Risk of Microvascular Complications in Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Patients Using Automated Machine Learning Prediction Models.

In type 2 diabetes (T2D), collective damage to the eyes, kidneys, and peripheral nerves constitutes microvascular complications, which significantly affect patients' quality of life. This study aimed to prospectively evaluate the risk of microvascular complications in newly diagnosed T2D patients in Dubai, UAE. Supervised automated machine learning in the Auto-Classifier model of the IBM SPSS Modeler package was used to predict microvascular complications in a training data set of 348 long-term T2D patients with complications using 24 independent variables as predictors and complications as targets.

Etiologies underlying subtypes of long-standing type 2 diabetes.

Background: Attempts to subtype, type 2 diabetes (T2D) have mostly focused on newly diagnosed European patients. In this study, our aim was to subtype T2D in a non-white Emirati ethnic population with long-standing disease, using unsupervised soft clustering, based on etiological determinants.

Methods: The Auto Cluster model in the IBM SPSS Modeler was used to cluster data from 348 Emirati patients with long-standing T2D.

Effects of menstrual cycle on hemodynamic and autonomic responses to central hypovolemia.

Background: Estrogen and progesterone levels undergo changes throughout the menstrual cycle. Existing literature regarding the effect of menstrual phases on cardiovascular and autonomic regulation during central hypovolemia is contradictory.

Aims And Study: This study aims to explore the influence of menstrual phases on cardiovascular and autonomic responses in both resting and during the central hypovolemia induced by lower body negative pressure (LBNP).

Gender-specific Reference Range for Serum Leptin in Omani Population.

Objectives: Leptin is a hormone that contributes to glucose homeostasis and food intake regulation via its action on the hypothalamus. Leptin level increases with obesity and overfeeding and decreases with energy deficiency. Serum leptin levels vary between different ethnic groups with no reports of its reference range in the Arabic population.

Association of gender with cardiovascular and autonomic responses to central hypovolemia.

Introduction: Lower body negative pressure (LBNP) eliminates the impact of weight-bearing muscles on venous return, as well as the vestibular component of cardiovascular and autonomic responses. We evaluated the hemodynamic and autonomic responses to central hypovolemia, induced by LBNP in both males and females.

Methodology: A total of 44 participants recruited in the study.

Risk and predictors of severity and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes and COVID-19 in Dubai.

Background: Globally, patients with diabetes suffer from increased disease severity and mortality due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Old age, high body mass index (BMI), comorbidities, and complications of diabetes are recognized as major risk factors for infection severity and mortality.

Aim: To investigate the risk and predictors of higher severity and mortality among in-hospital patients with COVID-19 and type 2 diabetes (T2D) during the first wave of the pandemic in Dubai (March-September 2020).

Estimate of the HOMA-IR Cut-off Value for Identifying Subjects at Risk of Insulin Resistance Using a Machine Learning Approach.

Objectives: This study describes an unsupervised machine learning approach used to estimate the homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) cut-off for identifying subjects at risk of IR in a given ethnic group based on the clinical data of a representative sample.

Methods: The approach was applied to analyse the clinical data of individuals with Arab ancestors, which was obtained from a family study conducted in Nizwa, Oman, between January 2000 and December 2004. First, HOMA-IR-correlated variables were identified to which a clustering algorithm was applied.

Utility of oral glucose tolerance test in predicting type 2 diabetes following gestational diabetes: Towards personalized care.

Background: Women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are at a seven-fold higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) within 7-10 years after childbirth, compared with those with normoglycemic pregnancy. Although raised fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels has been said to be the main significant predictor of postpartum progression to T2D, it is difficult to predict who among the women with GDM would develop T2D. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study to examine the glycemic indices that can predict postnatal T2D in Emirati Arab women with a history of GDM.

Covid-19 infection in pregnant women in Dubai: a case-control study.

Background: Whilst the impact of Covid-19 infection in pregnant women has been examined, there is a scarcity of data on pregnant women in the Middle East. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of Covid-19 infection on pregnant women in the United Arab Emirates population.

Methods: A case-control study was carried out to compare the clinical course and outcome of pregnancy in 79 pregnant women with Covid-19 and 85 non-pregnant women with Covid-19 admitted to Latifa Hospital in Dubai between March and June 2020.

