Qatar Medical Journal - Volume 2024, Issue 4

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are commonly prescribed to hospitalized patients, but many of these prescriptions may not be based on evidence-based indications. It’s important to understand that inappropriate prescribing of PPIs can lead to unnecessary medications and financial burdens. Unfortunately, there are not many recent studies exploring how often PPIs are prescribed and if they are being prescribed appropriately.

Objective: The study aimed to assess the appropriateness of PPIs use among hospitalized patients. It evaluated the indications for PPIs use and determined whether the use of PPIs in hospitalized patients is justified or not.

Setting: The study was conducted at Hamad General Hospital, a tertiary academic healthcare center in the state of Qatar.

Methods: A retrospective observational study with 201 subjects, was conducted in general internal medicine wards at a tertiary hospital. Physician documentation and inpatient and outpatient medication prescriptions were analyzed for PPIs exposure.

Main outcome measures: The appropriateness of exposure to PPIs is determined based on international recommendations.

Results: Of 533 hospitalized patients who were not critically ill, 201 (37.7%) were prescribed PPIs. The study found that 65.2% of the patients had no valid indication for PPIs exposure. Furthermore, 18% of patients were inappropriately prescribed stress ulcer prophylaxis with PPIs even though they had a low risk for the development of ulcer disease. After discharge, 82.6% of patients were prescribed PPIs, with the most common indication (43%) being gastrointestinal ulcer prophylaxis.

Conclusion: This study sheds light on the issue of overutilization of PPIs, specifically in non-critically ill hospitalized patients. It highlights the unnecessary continuation of PPI prescriptions at discharge and emphasizes the importance of physicians reevaluating PPI prescriptions periodically to ensure they are still necessary and discontinuing them when possible to avoid unwanted consequences.

Introduction: The inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare sector has transformed medical practices by introducing innovative techniques for medical education, diagnosis, and treatment strategies. In medical education, the potential of AI to enhance learning and assessment methods is being increasingly recognized. This study aims to evaluate the performance of OpenAI’s Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT) in emergency medicine (EM) residency examinations in Qatar and compare it with the performance of resident physicians.

Methods: A retrospective descriptive study with a mixed-methods design was conducted in August 2023. EM residents’ examination scores were collected and compared with the performance of ChatGPT on the same examinations. The examinations consisted of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) from the same faculty responsible for Qatari Board EM examinations. ChatGPT’s performance on these examinations was analyzed and compared with residents across various postgraduate years (PGY).

Results: The study included 238 emergency department residents from PGY1 to PGY4 and compared their performances with ChatGPT. ChatGPT scored consistently higher than resident groups in all examination categories. However, a notable decline in passing rates was observed among senior residents, indicating a potential misalignment between examination performance and practical competencies. Another likely reason can be the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their learning experience, knowledge acquisition, and consolidation.

Conclusion: ChatGPT demonstrated significant proficiency in the theoretical knowledge of EM, outperforming resident physicians in examination settings. This finding suggests the potential of AI as a supplementary tool in medical education.

Introduction: Neonatal sepsis (NS) is a major healthcare burden in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with a prevalence higher than the global average. Microbial drug resistance has major implications for mortality and morbidity from NS.

Objective: To synthesize data regarding the patterns of causative bacteria of NS in the GCC and their antimicrobial susceptibility profiles.

Methods: Following the exploration of four electronic databases, i.e., EBSCOhost, ProQuest, PubMed/MEDLINE, and ScienceDirect, eligible studies were identified (i.e., published between 2013 and 2023 and reported bacterial profile and/or antimicrobial susceptibility patterns). The outcomes included the pooled prevalence of bacteria and their susceptibility patterns. Proportion meta-analysis was performed for each outcome of interest.

Results: Fifteen studies were eligible (total positive cases = 2,473). Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) (28.1%) were the most common gram-positive causative pathogen, followed by group B Streptococcus (GBS) (16.2%) and Staphylococcus aureus (9.9%); for gram-negative, Escherichia coli (12.7%) and Klebsiella species (11.4%) were most common. The susceptibility rates of these bacteria to first-line antibiotics were high; gram-positive bacteria had the highest susceptibility to ampicillin (72.8–98%), and gram-negative bacteria was most susceptible to amikacin (94.6–98%). Additionally, both gram-positive (67–77%) and negative (87–93%) bacteria exhibited high susceptibility to gentamicin.

