Methanol intoxication in the central region of Saudi Arabia: Five case studies.

Outbreaks of methanol poisoning have been described in the medical literature worldwide. However, the few outbreaks that have occurred in Saudi Arabia remain undocumented. This is especially noteworthy in light of the fact that Saudi Arabia is among the countries that explicitly prohibit the usage of alcoholic beverages and recreational drugs. Herein, we describe five cases of methanol poisoning in Saudi Arabia. The first three comprise patients admitted to the emergency room (ER) with signs of methanol toxicity, such as heart palpitations, vomiting, and blurred vision; otherwise, those patients were considered medically free. The remaining two cases were examined postmortem. A headspace gas chromatography-flame ionization detector was used to test blood, vitreous humor, and urine samples for methanol. Specific lethal concentrations of methanol were defined based on published case studies as 23-740 mg/dL in blood and 12-396 mg/dL in vitreous humor. In postmortem cases of our present study, samples exhibited lethal concentrations: 118 and 257 mg/dL in blood, 116.3 and 283 mg/dL in vitreous humor. In ER cases, methanol concentrations in urine samples were lower, at 7.5, 9.1, and 20.9 mg/dL; however, toxic symptoms were still observed. These case studies indicate that it is necessary to raise community awareness about the risk of methanol poisoning in order to minimize future poisoning epidemics.

Corrosion Inhibition of Mild Steel in Hydrochloric Acid Environment Using Terephthaldehyde Based on Schiff Base: Gravimetric, Thermodynamic, and Computational Studies.

Using traditional weight-loss tests, as well as different electrochemical techniques (potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy), we investigated the corrosion-inhibition performance of 2,2'-(1,4-phenylenebis(methanylylidene)) bis(N-(3-methoxyphenyl) hydrazinecarbothioamide) (PMBMH) as an inhibitor for mild steel in a 1 M hydrochloric acid solution. The maximum protection efficacy of 0.0005 M of PMBMH was 95%. Due to the creation of a protective adsorption layer instead of the adsorbed H2O molecules and acidic chloride ions, the existence of the investigated inhibitor reduced the corrosion rate and increased the inhibitory efficacy. The inhibition efficiency increased as the inhibitor concentration increased, but it decreased as the temperature increased. The PMBMH adsorption mode followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, with high adsorption-inhibition activity. Furthermore, the value of the ∆Gadso indicated that PMBMH contributed to the physical and chemical adsorption onto the mild-steel surface. Moreover, density functional theory (DFT) helped in the calculation of the quantum chemical parameters for finding the correlation between the inhibition activity and the molecular structure. The experimental and theoretical findings in this investigation are in good agreement.

Palivizumab prophylaxis during nosocomial outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus in a neonatal intensive care unit: predicting effectiveness with an artificial neural network model.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To identify subgroups of premature infants who may benefit from palivizumab prophylaxis during nosocomial outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis using an artificial intelligence model. SETTING: Level IIIB, 35-bed, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at a tertiary care hospital in the United Arab Emirates. PATIENTS: One hundred seventy six premature infants, born at a gestational age of 22-34 weeks, and hospitalized during four RSV outbreaks that occurred between April 2005 and July 2007. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We collected demographic and clinical data for each patient by using a standardized form. Input data consisted of seven categoric and continuous variables each. We trained, tested, and validated artificial neural networks for three outcomes of interest: mortality, days of supplemental oxygen, and length of NICU stay after the index case was identified. We compared variable impacts and performed reassignments with live predictions to evaluate the effect of palivizumab. Of the 176 infants, 31 (17.6%) received palivizumab during the outbreaks. All neural network configurations converged within 4 seconds in less than 400 training cycles. Infants who received palivizumab required supplemental oxygen for a shorter duration compared with controls (105.2 ± 7.2 days vs 113.2 ± 10.4 days, p=0.003). This benefit was statistically significant in male infants whose birth weight was less than 0.7 kg and who had hemodynamically significant congenital heart disease. Length of NICU stay after identification of the index case and mortality were independent of palivizumab use. CONCLUSION: Palivizumab may be an effective intervention during nosocomial outbreaks of RSV in a subgroup of extremely low-birth-weight male infants with hemodynamically significant congenital heart disease.

Clostridium septicum infection of hepatic metastases following alcohol injection: a case report.

Clostridium septicum infections are generally associated with gastrointestinal or hematologic malignancies. We report the first case of hepatic metastases infection with Clostridium septicum that followed alcohol injection of liver lesion. Clinicians should consider this possibility in patients with underlying malignancy who present with hepatic abscess, as prompt surgical drainage and empiric antibiotics may be life saving.

Season effect on genitalia and epididymal sperm from Iberian red deer, roe deer and Cantabrian chamois.

Seasonality deeply affects the physiology and behavior of many species, and must be taken into account when biological resource banks (BRBs) are established. We have studied the effect of seasonality on many reproductive parameters of free-ranging Iberian red deer, roe deer and Cantabrian chamois, living in Spain. Testicles from hunted animals were collected and sent to our laboratory at different times during the year. We recorded the weight and volume of testis, the weight of the epididymis and its separate parts (caput, corpus, and cauda), the weight of the sperm sample collected from the cauda epididymis, and several sperm parameters (sperm concentration, spermatozoa recovered, motility, HOS test reactivity, acrosomal status, and viability). We studied the data according to several periods, defined accordingly to each species. For red deer, we defined rut (mid-September to mid-October), post-rut (mid-October to mid-December), and non-breeding season (February). For roe deer, they were pre-rut (June), rut (July), post-rut (first fortnight of August), and non-breeding season (September). For chamois: non-breeding season (June to mid-September) and breeding season (October-November). The rut/breeding season yielded significantly higher numbers for almost all parameters. However, in the case of red deer, sperm quality was higher in the post-rut. For roe deer, testicular weight was similar in the pre-rut and in the rut, and sperm quality did not differ significantly between these two periods, although we noticed higher values in the rut. In the case of chamois, sperm quality did not differ significantly from the breeding season, but data distribution suggested that in the non-breeding season there are less males with sperm of good quality. On the whole, we find these results of interest for BRB planning. The best season to collect sperm in this species would be the breeding season. However, post-rut in red deer, pre-rut in roe deer, and non-breeding season in chamois could be used too, because of the acceptable sperm quality, despite the lower quantity salvaged. More in-depth research needs to be carried out on the quality of sperm salvaged at different times of the year in order to confirm these findings.