Heritability and genetic correlations of obesity indices with ambulatory and office beat-to-beat blood pressure in the Oman Family Study.

Objective: To more precisely and comprehensively estimate the genetic and environmental correlations between various indices of obesity and BP.

Methods: We estimated heritability and genetic correlations of obesity indices with BP in the Oman family study (n = 1231). Ambulatory and office beat-to-beat BP was measured and mean values for SBP and DBP during daytime, sleep, 24-h and 10 min at rest were calculated.

Augmenting Flexnerism Via Twitterism: Need for Integrating Social Media Application in Blueprinting Pedagogical Strategies for Undergraduate Medical Education.

Background: Flexnerism, or "competency-based medical education," advocates that formal analytic reasoning, the kind of rational thinking fundamental to the basic sciences, especially the natural sciences, should be the foundation of physicians' intellectual training. The complexity of 21st century health care requires rethinking of current (medical) educational paradigms. In this "Millennial Era," promulgation of the tenets of Flexnerism in undergraduate medical education requires a design and blueprint of innovative pedagogical strategies, as the targeted learners are millennials (designated as generation-Y medical students).

Heritability and genetic and environmental correlations of heart rate variability and baroreceptor reflex sensitivity with ambulatory and beat-to-beat blood pressure.

This family study from Oman (n = 1231) explored the heritability and genetic and environmental correlations of heart rate variability (HRV) and baroreceptor reflex sensitivity (BRS) with ambulatory and beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP). Ambulatory BP was measured for 24 hours to calculate mean values for daytime and sleep separately. Time and frequency domain HRV indices, BRS, office beat-to-beat BP, and heart rate (HR) were measured for 10 minutes at rest.

A novel 6D-approach to radically transform undergraduate medical education: preliminary reflections from MBRU.

Background: Designers of undergraduate medical education (UME) need to address the exponentially expanding volume and variability of scientific knowledge, where by didactic teaching techniques need to be augmented by innovative student-centric pedagogical strategies and implementation of milieus, where information, communication and technology-enabled tools are seamlessly integrated, and lifelong information gathering, assimilation, integration and implementation is the ultimate goal. In UME, the basic sciences provide a solid scaffold allowing students to develop their personal critical decisional framework as well as define the understanding of normal human physiology, pivotal for the identification, categorization and management of pathophysiology. However, most medical schools confine themselves to "stagnant curricula", with the implementation of traditional "teacher centered" pedagogical techniques in the dissemination of the courses pertaining to basic sciences in UME.

Blending Gagne's Instructional Model with Peyton's Approach to Design an Introductory Bioinformatics Lesson Plan for Medical Students: Proof-of-Concept Study.

Background: With the rapid integration of genetics into medicine, it has become evident that practicing physicians as well as medical students and clinical researchers need to be updated on the fundamentals of bioinformatics. To achieve this, the following gaps need to be addressed: a lack of defined learning objectives for "Bioinformatics for Medical Practitioner" courses, an absence of a structured lesson plan to disseminate the learning objectives, and no defined step-by-step strategy to teach the essentials of bioinformatics in the medical curriculum.

Objective: The objective of this study was to address these gaps to design a streamlined pedagogical strategy for teaching basics of bioinformatics in the undergraduate medical curriculum.

Heritability and genetic correlations of heart rate variability at rest and during stress in the Oman Family Study.

Introduction: Individual differences in heart rate variability (HRV) can be partly attributed to genetic factors that may be more pronounced during stress. Using data from the Oman Family Study (OFS), we aimed to estimate and quantify the relative contribution of genes and environment to the variance of HRV at rest and during stress; calculate the overlap in genetic and environmental influences on HRV at rest and under stress using bivariate analyses of HRV parameters and heart rate (HR).

Methods: Time and frequency domain HRV variables and average HR were measured from beat-to-beat HR obtained from electrocardiogram recordings at rest and during two stress tests [mental: Word Conflict Test (WCT) and physical: Cold Pressor Test (CPT)] in the OFS - a multigenerational pedigree consisting of five large Arab families with a total of 1326 participants.

Validity of Prostate Health Index and Percentage of [-2] Pro-Prostate-Specific Antigen as Novel Biomarkers in the Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer: Omani Tertiary Hospitals Experience.

