BECN1 mRNA expression in breast cancer tissue; significant correlation to tumor grade.

Breast cancer (BC) is a heterogenous disease with multiple pathways implicated in its development, progression, and drug resistance. Autophagy, a cellular process responsible for self-digestion of damaged organelles, had been recognized as eminent player in cancer progression and chemotherapeutic resistance. The haploinsufficiency of Beclin 1 (BECN1), autophagy protein, is believed to contribute to cancer pathogenesis and progression. In our study, we investigated the expression of BECN1 in a BC female Egyptian patient cohort, as well as its prognostic role through evaluating its association with disease free survival (DFS) after 2 years follow up and association of tumor clinicopathological features. Twenty frozen female BC tissue samples and 17 adjacent normal tissue were included and examined for the expression levels of BECN1. Although the tumor tissues showed lower expression 0.73 (0-8.95) than their corresponding normal tissues 1.02 (0.04-19.59), it was not statistically significant, p: 0.463. BECN1 expression was not associated with stage, nodal metastasis or tumor size, p:0.435, 0.541, 0.296, respectively. However, statistically significant negative correlation was found between grade and BECN1 mRNA expression in the studied cases, p:0.028. BECN1 expression had no statistically significant association with DFS, P = 0.944. However, we observed that triple negative (TNBC) cases had significantly lower DFS rate than luminal BC patients, p: 0.022, with mean DFS 19.0 months, while luminal BC patients had mean DFS of 23.41 months. Our study highlights the potential role of BECN1 in BC pathogenesis, showing that BECN1 expression correlates with poorer differentiation of BC, indicating its probable link with disease aggressiveness. DFS two years follow up showed that TNBC subtype remains associated with less favorable prognosis.

Diagnosis and management of acute pharyngotonsillitis among pediatric patients at Ribat Teaching Hospital: a prospective audit (2021-2022).

Diagnosis of pharyngotonsillitis is challenging due to the wide range of symptoms and signs. Sudan Federal Ministry of Health and Sudanese Association of Paediatricians, along with Sudan Heart Society reached a consensus about the clinical prediction rule which aids in diagnosing and managing bacterial pharyngotonsillitis. This audit aimed to assess doctors' knowledge and practice regarding diagnosis and management of bacterial pharyngotonsillitis at Ribat Teaching Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan. This audit was done at Pediatric Department, Ribat Teaching Hospital, and data collection was done over 2 weeks either in the first or the second cycle. Inclusion criteria were children who presented at the emergency room and were diagnosed with acute pharyngotonsillitis. The criteria used in this audit were from Sudan guidelines for prevention, diagnosis and management of rheumatic heart disease. Regular training sessions were done between the first and second cycles. There were 19 patients in the first cycle, 17 of them (89.4%) were diagnosed clinically with bacterial pharyngotonsillitis, and 8 of these 17 (47%) were fitting the criteria. Regarding the management of bacterial pharyngotonsillitis, no patient was given the recommended antibiotics in the guidelines (0.00%). In the second cycle, there were 21 patients, of whom 11 patients were diagnosed clinically with bacterial pharyngotonsillitis (52%). Of those 11, 8 patients were fitting the criteria (72.7%), and the recommended antibiotics were given in 9 of them (82%). The current practice toward acute pharyngotonsillitis management revealed a lack of doctors' knowledge about local guidelines which can be improved by simple ways such as posters, lectures, and focused group discussions.

The Use of the Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) Form as a Tool for Handoff Communication in the Pediatrics Department in a Sudanese Teaching Hospital.

PURPOSE:  Patient care transitions between healthcare providers are common in hospitals -- this project aimed to audit the use of Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR)-based handoff communication tool in the handoff process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective audit was conducted at Ribat Teaching Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan. All handoff communications of pediatric inpatients who required close monitoring during the study period were included. Two cycles of data collection were conducted, each spanning a duration of two weeks. The data, whether in the first or second cycle, were collected using a checklist document containing the items of the SBAR form. After the end of the first cycle, regular training sessions about the content and importance of the SBAR form were conducted for one week. Additionally, doctors' perception regarding the form was assessed. RESULTS: Some 48 doctors participated in this study, 29 females and 19 males. In the first cycle, the percentages of filled SBAR form components were as follows: Situation 7%, Background 0.00%, Assessment 0.00%, and Recommendation 0.00%. After conducting training sessions, the second cycle assessment was done and it showed improvement in all form components: Situation 88.8%, Background 83.6%, Assessment 66.3%, and Recommendation 69.5%. Regarding the doctors' perception assessment, the majority reported the usefulness of the SBAR form in patients' safety, physicians' communication, and accountability. CONCLUSION: The SBAR form is a simple and effective tool for improving communication; it helps doctors capture all relevant patient information. Most importantly, the majority of doctors were satisfied with the use of this tool for handoff communication.

