Attitudes and beliefs about cervical smear testing in ever-married Jordanian women

To investigate attitudes and beliefs that affect a woman's decision to undergo cervical smear screening, we carried out a survey of 760 women attending general obstetrics and gynaecology clinics in Irbid, Jordan between June 2004 and April 2005. Knowledge of cervical cancer and the Pap smear test was inadequate in less-educated and older patients. Of the 109 women who had previously had the test, 104 [95.4%] had opportunistic testing. Around 95% of the sample had never had the test. Major barriers to Pap smear screening included inadequate knowledge about the test, not being referred by a health professional and fear of having a bad result. The current screening programme is not effective in reaching the majority of the population

Does the number of previous caesarean deliveries affect maternal outcome and complication rates?

We evaluated maternal complications in relation to number of previous caesarean sections in Princess Badea Teaching Hospital, Irbid, Jordan. Analysis of the medical records of 1739 patients delivered by caesarean section was conducted. It revealed a 14-fold increase in the risk of caesarean hysterectomy in patients with placenta praevia and previous caesarean section compared to patients with placenta praevia and no previous caesarean section. The risk of caesarean hysterectomy increased with increasing number of previous caesarean sections. Those with 3 or more previous caesarean sections were at significantly higher risk of blood transfusion. Post-operative pyrexia was commoner in women with 3 or more previous caesarean sections compared to those undergoing their first one

Physiological and hepatotoxic studies on fungal aflatoxins isolated from Egyptian cereals

This work was carried out to study the incidence of aflatoxins in cereal samples collected from different localities of Gharbia Governorate. Forty fungal isolates were able to produce aflatoxins. The maximum aflatoxins production was observed on sabouraud-yeast extract- liquid medium when inoculated with concentration of 1 x 106 spores/ml of culture medium. Only six local toxigenic isolates of Aspergillus flavus strains in addition to Aspergillus parasiticus NRLL 2999 strain were proved to produce significant amount of aflatoxin when inoculated in a powder of four selected cereals [pesium, wheat phaseolus and rice]. Hepatotoxicity assay of the cereals containing aflatoxins revealed the presence of significant amount of aflatoxin B1 enough to alter the enzymatic activity of liver in particular glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase [GOT] and glutamate pyruvate transaminase [GPT]