Teenagers' Awareness of Peers' Substance and Drug Use in Kuwait.

Background: Teenage substance use is a global challenge, and youths residing in Kuwait are not immune from it. Tobacco products are licit; however, alcohol and other mood-altering illicit substance are prohibited with severe penalties including imprisonment. Youths residing in Kuwait are being initiated into the use of mood-altering substances like tobacco at an early age, and it is postulated that, as they grow older, they may progress into using alcohol and other prohibited illicit drugs.

Molecular basis for the effects of zinc deficiency on spermatogenesis: An experimental study in the Sprague-dawley rat model.

Introduction: The objective of this study is to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of zinc deficiency on spermatogenesis in the Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat.

Materials And Methods: Three groups of eight adult male SD rats were maintained for 4 weeks on a normal diet as control, zinc deficient diet and zinc deficient diet with zinc supplementation of 28 mg zinc/kg body weight respectively. Using standard techniques, the following parameters were compared between the three groups of experimental animals at the end of 4 weeks: (a) Serum zinc, magnesium (Mg), copper (Cu), selenium (Se) and cadmium (Cd), (b) serum sex hormones, malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX), (c) interleukin-4 (IL-4), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), Bcl-2, Bax and caspase-3 expression in the testes, (d) assessment of apoptosis of testicular cells using electron microscopy and (e) testicular volume and histology using the orchidometer and Johnsen score, respectively.

Sperm parameters: paradigmatic index of good health and longevity.

Since the discovery of spermatozoon by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in 1677, there has been an ever increasing understanding of its role in reproduction. Many factors adversely affect sperm quality, including varicocele, accessory gland infection, immunological factors, congenital abnormalities, and iatrogenic systemic and endocrine causes, such as diabetes mellitus, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and smoking. The mechanisms responsible for the association between poor sperm parameters and ill health may include oxidative stress, low-grade inflammation, low testosterone, and low sex-hormone-binding globulin.

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder: prevalence and effects on nursing students' academic performance and clinical training in Kuwait.

Aims: This study investigated the prevalence of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder among non-treatment seeking female students at the College of Nursing Kuwait. It also explored the effects of the disorder on their academic performance as shown by their grade point average and rate of absenteeism at clinical training.

Background: Many women worldwide are unaware of this distressing menstrual disorder which affects about 3-8% of women of childbearing age.

Lithium protects against toxic effects of cadmium in the rat testes.

Purpose: To investigate the protective effect of Lithium against the toxic effect of Cadmium in the rat testes.

Methods: Twenty four adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with four different regimens: Cadmium only, Cadmium and lithium, lithium only and controls. Rats were sacrificed after 6 weeks and testicular levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-4), anti-inflammatory cytokine (TNF-α), Pro-apoptotic protein (Bax) and anti-apoptotic protein (Bcl-2) were measured by ELISA while serum levels of FSH, LH, Prolactin and Testosterone were measured using the Vidas parametric system.

Emotional reaction to diagnosis of infertility in Kuwait and successful clients' perception of nurses' role during treatment.

Background: The unfulfilled desire of millions of infertile couples worldwide to have their own biological children results in emotional distress. This study evaluated the emotional reactions of couples attending a combined infertility clinic in Kuwait and successful clients' perception of nurses.

Methods: Quantitative and qualitative methods were used.

Butyrylcholinesterase activity in gestational diabetes: correlation with lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood.

Problem: Inefficient clearance of pregnancy-threatening toxins may contribute to gestational diabetes (GD) and Type II diabetes mellitus (DM) through mechanisms involving immune dysregulation.

Method Of Study: Peripheral venous blood from pregnant Kuwaiti women in third trimester, including 15 GD and 17 DM patients, 14 healthy pregnant (HP) and eight non-pregnant subjects, was analyzed by two-color flow cytometery for number and percentage representation of T lymphocytes. Buterylcholinesterase (BuChE) activity was measured using buterylthiocholine iodide and spectrophotometry.

Allopurinol provides long-term protection for experimentally induced testicular torsion in a rabbit model.

Objective: To assess the effect of five antioxidants on exocrine function of rabbit testes retained in situ for 24 h and 3 months after experimental torsion.

Materials And Methods: The left testes of peripubertal rabbits were clamped for 60 min, after which the clamps were removed and the testes allowed to reperfuse. The right testes served as internal controls.

Evidence for the presence of beta-3-adrenoceptors mediating relaxation in the human oviduct.

Beta1- and beta2-adrenoceptors mediate relaxation in the oviductal smooth muscle. This study examines the existence and function of beta3-adrenoceptors in the human oviduct. Ring segments of the oviduct were set up for isometric tension recording.

Significance of determining the point of reperfusion failure in experimental torsion of testis.

Background: Experimental studies of the use of free radical scavengers in ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury following detorsion of the torted testis have yielded conflicting results due to differences in the period of ischemia used. The authors studied I/R injury in the rabbit model, to define the point beyond which there is reperfusion failure.

Methods: Ischemia/reperfusion injury of the testis was created in 3-6-month-old male New Zealand white rabbits by cross-clamping the left spermatic cord for periods of ischemia lasting 0, 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 180 min.

Connection between human leucocyte antigens D region and T helper cytokines in preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a common and major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) susceptibility and impaired adaptation of the T lymphocyte sub-population and a bi-directional effect of T helper cytokines on the outcome of pregnancy have been reported in patients with preeclampsia. The association between maternal HLA class II and T helper cytokines in women with preeclampsia was investigated in seventy-six preeclamptic women and normotensive controls using Terasaki microlymphocytotoxicity test.

Nitric oxide metabolites in preterm and induced labor.

Background: Nitric oxide has potent relaxant effects on the pregnant uterus and has been associated with a quiescent uterus in animal and human studies. Nitric oxide donors have been used to arrest preterm labor and a reduction in nitric oxide production has been reported before the onset of labor.

Objective: The aim of the study was to estimate the serum levels of nitrate and nitrite in women undergoing spontaneous preterm labor and induced labor.

The effect of obesity on the outcome of infertility management in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Introduction: Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic with ever increasing incidence and public health problems in both developing and developed countries.

Objective: The objective of the study is to investigate the incidence of obesity among patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome attending infertility clinic and the effect on treatment outcome.

Methodology: Two hundred and seventy women with polycystic ovarian syndrome attending the infertility clinic were evaluated clinically, biochemically, and laparoscopically.

Differential expression of T-helper cytokines in the peritoneal fluid of women with normal ovarian cycle compared with women with chronic anovulation.

Background: Estrogen and progesterone immunoregulate the genital environment by expression of cytokines and growth factors.

Objective: To investigate the pattern of expression of T-helper cytokines during the ovarian cycle compared with women with chronic anovulation resistant to clomiphene citrate.

Hypothesis: Expression of T-helper cytokines in women with chronic anovulation may be different from the pattern in women with a normal ovarian cycle.

The significance of measuring the time course of serum malondialdehyde concentration in patients with torsion of the testis.

Purpose: We determined the time course of malondialdehyde, a measure of free radical damage, in patients undergoing standard surgical treatment for testicular torsion.

Materials And Methods: Patients presenting with testicular torsion were studied prospectively. Blood samples were obtained after administering general anesthesia but before surgical incision, and 10 minutes, 30 minutes and 24 hours after detorsion.