Knowledge of Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Attitudes and Practices Towards Anti-HPV Vaccination Among Israeli Pediatricians, Gynecologists, and Internal Medicine Doctors: Development and Validation of an Ad Hoc Questionnaire.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a highly widespread virus which is responsible for one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. Two main preventative strategies exist: anti-HPV vaccination and cervical screening. Health-care workers play a key role in promoting public health campaigns; however, vaccine hesitancy is an often under-recognized challenge.

The Prognostic Value of Inflammatory Markers in Clostridium difficile-associated Diarrhea.

Background: The incidence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) is increasing and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Therefore, there is a need to find new tools to determine the severity of the disease.

Objectives: To investigate the prognostic values of inflammatory markers such as mean platelet volume (MPV), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with CDAD.

The role of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, and mean platelet volume in detecting patients with acute venous thromboembolism.

Background: Acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) refers to deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the extremities or pulmonary embolism (PE), or to both. Reliable imaging is not always available making a serologic diagnosis, or biomarker, highly desirable.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the role of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and mean platelet volume (MPV) in detection patients with acute VTE.

The use of sectional matrix in direct restoration of a structurally compromised posterior tooth: a clinical technique.

This report describes a clinical technique to facilitate the placement of direct composite resin restorations in structurally compromised posterior teeth, to restore proper anatomical contours and interproximal contacts using sectional matrix kit and thermoplastic impression material.

Establishment of a formal program for retinoblastoma: Feasibility of clinical coordination across borders and impact on outcome.

Retinoblastoma is an ocular tumor that occurs in young children, in either heritable or sporadic manner. The relative rarity of retinoblastoma, and the need for expensive equipment, anesthesia, and pediatric ophthalmologic expertise, are barriers for effective treatment in developing countries. Also, with an average age-adjusted incidence of two to five cases per million children, patient number limits development of local expertise in countries with small populations.

The Prevalence and Correlation of Carotid Artery Calcifications and Dental Pulp Stones in a Saudi Arabian Population.

Background: This study sought to determine the prevalence of carotid artery calcifications (CACs) and pulp stones detected on panoramic radiographs (PRs) and ascertain their correlation.

Methods: A total of 2013 digital PRs were retrospectively retrieved and thoroughly examined to determine the prevalence of CACs and pulp stones, their correlation with patient age and gender, and the relationship between the presence of pulps stones and radiographically detectable CACs.

Results: The prevalence of CACs on PRs was 2.

Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is Associated with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection in Premenopausal Women Independent of Metabolic Syndrome.

Background: Recently, studies have found that non-alcholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with bacterial infections. Attempts to identify risk factors for recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) are still underway.

Objectives: To examine a possible association between NAFLD and rUTIs among premenopausal women.

Next-generation sequencing and recombinant expression characterized aberrant splicing mechanisms and provided correction strategies in factor VII deficiency.

Despite the exhaustive screening of gene exons and exon-intron boundaries and promoter region, a significant proportion of mutated alleles remains unidentified in patients with coagulation factor VII deficiency. Here, we applied next-generation sequencing to 13 FVII-deficient patients displaying genotype-phenotype discrepancies upon conventional sequencing, and identified six rare intronic variants. Computational analysis predicted splicing effects for three of them, which would strengthen (c.

Ongoing issues with the management of children with Constitutional Mismatch Repair Deficiency syndrome.

Constitutional Mismatch Repair Deficiency (CMMRD) is a rare cancer predisposition syndrome, presenting in childhood, in which affected patients develop various malignancies such as hematological, gastrointestinal and central nervous system tumors. Although guidelines are being increasingly developed for surveillance and early detection of cancers in affected families, there are no clear recommendations regarding choice of therapy and very scarce information about tolerance to chemotherapy and radiation in these patients. We report the pedigree of a consanguineous family with four affected children.

Dialogic reading vs screen exposure intervention is related to increased cognitive control in preschool-age children.

Aim: Shared reading leads to better language and executive functions. This study was designed to examine the effect of dialogic reading compared to screen-exposed intervention on executive functions using behavioural and electroencephalogram measures.

Methods: The effect of six weeks of dialogic reading intervention on executive functions was examined in 16 children (seven females, 61.

Characteristics and Histological Types of Lupus Nephritis in a Jordanian Tertiary Medical Center.

Objectives: Few reports of lupus nephritis (LN) from Jordan and the Middle East exist. This study assessed the demographic, clinical, and basic laboratory characteristics of Jordanian patients with LN and correlations with the histological class of LN.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of all patients who underwent kidney biopsy between 2007 and 2018 at a tertiary medical center in Jordan.

