Long time ago, phytotherapy constitutes a major health practice all over the world. Many medicinal plants such as Saussurea lappa (S. lappa) has wide beneficial roles. This study was contrived to explore the antiphlogistic effect of S. lappa roots extract treated by 100% ethanol solvent. Carrageenan induced paw edema model was used to carry out the experiment on laboratory Wistar albino rats. Before testing extract on animals, it was necessary to check the safety of the plant according to performed testing conditions albeit S. lappa is generally recognized as safe plant, hence the acute oral toxicity test by the fixed-dose procedure method (FDP) was performed. Roots’ ethanol extract tested at two doses (100 and 200 mg/kg), ibuprofen used as a positive control, and negative control was distilled water. SPSS statistical analysis was undertaken to check the variance between tested groups via one-way analysis of variance, then pursued by Tukey and Dunnett two-sided tests. FDP experiment disclosed that extract was safe for further in-vivo testing for the dose up to 2000 mg/kg < LD50 < 5000 mg/kg, without reporting of any toxicity signs. The extract manifested a significant (P < 0.05 - 0.01) anti-inflammatory effects at both tested doses. The ethanol extract exposed a clear decrease in edema size by a percentage of 13.73 % at 200 mg/kg dose when compared to that of standard agent which minimized edema by 22.79 %. It is presumed that plant roots contain phytoconstituents that are responsible to share this effect like sesquiterpene lactones (dehydrocostus lactone and cynaropicrin mainly), in which many researches revealed that such compounds which found in many other plants have a potent anti-inflammatory action.

ABSTRACT

Background: Total hip arthroplasty is the most common surgery performed for complications of hip hemiarthroplasty. Hemiarthroplasty has been a good method of treating displaced fracture neck of femur. With the increased demands placed on the prosthesis by highly active patients, the failure rate increased following hemiarthroplasty. Pain is the most reliable complaint that indicates failure. Pain may be due to many complications related to hemiarthroplasty as loosening, sepsis, protrusio, dislocation, and periprosthetic and prosthetic fractures. Conversion to total hip replacement is a good method for treating patients with painful hemiarthroplasties.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the result of revision total hip replacement after failed hemiarthroplasty.

Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective study included 62 patients with ages ranged from 38 years to 75 years with a mean (62.7±11.38), with the conversion of failed hip hemiarthroplasty to total hip arthroplasty between 2000 and 2015 with a minimum follow up 5 years and maximum follow up 10 years at Zagazig University Hospital. Males represented 54.8% (34 cases) and females were 45.2% (28 cases).

Results: Our study that the mean Harris hip score significantly increased from 21.87±8.31 preoperative to 74.21±18.3 postoperative P=0.00** and postoperative radiologically we find that 58 patients (93.5%) has fixed implants and 4 patients (6.5%) has loose implants.

Conclusions: This present study showed that the conversion of failed hemiarthroplasty to THR is a good way of treatment for painful hemiarthroplasties. Conversion is a complicated surgery with a higher rate of complications both intra and postoperatively.

Keywords: Total hip replacement, Failed hemiarthroplasty, Hip arthroplasty. 

The current study was designed to investigate both central and peripheral analgesic activities of crude extract of roots of Saussurea lappa (S. lappa) plant at 100% ethanol concentration. These activities were processed and evaluated through Eddy’s hot plate and acetic acid induced-writhing methods, respectively, on laboratory Swiss albino mice. Reference positive control used was paracetamol, and negative control was distilled water, and statistical analysis done by SPSS version 25 to test one-way ANOVA for group mean differences, followed by Tukey and Dunnett two-sided post-hoc tests. Before the mentioned assessment, an acute oral toxicity test by a fixed-dose procedure method (FDP) was taken to check the safety of the plant. This plant was safe under experimentation, and it exerted significant (P < 0.01) analgesic effects at a dose of 500mg/kg. The crude extract revealed a noticeable increase of latency time to thermal pain stimuli when compared to paracetamol positive control at 100mg/kg concentration by 36.42%, and it reduced the number of writhing contractions by 21.73% when compared even to the positive control. It is presumed that S. lappa contains particular phytoconstituents that are responsible for presenting these effects. In both applied tests, S. lappa proved that it could be used as a safe, powerful analgesic treatment.

