CT Scan importance in the first eight hours of head injury

Traumatic brain injury following head injury is a major public health problem that can result in significant long-term morbidity and mortality among adults and children worldwide. Emergency brain imaging is necessary for individuals subjected to traumatic brain injury to early detect treatable conditions. Prompt neurosurgical management of treatable conditions can prevent further damage and secondary neurological deficits. This will subsequently improve the outcome and reduce long-term disability. Computed Tomography (CT) of the brain is the investigation of choice for assessment of patients with head injury due to its availability, advantages, and sensitivity for multiple lesions following head trauma. This article will review and discuss the importance of CT imaging in evaluating patients with traumatic brain injury, its advantages, limitations, and prognostic values

Composition, antioxidant and chemotherapeutic properties of the essential oils from two Origanum species growing in Pakistan

The GC-MS analyses of Origanum majorana L. (OME) and Origanum vulgare L. (OVE), Lamiaceae, essential oils helped identification of 39 (96.4 percent of the total oils) and 43 (92.9 percent of the total oils) components, respectively. The major constituents of OME were terpinene-4-ol (20.9 percent), linalool (15.7 percent), linalyl-acetate (13.9 percent), limonene (13.4 percent) and α-terpineol (8.57 percent), whereas, thymol (21.6 percent), carvacrol (18.8 percent), o-cymene (13.5 percent) and α-terpineol (8.57 percent) were the main components of OVE. In the disc diffusion and the resazurin microtitre assays, OME showed better antibacterial activity than OVE with larger zones of inhibition (16.5-27.0 mm) and smaller MIC (40.9-1250.3 μg/mL) against the tested bacterial strains. Only OVE displayed anti-heme biocrystallization activity with an IC50 at 0.04 mg/mL. In the DPPH assay, OVE showed better radical-scavenging activity than OME (IC50=65.5 versus 89.2 μg/mL) and both OME and OVE inhibited lionleic acid oxidation. However, in the bleaching β-carotene assay, OVE exhibited better antioxidant activity than OME. In the MTT assay, OME was more cytotoxic than OVE against different cancer cell types, such as MCF-7, LNCaP and NIH-3T3, with IC50s of 70.0, 85.3 and 300.5 μg/mL, respectively. Overall, some components of OME and OVE may have antiparasitic and chemotherapeutic activity.

Osteoarthritis among women in Bahrain: a public health audit

This study aims to train students on public health survey; correlate risk factors of osteoarthritis and to identify modifiable risk factors. Osteoarthritis survey was carried out among 420 Bahraini women, above 40 years of age, diagnosed of osteoarthritis, attending ministry of health facilities. Most cases in the study were from the age group of 50- 59 years with a mean age of 57. Osteoarthritis: of major joints alone was 74%; of generalized was 21% and of small joints of hands and feet alone was 5%. Within major osteoarthritis: 48% were knees alone; 51% were knee and hip and 2% were hip alone. Combinations of co-morbidities were found among 43%. History of diagnosed: diabetes in 10%, hypertension among 13% and hypercholesterolemia in 5% of cases. Half of the cases in the study were obese and 30% were overweight. Osteoarthritis of the Knee and the combination of the osteoarthritis of knee and hip was highest among obese followed by overweight cases. Menopause was found among 68%of patients. Patients on medication accounted for 85% and 75% were on Physiotherapy. Half of the sample had family history of osteoarthritis. While over 90% were less educated with odds ratio for being housewives at 3.085. The multivariate analysis of ordinal regression returned pseudo R2 of 30% for the model with the following significant variables: age, BMI, menopause status, exercise, chronic morbidities and family history of osteoarthritis. Overall, the proportion of major osteoarthritis of the weight bearing joints is very high. The modifiable risk factors identified from this study are sedentary lifestyle, obesity and overweight, as well as chronic morbidities

Rosmarinus officinalis essential oil: antiproliferative, antioxidant and antibacterial activities

The aim of this work was to investigate and compare the antiproliferative, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Rosmarinus officinalis essential oil, native to Pakistan. The essential oil content from the leaves of R. officinalis was 0.93 g 100g-1. The GC and GC-MS analysis revealed that the major components determined in R. officinalis essential oil were 1,8-cineol (38.5 percent), camphor (17.1 percent), α-pinene (12.3 percent), limonene (6.23 percent), camphene (6.00 percent) and linalool (5.70 percent). The antiproliferative activity was tested against two cancer (MCF-7 and LNCaP) and one fibroblast cell line (NIH-3T3) using the MTT assay, while, the antioxidant activity was evaluated by the reduction of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) and measuring percent inhibition of peroxidation in linoleic acid system. The disc diffusion and modified resazurin microtitre-plate assays were used to evaluate the inhibition zones (IZ) and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of R. officinalis essential oil, respectively. It is concluded from the results that Rosmarinus officinalis essential oil exhibited antiproliferative, antioxidant and antibacterial activities.