Folic acid awareness among female college students: neural tube defects prevention.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the level of awareness among female college students on the importance of preconception folic acid supplementation in preventing neural tube defects (NTDs). We have also studied their response after educating them. METHODS: This is a questionnaire-based study. Five hundreds questionnaires were distributed to the female students of the 3 colleges, namely, Humanities, Sciences, and Health in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in April 2008. The questions included an enquiry on their knowledge regarding the importance of folic acid preconception, and if they will implement what they learned after listening to lectures, delivered by the 4th year medical students, who were trained and supervised by the faculty members of the King Abdul-Aziz University. RESULTS: Two hundred and seventeen questionnaires were filled, and returned (43.4%). Mean age +/- SD was 20.96 +/- 2.25 years. Almost 88% were not aware of the importance of folic acid in preventing NTDs. After listening to the lecture, 82.9% thought that they will surely use folic acid preconception, and 98.6% will relay the important message about the importance of folic acid to others. CONCLUSION: There is a need to increase the awareness of the importance of folic acid among females' childbearing age. Medical students' involvement in educating college students was an effective way to increase their awareness. Similar educating programs are required, in order to reduce the high incidence of NTDs.

Primary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma of the esophagus masquerading as a benign tumor.

We report a case of primary esophageal low-grade B-cell lymphoma of MALT type in a 50-year-old Saudi male patient who presented to our hospital with a history of dysphagia and heartburn for more than 2 years. Endoscopy showed a large esophageal mass with an intact mucosa located in the distal esophagus, 28 cm-35 cm from the incisor teeth. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) showed a large well demarcated sub-epithelial lesion 4 cm in width and 10 cm in length arising from the muscularis mucosa with mixed echogenicity consistent with benign leiomyoma. Subsequently, the patient underwent surgical resection of the tumor; the histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of esophageal lymphoma. The tumor was considered to be completely resected and therefore additional treatment was not administered. The patient was doing well on follow up after treatment. Clinically and radiologically he did not reveal any signs of recurrence. Surgical resection is beneficial as a primary treatment option in incipient primary low grade MALT esophageal lymphomas.