Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2013 Issue 1

Qatar has a high burden of chronic diseases including obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Low serum vitamin D levels have been implicated in the development and progression of a range of these chronic conditions. The prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency in the general population of Qatar has still not been investigated. The aim of this study was to carry out a systematic review o Read More

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is the most common form of vertigo seen in emergency departments. Typically these patients complain of the room spinning associated with certain head movements, nausea and vomiting. This condition can be diagnosed by taking a good history and performing a Dix-Hallpike manoeuvre. BPPV can be successfully treated by physical manoeuvres such as Epley, modified Epley, Semont Read More

The most occurring cancer among women in the world is the breast cancer. It is still unknown what are the reasons one woman develops the breast cancer and another does not develop it. Advances in diagnostics and treatment options, increased understanding of breast cancer types, and, most recently, exploration in the role of genetic mutations in cancer development all have contributed to the reduction of fatalities. Read More

Current methods to derive induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from human dermal fibroblasts by viral infection rely on complex protocols. One major factor contributing to the time required to derive lines is the ability of researchers to identify fully reprogrammed unique candidate clones from a mixed cell population containing transformed or partially reprogrammed cells and fibroblasts at an early time point post i Read More

Dates form an important product of Qatari agriculture and further constitute an icon of the identity and heritage of the Arab world. Along many Arab countries, Qatar is engaging active research into studying the biology of dates with the view of improving the quality of the fruit both for commercial reasons as well as impact on the human health. As part of a major initiative of date biology research project at WCMC-Q, w Read More

Deep tissue fungal infections cause over 30% mortality and add over $2.6 billion to healthcare costs in the United States alone [1,2]. In Qatar, fungal infections occur in up to 16% of all patience's suffering from continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis [3]. Implanted medical devices such as artificial joints, catheters and artificial heart valves are associated with elevated rates of fungal bloodstream infections. One of the pr Read More

The metabolic syndrome is a clustered syndrome characterized by five major abnormalities: cardiovascular risk factors, including elevated blood pressure, dyslipidemia, impaired glycemic control, and abdominal obesity. Although, this syndrome is reaching an epidemic spread in parallel to obesity, the incidence of the metabolic syndrome is expected to continue to rise, enabling the exercise prescription to contribute to opti Read More

Human Enterovirus (HEV) infections, speci?cally Coxsackievirus B(CVB), demonstrate ß-cell tropism and are associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Previous studies have shown that Coxsackie-Adenovirus receptors (CAR) and Decay Accelerating Factor (DAF) are both required to initiate CVB infection in human and rodent models, but this has not been examined in Human Islets-Clusters (HICS), which are derived from human i Read More

One reason why developmental delays and specific language disabilities are grossly under-identified outside of the U.S. is the absence of locally developed norm-referenced assessment tools for its multilingual and multicultural population (Ooi & Wong, 2012). As a result, there is a paucity of both quantitative and qualitative data on assessing developmental and language delays in different languages and cultural environment Read More