bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss: systemic versus intratympanic methylprednisolone acetate
Authors: Youssef Tarek F. , Ahmed Mohamed R. 
Published: September 2023

EnAbstract
Background
The etiology of sudden sensorineural hearing loss is diverse; viral, vascular, immunologic, and abnormal cell stress responses have been proposed, the presentation of the disorder is abrupt, and hearing loss is progressive over a very short period. Steroids remain the treatment of choice irrespective of the etiology of hearing loss. Intratympanic corticosteroid injections have been widely used to deliver corticosteroids directly into the inner ear for those whom systemic steroids have not been successful. Complications such as perforations of the tympanic membrane, myringitis, and otitis media have been reported rarely.

Objective
To compare the hearing recovery results in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss receiving systemic versus intratympanic methylprednisolone acetate.

Methods
A randomized clinical trial was carried out over 4 years that included 46 patients randomly assigned to two groups of 23 patients each. Pretreatment hearing levels were compared with post-treatment audiograms up to 5 weeks following initial therapy. A 20-dB gain in pure-tone audiometry or a 20% improvement in speech discrimination score was considered a significant improvement. The results of both groups were compared and tested for statistical significance.

Results
The recovery rate in the systemic group was 65%, whereas the recovery rate in the intratympanic group was 56%; the overall results were comparable over different frequencies. Failure to improve was observed equally in both groups in 21% of patients.

Conclusion
No statistically significant difference was observed between both the groups. Intratympanic steroid injection as a primary treatment of idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss is an effective alternative to systemic therapy.
The value of intraoperative facial nerve monitoring and preoperative FNAC in superficial parotidectomy: facial nerve morbidity outcome
Authors: Aboud Saleh K. , Baki Marina M. , Mohammad Yunus Mohd R. 
Published: September 2023

AbstractIntraoperative use of nerve integrity monitors has been advocated to enhance nerve identification. We evaluate the impact of two controversial procedures used in surgical management of parotid tumors on postoperative facial nerve morbidity in University Kebangsaan Medical Centre, Malaysia: fine needle aspiration cytology and continuous facial monitoring using a nerve integrity monitor (NIM). This is a retrospective study on 15 cases of superficial parotidectomy performed during a 2-year period (2008–2010). In our opinion, using an NIM is optional for parotid tumors of the superficial lobe; however, performing preoperative fine needle aspiration cytology and using an NIM may help operative planning and improve medical education in a teaching hospital.
Screening for autism in low-birth-weight Egyptian toddlers
Authors: Kaddah Fatma-Alzahraa A. , Nassar Jilan F. , Ghandour Hassan H. , El-Farghali Ola G. 
Published: September 2023

EnAbstract
Background
In recent times major advances have been made in the field of early detection of autism in infants, and validated screening tools now exist to facilitate the early and accurate screening of infants before further referral for specialized autism diagnostic testing.

Objective
The aim of this study was to screen low-birth-weight (LBW) toddlers for early autistic features compared with normal controls and identify the associated risk factors.

Materials and methods
This cross-sectional study included 100 toddlers (24–30 months old) with a history of LBW. They were screened for autism using the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT). Further assessment was made using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Vineland Social Maturity Scale, and Arabic Language Test. One hundred age-matched and sex-matched full-term toddlers with a history of average birth weight and uneventful natal, perinatal, and postnatal history were included as the control group.

Results
The toddlers with LBW had a significantly higher frequency of positive M-CHAT screening than did the controls (11% of LBW children vs. 2% of controls). Positively screened LBW toddlers had significantly higher parental age at conception, lower birth weight, higher frequency of small-for-gestational-age preterms as well as higher incidence of gestational bleeding when compared with negatively screened LBW. They also had lower language and social ages than the negatively screened LBW. M-CHAT scores of positively screened LBW children correlated positively with maternal age at conception and negatively with birth weight, social age, and language age. Five of the 11 positively screened LBW children and one of the two positively screened controls were confirmed to have autism on the basis of CARS.

