Objective: To study the blood pressure lowering effect of Cassytha filiformis extract in animal models of hypertension and its correlation with the antioxidant activity. Methods: Male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into two groups: endocrine hyper-tension (HTN group) that received a combination of prednisone and salt for two weeks and oxidative stress-associated hypertension (HTN-OS group) that received additional induction of L-Nitro Arginine Methyl Esther (L-NAME) for two days. Each group was subdivided into 4 and treated intravenously with the extract 5; 10; and 20 mg/kg, and vehicle control. The systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were recorded. The blood was taken before and at the end of recording for the measurement of serum concentration of nitric oxide (NO). The changes of blood pressure were analyzed by two-way ANOVA while its correlation with NO concentration was analyzed by Pearson's Correlation. Results: The study showed a significant antihypertensive effect of the extract as compared with control group (P<0.05) in both hypertensive models. Extract in the dose of 5 mg/kg showed the best blood pressure lowering effect. However, the correlation analysis did not show an association between NO increase and blood pressure lowering effect (P>0.05). Conclusions: The study concludes that C. filiformis extract in the dose of 5 mg/kg ex-hibits the best blood pressure lowering effect in both animal models. Antihypertensive activity of the extract is not correlated with its antioxidant effect.

The World Health Organisation recommends healthcare practitioners to equip themselves with appropriate skills to assess the psychological distress in women attending the antenatal and postnatal healthcare. Nevertheless, little is known about the healthcare practitioners’ perceptions of postnatal depression and its management. The aims of this review were: (i) to explore the experiences of healthcare practitioners in caring for women with postnatal depression in different countries and (ii) to identify any qualitative study conducted in Malaysia regarding the healthcare practitioners’ perceptions of postnatal depression. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative synthesis of studies reporting the healthcare practitioners’ experience of managing women with postnatal depression was conducted. A search in CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and ASSIA databases was performed using specific keywords and published peer-reviewed articles from 2006 to 2016 were screened for inclusion criteria. A total of 15 relevant studies were identified and reviewed. The studies included were conducted in eight different countries: America, Australia, United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, Greek, Mexico, and Slovenia. No study conducted in Malaysia was found. This review suggested that the experiences of managing women with postnatal depression were relatively similar among the healthcare professionals in different countries. The main limitations reported by the healthcare practitioners were the lack of resources on maternal mental health and the absence of policy regarding the management of postnatal depression. Further research should investigate how Malaysian healthcare practitioners perceive postnatal depression and their roles in its management to provide more insights into the current clinical practice in Malaysia for postnatal depression.

Animal research plays an important role in the pre-clinical phase of clinical trials. In animal studies, the power analysis approach to sample size calculation is recommended. Whenever it is not possible to assume the standard deviation and the effect size, an alternative to the power analysis approach is the ‘resource equation’ approach, which sets the acceptable range of the error degrees of freedom (DF) in an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The aim of this article is to guide researchers in calculating the minimum and maximum numbers of animals required in animal research by reformulating the error DF formulas.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of powder-to-liquid ratio on the glass transition temperature (Tg) and the tensile properties of denture base material prepared from poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and hydroxyapatite (HA) previously treated with 3-trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate (gamma-MPS). Specimens for mechanical testing were prepared by adding composites powder (PMMA, BPO and HA) to the monomer (MMA and EGDMA) followed by hand mixing as in dental laboratory description usage. The glass transition temperature was studied by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was observed that the tensile properties and the Tg were affected by the powder-to-liquid ratio. The mechanical characterization of the materials were performed by using single edge notch-tension (SEN-T) specimens; the fracture toughness was slightly higher in formulation which contained HA filler compared to commercial denture base material.
Biomechanics ; Calorimetry, Differential Scanning ; *Denture Bases/standards ; *Durapatite ; *Materials Testing ; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning ; *Polymethyl Methacrylate ; Tensile Strength

Background: Heart disease knowledge is an important concept for health education, yet there is lack of evidence on proper validated instruments used to measure levels of heart disease knowledge in the Malaysian context. Methods: A cross-sectional, survey design was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the adapted English version of the Heart Disease Knowledge Questionnaire (HDKQ). Using proportionate cluster sampling, 788 undergraduate students at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia, were recruited and completed the HDKQ. Item analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used for the psychometric evaluation. Construct validity of the measurement model was included. Results: Most of the students were Malay (48%), female (71%), and from the field of science (51%). An acceptable range was obtained with respect to both the difficulty and discrimination indices in the item analysis results. The difficulty index ranged from 0.12.0.91 and a discrimination index of . 0.20 were reported for the final retained 23 items. The final CFA model showed an adequate fit to the data, yielding a 23-item, one-factor model [weighted least squares mean and variance adjusted scaled chi-square difference = 1.22, degrees of freedom = 2, P-value = 0.544, the root mean square error of approximation = 0.03 (90% confidence interval = 0.03, 0.04); close-fit P-value = > 0.950]. Conclusion: Adequate psychometric values were obtained for Malaysian undergraduate university students using the 23-item, one-factor model of the adapted HDKQ.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been earmarked as suitable for implantation within the human of its chemical makeup to human bone. In this paper, HA powders were synthesized via the precipitation method where phosphoric acid (H3PO4) was titrated into calcium hydroxide solution [Ca(OH)2]. Two parameters such as temperature and stirring rate were identified as factors that influenced the amount and purity of HA powder. Phase identification of the synthesized powder was done using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The results show that HA phase can be synthesized from this titration process of Ca(OH)2 and H3PO4 with yield amount of HA powder around 45 - 61 grams but with less than hundred percent purity. In order to study the effect of heat treatment to HA crystals structure, HA powder was calcined at 850 degrees C for 2 hours. It's found that the degree of crystallinity increases after calcination because of lattice expansion when the materials were heated at higher temperature
Sjogren's syndrome B antibody ; Powders ; Durapatite ; Precipitation ; hydroxyl group

