The Role of Virtual Reality in Advancing Surgical Training in Otolaryngology: A Systematic Review.

Technological advancements have rapidly transformed medical education and surgical training, with virtual reality (VR) emerging as a valuable tool. VR offers immersive and interactive environments, enhancing the development of surgical skills without the risks that come with conventional training methods. In this review, we conducted a comprehensive search across PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), considering all relevant publications up to June 30, 2024.

The association between smartphone addiction and thumb/wrist pain among medical students of Jazan University, Saudi Arabia, A cross-sectional study.

Background: The past decade has witnessed a revolution in smartphones owing to their growing importance and various applications. However, excessive usage can lead to addiction and joint pain in the wrist/thumb area. Despite these negative effects, smartphones offer medical students access to the resources they need.

Strategies for overcoming data scarcity, imbalance, and feature selection challenges in machine learning models for predictive maintenance.

Predictive maintenance harnesses statistical analysis to preemptively identify equipment and system faults, facilitating cost- effective preventive measures. Machine learning algorithms enable comprehensive analysis of historical data, revealing emerging patterns and accurate predictions of impending system failures. Common hurdles in applying ML algorithms to PdM include data scarcity, data imbalance due to few failure instances, and the temporal dependence nature of PdM data.

An Ensemble of Transfer Learning Models for the Prediction of Skin Cancers with Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks.

Skin cancer is one of the most severe forms of the disease, and it can spread to other parts of the body if not detected early. Therefore, diagnosing and treating skin cancer patients at an early stage is crucial. Since a manual skin cancer diagnosis is both time-consuming and expensive, an incorrect diagnosis is made due to the high similarity between the various skin cancers.

The Prediction of Consumer Behavior from Social Media Activities.

Consumer behavior variants are evolving by utilizing advanced packing models. These models can make consumer behavior detection considerably problematic. New techniques that are superior to customary models to be utilized to efficiently observe consumer behaviors.

Clinical Characteristics and Early Outcomes of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients with End-Stage Kidney Disease in Saudi Arabia.

Background: The prognosis of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may be poor in patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Limited information is available on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of such patients in Arab countries. The present study aimed to address this gap.

Blood donation among university students: practices, motivations, and barriers in Saudi Arabia.

Context: Blood transfusion is an essential medical procedure conducted with various purposes to provide patients with blood needed. The procedure saves patients' lives, as blood cannot be manufactured artificially and can only be obtained from human blood sources.

Aims: To assess the awareness of, perceptions of, motivations regarding, and barriers to blood donation among a sample of Jazan University students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Recessively inherited severe aortic aneurysm caused by mutated EFEMP2.

Familial aortic aneurysm (AA) is mostly inherited as an autosomal dominant disorder. However, recessively inherited AA has also been observed but in association with skin manifestations of cutis laxa, which is caused by a mutated EFEMP2 gene. In the present study, we recruited 9 patients, from 4 unrelated consanguineous families, with recessively inherited AA.

Prevalence of anemia in predialysis chronic kidney disease patients.

To evaluate the prevalence of anemia in a large cohort that comprises patients in different stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), we conducted a multi-center cross-sectional study of a cohort of CKD patients who have not started dialysis. The study patients were recruited from the nephrology clinics in 11 different medical centers distributed all over the regions of the KSA. For the estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR), we used the Chronic Kidney Disease-Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation.

What is the most appropriate formula to use in estimating glomerular filtration rate in adult Arabs without kidney disease?

Background: In clinical practice, the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is often estimated by the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) or Cockcroft-Gault (CG) formulae. No data are available, however, on the performance of these formulae in Arab individuals.

Methods: Plasma creatinine samples were obtained from 90 consecutive normal Arab kidney donors for the estimation of GFR (eGFR) using the simplified MDRD and CG formulae.