Conclusion
LBW is probably an independent risk factor associated with the development of autism. Early screening for autism is recommended for the LBW population especially if associated with risk factor(s) or if showing early impairment of social and language abilities, to be followed by definitive autism testing in those with positive screening results.
Does tranexamic acid, deliberate hypotension, and anti-Trendelenburg position improve the quality and outcome for functional endoscopic sinus surgery
Authors: Khafagy Ahmed H. , Osman Sameh M. 
Published: September 2023

EnAbstract
Objectives
To improve the control of bleeding during functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) by means of positional changes, controlled hypotensive anesthesia, and an intraoperative (IO) intravenous injection of tranexamic acid.

Patients and methods
The study included 45 patients assigned to undergo FESS. Patients were divided randomly into three equal groups: group A received an IO injection of tranexamic acid 10 mg/kg as a bolus injection after induction of anesthesia. Group B included patients placed on a table inclined by ∼30π in the anti-Trendelenburg position and received an IO injection of tranexamic acid 10 mg/kg after induction of anesthesia. Group C included patients maintained supine who did not receive an IO injection of tranexamic acid. All patients received a maintenance anesthetic regimen that used combined intravenous/inhalational anesthesia. Operative field visibility was evaluated using the Fromme scale. The total amount of bleeding as judged by the amount evacuated was recorded.

Results
The anesthetic maneuver used reduced blood pressure and heart rate significantly at the end of surgery compared with the measures estimated at the time of induction of anesthesia. Groups A and C showed significantly higher blood pressure and heart rate estimated at the end of surgery compared with group B. All surgeries were conducted completely without IO complications. No extensive bleeding was recorded and no patient had a visibility score of 0 or 5. Four patients had a visibility score of 1, nine patients had a visibility score of 2, 15 patients had a visibility score of 3, and 17 patients had a visibility score of 4. The frequency of patients who had higher field visibility was significantly higher in group B compared with groups A and C, with a significantly higher frequency in group A compared with group C. Manipulations applied for group B significantly reduced the amount of IO bleeding, with a subsequent significant improvement in the mean field visibility score compared with groups A and C. Tranexamic acid significantly reduced the amount of bleeding and improved field visibility in group A compared with group C.

Conclusion
A combination of maintaining patients in the anti-Trendelenburg position, anesthetic manipulation using combined intravenous and inhalational anesthesia, and an IO intravenous injection of tranexamic acid could minimize bleeding and improve field visibility during FESS and this combination of manipulations could be recommended as strategy for this type of surgery.
Endoscopic examination after adenoidectomy: is it necessary?
Authors: Naguib Nader 
Published: September 2023

AbstractAdenoidectomy is a safe and straightforward surgical procedure with clear indications. Traditionally, adenoidectomy is performed using a curette. The main disadvantage of this method is that it is a relatively blind technique. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of endoscopic nasopharyngeal examination at the end of curettage adenoidectomy in terms of both subjective and objective relief of nasal symptoms. A total of 110 patients were included is this study and divided randomly into two equal groups during the operation. Patients in group A underwent conventional curettage adenoidectomy and those in group B were further subjected to nasopharyngeal endoscopic examination at the end of the operation. After 18 months, 21.1% of patients in group A and 14% in group B complained of nasal obstruction. Moreover, on endoscopy, 13.4% of patients in group A and 8% in group B showed remaining adenoid tissue. Hence, nasopharyngeal endoscopic examination at the end of conventional curettage adenoidectomy is an easy method to detect and remove remnant adenoid tissue with minimal extra cost and operative time.
Expression of nm23H1 and MMP2 in laryngeal carcinoma and its role in aggressiveness of the tumour and node metastasis
Authors: Shehata Wael , Salman Manal 
Published: September 2023

EnAbstract
Introduction
Squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck are known for their aggressive growth and propensity to metastasize. The invasion is facilitated by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The overexpression of many MMPs is positively associated with tumour metastasis. The nm23H1 gene has been implicated as a suppressor gene and reduced expression of its gene product has been observed in patients with positive lymph node metastasis.

