Autosomal recessive spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is, after cystic fibrosis, the second most comm... more Autosomal recessive spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is, after cystic fibrosis, the second most common fatal monogenic disorder. Depending on the clinical type, SMA causes early death or increasing disability in childhood. Here, we report a three month old Saudi girl presented with a history of coughing and respiratory distress who had previous admissions due to pneumonia. There was a positive family history of sibling death, at age 2 years, due to SMA. Genetically, we found homozygous deletions of the Survival Motor Neuron (SMN1) gene exons 7 and 8 using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. Thus, confirming this case clinical diagnosis with presumed SMA type I. DNA testing of patients, in whom SMA is suspected, is a highly reliable, fast, and noninvasive method. The ability to detect homozygous gene deletions in a high percentage of typical SMA patients will much improve genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis in affected families.
Supplemental material, UK_FIM_FAM_SCORE for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality... more Supplemental material, UK_FIM_FAM_SCORE for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, System_Usability_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual R... more Supplemental material, System_Usability_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, SNAP_test for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device... more Supplemental material, SNAP_test for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, Modified_Ashworth_Scale for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual ... more Supplemental material, Modified_Ashworth_Scale for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, Fugl_Meyer_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality... more Supplemental material, Fugl_Meyer_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Obesity, physical activity, and their interaction in incident atrial fibrillation in postmenopaus... more Obesity, physical activity, and their interaction in incident atrial fibrillation in postmenopausal women
Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a high recurrence risk and poor clinical outcomes. Assoc... more Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a high recurrence risk and poor clinical outcomes. Associations between metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk components and mortality in postmenopausal women with TNBC were examined in the Women's Health Initiative.
Introduction: Many cohort studies have reported a protective effect of moderate alcohol use (EtOH... more Introduction: Many cohort studies have reported a protective effect of moderate alcohol use (EtOH) on the risk of adverse cardiovascular health outcomes. The exact nature of this association remain...
BACkgRounD AnD RATIonAlE: Stroke is considered the most common cause of adult disability. Intensi... more BACkgRounD AnD RATIonAlE: Stroke is considered the most common cause of adult disability. Intensive rehabilitation protocols outperform nonintensive counterparts. The subacute stroke phase represents a potential window to recovery. Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to provide a more stimulating environment, allowing for increased patient compliance. However, the quality of current literature comparing VR with standard therapies is limited. Our aim is to measure the impact of VR versus standard therapy on the recovery of the upper limb motor function in patients with stroke in the early subacute recovery phase. METhoD: This is a randomized, controlled trial that will assign 262 patients to tailor-made standard rehabilitation (TMSR) or TMSR plus immersive VR device. The trial will be conducted in an urban rehabilitation clinic in the United States with expertise in the management of poststroke patients. Patients will be 18 to 70 years of age and in the early subacute period (30-90 days post ischemic stroke). The primary outcome will be the change of Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) score, measured at baseline and 13 weeks after randomization. The secondary outcome will be the change in the UK Functional Independence Measure and Functional Assessment Measure (UK FIM-FAM) score at the same time points. DISCuSSIon: If the use of VR in the rehabilitation of patients with stroke proves to have a significant impact on their motor recovery, it will constitute an extremely important step into decreasing the functional impairment associated with stroke and the related health care expense burden.