A Novel Deletion in the RPL5 Gene in a Lebanese Child With Diamond Blackfan Anemia Unresponsive to Steroid Treatment.

Diamond-Blackfan Anemia (DBA) is a rare inherited form of pure red cell aplasia that usually manifests in infancy or early childhood, and is characterized by normochromic macrocytic anemia and bone marrow erythroblastopenia. The majority of DBA cases are associated with mutations in ribosomal protein genes. Here, we describe a Lebanese girl with RPL5-mutated DBA unresponsive to steroid treatment who died from complications following late hematopoietic stem cell transplantation performed at the age of 15 years.

Children Use Regions in the Visual Processing and Executive Function Networks during a Subsequent Memory Reading Task.

Memory encoding is a critical process for memory function, which is foundational for cognitive functioning including reading, and has been extensively studied using subsequent memory tasks. Research in adults using such tasks indicates the participation of visual and cognitive-control systems in remembered versus forgotten words. However, given the known developmental trajectories of these systems, the functional neuroanatomy of memory encoding in children may be different than in adults.

Lentiviral gene therapy corrects platelet phenotype and function in patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome.

Background: Thrombocytopenia is a serious issue for all patients with classical Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) and X-linked thrombocytopenia (XLT) because it causes severe and life-threatening bleeding. Lentiviral gene therapy (GT) for WAS has shown promising results in terms of immune reconstitution. However, despite the reduced severity and frequency of bleeding events, platelet counts remain low in GT-treated patients.

Identification of new Wilms tumour predisposition genes: an exome sequencing study.

Background: Wilms tumour is the most common childhood renal cancer and is genetically heterogeneous. While several Wilms tumour predisposition genes have been identified, there is strong evidence that further predisposition genes are likely to exist. Our study aim was to identify new predisposition genes for Wilms tumour.

Effect of cooling water temperature on the temperature changes in pulp chamber and at handpiece head during high-speed tooth preparation.

Objectives: It was the aim of this study to evaluate the effect of cooling water temperature on the temperature changes in the pulp chamber and at the handpiece head during high-speed tooth preparation using an electric handpiece.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-eight intact human molars received a standardized occlusal preparation for 60 seconds using a diamond bur in an electric handpiece, and one of four treatments were applied that varied in the temperature of cooling water applied (control, with no cooling water, 10°C, 23°C, and 35°C). The temperature changes in the pulp chamber and at the handpiece head were recorded using K-type thermocouples connected to a digital thermometer.

Increased Functional Connectivity Within and Between Cognitive-Control Networks from Early Infancy to Nine Years During Story Listening.

The cingulo-opercular (CO) and frontoparietal (FP) networks are part of the cognitive-control system of the brain. Evidence suggests that over the course of development, brain regions supporting cognitive-control functions become more integrated within their networks (i.e.

A Validated Score Assessing the Risk of an Intra-Abdominal Abscess in Patients with Crohn's Disease Presenting at the Emergency Department.

Background And Aims: A majority of acutely ill Crohn's disease [CD] patients who present to Emergency Department [ED] will undergo an abdominal CT to rule out disease complications. We aimed to generate a simple non-invasive scoring model to predict the presence of an intra-abdominal abscess in CD patients in the ED.

Methods: We performed a retrospective case-control study at four Israeli hospitals from January 1, 2010 to May 30, 2018.

Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria in the Age of Eculizumab.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare, acquired clonal hematopoietic cell disease characterized by the destruction of hematopoietic cells through activation of the complement system with manifestations that can be life-threatening including hemolysis, thrombosis, and marrow failure. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) remains the sole cure for PNH, but eculizumab, a terminal complement inhibitor of C5, has been used to prevent complement-mediated hemolysis in patients with PNH since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration in 2007. We examined outcomes of HCT in patients with PNH to evaluate the effects of disease subtype, conditioning intensity, and eculizumab use either pre-HCT or post-HCT.

Functional Repair Assay for the Diagnosis of Constitutional Mismatch Repair Deficiency From Non-Neoplastic Tissue.

Purpose: Constitutional mismatch repair deficiency (CMMRD) is a highly penetrant cancer predisposition syndrome caused by biallelic mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes. As several cancer syndromes are clinically similar, accurate diagnosis is critical to cancer screening and treatment. As genetic diagnosis is confounded by 15 or more pseudogenes and variants of uncertain significance, a robust diagnostic assay is urgently needed.