Amr Ehab El-Qushayri

The aim of this this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the prevalence of skin cancer in post-liver transplant recipients (LTRs). Five databases were systematically searched until 20^th April 2023. Search terms included ("liver transplantation" OR "liver transplant") AND ("skin cancer" OR "melanoma" OR "squamous cell carcinoma" OR "non-melanoma skin cancer" OR "post-transplant cancer" OR "post transplant cancer"). Random effect model were used to overcome the significant heterogeneity observed. A total of 34 studies were included. The overall skin cancer prevalence in LTRs was 4.6% (95% CI: 3.4-6.1). Subgroup analysis based upon the follow-up duration of each study indicated that skin cancer prevalence increased with longer follow-up durations: 0-4 years, 0.8% (95% CI: 0.4-1.9), 4-8 years, 4.3% (95% CI: 3.1-5.8), and 8-12 years, 5.3% (95% CI: 1.9-14). Furthermore, subgroup analysis based upon continental distribution of skin cancer indicated that Australia 21% (95% CI: 13-31) followed by South America 9.4% (95% CI: 5.8-15) had the highest prevalence of skin cancer. SCC was the most common type of skin cancer with a prevalence of 2.6% (95% CI: 1.5-4.5), subsequently followed by BCC 2.5% (95% CI: 1.5-4.2). Skin cancer following liver transplantation is not a rare condition. Substantial dermatological surveillance programs are recommended in post-liver transplant recipients to improve the quality of life as well as the associated mortality; especially with the increased prevalence after long follow-up durations.

This research aims to explore the prevalence and perspectives on e-cigarette use at King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia. This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted during April and May 2023, recruiting students from the College of Medicine at King Khalid University, from Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. We included 534 participants, of those 19.3% had used electronic-cigarettes (e-cigarettes). The most reported reason for using e-cigarettes were reduce/quit conventional smoking because it is not a healthy habit (23%). A significantly lesser proportion of E. users rather than the users, think that e-cigarettes are a source of secondhand smoking, causing various diseases, burning tobacco as a source of power and harmful to pregnant women. Furthermore, the prevalence of the 2 groups was comparable when they were asked if e-cigarette is a nicotine delivery system and it contains addictive flavor. Female sex is inversely associated with e-cigarette smoking (odds ratio: 0.25 (0.15–0.42), P < .001). However, age, grade point average, and MBBS year were not associated with E. smoking. One fifth of the medical students at King Khaled University are E. users with a large proportion of males. The health care authorities in conjunction with the educational authorities should raise the awareness level towards e-cigarettes use in particular the reasons for usage as well as it is harmful hazards.

The aim of this systematic review and meta‐analysis was to comprehensively evaluate the latest evidences and summarise the impact of HIV on PCI outcomes. A PRISMA guided literature search was conducted on 14 February 2024 in Web of Science, PubMed, Virtual Health Library, Google Scholar and Scopus. We searched with the term ‘(“percutaneous coronary intervention” OR “PCI”) AND (“human immunodeficiency virus” OR “HIV” OR “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome” OR “AIDS”)’ after selecting the keywords from randomly chosen included papers. We included 8 papers of 781 screened records. HIV (+) patients had significant in‐hospital, 1‐year and overall (event at the last follow up point) all‐cause mortality compared to HIV (−) group (OR: 1.73, 95%CI: 1.57–1.90, p < 0.01), (OR: 1.39, 95%CI: 1.07–1.81, p = 0.01) and (OR: 1.69, 95%CI: 1.55–1.85, p < 0.01), respectively. HIV (+) patients had significantly higher odds of developing MACE (OR: 1.35, 95%CI: 1.12–1.62, p = 0.001) compared to the HIV (−) group. No differences between both groups were detected regarding in‐hospital and overall CV mortality, TVR, TLR, post‐PCI TIMI grade 3 flow, cerebrovascular accidents and recurrent coronary events (p > 0.05). Our study revealed that people with HIV who underwent PCI in this modern era may have worse short and long‐term PCI outcomes. This finding highlights the need for specialised cardiovascular care protocols for the HIV population. However, enhanced clinical management and preventative measures are imperative to improve PCI success rates in patients with HIV.

Aim: To provide more insights about beliefs of witchcraft and supernatural means as causes of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) among women in Senegal. Method: We included eligible women from the demographic and health survey conducted in Senegal during the year 2017. Results: We included 15335 women, of those 620 (4%) thought that they can get HIV through witchcraft or supernaturalmeans. After the adjustment of all available covariates, old age, receiving primary or secondary education, higher wealth index,more frequency of listening to radio, watching television for less than once a week and reading newspaper or magazine for atleast once a week were significantly associated with a reduction in the witchcraft and supernatural means beliefs (p < 0.05).Moreover, rural residence was associated with an increase in the wrong HIV beliefs (p < 0.05). Conclusion: We demonstrated many predictors of the wrong beliefs about getting HIV infection by witchcraft or supernaturalmeans in the Senegalese women. Policymakers should initiate health educational programs in parallel with increasing thesocioeconomic status to limit the HIV transmission. In addition, continuous monitoring of the HIV knowledge in the endemiccountries is crucial to decrease HIV burden. Keywords: HIV; infection; witchcraft; misconception; myths.

Aim: We aimed to explore the predictors associated with obesity among adult ever-married Egyptian women aged 20–49 years based on the Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). Method: We included adult ever married women from the EDHS conducted in 2014 that initially recruited 21,903 women. Univariate and multivariable analysis was conducted to identify socio-demographic predictors of women’s obesity. Result: We included 12,975 Egyptian women. Among them, 76% of the total respondents were obese where as 24% were with normal body mass index (BMI). In multivariable analysis, the results revealed that increasing age, higher wealth index, listening to radio at least once a week and women with primary and secondary education were at significant odds of developing obesity (p < 0.05). However, we found no association between residence of participants and the frequency of watching television upon the development of obesity (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Appropriate and targeted interventions should be implemented among the Egyptian reproductive age women to reduce the obesity as well as non-communicable diseases load associated with obesity. National Health Service policy makers should take multilevel approach targeting high risk sub-groups to raise awareness and to provide prevention against obesity and the subsequent complications.

Article: What do we know so far about COVID-19 in sarcoidosis patients? A systematic review and meta-analysis - Minerva Respiratory Medicine 2023 September;62(3):114-20 - Minerva Medica - Journals

Aim: To study the most beneficial coronary revascularization strategy in kidney transplant recipients (KTR). Methods: In 16th June 2022 and updated on 26th February 2023, we searched in five databases including PubMed for relevant articles. The odds ratio (OR) together with the 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were used to report the results. Results: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was significantly associated with significant lower in-hospital mortality (OR 0.62; 95%CI 0.51–0.75) and 1-year mortality (OR 0.81; 95%CI 0.68–0.97), but not overall mortality (mortality at the last follow-up point) (OR 1.05; 95%CI 0.93–1.18) rather than coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Moreover, PCI was significantly associated with lower acute kidney injury prevalence (OR 0.33; 95%CI 0.13–0.84) compared to CABG. One study indicated that non-fatal graft failure prevalence did not differ between the PCI and the CABG group until 3 years of follow up. Moreover, one study demonstrated a short hospital length of stay in the PCI group rather than the CABG group. Conclusion: Current evidence indicated the superiority of PCI than CABG as a coronary revascularization procedure in short- but not long-term outcomes in KTR. We recommend further randomized clinical trials for demonstrating the best therapeutic modality for coronary revascularization in KTR.