Bango abuse profile in Egypt: a rapid screening procedure

Samples of the dried plant [bango] has been analyzed to detect its active principle delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Also, hair samples of 40 male chronic abusers were treated with methylene chloride, dissolved in sodium hydroxide, than acetic acid was added, and lastly extracted with n-hexane-ethyl acetate. The prepared samples were analyzed by high pressure liquid chromatography [HPLC] 37 samples [92.5%] were positive for cannabinoids. Concentrations within the tested hair samples ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 ng/mg, from 0.05 to 5 ng/mg and from 0.02 to 1.1 ng/mg for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol and cannabinol, respectively

Personal Identification by frontal sinuses radiographs examination

The study was done on 107 skull photographs taken as anteroposterior view. Measurements were taken regarding the septum, lateral border, lower border and the 3 angels for each sinus photographically. Comprehensive description of frontal sinus on each side showed complete asymmetry on both sides. Rudimentary frontal sinuses, bilateral or unilateral absence was present in some cases. Sexual variations could be noticed as larger sizes were present in males. Rudimentary and absent sinuses were more in females. The study concluded that frontal sinuses have very wide variations in size and shape. In this study it was noticed that there was no single case having any similarity with the others. Accordingly, the study concluded that frontal sinuses pattern has a very unique individuality which may be equivalent to fingerprint

medicolegal importance of coagulopathy in head injuried patients

Forty patients with head injuries in Ain-Shams University Hospitals were subjected to this study to find out whether an early and initial determination of coagulation state is of value for affecting the outcome of such cases with head injuries. The prothrombin time [PT], activated thromboplastin time [a PTT], fibrinogen degradation products [FDP] and blood platelets were measured 7 hours after admission to pick up the high risk patients. The coagulation profile were measured again after 3 and 7 days to detect the occurrence of any coagulopathy changes and its relationship with patient's outcome. It is concluded that the coagulopathy which is present in patients with head trauma appears to be correlated with poor survival. The study offers recommendation to investigate for coagulopathy in head injured patients and to be carefully managed. Fresh frozen plasma must be a routine treatment on admission instead of whole fresh blood transfusion to protect against the increase in blood pressure and to protect against DIC syndrome

protective role of the neurohormone [melatonin] and garlic against paraquat toxicity in albino rats

This study was carried out on 150 rats of both sexes to investigate the possible protective role of melatonin and fresh garlic homogenate [FGH] either alone or in combination against paraquat-induced toxicity. The rats were divided into ten equal groups: One negative control, two positive controls and seven test groups. The test groups received paraquat 60 ng/kg single dose orally, melatonin 20 mg/kg orally and FGH 5 g/kg orally. Both melatonin and FGH were given with paraquat under variable conditions of timing. The rats were sacrificed 48 hours after paraquat administration. Liver and kidney functions were investigated in addition to light microscopic examination of the lung, liver and kidney. The study showed that the administration of melatonin and FGH either alone or in combination with paraquat did not show any significant improvement in paraquat- induced toxicity. On the other h and, melatonin or FGH 24 hours after paraquat showed a significant change in paraquat-induced damage, but melatonin appeared to be more potent than FGH

Race and sex identification: a morphometric study of the Egyptian calcanei

This study was done on 271 Egyptian calcanei devided as 134 dry adult bones of unknown sex, 105 wet adult cartilage covered bones of known sex and 32 foetal calcanei of both sex. According to calcaneal bone classification regarding the number of the talar facets, calcanei were classified into three types [A, B and C]. Type C was present only in 2 bones out of the 271 calcanei. In both adult and foetal Egyptian calcanei, the incidence of type B, was significantly higher than type A with marked predominance in females. This pattern showed a particular racial distribution as that of Africans and Indians but differs from Europeans. The presence of a significant sex difference in the calcaneal types was also found in the foetal series, indicating that, the variations were genetically determined. This study proved that morphometric examination of the calcaneal bones could help in identification of both sex and race