Objective
The aim of this study was to examine the degree of expression of both MMP2 and nm23H1 proteins in 24 patients with primary laryngeal carcinoma using immunohistochemical technique and also to correlate the results with the clinical, radiological and histopathological data, in order to evaluate their role in predicting the local spread and lymph node metastasis.

Patients and methods
This study included 24 patients with primary laryngeal carcinoma involving various regions of the larynx and was carried out at the Department of Otolaryngology, Ain Shams University Hospitals.
The laryngeal and nodal specimens were examined histopathologically and immunohistochemical analysis was carried out for the nm23H1 and MMP2 proteins.

Results
There was a significant correlation between MMP2 expression and the site of the tumour, as a drastic reduction in MMP2 expression was mainly associated with glottic carcinoma (P<0.05). The tumour stages were associated with an increase in MMP2 expression, but this was not statistically significant (P=0.07). However, the presence of lymph node metastasis was significantly related to the overexpression of MMP2 (P<0.05). As regards nm23H1, a statistically significant correlation was found between nm23H1 expression and the tumour stage (P<0.05). Moreover, the presence of lymph node metastasis was significantly correlated to the loss of nm23H1 expression and vice versa (P<0.05). However, the correlation between the expression levels of MMP2 and nm23H1 was found to be statistically insignificant (P>0.05).

Conclusion
The increased expression of MMP2 was related to the occurrence of nodal metastasis of the tumour and also to the tumour sites characterized by frequent metastasis (supraglottic and transglottic). In contrast, nm23H1 expression was inversely related to the advancement of the tumour stage and the nodal metastatic state.
Cerclage and sphincter pharyngoplasty techniques for management of velopharyngeal insufficiency: How I do it?
Authors: Ragab Ahmed 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThe activities of swallowing and speaking depend upon the ability to achieve adequate closure of the velopharyngeal (VP) port. Swallowing and speaking are complex motor skills that involve the coordination of diverse groups of muscles between the nasopharynx and oropharynx. Various conditions can affect VP closure function including an adenoidectomy operation. Defects in the VP sphincter can affect the patient’s speech in many ways–for example, induction of hypernasality, decreased speech intelligibility, and nasal emissions. Three main surgical approaches to VP corrective surgery can be used–namely, pharyngoplasty, pharyngeal flap, and posterior pharyngeal wall augmentation. The author of this study designed a new procedure called cerclage sphincter pharyngoplasty to be added for correction of VP insufficiency. Maximum benefit can be achieved when the surgical technique takes advantage of the remaining native VP closure. As pharyngeal flaps are not functional and have multiple drawbacks and because posterior pharyngeal wall augmentation is successful only in case of minor defects, the author focuses on functional techniques used for correction of different closure patterns and grades–namely, cerclage and sphincter pharyngoplasty.
Image-guided nasal and skull base surgery: a case-control study
Authors: Fathy Hesham A. 
Published: September 2023

EnAbstract
Objective
The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of image-guided systems in nasal and skull base surgeries.

Study design
This is a prospective case–control study.

Materials and methods
A total number of 24 patients were included in this study. The relevant preoperative, operative, and postoperative records were collected and analyzed.

Results
The mean total operative time was greater for the image-guided surgery group (130 min; range 95–160 min) than for the control group (119 min; range 85–150 min). However, the mean actual operative time was less for the image-guided surgery group (93 min; range 65–120 min) than the control group (99 min; range 70–130 min). The image-guided surgery group had no major complications. However, the control group had three major complications (25%). The average estimated blood loss was higher for the image-guided surgery group (395 ml; range 130–1100 ml) than the control group (380 ml; range 100–950 ml).

