Frequency, risk factors, and outcomes in patients with significant carotid artery disease admitted to King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh with Ischemic Stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency, risk factors, and outcomes of significant carotid artery disease (CAD) in patients with ischemic stroke. METHODS: The frequency of significant CAD in patients admitted to the Stroke Unit between January 2014 and December 2015 was determined from radiological data. Outcomes were determined clinically and radiologically. RESULTS: Among 435 patients, 273 were men (62.8%), with a mean age of 57.4+/-12.2 years. Significant CAD was found in 48 vessels in 40 (9.2%) patients, of which 30 patients were symptomatic. Nine of these patients were treated with carotid artery stenting, one underwent carotid endarterectomy, and 3 underwent an urgent thrombectomy, without stenting. Seventeen symptomatic patients were not treated for the following reasons: patient/family refusal (n=2), contraindications (n=5), and complete occlusion (n=10). One (7.7%) of the 13 treated patients had an ipsilateral stroke on follow up, one (7.7%) had contralateral transient ischemic attack (TIA), 9 (69.2%) had no recurrence, and no clinical data were available for 2 patients. Among the 17 untreated patients, one (5.9%) had an ipsilateral stroke, 7 (41.2%) had no recurrence, and 9 (52.9%) were lost to follow up. CONCLUSION: Significant carotid artery disease is uncommon in our cohort found in less than 10% of patients. Vascular risk factors are more or less similar between patients with or without CAD except obesity which appears to have inverse relation with CAD. A small number of patients received carotid intervention with no recurrence of stroke at limited follow up.

Period-prevalence and Publication Rate of Health Research Productivity in Seven Arabian Gulf Countries: Bibliometric Analysis from 1996 to 2018.

OBJECTIVES: Despite the worldwide increase in health research, few studies have evaluated the health research productivity in member states of the Gulf Health Council (GHC). This study solicited the period-prevalence and publication rates of health research productivity in the seven GHC countries. METHODS: We searched the Scopus database for publications between 1996 and 2018 and used the SCImago Journal and Country Rank portal to obtain the relevant information. We also recorded qualitative (citation-based) and quantitative (document recount) indicators. Overall and country-specific period-prevalence and publication rates were estimated and standardized to the corresponding overall Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) population and country-specific population size. RESULTS: Overall, 112 409 articles were enumerated during the study period. The majority (59.8%) were from Saudi Arabia, followed by UAE (11.9%). The GCC publications were associated with 1 315 778 citations, which revealed a 46.0 Hirsch-index. The period-prevalence of health publications for the overall GCC region was 1320 publications per million population over 22 years, and the publication rate estimate was 13.2 (95% confidence interval (CI): 13.1-13.3) publication per 10 000 population. The highest publication rate estimate was noted in Qatar (36.5; 95% CI: 35.8-37.3), followed by Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, and Yemen. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first study in the context of GCC to utilize period-prevalence and publication rates to chart health research productivity in the GCC region. Concerted efforts are required to improve the quality and quantity of the health research output in the GCC region.