Publications by authors named "Bishara Bisharat"

Background: The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), developed by Derogatis in 1975, represents an important standardized screening instrument that enables one to quantitatively assess psychological distress and psychiatric disorders. The BSI is a 53-item self-report scale, measuring nine dimensions that can be summed up to reflect three global indices, including the General Severity Index (GSI). In the era of new information and communication technologies, nomophobia ("no mobile phobia") is an emerging disorder, characterized by the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

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The recent outbreak of Chikungunya virus in Italy represents a serious public health concern, which is attracting media coverage and generating public interest in terms of Internet searches and social media interactions. Here, we sought to assess the Chikungunya-related digital behavior and the interplay between epidemiological figures and novel data streams traffic. Reaction to the recent outbreak was analyzed in terms of Google Trends, Google News and Twitter traffic, Wikipedia visits and edits, and PubMed articles, exploiting structural modelling equations.

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Israel represents a complex and pluralistic society comprising two major ethno-national groups, Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, which differ in terms of religious and cultural values as well as social constructs. According to the so-called "diversification hypothesis", within the framework of e-health and in the era of new information and communication technologies, seeking online health information could be a channel to increase health literacy, especially among disadvantaged groups. However, little is known concerning digital seeking behavior and, in particular, digital mental health literacy.

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Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques play a major role in anesthesiology, even though their importance is often overlooked. In the extant literature, AI approaches, such as artificial neural networks (ANNs), have been underutilized, being used mainly to model patient's consciousness state, to predict the precise number of anesthetic gases, the level of analgesia, or the need of anesthesiological blocks, among others. In the field of neurosurgery, ANNs have been effectively applied to the diagnosis and prognosis of cerebral tumors, seizures, low back pain, and also to the monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP).

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Background: Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is an uncommon aggressive, multisystem form of non-Langerhans' cell histocytosis, which was firstly reported by Jakob Erdheim and William chester in 1930. The disease pathological features encompass an aberrant multiplication, overproduction and accumulation of white blood cells called histiocytes within multiple tissues and organs. Herein, we present a case of ECD owing to the rarity of this disease (roughly 550 cases have been described in the literature to date).

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Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS0) is a complex and rare genetic multisystem disorder characterized by a variable pattern of cognitive deficits accompanied by a1 distinctive behavioral phenotype. SMS is characterized by subtle facial dysmorphology, short stature, sleep disturbances, and neurobehavioral abnormalities. Little is known about the manifestation of his unique case among Arab population and its strategic treatment.

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Background: Anemia is a common disorder in CKD patients. It is largely attributed to decreased erythropoietin (EPO) production and iron deficiency. Therefore, besides EPO, therapy includes iron replenishment.

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Understanding the underlying reasons for the under-representation of Arab women within the health care system in Israel is crucial for creating future strategies for intervention, in order to minimize the gaps in the health care system and thus improve the medical services and health status. Our commentary tries to shed light on the underrepresentation and the marginalization of the Arab women in society in general and in the medical field in specific.

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Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is usually a relapsing demyelinating disease of the central nervous system associated with optic neuritis, transverse myelitis involving three or more contiguous spinal cord segments, and seropositivity for NMO-IgG antibody. NMO is often mistaken for multiple sclerosis and there are relatively sporadic publications about NMO and overlapping systemic or organ-specific autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We described a unique case of a 25-year-old Arab young woman who was diagnosed with SLE, depending on clinical, laboratory investigations and after she had fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for SLE and had presented the following findings: constitutional findings (fatigue, fever, and arthralgia); dermatologic finding (photosensitivity and butterfly rash); chronic renal failure (proteinuria up to 400 mg in 24 hours); hematologic and antinuclear antibodies (positivity for antinuclear factor (ANF), anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies, direct Coombs, ANA and anti-DNA, low C4 and C3, aCL by IgG and IgM).

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Article Synopsis
  • A 10-year-old boy experienced severe relapsing pancreatitis three times in two months after starting treatment with methylphenidate (Ritalin) for ADHD.
  • This case highlights the potential risk of pancreatitis associated with Ritalin, which has not been documented before.
  • Physicians should carefully consider this possible complication in any patient experiencing abdominal pain after starting Ritalin treatment.
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Objective: Depression illnesses are commonly observed in hemodialysis (HD) patients, which can influence the quality of life of end-stage renal disease patients. We evaluate the prevalence and predictive risk factors of depression in the Arab population undergoing HD in Nazareth, Israel.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study that included 71 patients in the HD unit with a mean age of 61.

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Background: Medication non adherence is a global epidemic perplexing phenomenon that is eminent, but not insurmountable. Our first objective was to explore whether providing pharmacist's counseling to cardiac patients prior to discharge can increase patient's medication adherence, and our second objective was to assess whether better medication adherence leads to reduction of hospital readmissions.

Methods: Observational study was conducted among diagnosed cardiac patients using an intervention strategy at discharge from two hospitals in Israel; The Nazareth and the Haemek hospital.

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Background: Health care workers bear the risk of both contracting influenza from patients and transmitting it to them. Although influenza vaccine is the most effective and safest public health measure against influenza and its complications, and despite recommendations that HCWs be vaccinated, influenza vaccination coverage among them remains low.

Objectives: To characterize influenza vaccination coverage and its determinants among employees in an Arab hospital in Israel.

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Background: Many species of the genus Inocybe (family Cortinariaceae, higher Basidiomycetes) are muscarine-containing mycorrhizal mushrooms, ubiquitous around the world. The few published reports on the poisonous Inocybe mushrooms are often limited by the inadequate identification of the species. The clinical course of patients with typical muscarinic manifestations, in whom Inocybe spp.

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Genetic disorders are frequent in the Arab population of Israel, mainly because of the preference for consanguineous marriages. Many of the inherited diseases are present with a high frequency only in a limited region or a single village. It is therefore not surprising that, in each of the villages, a different distribution of genetic diseases is found; thus, a detailed knowledge of the genetic disorders present in each village is of utmost importance for genetic counseling.

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