The anticarcinogenic effect of statins may reduce the metastatic potential of cancer cells leadin... more The anticarcinogenic effect of statins may reduce the metastatic potential of cancer cells leading to 'stage migration', with users more likely diagnosed with early rather than late stage cancer. The association between prior statin use and colorectal cancer (CRC) stage at diagnosis in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was investigated. The study population included 132,322 post-menopausal women, among which there were 2,628 pathologically confirmed cases of in situ (3.3%), localized (43.6%), regional (40.4%) and distant (12.7%) stage CRC, after an average of 13.9 (SD=4.7) years of follow-up. To reduce the possibility of detection bias among women more likely to be prescribed statins, women who did not report a mammogram within 5 years of study entry and who had no health insurance or medical care provider (n=28,237) were excluded from the study. Stage was coded using SEER criteria into early (in situ and local) vs. late (regional and distant) stage disease. Hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) evaluating the association between statin use and diagnosis of late-stage CRC both at baseline and in a time-dependent manner were computed from multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards analyses. In the multivariable time-dependent analysis, there was a lower hazard of late stage CRC among users of lipophilic statins compared with non-users (HR=0.80, 95% CI 0.66-0.98, P=0.029) and a marginally lower hazard of late stage CRC among users of lipophilic vs. hydrophilic statins (HR=0.70, 95% CI 0.49-1.01, P=0.058). The use of lipophilic statins was associated with a reduction in the proportion of CRC cases that were late stage at the time of diagnosis.
BACKGROUND: We examined the associations between germline variants and breast cancer mortality us... more BACKGROUND: We examined the associations between germline variants and breast cancer mortality using a large meta-analysis of women of European ancestry. METHODS: Meta-analyses included summary estimates based on Cox models of twelve datasets using~10.4 million variants for 96,661 women with breast cancer and 7697 events (breast cancer-specific deaths). Oestrogen receptor (ER)-specific analyses were based on 64,171 ER-positive (4116) and 16,172 ER-negative (2125) patients. We evaluated the probability of a signal to be a true positive using the Bayesian false discovery probability (BFDP). RESULTS: We did not find any variant associated with breast cancer-specific mortality at P < 5 × 10 −8. For ER-positive disease, the most significantly associated variant was chr7:rs4717568 (BFDP = 7%, P = 1.28 × 10 −7 , hazard ratio [HR] = 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.84-0.92); the closest gene is AUTS2. For ER-negative disease, the most significant variant was chr7:rs67918676 (BFDP = 11%, P = 1.38 × 10 −7 , HR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.16-1.39); located within a long intergenic non-coding RNA gene (AC004009.3), close to the HOXA gene cluster. CONCLUSIONS: We uncovered germline variants on chromosome 7 at BFDP < 15% close to genes for which there is biological evidence related to breast cancer outcome. However, the paucity of variants associated with mortality at genome-wide significance underpins the challenge in providing genetic-based individualised prognostic information for breast cancer patients.
Background Women comprise nearly half of the labor force in our society, but the impact of the oc... more Background Women comprise nearly half of the labor force in our society, but the impact of the occupational psychical activity on women’s heart health in later life was unclear. We conducted a case-cohort study to assess the association of occupational physical activity (OPA), alone and jointly with leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods We included women enrolled in Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study who provided an occupational history at baseline and were followed until 2013 for the first occurrence of myocardial infarction or death from CHD (mean age ± SD = 63.4 ± 7.2). A total of 5,243 women free of CHD at baseline were randomly selected into a subcohort and 3,421 CHD events were adjudicated during follow-up. Through linkage of Standard Occupational Classification codes to the Occupational Information Network, we assessed cumulative and most recent exposure of OPA. LTPA was assessed through Women’s Health Initiative’s ...
Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In... more Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In the current study, we are aiming to determine the severity of depression in these survivors and to define the main factors that might affect the severity of the depression. These factors are including the demographic characteristics of participants, the prevalence of chronic diseases and the social status. We included 83 breast cancer survivors from Zehra Breast Cancer Association to participate in the study voluntarily. Depression level had been evaluated by using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-D17) and all the participants completed questionnaires about their social life and the predominant chronical diseases in Saudi Arabia. The severity of depression was significantly associated with survivors who have 3 children or more (p = 0.029). No other significant associations have been found between the severity of depression and other factors such as age, geographical locations, marital status and the most common chronical diseases. Depression level must be evaluated in the breast cancer survivors especially in women who have had children and during the first year of recovery.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, 2022
Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In... more Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In the current study, we are aiming to determine the severity of depression in these survivors and to define the main factors that might affect the severity of the depression. These factors are including the demographic characteristics of participants, the prevalence of chronic diseases and the social status. We included 83 breast cancer survivors from Zehra Breast Cancer Association to participate in the study voluntarily. Depression level had been evaluated by using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-D17) and all the participants completed questionnaires about their social life and the predominant chronical diseases in Saudi Arabia. The severity of depression was significantly associated with survivors who have 3 children or more (p = 0.029). No other significant associations have been found between the severity of depression and other factors such as age, geographical locations, marital status and the most common chronical diseases. Depression level must be evaluated in the breast cancer survivors especially in women who have had children and during the first year of recovery.
Background Cardiovascular health (CVH) has been defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) a... more Background Cardiovascular health (CVH) has been defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) as the presence of the “Life’s Simple 7” ideal lifestyle and clinical factors. CVH is known to predict longevity and freedom from cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death for women in the United States. DNA methylation markers of aging have been aggregated into a composite epigenetic age score, which is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, it is unknown whether poor CVH is associated with acceleration of aging as measured by DNA methylation markers in epigenetic age. Methods and results We performed a cross-sectional analysis of racially/ethnically diverse post-menopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative cohort recruited between 1993 and 1998. Epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) was calculated using DNA methylation data on a subset of participants and the published Horvath and Hannum methods for intrinsic and extrinsic EAA. CVH was calcul...
Objective An understanding of the etiologic heterogeneity of colorectal cancer (CRC) is critical ... more Objective An understanding of the etiologic heterogeneity of colorectal cancer (CRC) is critical for improving precision prevention, including individualized screening recommendations and the discovery of novel drug targets and repurposable drug candidates for chemoprevention. Known differences in molecular characteristics and environmental risk factors among tumors arising in different locations of the colorectum suggest partly distinct mechanisms of carcinogenesis. The extent to which the contribution of inherited genetic risk factors for sporadic CRC differs by anatomical subsite of the primary tumor has not been examined. Design To identify new anatomical subsite-specific risk loci, we performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses including data of 48,214 CRC cases and 64,159 controls of European ancestry. We characterized effect heterogeneity at CRC risk loci using multinomial modeling. Results We identified 13 loci that reached genome-wide significance (P<5×1...
Autosomal recessive spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is, after cystic fibrosis, the second most comm... more Autosomal recessive spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is, after cystic fibrosis, the second most common fatal monogenic disorder. Depending on the clinical type, SMA causes early death or increasing disability in childhood. Here, we report a three month old Saudi girl presented with a history of coughing and respiratory distress who had previous admissions due to pneumonia. There was a positive family history of sibling death, at age 2 years, due to SMA. Genetically, we found homozygous deletions of the Survival Motor Neuron (SMN1) gene exons 7 and 8 using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. Thus, confirming this case clinical diagnosis with presumed SMA type I. DNA testing of patients, in whom SMA is suspected, is a highly reliable, fast, and noninvasive method. The ability to detect homozygous gene deletions in a high percentage of typical SMA patients will much improve genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis in affected families.
