Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2012 Issue 1

Background and Objectives: The epidemiology of road deaths in Qatar has not been fully described. This study will analyze and compare the age-specific death rates from motor vehicle crashes (MVC's) and make recommendations for targeted injury prevention programs for road safety in Qatar. Method: Data from the Qatar Statistic Authority (QSA), for the year 2010 was collected and analyzed. All deaths classified as "mot Read More

Background and Objectives: Recent technological advancements in liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry have facilitated clinical biomarker discovery, verification and validation. Targeted metabolic profiling refers to the precise quantitative measurements of metabolites for validation of markers identified via untargeted metabolomics. Specifically, multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrome Read More

Background and Objectives: The World Health Organization states that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. The increasing prevalence of obesity and diabetes indicate that cardiovascular disease will remain a major health concerns for decades to come. The Gulf States including Qatar, the Middle East and the North African (MENA) region as whole, but also elsewhere in the world, face a pande Read More

Background & Objectives Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS) are used internationally for identifying antibiotic prescribing practices and evaluating antibiotic stewardship programs. The objectives of this study are to develop a PPS tool to be used in Qatar, to determine prevalence of antibiotic consumption in the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) inpatient population, and to characterize antibiotic prescribi Read More

Background and Objectives: Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of liver disease and diabetes and there is currently a pandemic of diabetes that is associated with a very high incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and consequent deregulation of liver function. The overall objective of this project is to determine whether non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hyperglycemia affect calcium homeostasis via alter Read More

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver cancer and one of the commonest solid malignancies. High mortality rates and poor prognosis of the disease are mainly due to late diagnosis, underlying cirrhosis and resistance to chemotherapy. The risk factors of HCC include infections with hepatitis B and C viruses, along with other conditions that cause cirrhosis like: alcoholism and non-alcoholic steatohepatisi Read More

Background and Objectives: Congestion in outpatient departments (OPD) in Qatar's public hospital system is a major problem due to the demographics of the country. Despite the congestion in the general registration and assessment areas, the utilization of doctors' time is considerably low. This paradigm is propagated by (i) the inefficiencies in the appointment system, (ii) the allocation of the resources in th Read More

Background: Previous studies indicated changes of adiponectin levels during gestation. The adiponectin gene ADIPOQ is located on chromosome 3q27. The association of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs1501299 and rs2241766) in ADIPOQ gene with risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was investigated among Arab pregnant women residing in Qatar. Methods: A case-control association study was perform Read More

An efficient method to generate cardiac tissue from other tissues has great therapeutic potential for patients suffering from cardiovascular disease. Pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic stem (ES) cells, and so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be differentiated into multiple cell types, including cardiac myocytes. However, therapeutic use of these cells has several important risks, including cancer as well as loss o Read More

Background: Calnexin is a lectin-like chaperone in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen, which along with calreticulin are involved in folding, maturation and trafficking of many glycoproteins. Insulin receptor and glucose transporters are among some of the proteins which are synthesized and folded in the ER. Previously, calreticulin was reported to play a role in the folding of GLUT-4 transporter as well as its stability. Furthe Read More