 10, 10, and 13 days, respectively, in patients transfused with both autologous bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells as compared to those receiving bone marrow only. A reduction in the numbers of days spent in hospital post-transplantation (p less than 0.01), of days of fever greater than 38 degrees C (p = NS), and of platelet (p = 0.07) and of red blood cell transfusions (p less than 0.01) were also observed in the group of patients grafted with bone marrow and PBSC.     

Management of the metabolic syndrome-nicotinic acid.

Nicotinic acid effectively treats each of the common lipid abnormalities found in the metabolic syndrome, and much progress has recently been made in understanding its mechanisms of action.Early concern that nicotinic acid can precipitate or worsen diabetes has been eased with recent trials, which demonstrated its safety and effectiveness in insulin-resistant states. Furthermore, nicotinic acid prevents cardiovascular disease and death in persons with a high prevalence of risk factors for the metabolic syndrome. When used by an experienced physician and taken by a motivated patient, nicotinic acid can be safe and effective in treating the dyslipidemia of the metabolic syndrome.     

Some aspects of structural disturbances in the DNP complex when damaged by N-nitroso-N-methylurea

The effect of solubilization of deoxyribonucleoproteins (DNP) in a medium of near-physiological ionic strength after treatment with the mutagen N-nitroso-N-methylurea (NMU) is highly dependent on the NMU concentration. To convert DNP into a soluble state, the critical number of groups in the DNA and protein must evidently be modified. On the basis of data obtained by the circular dichroism method and by viscosimetry it is concluded that after treatment with NMU the DNP complex becomes soluble in solvents with near-physiological ionic strength largely as a result of labilization and dissociation of the DNA-protein bonds.Laboratory of Biophysics, Institute of Medical Genetics, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Sector of Kinetics of Chemical and Biological Processes, Institute of Chemical Physics, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Laboratory of Physical Methods of Investigation, D. I. Ivanovskii Institute of Virology, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR S. S Debov.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 81, No. 6, pp. 674–677, June, 1976.     

Genetic heterogeneity of Usher syndrome type II.

Usher syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by retinitis pigmentosa and congenital sensorineural hearing loss. A gene for Usher syndrome type II (USH2) has been localised to chromosome 1q32-q41. DNA from a family with four of seven sibs affected with clinical characteristics of Usher syndrome type II was genotyped using markers spanning the 1q32-1q41 region. These included D1S70 and D1S81, which are believed to flank USH2. Genotypic results and subsequent linkage analysis indicated non-linkage of this family to these markers. The A test analysis for heterogeneity with this family and 32 other Usher type II families was statistically significant at p < 0.05. Further clinical evaluation of this family was done in light of the linkage results to determine if any phenotypic characteristics would allow for clinical identification of the unlinked type. No clear phenotypic differences were observed; however, this unlinked family may represent a previously unreported subtype of Usher type II characterised by a milder form of retinitis pigmentosa and mild vestibular abnormalities. Heterogeneity of Usher syndrome type II complicates efforts to isolate and clone Usher syndrome genes using linkage analysis and limits the use of DNA markers in early detection of Usher type II.