Supplemental material, UK_FIM_FAM_SCORE for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality... more Supplemental material, UK_FIM_FAM_SCORE for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, System_Usability_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual R... more Supplemental material, System_Usability_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, SNAP_test for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device... more Supplemental material, SNAP_test for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, Modified_Ashworth_Scale for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual ... more Supplemental material, Modified_Ashworth_Scale for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Supplemental material, Fugl_Meyer_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality... more Supplemental material, Fugl_Meyer_Score for The Impact of Rehabilitation-oriented Virtual Reality Device in Patients With Ischemic Stroke in the Early Subacute Recovery Phase: Study Protocol for a Phase III, Single-Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial by Nima Ahmed, Vitor A Queiroz Mauad, Olga Gomez-Rojas, Ammu Sushea, Gelanys Castro-Tejada, Janet Michel, Juan Manuel Liñares, Loise Pedrosa Salles, Ludmilla Candido Santos, Ming Shan, Rami Nassir, Raul Montañez-Valverde, Ronaldo Fabiano, Sofia Danyi, Seyed Hassan Hosseyni, Seerat Anand, Usman Ahmad, William Augusto Casteleins, Alma Tamara Sanchez, Ahmed Fouad, Alvaro Jacome, Mariana Sanali Moura de Oliveira Paiva, Ana Gabriela Saavedra Ruiz, Rubens A Grochowski, Mayumi Toyama, Hibatalla Nagi, Marcella Zanini Sarvodelli and Alexandra Halalau in Journal of Central Nervous System Disease
Obesity, physical activity, and their interaction in incident atrial fibrillation in postmenopaus... more Obesity, physical activity, and their interaction in incident atrial fibrillation in postmenopausal women
Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a high recurrence risk and poor clinical outcomes. Assoc... more Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a high recurrence risk and poor clinical outcomes. Associations between metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk components and mortality in postmenopausal women with TNBC were examined in the Women's Health Initiative.
Introduction: Many cohort studies have reported a protective effect of moderate alcohol use (EtOH... more Introduction: Many cohort studies have reported a protective effect of moderate alcohol use (EtOH) on the risk of adverse cardiovascular health outcomes. The exact nature of this association remain...
BACkgRounD AnD RATIonAlE: Stroke is considered the most common cause of adult disability. Intensi... more BACkgRounD AnD RATIonAlE: Stroke is considered the most common cause of adult disability. Intensive rehabilitation protocols outperform nonintensive counterparts. The subacute stroke phase represents a potential window to recovery. Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to provide a more stimulating environment, allowing for increased patient compliance. However, the quality of current literature comparing VR with standard therapies is limited. Our aim is to measure the impact of VR versus standard therapy on the recovery of the upper limb motor function in patients with stroke in the early subacute recovery phase. METhoD: This is a randomized, controlled trial that will assign 262 patients to tailor-made standard rehabilitation (TMSR) or TMSR plus immersive VR device. The trial will be conducted in an urban rehabilitation clinic in the United States with expertise in the management of poststroke patients. Patients will be 18 to 70 years of age and in the early subacute period (30-90 days post ischemic stroke). The primary outcome will be the change of Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) score, measured at baseline and 13 weeks after randomization. The secondary outcome will be the change in the UK Functional Independence Measure and Functional Assessment Measure (UK FIM-FAM) score at the same time points. DISCuSSIon: If the use of VR in the rehabilitation of patients with stroke proves to have a significant impact on their motor recovery, it will constitute an extremely important step into decreasing the functional impairment associated with stroke and the related health care expense burden.
The anticarcinogenic effect of statins may reduce the metastatic potential of cancer cells leadin... more The anticarcinogenic effect of statins may reduce the metastatic potential of cancer cells leading to 'stage migration', with users more likely diagnosed with early rather than late stage cancer. The association between prior statin use and colorectal cancer (CRC) stage at diagnosis in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was investigated. The study population included 132,322 post-menopausal women, among which there were 2,628 pathologically confirmed cases of in situ (3.3%), localized (43.6%), regional (40.4%) and distant (12.7%) stage CRC, after an average of 13.9 (SD=4.7) years of follow-up. To reduce the possibility of detection bias among women more likely to be prescribed statins, women who did not report a mammogram within 5 years of study entry and who had no health insurance or medical care provider (n=28,237) were excluded from the study. Stage was coded using SEER criteria into early (in situ and local) vs. late (regional and distant) stage disease. Hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) evaluating the association between statin use and diagnosis of late-stage CRC both at baseline and in a time-dependent manner were computed from multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards analyses. In the multivariable time-dependent analysis, there was a lower hazard of late stage CRC among users of lipophilic statins compared with non-users (HR=0.80, 95% CI 0.66-0.98, P=0.029) and a marginally lower hazard of late stage CRC among users of lipophilic vs. hydrophilic statins (HR=0.70, 95% CI 0.49-1.01, P=0.058). The use of lipophilic statins was associated with a reduction in the proportion of CRC cases that were late stage at the time of diagnosis.