Conclusion
Image-guided system may reduce the complications associated with endoscopic sinus surgery and allow for a more thorough operation.
Effect of ethyl methanesulfonate mediated mutation for enhancing morpho-physio-biochemical and yield contributing traits of fragrant rice
Authors: Shamshad Areeqa , Rashid Muhammad , Jankuloski Ljupcho , Ashraf Kamran , Sultan Khawar , Alamri Saud , Siddiqui Manzer H. , Munir Tehzeem , Zaman Qamar uz 
Published: September 2023

Background
Chemical mutagenesis has been successfully used for increasing genetic diversity in crop plants. More than 800 novel mutant types of rice (Oryza sativa L.) have been developed through the successful application of numerous mutagenic agents. Among a wide variety of chemical mutagens, ethyl-methane-sulfonate (EMS) is the alkylating agent that is most commonly employed in crop plants because it frequently induces nucleotide substitutions as detected in numerous genomes.

Methods
In this study, seeds of the widely consumed Basmati rice variety (Super Basmati, Oryza sativa L.) were treated with EMS at concentrations of 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, 1.0%, and 1.25% to broaden its narrow genetic base.

Results
Sensitivity to a chemical mutagen such as ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) was determined in the M1 generation. Results in M1 generation revealed that as the levels of applied EMS increased, there was a significant reduction in the germination percent, root length, shoot length, plant height, productive tillers, panicle length, sterile spikelet, total spikelet, and fertility percent as compared to the control under field conditions. All the aforementioned parameters decreased but there was an increase in EMS mutagens in an approximately linear fashion. Furthermore, there was no germination at 1.25% of EMS treatment for seed germination. A 50% germination was recorded between 0.50% and 0.75% EMS treatments. After germination, the subsequent parameters, viz. root length and shoot length had LD50 between 05.0% and 0.75% EMS dose levels. Significant variation was noticed in the photosynthetic and water related attributes of fragrant rice. The linear increase in the enzymatic attributes was noticed by the EMS mediated treatments. After the establishment of the plants in the M1 generation in the field, it was observed that LD50 for fertility percentage was at EMS 1.0% level, for the rice variety.

Conclusion
Hence, it is concluded that for creating genetic variability in the rice variety (Super Basmati), EMS doses from 0.5% to 0.75% are the most efficient, and effective.
Association detection between multiple traits and rare variants based on family data via a nonparametric method
Authors: Chi Jinling , Xu Meijuan , Sheng Xiaona , Zhou Ying 
Published: September 2023

Background
The rapid development of next-generation sequencing technologies allow people to analyze human complex diseases at the molecular level. It has been shown that rare variants play important roles for human diseases besides common variants. Thus, effective statistical methods need to be proposed to test for the associations between traits (e.g., diseases) and rare variants. Currently, more and more rare genetic variants are being detected throughout the human genome, which demonstrates the possibility to study rare variants. Yet complex diseases are usually measured as a variety of forms, such as binary, ordinal, quantitative, or some mixture of them. Therefore, the genetic mapping problem can be attributable to the association detection between multiple traits and multiple loci, with sufficiently considering the correlated structure among multiple traits.

Methods
In this article, we construct a new non-parametric statistic by the generalized Kendall’s τ theory based on family data. The new test statistic has an asymptotic distribution, it can be used to study the associations between multiple traits and rare variants, which broadens the way to identify genetic factors of human complex diseases.

Results
We apply our method (called Nonp-FAM) to analyze simulated data and GAW17 data, and conduct comprehensive comparison with some existing methods. Experimental results show that the proposed family-based method is powerful and robust for testing associations between multiple traits and rare variants, even if the data has some population stratification effect.
Friend leukemia integration 1 overexpression decreases endometrial receptivity and induces embryo implantation failure by promoting PART1 transcription in the endometrial epithelial cells
Authors: Zhang Yile , Yin Beining , Li Sichen , Cui Yueyue , Liu Jianrong 
Published: September 2023

Background
In vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) is a crucial assisted reproductive technology for treating infertility. However, recurrent implantation failure (RIF), a significant challenge in IVF-ET success, remains unresolved. This study aimed to explore the role and mechanism of FLI1 in endometrial receptivity and RIF.