Objectives: Prostate cancer is the leading cancer in older men. The Ministry of Health Oman Cancer Incidence Registry 2013 lists cancer of the prostate as the first most common cancer in males. Therefore, early detection is important and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely used as an established laboratory test.

Erratum: Genetic loci associated with heart rate variability and their effects on cardiac disease risk.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15805.

Genetic loci associated with heart rate variability and their effects on cardiac disease risk.

Reduced cardiac vagal control reflected in low heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with greater risks for cardiac morbidity and mortality. In two-stage meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for three HRV traits in up to 53,174 individuals of European ancestry, we detect 17 genome-wide significant SNPs in eight loci. HRV SNPs tag non-synonymous SNPs (in NDUFA11 and KIAA1755), expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) (influencing GNG11, RGS6 and NEO1), or are located in genes preferentially expressed in the sinoatrial node (GNG11, RGS6 and HCN4).

Positive selection of lactase persistence among people of Southern Arabia.

Objective: Frequency patterns of the lactase persistence (LP)-associated -13,915 G allele and archaeological records pointing to substantial role played by southern regions in the peopling and domestication processes that involved the Arabian Peninsula suggest that Southern Arabia plausibly represented the center of diffusion of such adaptive variant. Nevertheless, a well-defined scenario for evolution of Arabian LP is still to be elucidated and the burgeoning archaeological picture of complex human migrations occurred through the peninsula is not matched by an equivalent high-resolution description of genetic variation underlying this adaptive trait. To fill this gap, we investigated diversity at a wide genomic interval surrounding the LCT gene in different Southern Arabian populations.

Frequencies of the Arg16Gly, Gln27Glu and Thr164Ile Adrenoceptor β2 Polymorphisms among Omanis.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the distribution of missense mutations in the adrenoceptor β2 (ADRB2) gene in an Omani cohort.

Methods: This study was carried out between May 2014 and March 2015 at the Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. Blood samples were taken from 316 unrelated Omani subjects.

Epidemiology of Diabetes Mellitus in Oman: Results from two decades of research.

Objectives: This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of diabetes mellitus over the past two decades in Oman, particularly in terms of its prevalence and incidence. In addition, the study sought to estimate the future incidence of diabetes in Oman.

Methods: Three national and three regional surveys conducted between 1991 and 2010 were analysed to obtain the age-adjusted prevalence and undiagnosed proportion of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among Omani subjects aged ≥20 years.

Quality of diabetes care at outpatient clinic, sultan qaboos university hospital.

Objective: To assess the clinical care of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) patients at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), a countrywide tertiary referral center in Muscat, Oman. .

Methods: We performed a retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study using a total of 673 Omani T2D patients from the Diabetes and Family Medicine Clinics at SQUH.

Urinary stone composition in Oman: with high incidence of cystinuria.

Urinary stones are a common problem in Oman and their composition is unknown. The aim of this study is to analyze the components of urinary stones of Omani patients and use the obtained data for future studies of etiology, treatment, and prevention. Urinary stones of 255 consecutive patients were collected at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.

Association of gene variants with susceptibility to type 2 diabetes among Omanis.

Aim: To investigate the association of 10 known common gene variants with susceptibility to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) among Omanis.

Methods: Using case-control design, a total of 992 diabetic patients and 294 normoglycemic Omani Arabs were genotyped, by an allelic discrimination assay-by-design TaqMan method on fast real time polymerase chain reaction system, for the following gene variants: KCNJ11 (rs5219), TCF7L2 (rs7903146), CDKAL1 (rs10946398), CDKN2A/B (rs10811661), FTO (rs9939609 and rs8050136), IGF2BP2 (rs4402960), SLC30A8 (rs13266634) CAPN10 (rs3792267) and HHEX (rs1111875). T2D patients were recruited from the Diabetes Clinic (n = 243) and inpatients (n = 749) at Sultan Qaboos Univesity Hospital (SQUH), Muscat, Oman.

The Effect of Residing Altitude on Levels of High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol: A Pilot Study From the Omani Arab Population.

Lower mortality rates from coronary heart disease and higher levels of serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) have been observed in populations residing at high altitude. However, this effect has not been investigated in Arab populations, which exhibit considerable genetic homogeneity. We assessed the relationship between residing altitude and HDL-C in 2 genetically similar Omani Arab populations residing at different altitudes.