The objective was to estimate the prevalence of intestinal protozoa among the aborigines and to determine the problems regarding the infection. The study was carried out in January 2006 in Pos Senderut, Pahang, Malaysia. Samples of faeces were collected from children and adults and these were fixed in PVA and trichrome staining was carried out. From the 130 individuals studied, 94 (72.3%) were positive with at least one intestinal protozoa. Nine intestinal protozoa namely Blastocystis hominis, Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba histolytica, Entamoeba coli, Endolimax nana, Entamoeba hartmani, Entamoeba polecki, Iodamoeba butschlii and Chilomastix mesnili were detected. The prevalent species were B. hominis (52.3%), followed by G. lamblia (29.2%), E. coli (26.2%) and E. histolytica (18.5%). The other species ranged from 1.5 to 10.8%. Among the positive samples, mixed infection with E. histolytica and G. lamblia was 3.8%, E. histolytica and B. hominis was 15.4%, G. lamblia and B. hominis was 17.7%. Triple infection of E. histolytica, G. lamblia and B. hominis was 3.1%. The infection was more prevalent in children below 10 years age group (45.4%) and lowest in the age above 60 years (3.8%). The high prevalence was attributable to poor environmental management, poor personal hygiene and lack of health education.
Protozoal ; upper case gee ; Upper case ee ; Upper case Bee ; Infection as complication of medical care

The increasing prevalence of penicillin-resistant Streptococuus pneumoniae urges for fast and accurate susceptibility testing methods. This study evaluated the comparability of three commonly used techniques; disk diffusion, E-test and agar dilution, to detect penicillin susceptibility in clinical isolates of S. pneumoniae. Fifty pneumococcal isolates, obtained from patients at the University of Malaya Medical Centre, were selected to include both penicillin-susceptible strains and those that had decreased susceptibility (resistant and intermediate) to penicillin. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of penicillin to serve as the reference was determined by the agar dilution method in which, based on the MIC breakpoints recommended by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS), 27 strains had decreased susceptibility to penicillin with 17 strains resistant and 10 intermediate. Comparing to the agar dilution method, oxacillin disk diffusion test detected all strains with decreased penicillin susceptibility as such while E-test showed a close agreement of susceptibility (92%) of the isolates to penicillin. This confirmed that oxacillin is a good screening test for S. pneumoniae isolates with decreased susceptibility to penicillin while E-test is very reliable for rapid and accurate detection of penicillin susceptibility.
Penicillin ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; Dilution ; Upper case ee ; Clinical

The effect of water extracts of Euphorbia hirta on the histological features and expressions of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMPs) in the rat articular cartilage was investigated. Arthritis was induced in rats using Freund's Complete Adjuvant containing heat-killed M. tuberculosis, and treated with water extracts of E. hirta. Paraffin tissue sections of the arthritic joints were evaluated. The extent of cartilage degeneration was found to be greatest in rats treated with the highest dosage of E. hirta, followed by rats in the untreated group. Rats treated with the intermediary and low dosages of Euphorbia hirta showed improved histology. MMP-13 levels were found to be decreased with decreasing dosages of E. hirta. TIMP-1 levels were found to increase with decreasing dosages of E. hirta. MMP-3 levels fluctuated without any appreciable pattern. Low dosages of E. hirta seem to be beneficial in reducing cartilage degeneration in cases of arthritis.
Upper case ee ; Rattus norvegicus ; Euphorbia ; Water ; Degeneration, NOS

Objective: The purpose of the present study is to clarify the efficacy of etidronate and vitamin K2 in sustaining bone mineral density (BMD) in patient with hip fracture by monitoring metabolic bone markers and BMD during the 36-week period after fracture.Materials and Methods: Forty-seven hip fracture patients from 51 to 93 years old (77.2±9.6) were randomly divided into three groups: 14 patients in the intermittent cyclical etidronate-treated group (group E), 16 patients in the vitamin K2-treated group (group K), and 17 patients in the control (group C). Drugs were administered to patients in groups E and K six weeks after their operations. Blood and urine samples were obtained just before the start of drug administration and at 12, 24, and 36 weeks thereafter. Urinary type I collagen C-terminal telopeptide (uCTx), pyridinoline (PYR), deoxypyridinoline (DPD), serum CTx (sCTx), osteocalcin (OCN-mid), and undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) were measured. The contra-lateral proximal femur and lumbar spine BMDs were measured at baseline and at 36 weeks.Results: Deoxypyridinoline at 12 weeks and OCN-mid at 36 weeks after treatment were lower in group E than those in group C. N-mid osteocalcin and ucOC at 24 and 36 weeks were lower in group K than those in group C. Although femoral neck BMD in groups C and E decreased compared to the baseline values at 36 weeks, femoral neck BMD in group K tended to increase. Specifically, in group K the BMD of Ward's triangle increased significantly after treatment. Bone mineral density of the lumbar spine in each group did not change significantly during the 42 weeks following hip fracture.Conclusion: Vitamin K2 prevented further bone loss in the contralateral proximal femur. The administration of vitamin K2 to patients with hip fractures in the early period after fracture is potentially useful in preventing a second hip fracture on the contralateral side.
week ; Carbon ion ; Upper Case Kay ; Hip Fractures ; Upper case ee

Amoebiasis is an infectious diseased caused by parasitic one-celled protozoan called Entamoeba histolytica. Numerous protozoa also can inhabit the gastro-intestinal tract of human. Majority of these protozoa are non-pathogenic commensals or only causes disease under certain circumstances. Morphologically, E. histolytica, the invasive form, share the same characteristic with the nonpathogenic form, E. dispar. Both strains can be distinguished by using DNA identification. Many previous researches in Malaysia only reported infection with E. histolytica infection. Therefore in this study we tried to classify infection among the aborigines in Cameron Highland as true E. histolytica or E. dispar by Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (Nested PCR) and Restriction enzyme (RE) digestion. Results showed that 31 samples were positive by microscopic examination, however of these 28 (13.2%) samples were positive for E. histolytica and 12 (5.6%) samples were positive for E. dispar by molecular tools.
Upper case ee ; Infection as complication of medical care ; Entamoeba histolytica ; Protozoal ; Use of