Publications by authors named "Braham A"

Electronic Health Records (EHR) have been adopted to improve the quality of care. Despite the growing use of health information technology, nursing documentation remains a challenge. In Tunisia, the implementation of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system is gaining momentum as part of national initiatives to modernize healthcare.

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Flagellar swimming hydrodynamics confers a recognized advantage for attachment on solid surfaces. Whether this motility further enables the following environmental cues was experimentally explored. Motile E.

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Background: There is a growing demand for colonoscopy, worldwide, resulting in increased rate of inappropriate referrals. This "overuse" of colonoscopies has become a major burden for health care.

Objectives: to assess the appropriateness of colonoscopies performed at the endoscopy unit of the university hospital of Sousse and to compare these results of appropriateness according to the European Panel of Appropriateness of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (EPAGE) I and EPAGE II criteria.

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Introduction: Treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease remains a challenge especially after the failure of Infliximab.

Aim: Update on the different therapeutic alternatives for anal fistula in Crohn's disease after failure of Infliximab.

Methods: A research in the medical literature on PubMed and Google Scholar was carried out.

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Multiple Morphological Abnormalities of the Sperm Flagella (MMAF) is a severe form of teratozoospermia associated with several sperm flagellar abnormalities. The study included 52 patients with MMAF syndrome and a control group of 25 fertile men. The impact of nuclear sperm quality on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) results was studied in 20 couples.

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Among the existing bearing faults, ball ones are known to be the most difficult to detect and classify. In this work, we propose a diagnosis methodology for these incipient faults' classification using time series of vibration signals and their decomposition. Firstly, the vibration signals were decomposed using empirical mode decomposition (EMD).

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Assertiveness is a constructive interpersonal behavior alternative to manipulation and aggression. Medical students (MSs) have daily interpersonal interactions with colleagues, patients and families. Yet, communication deficiencies due to hesitancy to speak-up assertively lead to adverse patient outcomes.

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Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate the frequency and risk factors of clinical postoperative recurrence in Tunisian patients with Crohn's disease (CD).

Methods: Clinical data of 86 patients with CD who underwent ileocolonic resection at University Hospital of Sahloul in Tunisia were retrospectively reviewed. Continuous data are expressed as median (interquartile range), and categorical data as frequencies and percentages.

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Objectives: Cognitive insight reflects cognitive processes concerning patients' capacity of distancing from and reevaluation of anomalous beliefs and misinterpretations. The purpose of the present study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Arabic version of the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale.

Methods: The English language version of the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale was translated into Literary Arabic.

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In light of different challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, university students are considered a particularly vulnerable population to mental health and study engagement issues. The first years at university represent a crucial period for students and are associated with an increase in mental health problems, particularly in healthcare studies. This study aimed (1) to document the current levels of mental health and study engagement among healthcare students in Tunisia, and (2) to investigate the relationships between emotional regulation, optimism, study engagement and common mental health problems (stress, anxiety and depression) among this population.

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High-quality and accurate environmental investigations are essential for the evaluation of contamination and subsequent decision-making processes. A combination of environmental geochemical indices, multivariate analyses and geographic information system approach was successfully used to assess contamination status and source apportionment of trace elements (Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, V and Zn) in surface stream sediments from the Oued Rarai basin in north-western Tunisia, containing various metal and metalloid ores. The contamination level reported in this study indicates a non-negligible potential ecological risk, mainly related to sediment transport along the river.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most frequent type of liver cancer. Liver cirrhosis of any etiology is considered the main risk factor for the development of HCC. However, HCC in noncirrhotic livers remains an uncommon finding.

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Goal Of The Study: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic events (TEE) during outbreaks, increasing morbidity and mortality. The aim of our study was to specify the prevalence of TEE in IBD patients and to determine their epidemiological, clinical and evolutionary characteristics.

Materiel And Methods: This is a retrospective study collecting all patients with IBD, who had a thromboembolic complication confirmed by imagery, between January 2012 and December 2018.