Methods
Differential endometrial cell proportions between patients with RIF and control subjects were assessed using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis. The chromatin accessibility of FLI1 in the luteal endometrial tissue of patients with RIF and control subjects was examined using the single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (scATAC-seq). FLI1 mRNA and protein levels were gauged by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting. Cell viability and migration were examined via cell counting kit (CCK)-8 and scratch healing assays. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers were analyzed using western blotting. Mechanisms underlying FLI1’s regulation of PART1 transcription and expression in endometrial epithelial cells were explored using chromatin immunoprecipitation and dual-luciferase reporter assays. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) carrying epithelial cell-specific FLI1/PART1 overexpression sequences was uterinely injected in mice to assess FLI1/PART1 effects.

Results
scRNA-seq revealed diminished endometrial epithelial cell proportions in RIF patients. Meanwhile, scATAC-seq indicated enhanced chromatin accessibility of FLI1 in these cells. FLI1 exhibited specific expression in RIF patients’ endometrial epithelial cells. Specific FLI1 overexpression inhibited embryo implantation, while knockdown enhanced it. Pregnant mice injected with AAV encoding FLI1 overexpression had significantly lower implantation than AAV-negative controls. FLI1 binding to PART1 promoter heightened PART1 transcription and expression in endometrial epithelial cells. Rescue experiments illustrated FLI1’s role in embryo implantation by boosting PART1 expression. PART1 was notably elevated in RIF patients’ luteal endometrial tissue and non-receptive endometrial epithelial cells (HEC-1-A). Specific PART1 overexpression dampened embryo implantation, whereas knockdown promoted it. Pregnant mice injected with AAV encoding PART1 had lower implantation than negative controls. PART1 knockdown mitigated FLI1’s inhibitory impact on HEC-1-A cell viability and migration.

Conclusions
FLI1 overexpression in the endometrial epithelial cells of patients with RIF inhibited embryo implantation by binding to the PART1 promoter region to promote PART1 expression. These findings can aid in the development of novel therapeutic targets for RIF.
Development and Performance Evaluation of Hybrid-Solar Dryer for Cassava Grate
Authors: Adejumo Patricia Omonegho , Olumurewa John Alaba Victor , Bolade Matthew Kolawole , Awolu Olugbenga Olufemi 
Published: September 2023

A solar hybrid dryer for cassava grate was fabricated and evaluated for performance. The major components include chimney, drying chamber, solar collector, blower housing (heater and fan) unit, solar panel, aluminum frame, rollers and 12 V direct current battery. Evaluation of the hybrid dryer was carried out to investigate the effect of drying temperature and variety of cassava (TMS96/1414, TMS92/0326 and TMS01/1368) on moisture loss, drying rate and drying efficiency. The dryer recorded maximum temperature of 55ᵒC and 45ᵒC in the drying chamber for hybrid and solar drying respectively which are higher than the 26ᵒC recorded for ambient. In all the experiments performed it took 7 hours for the moisture content of sample using hybrid solar drying to be reduced from average of 65% to about 10.19%. For solar drying it took 13 hours to attain moisture content of 11% while open sun drying took 35 hours to reduce the moisture content to 13 %. The result showed that TMS96/0326 had the highest moisture loss (6.20 kg/kg, 6.09 kg/kg and 5.65kg/kg) drying rate (0.899 kg/hr, 0.870 kg/hr and 0.807 kg/hr) for open sun, solar and hybrid drying respectively. This confirmed that variety and temperature had effect on the drying performance. The drying efficiency for hybrid drying was 78.71 %, 79.71 % and 73.42 % while solar drying had 47.76 %, 48.38 % and 44.53 % for TMS96/1414, TMS92/0326 and TMS01/1368 respectively; an indication that temperature, airflow rate and variety of cassava grate had significant effect on evaluated parameters hence the hybrid solar dryer is efficient for achieving dry cassava grate.