A study of the cardioprotective effect of spermidine: A novel inducer of autophagy.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is an instant death of cardiomyocytes that ends in a large mortality worldwide. Thus, there is a great interest to come up with novel protective approaches for AMI to mount cardiomyocyte survival, enhance postinfarcted cardiac function, and countermand the process of cardiac remodeling. Spermidine has vital roles in vast cellular processes under pathophysiological circumstances. This study aims to enhance our comprehension of the role of autophagy as a possible protective sequel of spermidine supplementation on postinfarction ventricular dysfunction in a rat model of AMI induced by isoproterenol (ISO). Thirty male rats were divided into three groups (control, AMI, and spermidine + AMI). AMI was induced by subcutaneous ISO injections for two consecutive days. Rats were pretreated with spermidine by intraperitoneal injection before induction of AMI. Electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded in all rats 24 h after the second dose of ISO. Rats were sacrificed after ECG recording, and samples were taken for biochemical assessments. Spermidine intake before induction of AMI in rats significantly attenuated cardiac dysfunction where cardiac enzymes are decreased, and ECG changes induced by ISO are reversed in cardiomyocytes. Spermidine affects the autophagic flux of autophagy-related protein expression (LC3-II, TFEP, and p62). Furthermore, it increased the total antioxidant capacity.

Binary-level data dependence analysis of hot execution regions using abstract interpretation at runtime.

With the widespread of multicore systems, automatic parallelization becomes more pronounced, particularly for legacy programs, where the source code is not generally available. An essential operation in any parallelization system is detecting data dependence among parallelization candidate instructions. Conducting dependence analysis at the binary-level is more challenging than that at the source-level due to the much lower semantics of the binary code. In this paper, we consider using the elaborate 'static' analysis of abstract interpretation, for the first time, at runtime for data dependence detection. Specifically, our system interprets instructions at a hot region, while at the same time, collect programs semantics for seen program points, thereby conducting abstract interpretation analysis dynamically. The analysis is guaranteed to be correct as long as execution does not exit the region prematurely. Moreover, successive hot region re-entries will resume previous analysis, albeit much faster in case no major change in the program semantics. Such approach provides for more rigorous analysis than other simple dynamic analysis which would typically miss parallelization opportunities. The proposed approach also does not require any hardware support, availability of the source code, as well as any code re-compilation. To study the performance and accuracy of our approach, we have extended the Padrone dynamic code modification framework, and conduct an initial study on a set of PolyBench kernels and selected programs from SPEC CPU. Experimental results show accurate dependence detection with low overhead.

Serum cystatin C as an indicator for early detection of diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) refers to a group of common metabolic disorders that share the phenotype of hyperglycemia. The metabolic dysregulations associated with DM causes secondary pathophysiological changes in multiple organ systems which result in various complications, responsible for the morbidity and mortality associated with the disease. METHODS: The present study was carried out on 40 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, who were recruited from those attending outpatient clinic and inpatient of Internal Medicine Department at The National Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology from January 2017 to june 2017. RESULTS: The mean Cystatin C values in Group I were 0.74, group II were 1.07. and in Group III were 3.25, The results show that the Cystatin C values were raised even in the patients with Normoalbuminuria with GFR ≥90 whom clinical albuminuria had not yet started. CONCLUSIONS: serum Cystatin C may be considered as an early marker, than microalbuminuria and serum creatinine, the commonly used marker for nephropathy, for declining renal function, in diabetic subjects. Further studies in larger population are needed to confirm this result.

Effect of processing on folic acid fortified Baladi bread and its possible effect on the prevention of colon cancer.

This paper studied the possible effect of folic acid in fortified Baladi bread on the prevention of colon cancer development in rats. Wheat flour samples (82% extraction rate) and soy bean flour were analyzed to determine their folic acid contents using the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Unfortified and folic acid fortified Baladi breads were prepared. Samples from each step of bread preparation were analyzed for folic acid concentration. Protein, fat, ash, fibers and carbohydrates percentages were also determined. Rats were divided into five groups, four of them were injected subcutaneously with dimethylhydrazine (DMH). After 15 weeks, the rats were sacrificed for pathological examination. Results showed that the folic acid content in wheat flour (82% extraction rate) was found to be highly significantly lower than that in soybean flour. After baking, folic acid content in all breads was found to decrease significantly. The highest protein and fat contents were found in soybean flour fortified Baladi bread. The colons of rats of groups 3 (fed 5% soy flour fortified Baladi bread) and 5 (fed Baladi bread fortified with 5% soy flour+8 mg folic acid/kg wheat flour) were the mostly affected by DMH injection as premalignant changes were observed.

The effect of bread making steps on the degradation of aflatoxins produced as a result of single inoculation with Aspergillus flavus and combined inoculation with Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus ochraceus.

This study aimed to determine the effect of bread making steps on the stability of aflatoxin. Sakha 8 wheat and Gemaiza 5 wheat cultivars, were used in the present study. They were inoculated with a dense spore suspension of toxigenic fungal species of Aspergillus flavus and a non toxigenic species of Aspergillus ochraceus singly and combined. Aflatoxin concentration was determined in the whole wheat grain, after milling, after fermentation, and after bread-baking process. Results showed that the highest reduction percentage for the total aflatoxins (81, G1 and G2), was in Sakha 8 (32.96%) (single treatment), Gemaiza 5 (19.54%) (single treatment ), Gemaiza 5 (18.65%) (combined treatment), and finally in Sakha 8 (16.49%) (combined treatment). There was no significant difference (p < 0.05) in aflatoxins content between Sakha 8 and Gemaiza 5 treated singly and in a combined way before and after milling process. In the mean time, the percentage of AFB1, AFG1 and AFG2 were reduced by 31.98%, 44.53% and 35.35%, respectively, while the total aflatoxins concentration were reduced by 41.17% after baking. Results also showed the presence of a significant difference at p < 0.05 among the whole grain, after milling and after baking concerning AFG1, AFG2 and the total aflatoxins content. No significant difference was found in case of AFB1.