The incidence of lower limb amputation is high across the globe and continues to be a major threat to morbidity and mortality. Consequently, the provision of high quality and effective prosthetics services have been known as an essential component for a successful rehabilitation outcome. In Malaysia, amputation prevalence has been increasing in which several main components of service delivering aspects (such as service intervention, prosthetic personnel) should be anticipated to accommodate for the increasing demand. This article highlights the hurdles experienced in providing prosthetic services in Malaysia from multiple aspects such as financial burden to acquire the prosthesis and lack of expertise to produce quality prosthesis. This paramount issues consequently justify for the urgency to carry out national level survey on the current statistics of lower limb amputation and to ascertain the available workforce to provide a quality prosthetics services. Only with accurate and current information from the national survey, strategies and policies aimed at enhancing the outcome from prosthetics services can be achieved.

Aims: Deoxynivalenol is a type B trichothecene produced by Fusarium graminearum that can cause serious health problems in human and livestock. The present study aimed to reduce and detoxify deoxynivalenol using a local strain Aspergillus oryzae KKB4 and Rhizopus oryzae KP1R1. Methodology and results: Corn as solid substrate artificially inoculated with F. graminearum bio 163252 to produce deoxynivalenol. Deoxynivalenol contaminated corn then inoculated with A. oryzae KKB4 and R. oryzae KP1R1. During fermentation, a decrease in deoxynivalenol levels is analyzed including loss of dry matter and glucosamine content. Deoxynivalenol was extracted from the substrate by solid phase extraction and quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography. The reduction of deoxynivalenol by A. oryzae KKB4 and R. oryzae KP1R1 were 65.91% and 56.82%, respectively after ten days of fermentation. Toxicity analysis revealed that residues of deoxynivalenol were not toxic to growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. Conclusion, significance and impact of study Local strains A. oryzae KKB4 and R. oryzae KP1R1 were able to reduce and detoxify deoxynivalenol in solid substrates. This study provides supporting data to control mycotoxin that is critical for food and feed safety.

Objective To study the blood pressure lowering effect of Cassytha filiformis extract in animal models of hypertension and its correlation with the antioxidant activity. Methods Male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into two groups: endocrine hypertension (HTN group) that received a combination of prednisone and salt for two weeks and oxidative stress-associated hypertension (HTN-OS group) that received additional induction of L-Nitro Arginine Methyl Esther (L-NAME) for two days. Each group was subdivided into 4 and treated intravenously with the extract 5; 10; and 20 mg/kg, and vehicle control. The systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were recorded. The blood was taken before and at the end of recording for the measurement of serum concentration of nitric oxide (NO). The changes of blood pressure were analyzed by two-way ANOVA while its correlation with NO concentration was analyzed by Pearson's Correlation. Results The study showed a significant antihypertensive effect of the extract as compared with control group (P < 0.05) in both hypertensive models. Extract in the dose of 5 mg/kg showed the best blood pressure lowering effect. However, the correlation analysis did not show an association between NO increase and blood pressure lowering effect (P > 0.05). Conclusions The study concludes that C. filiformis extract in the dose of 5 mg/kg exhibits the best blood pressure lowering effect in both animal models. Antihypertensive activity of the extract is not correlated with its antioxidant effect.

Microsurgery techniques are useful innovations towards minimizing the insult of canal stenosis. Here, we describe the trumpet laminectomy microdecompression (TLM) technique, advantages and disadvantages. Sixty-two TLM patients with lumbar disc herniation, facet hypertrophy or yellow ligament or intracanal granulation tissue. The symptoms are low back pain, dysesthesia and severe pain on both legs. Spine levels operated Th11-S1; the patients who had trumpet-type fenestration, 62.9% had hypertrophy of the facet joint, 11.3% had intracanal granulation tissue, 79.1% had hypertrophy of the yellow ligament and 64.5% had disc herniation. The average of procedure duration was 68.9 min and intraoperative blood loss was 47.4 mL. Intraoperative complications were found in 3.2% of patients, with dural damage but without cerebrospinal fluid leakage. The TLM can be performed for all ages and all levels of spinal canal stenosis, without the complication of spondilolistesis. The TLM has a shorter duration, with minimal intraoperative blood loss.
Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Constriction, Pathologic* ; Granulation Tissue ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Intraoperative Complications ; Laminectomy* ; Leg ; Ligaments ; Low Back Pain ; Microsurgery ; Paresthesia ; Spinal Canal ; Spine ; Zygapophyseal Joint