Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: What Saudi people with epilepsy want to know-A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is a significant cause of mortality in people with epilepsy (PWE), with an incidence of 1 per 1000 members of the population. In Saudi Arabia, no data are available that inform local clinical practitioners about the attitudes of PWE regarding SUDEP. The aim of this study was to investigate the perspectives of Saudi PWE toward SUDEP and to assess their knowledge of SUDEP. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted at the neurology clinics of King Abdul-Aziz Medical City, Riyadh and Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh. RESULTS: Of the 377 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 325 completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the respondents was 32.9 ± 12.6 years. Of the study subjects, 50.5% were male. Only 41 patients (12.6%) had heard about SUDEP. Most patients (94.5%) wanted to know about SUDEP, of whom 313 (96.3%) wanted to receive this information from a neurologist. A total of 148 patients (45.5%) thought that the appropriate time to receive information about SUDEP was after the second visit, whereas only 75 (23.1%) wanted to learn about SUDEP during the first visit. However, 69 patients (21.2%) thought that the appropriate time to be informed about SUDEP was when seizure control had become more difficult. Almost half (172, 52.9%) of the patients thought that SUDEP could be prevented. SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings suggest that most Saudi PWE do not know about SUDEP and want to be counseled about their risk of SUDEP by their physicians. Therefore, education of Saudi PWE about SUDEP must be improved.

Temporal Muscle Cavernous Hemangioma: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Hemangiomas are nonmalignant vascular lesions commonly seen in both the skin and mucosa that rarely occur in skeletal muscles. According to the type of vessel, a hemangioma can be differentiated into capillary, cavernous, or mixed types. The following report describes a case of temporalis muscle hemangioma in a 45-year-old female who presented with painful swelling in the left outer orbital wall, which had been growing in size over the past 12 months. CT scan and MRI revealed a well-demarcated lesion in the temporalis muscle measuring 10 mm × 13 mm × 15 mm. Surgical resection of the lesion was performed, allowing a definitive diagnosis of cavernous hemangioma to be made histologically. As radiological images are mainly inadequate for definitively diagnosing these lesions, surgical intervention is usually required. The recurrence rate differs among the three subtypes; thus, clinical follow-up and radiological imaging as needed are recommended.

Rapid single-molecule detection of COVID-19 and MERS antigens via nanobody-functionalized organic electrochemical transistors.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the need for rapid and sensitive protein detection and quantification in simple and robust formats for widespread point-of-care applications. Here, we report on nanobody-functionalized organic electrochemical transistors with a modular architecture for the rapid quantification of single-molecule-to-nanomolar levels of specific antigens in complex bodily fluids. The sensors combine a solution-processable conjugated polymer in the transistor channel and high-density and orientation-controlled bioconjugation of nanobody-SpyCatcher fusion proteins on disposable gate electrodes. The devices provide results after 10 min of exposure to 5 µl of unprocessed samples, maintain high specificity and single-molecule sensitivity in human saliva and serum, and can be reprogrammed to detect any protein antigen if a corresponding specific nanobody is available. We used the sensors to detect green fluorescent protein, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) spike proteins, and for the COVID-19 screening of unprocessed clinical nasopharyngeal swab and saliva samples with a wide range of viral loads.

Isoenzyme electrophetic characterization of Leishmania major, the causative agent of zoonotic cutaneous Leishmaniasis in North and West Saudi Arabia.

Several expeditions were carried out to four localities (Al-Madinah Almona-warah, Tabouk region, Al-Jouf and Northern Frontiers regions) in Northern and Western Saudi Arabia for sampling zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) cases from patients and rodents. Biopsy samples were collected from 51 patients complaining of skin lesions, most of which (40 or 78.4%) proved to be ZCL. Amastigotes were detected in 33 patients (64.7%), but only 30 (58.9%) gave successful growth of promastigotes in the culture media. The positive cases were Saudis 14(35%) and non-Saudis 26 (65%). Five species of rodents were caught, Meriories libycus, Psammomys obesus, Rattus rattus, jaculus and Hystrix indica. The first species was the most dominant (90%) in which Leishmania parasites were detected. The Leishmania isolates from man and rodents were identified by isoenzyme electrophoresis and proved to be Zymodeme LON-4.