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The aim of this study was to compare the sperm morphology and nuclear sperm quality (sperm aneuploidy and DNA fragmentation) in two groups of globozoospermic patients: DPY19L2-mutated patients (n = 6) and SPATA16-mutated patients (n = 2). Results for these two groups were also compared to a group of fertile men (n = 25). Fluorescence in situ hybridisation was performed for chromosomes X, Y and 18.

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Various nuclear sperm alterations are reported in patients with syndromic teratozoospermia; however, this has not been clearly identified yet in total polymorphic teratozoospermia. The aim of this study was to analyse sperm aneuploidy, DNA integrity and chromatin packaging in 45 infertile patients with total polymorphic teratozoospermia, and to compare obtained results with those collected from 25 fertile men. For 14 patients, the impact of nuclear sperm abnormalities on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes was analysed.

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Background: The management of the health-related quality of life (HRQL) is increasingly considered as an important treatment goal in chronic diseases including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).

Aim: The aim of our study was to determine the impact of IBD on HRQLand identify the factors involved in the deterioration of HRQL in these patients.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study including 108 patients; 66 had Crohn's disease (CD) and 42 had ulcerative colitis (UC).

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This paper propose an hierarchical controller based on a new disturbance observer with finite time convergence (FTDO) to solve the path tracking of a small coaxial-rotor-typs Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) despite of unknown aerodynamic efforts. The hierarchical control technique is used to separate the flight control problem into an inner loop that controls attitude and an outer loop that controls the thrust force acting on the vehicle. The new disturbance observer with finite time convergence is intergated to online estimate the unknown uncertainties and disturbances and to actively compensate them in finite time.

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Importance: Individuals can be classified as being at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis if they meet at least one of the ultra-high-risk (UHR) inclusion criteria (brief limited intermittent psychotic symptoms [BLIPS] and/or attenuated psychotic symptoms [APS] and/or genetic risk and deterioration syndrome [GRD]) and/or basic symptoms [BS]. The meta-analytical risk of psychosis of these different subgroups is still unknown.

Objective: To compare the risk of psychosis in CHR individuals who met at least one of the major inclusion criteria and in individuals not at CHR for psychosis (CHR-).

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Purpose: Macrozoospermia is a rare condition of male infertility characterized by the presence of close to 100 % large-headed multiflagellar spermatozoa. The homozygous mutation (c.144delC) in aurora kinase C gene (AURKC) has been identified as the most frequent mutation causing macrozoospermia in North African patients.

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Aim: Clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have been described from different geographical regions around the world. However, data from North African countries, including Tunisia, are scarce.

Methods: The aim of this retrospective multicenter study was to analyze demographic, clinical, laboratory features and outcome of SLE in Tunisia throughout 14 Departments of Internal Medicine and to compare them with those of other ethnic and geographic groups.

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Objective: The aim of the present study was to analyze demographic, clinical and genetic features of Behçet's disease patients with neurological involvement through a monocentric study of a homogenous group of hospitalized patients observed in the same department and to compare them with those of other ethnic and geographic groups.

Methods: Four hundred and thirty Behçet's disease (BD) patients were retrospectively studied. Diagnosis of BD was made according to the international study group for Behçet's disease criteria.

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Background: Major depression is a mental disorder that is associated with high morbidity and significant mortality. It is common among primary care attenders. Few is known about major depression prevalence and associated factors, which would prevent general practitioners from diagnosing it in primary care centres and treating it adequately.

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Aim: The study aimed to examine whether the Arabic version of the Comprehensive Assessment of At Risk Mental States (CAARMS) has good construct validity, concurrent validity and reliability.

Methods: Validity was established on a sample of 58 Tunisian adolescents and young adults aged between 16 and 30 years. These subjects were divided into three groups according to the CAARMS scores: ultra-high risk positive subjects (UHR (+) ) (n = 22), ultra-high risk negative subjects (UHR (-) ) (n = 25) and subjects meeting the criteria of a first-episode psychosis (FEP) (n = 11).

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Bloom syndrome (BS) is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder characterized by chromosomal instability leading to a high risk of cancer at an early age. The diagnosis should be considered in patients with short stature, photosensitivity, variable degrees of immunodeficiency, and hypogonadism. We report a 19-year-old woman, with history of dysmorphic features and recurrent infections.

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