Journal for Scientific Research. Medical Sciences

A 40-year-old woman presented with the history of swallowing a fishbone one hour earlier. Since the patient was swallowing normally and the X-ray results were negative, she was reassured and sent home. Twenty days later, when the patient again presented with pain and tenderness in her neck, the fishbone was detected in the left sternomastoid muscle, and removed under local anaesthesia.

Pica, where the patient eats non-food items such as mud, clay, varnish etc., is a common behavioural problem seen in children, pregnant women and the mentally retarded. However sponge pica is a very rare variation. We report a case of a 5-year-old Omani girl, who presented with sponge pica since the age of two years, with recent abdominal pain. Investigations showed anaemia, elevated liver enzymes and normal intelligence. There was no evidence of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Both clinical and laboratory findings showed complete recovery after a few weeks of oral iron therapy...

To insure its survival, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), utilises more than one gate to enter a target cell. This strategy makes it more difficult for the immune system to defeat the virus. This has also made it difficult for scientists working in the HIV research to understand how exactly HIV infects a susceptible human cell. Such understanding will no doubt open many gates for scientists to vanquish the virus by designing agents that can block HIV entry into target cells, thus rendering the virus vulnerable to immune destruction...

Like in other medical fields, candidates seeking a career in Radiology requires special skills and aptitudes. Selecting candidates for radiology residency is made difficult by the fact that many of the essential qualities predictive of a good radiology consultant, such as interpersonal skills, recognition of limits, curiosity, conscientiousness, and confidence level, are "non-cognitive", and thus difficult to assess. This paper describes the selection procedure developed by the Department of Radiology of Baylor College of Medicine to measure, as objectively as possible, both the cognitive and non-cognitive qualities of candidates, based on a combination of traditional screening and Objective Structured Interviews...

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the magnitude, determinants and causes of exodontia presented at all the three dental units of South Batinah region of Oman. METHODS: This is a cross sectional study of 8,963 samples representing dental cases reported at the three dental units for 12 weeks in year 2000. The information on patients undergoing exodontia and its indications were collected from their case files. Standard definitions were used to categorise causes of exodontia...

OBJECTIVES: A retrospective study was carried out to assess the performance of hepatitis C diagnostic assays in our laboratory, and to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C among blood donors at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. METHODS: From 1991 to 2001, approximately 55,000 serum samples collected from blood donors and patients were submitted to our laboratory for testing. All sera were screened for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) by three successive generations of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)...

OBJECTIVE: to determine the genotypes of arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT2) among 127 unrelated apparently healthy Omanis. METHOD: Identify the most common known polymorphisms of NAT*2 gene namely, G(191)A, C(282)T, C(341)T, C(481)T, G(590)A, A(803)G and G(857)A using PCR-RFLP analysis. RESULTS: Eleven allele variants (3 alternative) and 30 different genotypes were determined. The commonest alleles were found to be NAT*5B, NAT2*6A and NAT*4 with corresponding frequencies of 0...

OBJECTIVES: (a) To test the sensitivity and specificity of measuring fasting plasma glucose levels (FPG) as a screening test for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). (b) To compare predicting levels of FPG levels with the one-hour, oral 50g non-fasting glucose challenge test (GCT) for predicting GDM. METHODS: One thousand and six hundred pregnant women from the Health Centres, antenatal clinics and Salmaniya Medical Complex were screened by the GCT after 50g of oral glucose during 26-32 weeks gestation, giving a 13...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The paper reports the case of a previously healthy 4-year-old-girl who presented with pallor, fever and hepatosplenomegaly. Laboratory findings included pancytopenia, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperferritinemia. Initial diagnosis of kala-azar could not be confirmed because of the absence of clinical evidence, negativity of bone marrow aspiration or specific serology for visceral leishmaniasis. Repeated marrow aspiration, performed due lack of clinical response, revealed histiocytes showing haemophagocytosis consistent with haemophagocytic lymphohistocytosis (HLH) and appropriate treatment was started...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the degree of compliance of spectacle wear and some of its determinants among school children of Dhakhiliya region of Oman. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study of a sample of 663 students who had been prescribed spectacles for constant wear. After one year, experienced field staff conducted a follow-up visit where 571 of these students were examined. Information on age, gender, type and severity of refractive error was collected from the school health records and refractionist's report and analyzed to associate them to the compliance of spectacle wear...

