Qatar Medical Journal - Volume 2007, Issue 2

“Abul Kassim A1 Zahrawi” known in the west as “Abul Casis” was born in Cordoba in 936 AD. He made a famous name as a brilliant surgeon in the era of A1 Andalus (Muslim Spain). He wrote several books including a large reference book in the methodology of surgery, called Al Tasrif. He affirmed first of all that there is no barrier between Medicine and Surgery, i.e. between “Cutting” experience and knowledge of clinical and functional aspects 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.

Knowledge is the corner stone of teaching, and this is built upon by reading. The word “doctor” in Latin means, “to teach”. Hence reading comes with the difficulty of selecting the appropriate material. What to read and how to read? There are more than 65,000 medical articles published each day, and it is impossible to keep up-to-date by reading them all (which could take 40 years). So, one needs to be highly selective in reading by applying Read More

About 30 years ago bone marrow transplantation was an experimental procedure carried out as a last resort in terminally ill patients. Nowadays hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has become a standard procedure for many severe malignant or non-malignant disorders of the hematopoietic system. It is well known that HSCT is associated with transplant related mortality and morbidity (TRM), the risk of which in allo Read More

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent and aggressive neoplasms. It is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the United States and is a significant overall health problem. Tumor markers are substances synthesized and excreted by tumor tissues that can be detected in abnormal concentrations in serum, urine, and other body fluids. Two such markers, Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (C Read More

Periodontal conditions in 100 dentate adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were compared with those of age and gender matched individuals without rheumatoid arthritis. The clinical parameters for periodontitis included probing pocket depths, attachment loss, gingival inflammation scores, plaque scoresand radiographic bone loss scores. The rheumatoid arthritis group had more missing teeth than the control group and a higher percen Read More

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of non-enhanced spiral CT (NECT) and compare it with that of excretory urography (EU) in patients with acute flank pain. Methods: Ninety five patients presenting with acute flank pain underwent both NECT and EU. Both techniques were used to determine the presence, size, and location of urinary stone, and the presence or absence of secondary signs was also evaluated. The existence of ureteral s Read More

Objectives: The objective of the study was to determine prevalent pneumococcal serotypes causing infections in different age groups, their susceptibility to fi-lactams and macrolides and whether these serotypes are covered by the conjugated pneumococcal vaccines. Methods: Streptococcus pneumonia strains isolated from different patients at Hamad Medical Corporation, Microbiology Laboratory between September 1999 and July 2000 were Read More

Ectopic pregnancy is of increasing concern to gynecologists since it is a major cause of maternal mortality and morbidity in reproductive age women. It occurs when the conceptus implants in an abnormal position other than the uterus. Although the incidence of ectopic pregnancy during the 20 years studied increased five-folds, the risk of death from ectopic pregnancy declined by 90%. This decline might be related to the increase awaren Read More

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risk of foetal loss attributable to amniocentesis and to assess the experience in technique, successful fluid aspiration in amniocentesis performed in our hospital Study Design: Medical record of 123 women who underwent amniocentesis between September 1996 till March 2002 were reviewed for indication, maternal, age, nationality, maternal age, parity, nationality, gestation Read More

We carried out a study on the prevalence of CA-MRSA in Abha and found a rate of 16% in an environment where nosocomial MRS A rate is 46%. We believe that the rate of CA-MRSA could be much lower if the patients had been interviewed with a view to eliminate obvious risk factors

Objectives: The aims of the study are to determine the role of anti-phospholipid autoantibodies (APLAs) among patients with stroke and/or transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs), to identify the types and effective isotype of some important APLAs which are lupus anticoagulant (LA), anticardiolipin (aCL), anti∼fi2 glycoprotein I dependent (afi2-GPI), and anti-phosphatidyl serine (aPS). Also, to find out any concomitant effect of non-APLAparamet Read More

A total of 78,428 blood units collected by the Blood Donor Unit, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, from the multinational donors of Qatar (28,622 Qatari nationals donors and 49,806 Non-Qatari donors) in the period January 1994 to Dececember 2001 were screened for hepatitis markers. About 10,382 units (13.2%) were discarded because of positivity for one or more hepatitis markers; 769 units (0.9%) were positive for hepatitis-B su Read More

