[Neuroscience in ancient Egypt and in the school of Alexandria]. / Neurociencia en el Egipto faraónico y en la escuela de Alejandría.

INTRODUCTION: About five thousand years ago, one of the most ancient, important and enduring civilisations in the history of Mankind flourished on the banks of the Nile. In Egypt, all the branches of human knowledge attained a high degree of development and today it is considered the mother of medicine. Despite the marked religious component that affected all its activities, the medicine of the Pharaohs was practised in a rational and deductive manner, and the Egyptians were the inventors of clinical observation. METHOD: The desert climate of the Nile Valley has preserved monuments, mummies and papyruses which have enabled us to get a certain idea of the degree of development reached in medical matters. The aim of this work is to analyse them from a neuroscientific point of view. The anatomical discoveries of the Egyptians originated in the inspection of wounds and the practice of embalming. They came to know a large number of diagnoses and were able to prescribe many different forms of treatment. They also attained a certain proficiency in dealing with neurotraumatological patients. They practised anamnesis, prognostics and a regulated surgery that infrequently included trephination. Their conservatism meant that, after the Macedonian domination, the traditional Egyptian medicine was replaced the Greek medicinal arts, which reached their maximum period of splendour in the School of Alexandria, where Herophilus and Erasistratus, pioneers in the study of anatomy and brain circulation, were especially renowned. CONCLUSIONS: From the point of view of the neurosciences, the Egyptians were the first to describe the brain, migraine, epilepsy, strokes, tetanus, Bell s palsy and the sequelae of head injuries and of spinal transection. Their artwork sometimes shows neurological patients and, according to Herodotus, there were doctors who were specialised in head diseases and could therefore be considered the precursors of our present day neurologists.

Neurociencia en el Egipto faraónico y en la escuela de Alejandría / Neuroscience in ancient Egypt and in the school of Alexandria

Introducción. A orillas del Nilo floreció hace cinco milenios una de las civilizaciones más antiguas, importantes y duraderas de la historia de la humanidad. En Egipto se alcanzó un alto grado de desarrollo en todas las ramas del saber humano y hoy se considera la civilización madre de la medicina. A pesar del marcado componente religioso que afectaba a todas sus actividades, la medicina faraónica se practicó de una forma racional y deductiva, y los egipcios fueron los creadores de la observación clínica. Desarrollo. El clima desértico del valle del Nilo ha preservado monumentos, momias y papiros cuyo estudio permite hacerse cierta idea del grado de desarrollo alcanzado en los saberes médicos. Su análisis desde el punto de vista de los conocimientos neurocientíficos constituye el objetivo de este trabajo. Los hallazgos anatómicos de los egipcios derivaron de la inspección de heridas y de la práctica del embalsamamiento. Llegaron a conocer un gran número de diagnósticos y a prescribir muchos tratamientos, y alcanzaron cierto desarrollo en el manejo del paciente neurotraumatológico. Practicaron la anamnesis, el pronóstico y una cirugía reglada que incluía infrecuentemente la trepanación. Su conservadurismo hizo que, tras la dominación macedónica, la medicina griega suplantara a la tradicional egipcia, que alcanzó su máximo esplendor con la escuela de Alejandría, donde destacaron Herófilo y Erasístrato, pioneros de los estudios de anatomía y circulación cerebrales. Conclusiones. Desde el punto de vista de la neurociencia, los egipcios describieron por primera vez el cerebro, la jaqueca, la epilepsía, los ictus, el tétanos, la parálisis de Bell y las secuelas de los traumatismos craneales y de la sección medular. En sus manifestaciones artísticas se aprecian pacientes neurológicos y, según refiere Heródoto, había medicos especializados en las `enfermedades de la cabeza' que podrían considerarse precursores de los actuales neurólogos (AU)

PAH-DNA adducts in a petrol refinery in Egypt.

Epidemiological surveys in occupationally exposed populations postulate that long-term exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is carcinogenic. We studied the ability of PAHs to induce the formation of adducts in the DNA of white blood cells of petrol refinery workers exposed at the workplace. Our study included a random sample of 56 workers exposed to PAHs and 37 non-exposed workers. In the univariate analysis, the DNA adduct level of PAH-exposed workers (42.22 +/- 45.11) was significantly increased (P < 0.05) compared with that in the non-exposed group (20.90 +/- 22.56). However, we could not identify either current smoking or absence of glutathione S-transferase class Mu as possible risk factors for DNA adducts. Linear regression analysis identified degree of exposure to PAHs as the only DNA adducts risk factor. Further research with a larger sample size is under investigation to identify the DNA adduct levels and relationship between the different types of PAHs.

Diverse patterns of recognition of hepatitis C virus core and nonstructural antigens by antibodies present in Egyptian cancer patients and blood donors.

Serum samples from 429 cancer patients, 82 unpaid blood donors, and 74 paid blood donors were tested for hepatitis C virus (HCV) markers in two commercially available enzyme immunoassays (EIAs). A total of 229 of 429 (53.4%) cancer patients were positive by the two EIAs. A total of 34 of 156 (21.8%) of the blood donors were positive by the EIAs, with a higher prevalence among paid blood donors (20/74; 27%) compared with that among the unpaid blood donors (14 of 82; 17%). EIA-positive sera were tested for confirmation of the results in an immunoblot assay (LiaTek) in which reactivities to four synthetic peptides representing the HCV core protein and two synthetic peptides representing nonstructural proteins 4 and 5 were measured. Of 243 first and/or second EIA-positive samples from cancer patients, 188 (77.2%) were confirmed to be positive in the synthetic peptide immunoblot. A total of 33 of 35 (94.3%) blood donor samples were confirmed to be positive. A great diversity in reactivity patterns was seen. However, all sera from the group of paid blood donors were exclusively reactive to core peptides 1 and 2. A subset of LiaTek assay-positive samples were tested by the four-antigen RIBA-2 assay. The sera from the paid blood donors were all nonreactive. A subset of the LiaTek-positive sera was analyzed for the presence of the HCV genome by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Eleven of the 20 serum samples with reactivity to LiaTek core peptides 1 and 2 only were HCV reverse transcriptase-PCR positive, as were the majority of the sera with other reactivity patterns by the LiaTek assay. The results confirm the very high prevalence of HCV infection in Egypt. Furthermore, the results indicate that there is circulating in Egypt, particularly in the group of blood donors paid for their donation, an HCV variant which elicits an immune response that is not detected by the RIBA-2 assay.

Comparative results of the immunogenicity of Edmonston-Zagreb and Schwartz measles vaccines administered to 60 Egyptian infants.

The present study was conducted on sixty 9-11 month infants attending a primary care clinic in a rural Giza governorate area. Patients were divided into two groups: the first group comprised 42 infants who were vaccinated with the Edmonston Zagreb measles vaccine strain, whereas the second group comprised 18 infants who were vaccinated with the Schwartz measles vaccine strain. Estimation of measles antibody titer by neutralization testing was determined by the microtiter technique prior to and 4 weeks post vaccination. The overall serconversion rate was 85%. Three infants failed vaccination. The Edmonston-Zagreb strain was superior to the Schwartz strain in inducing immunity to non immune infants. The nutritional status of the study group was abnormal in almost 1/2 (29/60) infants and borderline in 1/3 (20/60).