Abstract Introduction: Abdominal wall defects (AWD) are a common problem that can become difficult to manage, especially when the defect is large and resources are limited (silo and TPN). Methods: Retrospectively, 85 medical records of patients who have been admitted to TMC over a decade (2005 - 2015) were studied. The defects have been categorized into three groups: omphalocele minor, omphalocele major and gastroschisis. The aim is compare the outcomes within these three groups between developed and developing nations. Results: Out of 85 neonates with abdominal wall defects, 50 are males and 35 are females. 58 patients had omphalocele minor, 16 omphalocele major and 11 with gastroschisis. Associated congenital anomalies are reported in 45% of omphalocele groups (1 and 2) and in 27% of gastroschisis group. Post-operative morbidity rate among the omphalocele groups (1 and 2) is 27.37%, and 54.54% among gastroschisis group. Mortality rate among the group one is 3.45%, group two 12.5%, and group three 27.27%. The mortality rate among the two patients who received devices was 50%. Conclusion: Omphalocele can be treated effectively in the developing world; however, gastroschisis cases need more sophisticated supportive measures to reach the reported rates.

Libya is a lower middle-income country with no national surveillance system for hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). We assessed the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial use in adult intensive care units (ICUs) in Libya. Objective: Evaluate drug resistance of bacteria isolated from equipment placed close to patients in an Intensive Care Unit of a Central hospital in Gharian.

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems have gained increasing interest in drug discovery and tissue engineering due to a number of advantages in providing more physiologically relevant information and potentially more predictive data for in vivo tests. Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins have been developed over in recent years to simulate a natural microenvironment for cells cultured in vitro. Conventional cell culture or 2D cell culture form monolayers of cells on a solid surface, which is typically polystyrene or glass, whereas a 3D culture system employ a porous growth matrix on which the cells grow. The transition from cell culture on a flat surface 2D to a 3D model in vitro is expected to mimic more realistic culture environments. However, the major limitation of 2D culture is their lack of structural architecture and stroma and not all types of normal epithelial cell are able to adhere and grow on 2D culture. For this study, two different immortal cell lines were used (HeLa and HaCaT cells) and two commercial 3D substrates (Collagen Rat Tail and Geltrex) were used, in order to evaluate how the transition from 2D to 3D affects viability, cell cycle, live/dead cell, responses to the drug exposure and bio-spectroscopy studies. The viability of cells were monitored with the aid of the Alamar Blue assay, cellular morphology was monitored with confocal microscopy, cell cycle and cell death studies were performed with flow cytometry and viability of 3D culture in bio-spectroscopy performed with Raman spectroscopy. The viability studies showed apparent differences between the 2D and 3D culture systems, the differences attributed in part to the physical transition from 2D to a 3D environment causing alterations to effective resazurin concentration, uptake and conversion rates. This was verified by flow cytometry, in which no significant differences in viable cell numbers between 2D and 3D systems was ii observed. Cell cycle analysis revealed cellular function could be altered by growth on the 3D substrates and the alterations were noted to be dependent on 3D membrane concentration. The use of 3D culture matrices has been widely interpreted to result in “improved viability levels” or “reduced” toxicity or cellular “resistance” compared to cells cultured on traditional 2D systems. Cells were grown on the different substrates (Collagen and CaF2), confirming that the in vitro cell culture environment impacts significantly on the cell cycle. The live cell in vitro Raman spectroscopic analysis of cells on the 2D CaF2 and 3D Collagen substrates was performed and data were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA). The spectroscopic analysis revealed differences in profiles which reflect the differences in cell cycle for both in vitro culture environments. In particular, the Raman spectra of cells grown on CaF2 show indicators of cell stress, which are also associated with cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. Doxorubicin still induced apoptosis with no difference in the population levels in 3D and 2D culture of apoptotic, necrotic and live cells. Also, cells grown on both substrates were arrested at G0/G1 phase by the Doxorubicin, Raman spectra collected from cells grown in Collagen showed that, Doxorubicin is clearly seen to be present in the nucleolus, nucleus and cytoplasm of the HaCaT cells. Statistical analysis, consisting of principal components analysis (PCA) was used to highlight the Doxorubicin interaction with HaCaT cells grown in 3D cultures. The results of this study show that Cellular health and viability levels were not altered by culture in 3D environments, but their normal cycle could be altered verified by the cell cycle studies performed and these variations must be accounted for in studies employing 3D membranes. The Raman spectra of cells grown on CaF2 show indicators of cell stress, which are also associated with cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. The bioavailability or effective concentration of the cytotoxicity assay and the chemotherapeutic agent are both affected by the iii absorptive nature of the matrix. Despite the differences in the cell cycle in cells grown in 2D and 3D cultures, the efficacies and ultimate effect of the drug on all the cultured cells are the same regardless of culture environment and the variations in the cell cycle for cells grown on different substrates must be accounted for in vitro cellular screening in particular when screening cell cycle dependant toxicants. This study has shown that the use of 3D culture systems has the potential to make a significant impact in the Raman spectroscopy field in particular Collagen is a cost effective substrate replacement for more expensive options. 