Case records were reviewed retrospectively of 49 patients admitted between January 1992 and December 2002 to evaluate the epidemiologic pattern of Kawasaki disease (KD) in Qatar. Ages ranged from three months to nine years with a median of 28 months and a male/female ratio of 2.3:1. During the eleven years, the annual incidence varied from 2.5/100,000 to 20/100,000 and appears to be increasing. Most cases occurred in the cool Read More

Three adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) presented in the span of less than two years with pancytopenia, signs of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) and no localizing pain to suggest vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC). Bone marrow examination showed almost complete necrosis of the whole series of marrow cells, thus explaining the pancytopenia. Some necrotic leukocytes were noted also in the peripheral blood. The condit Read More

Catheter-induced Left Main Coronary Artery (LMCA) dissection is a very uncommon but life-threatening complication of coronary intervention and requires urgent management. We report one such patient whose risk factors appear to be Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), smoking and a prior Myocardial Infarction (MI).

Although hypertension is a known complication of hydronephrosis, it is never severe enough to cause encephalopathy. Here we report a baby boy with unilateral hydronephrosis who presented with hypertensive encephalopathy and whose condition was cured by the insertion of percutaneous nephrostomy followed by pyeloplasty.

Brugada Syndrome is a distinct form of an arrhythmic disease characterized by right bundle branch block an ST segment elevation in the right pericardial leads (VI - V3) of the electrocardiogram (ECG). This syndrome is clinically important because of the high incidence of sudden death by ventricular fibrillation (VF) without any structural heart disease, and is seen especially in the Asian population including Japanese people. Rece Read More

Lipid-lowering agents such as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (also known as statin drugs) are generally well tolerated. But a recognized side effect still can happen, We report a case of 47-year-old Iraqi male patient previously known hypothyroid, was not on replacement therapy, as he did not appear after his thyroid functions was checked came in with severe body pain for 10 months got worse in the last three months, started on lipostat (t Read More

We report a case of a tightly circumcised woman who bled irregularly throughout her first year of marriage but failed to conceive. The detection and management of a large but hidden cervical polyp solved her problems. We suggest that such cases, especially in immigrant women, require deeper investigation than might at first appear to be needed.

Xanthomas are localized infiltrates oftipid-containing cells found within the dermis. Cutaneous xanthomas are mostly cosmetic disorders but xanthomas can indicate the presence of an underlying generalized disturbance in lipid metabolism possibly associated with coronary artery disease. Because hyperlipidemia may present as xanthomatosis, a dermatologist might be the first to diagnose these associated lipid abnormalities, We report Read More

A 62-year-old Pakistani man presented with fever and chest pain of five-day duration. He was non-smoker and he had no history of hemoptysis, wheezing, loss of weight or exposure to tuberculosis. Other history was unremarkable. Physical examination revealed a heart rate of 116 beats/min, BP of 121/ 58 mm Hg, temperature of 38.5°C, and a room air oxygen saturation of 92 %. There was no cervical, axillary, or inguinal lymphadeno Read More

A sixty years old patient, known case of chronic renal failure on regular hemodialysis through long term intravascular catheter was admitted with fever. Blood culture revealed staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (MSSA).

Objective: To investigate cross-sectional associations among blood pressures (BPs), arterial stiffness, and open-angle glaucoma (OAG). Methods: Study participants came from the population-based Rotterdam Study. The baseline examination phase took place after an extensive home interview from March 20, 1990, to June 17,1993, and the third phase between March 19,1997, and December 16,1999. Cases were classified into high-tensio Read More

Heart failure (HF) is a major killer. Many die due to uncontrolled HF, but many die even when HF is well controlled, principally due to major ventricular arrhythmia. In Framingham study, one third of patients with HF died suddenly (SCD). While diuretics have made a major impact on the main symptoms of HF, edema and breathless, they did no change mortality. It was only with introduction of vasodilators and ACE Inhibitors that the total mort Read More