Qatar Medical Journal - Volume 2003, Issue 2

Abu Yousuf Yaqub Ibn Ishaq A1 Kindi was born at Kufa around 800 C.E. His father was an official of Haroon A1 Rashid. A1 Kindi was a contemporary of A1 Mamun, A1 Mu'tasim and A1 Mutawakkil and flourished largely at Baghdad. He vas for-mally employed by Mutawakkil as a calligrapher. On account of his philosophical views, Muta-wakkil was annoyed with him and confiscated all his books. These were, however, returned later on. He died in Read More

Papers considered for publication in Qatar Medical Journal are those reporting original work, review articles and case reports that are particularly relevant to medicine in the broad sense. Editorials and Review articles are by invitation.

Objective: To evaluate how effective was the conserva-tive treatment in managing congenital talipes equinovarus deformity. Methods: This is a retrospective study of 25 children treated with manipulation, casting followed by percutane-ous tenotomy at the age of thee months with casting till age of walking with a follow-up between 2-5 years 25 pa-tients 18 males 7females M\F (2.6-1), 19 bilateral (15 My 4 F), 6 unilateral (3 M, 3 F) total Read More

The files were reviewed retrospectively of all patients diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis in Qatar; Arabian Gulf during 1992-1997. Qatar has a large single male immigrant labor force, mainly young Asians, and these constituted more than half of the 35 patients treated. Pain was the most common complaint at presentation. Computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were utilised to identify the lesions and th Read More

Hyperbilirubinemia is a common problem of term and preterm neonates. Two hundred four jaundiced neonates admitted to Basrah Maternity and Childrens Hospital over a 6-month period were studied to determine the frequency of pyruvate kinase (PK) deficiency, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and glutathione reductase (GSSG-R) deficiency. Forty two neonates (20.5%) had PK deficiency, 68 (33.3%) Read More

Objective. To review the role of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in the prevention of recurrent miscarriage (RM). Methods. In a prospective controlled clinical tria], 40 women with a history of unexplained. RMwere treated with IVIG, according to a specific protocol and compared to another 40 women who had the same condition and treated with tender loving care and vitamins only. The birth of a child of more than 28 weeks gestation was Read More

One hundred patients with chronic sciatica were stud-ied to determine the effects upon the knee and ankle joints of both the sciatic and non-sciatic sides. The frequency of the clinical involvement of the knee and ankle joints at the sciatic side were 51% and 46% respectively, compared to 20% and 6% on the non-sciatic side (p < 0.001). The most frequent knee and/or ankle joint manifesta-tions on the sciatic side were recurrent pain and Read More

The reference range for Haemoglobin A2 (HbA2) by the microcolumn technique is not well defined. Various textbooks and inserts give different reference ranges. This leads to confusion in interpretation. Normal Saudi individuals were checked by the method, excluding all disease in them that can affect HbA2 level. The reference range obtained was 2.0-2.7 (mean+SD). This new range will decrease remarkably the overlap between nor Read More

This retrospective study evaluated the effectiveness and safety of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding as a means of treatment of morbid obesity in Qatar. Methods: Seventy-one patients (59 females; mean age 32 years, range 18 to 60) underwent laparoscopic adjust-able gastric banding for morbid obesity. Their mean weight was 134.6 Kg (range 90 to 200) and mean preoperative body mass index was 49.8 Kg/m2 (range 36.5 to 70). Res Read More

Intensive follow-up of cancer of the colon and rectumincludes colonoscopy 1 year after curative resection and is the current practice in Calgary. There is much debate in the literature as to the value of this intensive follow-up,including 2 prospective randomized controlled trials showing no benefit. The purpose of this study was to assess the benefit of 1-year follow-up colonoscopy by documenting the findings at the time of the procedure. On Read More

Using the World Health Organization (WHO) visual acuity classification protocol, a national simple descrip-tive study for determination of the causes and severity of sight loss amongst 90 children studying in Al Noor Insti-tute for blinds in Qatar was done between September 2001-September 2002. Of 90 patients with complete ophthalmic examinations, 65 (72%) of them had an inherited or con-genital cause and only 25(28%) had an acquired Read More

FNA has emerged as a powerful and accurate diagnostic tool for breast carcinomas. In the experienced hands false positive and false negative diagnosis have been reduced to a minimum. It has also been recognized that besides diagnosis, several other important clinical prognostic information can be obtained from FNA material. These include estrogen and progesterone recep-tor assay, proliferative fraction and oncogene products. These Read More

Bilateral congenital choanal atresia (CCA) in newbornscarries significant morbidity and mortality. Many surgical approaches have been described for its correction but none of the approaches have proved superior in preventing postoperative granulation tissue and restenosis. Recently, topical Mitomycin C (MMC) has been used intraoperatively to prevent the formation of granulation tissue and restenosis in choanal atresia repair. We report a seri Read More

The medical records were reviewed of 124 patients (108 males, 16 females) with Behget disease attending the King Hussein Medical Center and Prince Rashed Bin Al-Hasan Military Hospital, Jordan, between January 1996 and June 2001. The clinical pattern, manifestations and clinical course in Jordanian patients were compared with those in other countries of the region. There was some variation in the frequency of lesions in the sample comp Read More

The objective of this study was to explore the prevailing complications of diabetes mellitus and to explore some of the associated factors among Qatari patients previously diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus. A random sample of Qatari diabetic patients attending outpatient clinics (8 am to 12 pm) attached to Hamad General Hospital, between May 2001-2002 were included in the study. The total sample was 225, 74 males, and 151 fema Read More

Objective: Hydrocephalus is a common condition seen in the neurosurgical practice that usually requires insertion of a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt. It is commonly seen in our country for possible several reasons; some of them are the prohibition of abortion and increased consanguinity marriages. In this study, the authors retrospectively analyzed 124 hydrocephalic patients operated upon at our institute for three years period. Our aim is t Read More

Intestinal obstruction is common surgical emergency, ileosigmoid knot is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction (a loop of ileum and sigmoid colon twisted around each other in a knot). This knot is common in Negro people. About 150 cases recorded in literatures, but we recorded a more six cases in Basrah General Teaching Hospital in the last 10 years.