The emergence and evolution of superbugs is among the greatest challenges to public health worldwide

recently. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics considered as one of greatest hits of this century. There are

different antibiotic resistant strains that range for infection from mild to severe cases and tonsillitis

is one among of many bacterial diseases that have high incidence globally. Half of tonsillitis cases are

bacterial and those mainly caused by group-A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS) bacteria which

had developed its resistance against commonly used antibiotics, mainly penicillin and macrolids.

Currently, however, there are considerable attempts to tackle the issue despite they are still far away

from promised settlement. Focusing on testing and evaluating of herbal therapies will be of great value

in finding of potent alternative medicine to face resistant bacterial infections and to provide sufficient

therapeutic agent to disband the problem. Hence the necessity to develop novel therapeutics to replace

conventional antibiotics will likely play a key role to fix the issue. This article concentrate on review of

ineffective antibiotic therapy including some of its impacts and describes possibility to use Saussurea

lappa (S. Lappa) plant as an effective herbal plant to treat resistant bacterial acute tonsillitis cases.

DNA, RNA, and protein are represented as strings in bioinformatics for this reason string processing is the cornerstone in the field of bioinformatics and these problems take a variety of manifestations each of which has a specific meaning. This topic will shed some light on some traditional string problems such as: local sequence alignment problem, global sequence alignment problem, exact pattern matching problem, approximate pattern matching problem, finding all maximal palindromes problem, finding all tandem repeats problem, finding all tandem arrays problem, etc. There are quite rich researches for these problems. This paper, will propose the major algorithms in this respect which implemented in BioQt.

Abstract

Purpose In this literature review, functional outcomes such as Disability of Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score and the visual analog scale (VAS) of pain along with clinical outcomes such as range of movement and grip strength of treated distal radius fractures (DRF) accompanied with ulnar styloid fractures (USF) will be compared with those with isolated DRF. Materials and Methods We analyzed articles from MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL that met our predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria as per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis statements. This resulted in the identification of 464 articles with 18 potentially eligible studies of which 6 were included at the full-text screening stage. The primary outcomes were wrist pain, range of motion, functional outcome and satisfaction, such as VAS, and the DASH questionnaire along with radiological assessment and incidence of complications. Results These studies involved 796 participants with DRF and 806 wrists with DRF; 444 (55%) of DRF had an associated USF. Three studies did not report any statistically significant difference in DASH scores between the DRF patients with or without USF. Two studies reported worse DASH scores in the group with associated USF. Wrist pain was reported to be statistically significantly worse in patients with associated USF in two studies. Grip strength did not exhibit a statistically significant difference in any groups in four studies. On assessing the range of motion of the wrist and forearm, only one study reported a statistically significant difference in flexion at 2 years follow-up, with less flexion in patients with USF. Conclusion This review suggests that there is no significant correlation between a USF and the functional and clinical outcomes of DRF treatment, albeit wrist pain and less flexion were reported in some studies to be associated with USF. There is a need for more robust evidence from large randomized controlled trials to specifically look at the effects of fixation versus nonfixation of USF on DRF, or large prospective cohort studies assessing DRF with and without USF, with a minimum of 12 months follow-up. Level of Evidence Level II-therapeutic.