OBJECTIVE: This project was designed to longitudinally study persons who had antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) to characterise the serologic course of infection. METHODS: The subjects were 149 multitransfused patients (141 with thalassaemia major, 3 with thalassaemia intermedia, and 5 with sickle cell anaemia) who had been regularly followed up for 3 to 7 years. Sequential serum samples obtained semi-annually between January 1994 and January 2001 were tested, prospectively, by second or third generation HCV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), followed by confirmatory recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA-2 or RIBA-3)...

OBJECTIVE: To review the caesarean sections (C/S) performed at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), Muscat, Oman, over a period of three years. METHOD: The records of 727 patients who underwent C/S at SQUH during the three year period from 1st July 1998 to 30th June 2001 were analysed. RESULTS: The C/S rate during this period was 13%, 42.6% of which were repeat C/S. Most were performed on women in the age group 26-30 years and of parity 2-3...

OBJECTIVE: To describe the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) genotype frequencies among Omani Arabs. METHOD: A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, based on separation of different size DNA fragments, was developed to test the presence or absence (polymorphism) of a small DNA deletion in the ACE gene. The subjects were 124 Omani Arab students of Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat. RESULTS: The frequency of the I allele was 0.29, while that of the D allele was 0...

OBJECTIVES: To determine the range of serum IgE in healthy subjects and in asthmatic patients in Oman and to assess the degree of atopy in the asthmatic patients. METHOD: Serum IgE and in vivo (the skin prick test) and in vitro (the ImmunoCAP test) allergen-specific IgE levels were measured in 44 patients with asthma. Control groups were 19 healthy subjects and 27 asymptomatic allergic subjects. RESULTS: The normal range for serum IgE in the Omani population was established at ≥ 101 IU/ml...

OBJECTIVES: To assess whether a combination of pegylated interferon (interferon conjugated with polyethylene glycol) and ribavirin can improve the response rate in patients with chronic hepatitis C who either did not respond to (Non-responders), or had relapsed after responding to (Relapsers) standard interferon and ribavirin combination therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this prospective study, 20 chronic hepatitis C patients (comprising 16 Non-responders and 4 Relapsers to previous treatment with alpha interferon and ribavirin), were treated with pegylated interferon-2b weekly and ribavirin daily for one year...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Foreign bodies in the upper aero-digestive tract pose major challenges to the otolaryngologist in both diagnosis and management. Aspirated and ingested foreign bodies are often emergencies, leading to inadequate study and poorly prepared, improper attempts at removal. The authors share their experience in managing upper aero-digestive tract foreign bodies in Omani population at a district hospital, present a statistical review of 58 cases, and highlight certain critical scenarios as well as cultural variations specific to the region...

There are various causes of hyperthyroidism in pregnancy such as Graves' disease and gestational thyrotoxicosis. The thyroid stimulation results from the excessive levels of circulating human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) produced by the trophoblastic tissue in both hydatidiform moles and choriocarcinoma. We present a pregnant patient with hydatidiform mole who presented with hyperthyroidism that resolved after evacuation of the mole.

Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) has been proposed as the most significant intellectual advance in the process of clinical decision-making in the past decade. With more than 25,000 medical journals publishing 4 million articles a year, doctors are unable to cope with the information overload. The principles and practice of EBM show the way to bridge the gap between research and practice. Reactions evoked in the medical profession towards this new discipline have been in extremes, from outright rejection to enthusiastic acceptance...