Qatar Medical Journal - Volume 2005, Issue 1

The modern drug store, owes its origin to the Arabs. The Moslems showed much originality as apothecaries and herbalists. They gave the sick new and wondrous medicaments: Cassia, senna, manna, arsenic, ambria, camphor, balsam and borax.

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.

In the early 1980s, patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN) had a doomed prognosis. Severe renal failure developed within five years of the onset of proteinuria.[1] The mortality was 53%, with 59% of deaths attributable to renal failure. There is no doubt that this devastating complication of diabetes has caused immeasurable human suffering and enormous healthcare costs.

The study involved 196 participants, 83 (42.3%) of which were consultants and 113 (57.7%) were General Practitioners (GP's). Background: The way that GP's and hospital consultants or specialists interact has important implications for any health care system in which a GP is the first contact health professional person for patients and the point of access to relatively scarce and expensive hospital services, for this reason, the relationship Read More

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of death from cancer amongst women in developing countries. A study in Qatar in 1997 found that the cancer of the cervix was the most common type of cancer in the female genital tract. In order to further assess the relevance of various risk factors, the records were reviewed of 100 women diagnosed with cervical cancer and intraepithelial lesions bet Read More

A multi-stage sampling design was used between January and May 2004 to explore the association between sociodemographic factors and consanguineous marriages in the Qatari population using a sample of 1800 Qatari females aged 15 years and above. Data on 1515 (85.8%) Qatari national families who gave their consent for the study were obtained. The socio-demographic factors considered were: husband's age, her o Read More

Post-partum choriocarcinoma is a rare complication of pregnancy. We have analyzed a series of six consecutive patients presenting with choriocarcinoma after a fullterm non-molar pregnancy. The incidence was calculated to be 1 in 19,000 births. Five patients were managed at the Hamad Medical Corporation between 1991 and 2001. All presented with persistent primary or secondary post-partum hemorrhage. Treatment with c Read More

As the average life expectancy is gradually increasing, more elderly patients are seen in neurosurgical clinics but those aged 80 years or more pose significant medical and ethical dilemmas for neurosurgeons. A retrospective study of eleven patients assessed the post-operative short term outcome in very old patients with benign brain tumors. Six had total surgical excision and five had partial resection. The outcome was good for six, uncha Read More

Objective: To study the obstetric performance and neonatal outcome of patients of extreme multiparity, Para 10 and more, compared to control group of Para 2 to 4. Study Design: It is a retrospective comparative study. Data were collected from Medical Records ofpatients during the period from January-December 2000. The total number of deliveries during that period was 10,999. 240 patients records were reviewed, 120 records in e Read More

To study the antimicrobial resistance pattern of aerobic Gram-negative bacilli isolated from patients in intensive care units in Hamad Medical Corporation, 108 non-duplicate isolates from 60 patients with nosocomial infections were determined by Vitek machine. The minimal inhibitory concentration of 14 antimicrobials was determined by E-test and results were interpreted according to the National Committee for Clinical La Read More

The purpose of this study is to formulate guidelines for proper surgical management ofphyllodes tumours. It is a disease often misdiagnosed by the pathologist and undertreated by surgeons. We have retrospectively studied 12 patients with histologically proven cystosarcoma phyllodes (CSP). There were 4 benign and 8 malignant lesions, with an incidence of 33.33% vs 66.66% respectively. The treatment was surgical in all patients. The ex Read More

One of the critical decisions during the preparative assessment of a patient who will have a breast reconstruction is whether a flap transfer will he necessary to supplement the anterior chest wall tissue. In our practice the material of choice for breast reconstruction is autologous tissue. The latissimus dorsi muscle flap (LDMF) is the most commonly used autogenous tissue flap for breast reconstruction. Few reports exist fro its use Read More

Background: Primary Sjogren's Syndrom(SS) is an autoimmune disease with diverse clinical presentation. This study was conducted to describe the clinical and immunological picture of SS in patients seen in the main hospital in Qatar. Methods: We reviewed all the medical records of patients seen at Hamad medical corporation between 1997 and 2002 who met the classification criteria for primary SS. Eighteen patient met these criteria. R Read More

Extraskeletal ossification may occur in muscle and other soft tissue, The phenomenon may be classified as follows: (1) progressive Myositis ossificans, (2) traumatic localized Myositis ossificans, and (3) nontraumatic localized Myositis ossificans. The literature suggests that 75% of the localized forms occur as a result of trauma. We report a case of non traumatic myositis ossificans which involved the hypothenar region of the hand.

Pathological fractures in primary hyperparthyroidsm are usually seen in the late stages of the disease. It is extremely rare to see such fractures in asymptomatic hyperparathyroidsm. We present such a case and discuss the diagnostic difficulties and problems in treatment.

A rare case of splenic abscess due to salmonella infection in a teen-age non-Qatari male was treated unsuccessfully by antibiotic therapy and percutaneous drainage. The patient recovered uneventfully after the spleen was removed laparoscopically.

Pulmonary pneumatocele is an unusual complication of bacteria Pneumonia in the neonatal period. They usually develop during the recovery phase, and generally resolve spontaneously within seeks to months [1], We present a premature newborn that developed a large pneumatocele secondary to staphylococcus aureus pneumonia that was treated successfully with a test tube inserted into the pneumatocele. This resulted in complete re Read More