Conclusion: The most common pathogens among NS patients were gram-positive. The pathogens, irrespective of stain test, were susceptible to the current antibiotic therapy. We recommend the judicious use of empirical antibiotic therapy to prevent the growing risk of antimicrobial resistance.

Background: Wars are escalating globally with devastating impacts on all aspects of life. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia began on February 24, 2022. Approximately 80,000 students of 155 nationalities were studying in Ukraine when the war started, disrupting their education and forcing many to leave the country. We aimed to determine the physical, emotional, and moral effects of the Ukrainian war on foreign medical students, as well as the secondary impacts of the war on the students due to the ongoing conflict.

Methods: The participants were non-Ukrainian medical students aged 18 years and over, studying at a medical school in Ukraine before the war started. A survey including the depression anxiety stress scales-21 (DASS-21) scale variables, a validated and reliable measure of depression, anxiety, and stress dimensions, and other questions on participants’ demographics, education, and current socio-economic status was sent to all eligible students via their registered university emails and distributed using an online link.

Results: A total of 99 students were included in the study. 52 (52.5%) of the students were female and 49 (49.5%) were between the ages of 23 and 24 years old. Participants reported high levels of depression (86.9%) and anxiety (82.8%), with significant percentages experiencing extreme levels: 40.4% for depression and 55.6% for anxiety. Additionally, 74.7% reported feeling stressed, with 18.2% indicating extreme stress. Reasons for leaving Ukraine included safety concerns (67.7%), seeking a more secure educational environment (63.6%), the impact of the ongoing war and conflict on their future (56.6%), and the loss of educational opportunities (28.3%).

Conclusion: It is not easy to predict how the war in Ukraine will affect the education of international students in the near future. This uncertainty situation may explain students’ depression, anxiety, and stress. As a result, it is necessary to design effective strategies to maintain the training of health professionals during wartime. Research should be conducted on how to rebuild health education systems after the wartime crises stabilize, both for students who are citizens of the country exposed to war and for foreign students who went to that country to receive education, and solutions for this should be put forward.

Background: The introduction of the varicella vaccine has led to a significant decrease in pediatric varicella-induced invasive Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcal [GAS]) infections. However, the development of a pleural empyema following a chickenpox infection is a rare complication in pediatric patients.

Case presentation: In this report, we present a 5-year-old male patient who presented to the emergency department with a deteriorating course two days after a chickenpox infection. The patient complained of high-grade documented fever, a congested throat, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, and most importantly, decreased air entry on the right side of the chest, along with the presence of crepitations. Such a deteriorated clinical picture suggested the presence of an infectious cause. The patient’s physical examination and radiological imaging provided evidence for the presence of lower right-sided lobar pneumonia. On the second day of hospitalization, the patient showed worsening respiratory distress, prompting further investigations that confirmed the development of a right-sided pleural empyema through radiological imaging. Pediatric surgery consultation was requested, and 500 cc of pus was drained following the insertion of a chest tube, which was later sent for analysis. The patient’s clinical picture improved significantly following this intervention. Due to the severity of his condition, the patient was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for close monitoring. After one night in the PICU, during which his condition stabilized and oxygen therapy was gradually weaned off, the patient continued to improve on the general ward. Daily assessments and laboratory tests showed decreasing inflammatory markers and resolution of symptoms. Following three days of admission and confirmation of no underlying immunologic deficiency, the patient was discharged home with appropriate antibiotic therapy and follow-up instructions.

Discussion: Similar cases have been sporadically documented in pediatric literature, with notable examples involving older patients. The pathophysiology involves complex immune interactions and virulence factors of GAS, contributing to severe outcomes such as pleural effusion.

Conclusion: In this case, the 5-year-old patient experienced a severe progression from chickenpox to pleural empyema but ultimately improved following prompt medical intervention and chest tube drainage. The patient was discharged after a successful recovery, highlighting the efficacy of early recognition and treatment in managing such complications.