Low Back Pain, Disability and Quality of Life among Health Care Workers

Health workers usually have the highest incidence of work-related back injuries which influence their work.Low back pain patients suffer not only from physical discomfort but also from functional disabilities that maycause impairment and interfere with their quality of life. This study is aimed at evaluating low back pain,disability and quality of life among health care workers. This is a descriptive study which was conducted at fourprimary health care centres in Tabuk. Non-probability purposive sampling method was used to select 120health workers. For data collection, the three tools used were a pre-established questionnaire, Oswestry LowBack Pain Disability Questionnaire for evaluating pain and disability, and the 36-item Short-Form HealthSurvey (SF-36) for evaluating the quality of life. Disability was found in 70.8% of the studied sample. Totalquality of life score was low in 77.5% of the studied sample and there was a highly significant negativecorrelation between total quality of life score and total back pain of the studied sample. Low back paincontinues to be a common occupational disease for health workers. This health issue would also have animportant impact on their job and the quality of healthcare as well. In order to decrease Low back pain, healthcare workers should be included in specific education program. A consistent methodological strategy foroptimizing the qualiy of life problem among health care workers should be developed by health care managers.

Antiprotozool activity of nitazoxanide in hamsters experimentally infected with giardia lamblia or entameba histolytica

The enteropathogenic protozoa Giardia lamblia [G. lamblia] and Entamoeba histolytica [E. histolytica] are major causes of acute and chronic diarrhea in humans and various animals. Nitazoxanide is known as a drug with a broad spectrum of activity against a wide variety of intestinal parasites and enteric bacteria infecting animals and humans. The present study was carried out to evaluate the role of nitazoxanide in treatment of hamsters infected with either G. lamblia or E. histolytica, to explore its effect on infection load and histopathological changes compared to metronidazole. A highly significant reduction was found in the mean number of G. lamblia trophozoites,examined in small intestinal contents, in the group receiving metronidazole [91.91%%] and the group treated with nitazoxanide [93.23%] compared to infected control group. The reduction in cysts excreted in stool was [94.11%] and [94.55%], respectively. Administration of Nitazoxanide revealed complete disappearance of G.lamblia trophozoites, preserved villous architecture and decreased inflammatory infiltrate. Trophozoites are still present, with less numbers than infected control,after metronidazole administration with distorted villous pattern, and presence of minimal inflammatory reaction . As regards E.histolytica, the reduction in trophozoite forms,in intestinal contents, was [80.99%] in the group receiving metronidazole and [97.39%] in the group treated with nitazoxanide compared to infected control group. The reduction in the cysts of E. histolytica was [92.22%] and [97.83%], respectively. Administration of Nitazoxanide revealed also, complete disappearance of E. histolytica trophozoites, healing of mucosal ulcerations, normal villous pattern and decreased inflammatory infiltrate. Nearly similar histopathological findings were encountered with metronidazole,although improvement in protozoal burden was more pronounced with nitazoxanide. Introducing nitazoxanide as broad spectrum anti-diarrheic agent may be recommended as a drug of choice especially in cases of double infection with G. lamblia and E. histolytica. Further studies are thus needed

Laser puncture effect on immunoglobulin E and ventilatory functions of moderate asthmatic children

Asthma is a growing problem throughout the World. It is the most common chronic chest illness of childhood, approximately 11 to 15% of children less than 18 years of age suffer from repeated asthmatic attacks. The aim of this study is to detect whether Laser puncture has an effect on total serum lgE and ventilatory functions in children suffering from moderate persistent bronchial asthma. The effect of Laser puncture was investigated on lgE and Ventilatory Function in Children with moderate bronchial asthma. Thirty asthmatic children [19 boys and 17 girls] participated in the study. Their age raged from 6 to 11 years - they were divided randomly into 2 groups - the group A comprised of 20 children who received Laser puncture and group B received placebo treatment. The results showed reduction of total serum IgE and improvement of ventilatory function measurements [Forced Vital Capacity [FVC], Forced Expiratory Volume [FEV] and Maximum Voluntary Ventilation [MVV]] in both groups, but the percentage of improvement of all variables were significantly higher in group A- following Laser therapy. Laser puncture was advised to be used as one of new trends in treatment of asthmatic children because it controls asthmatic reaction

Risk of increased intraocular pressure and posterior subcapsular cataracts in asthmatic children on inhaled corticosteroids

With the increasing use of inhaled corticosteroids as first-line therapy in the treatment of asthma, the adverse effects of these preparations have become the topic of much research in recent years. While it is known that orally administered steroids can have metabolic, musculoskeletal dermatologic hematologic, and ophthalmologic effects [inhaled corticosteroids have minimal reported hematologic or musculoskeletal effects, but have some effects on metabolic processes such as calcium metabolism, it is less understood whether or not, and at what doses, inhaled corticosteroids will affect the eye. The objective of this study is to determine the risk of cataracts and increased intraocular pressure in chronic asthmatic patients on long term use of inhaled corticosteroids. This is a cross sectional study conducted on 30 asthmatic children [Group A] attending the outpatient asthma clinic in new children hospital - Faculty of medicine - Cairo university and 30 sex and age matched asthmatic children not receiving inhaled corticosteroids for asthma control [Group B]. All children were subjected to ophthalmologic examination by Snellen chart for visual acuity, slit lamp to detect posterior subcapsular cataracts and Handheld applanation tonometer to measure intraocular pressure in both eyes. Posterior subcapsular cataracts [PSC] was not detected in any case of both groups. Mean [IOP] in group A was 13.88 +/- 1.36 mmHg and in group B was 13.46 +/- 0.97 mmHg which revealed no Statistically significant difference of [IOP] between members of group A and group B. The use of ICS for

Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide [anti-CCP in juvenile idiopathic arthritis [JIA] patients: diagnostic and prognostic value

The aim of the study is to investigate the incidence and clinical significance of Anti-CCP antibodies in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis [JIA] patients assessing its utility as a serological marker and its relationship with disease subtype and erosive form of the disease. This study comprised twenty-five [17 girls, 8 boys] patients with JIA attending the Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Department in Kasr El-Aini hospitals as well as New children Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University. Ten healthy volunteers served as controls. RF positivity was observed only in 9 children with JIA and 7 patients had persistent erosive lesions in their joints. Anti-CCP antibody levels were determined by ELISA and values above 5 relative units [RU] were regarded as positive. Anti-CCP antibodies were found in 10/25 [40%] patients including 8/9 RF positive polyarthritis [88.9% of this subset], 1/2 RF negative polyarthritis, 1/8 pauciarticular arthritis and 0/6 systemic arthritis [p value