BACKGROUND: We examined the associations between germline variants and breast cancer mortality us... more BACKGROUND: We examined the associations between germline variants and breast cancer mortality using a large meta-analysis of women of European ancestry. METHODS: Meta-analyses included summary estimates based on Cox models of twelve datasets using~10.4 million variants for 96,661 women with breast cancer and 7697 events (breast cancer-specific deaths). Oestrogen receptor (ER)-specific analyses were based on 64,171 ER-positive (4116) and 16,172 ER-negative (2125) patients. We evaluated the probability of a signal to be a true positive using the Bayesian false discovery probability (BFDP). RESULTS: We did not find any variant associated with breast cancer-specific mortality at P < 5 × 10 −8. For ER-positive disease, the most significantly associated variant was chr7:rs4717568 (BFDP = 7%, P = 1.28 × 10 −7 , hazard ratio [HR] = 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.84-0.92); the closest gene is AUTS2. For ER-negative disease, the most significant variant was chr7:rs67918676 (BFDP = 11%, P = 1.38 × 10 −7 , HR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.16-1.39); located within a long intergenic non-coding RNA gene (AC004009.3), close to the HOXA gene cluster. CONCLUSIONS: We uncovered germline variants on chromosome 7 at BFDP < 15% close to genes for which there is biological evidence related to breast cancer outcome. However, the paucity of variants associated with mortality at genome-wide significance underpins the challenge in providing genetic-based individualised prognostic information for breast cancer patients.
Background Women comprise nearly half of the labor force in our society, but the impact of the oc... more Background Women comprise nearly half of the labor force in our society, but the impact of the occupational psychical activity on women’s heart health in later life was unclear. We conducted a case-cohort study to assess the association of occupational physical activity (OPA), alone and jointly with leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods We included women enrolled in Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study who provided an occupational history at baseline and were followed until 2013 for the first occurrence of myocardial infarction or death from CHD (mean age ± SD = 63.4 ± 7.2). A total of 5,243 women free of CHD at baseline were randomly selected into a subcohort and 3,421 CHD events were adjudicated during follow-up. Through linkage of Standard Occupational Classification codes to the Occupational Information Network, we assessed cumulative and most recent exposure of OPA. LTPA was assessed through Women’s Health Initiative’s ...
Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In... more Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In the current study, we are aiming to determine the severity of depression in these survivors and to define the main factors that might affect the severity of the depression. These factors are including the demographic characteristics of participants, the prevalence of chronic diseases and the social status. We included 83 breast cancer survivors from Zehra Breast Cancer Association to participate in the study voluntarily. Depression level had been evaluated by using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-D17) and all the participants completed questionnaires about their social life and the predominant chronical diseases in Saudi Arabia. The severity of depression was significantly associated with survivors who have 3 children or more (p = 0.029). No other significant associations have been found between the severity of depression and other factors such as age, geographical locations, marital status and the most common chronical diseases. Depression level must be evaluated in the breast cancer survivors especially in women who have had children and during the first year of recovery.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, 2022
Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In... more Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Saudi Arabia with high mortality rate. In the current study, we are aiming to determine the severity of depression in these survivors and to define the main factors that might affect the severity of the depression. These factors are including the demographic characteristics of participants, the prevalence of chronic diseases and the social status. We included 83 breast cancer survivors from Zehra Breast Cancer Association to participate in the study voluntarily. Depression level had been evaluated by using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-D17) and all the participants completed questionnaires about their social life and the predominant chronical diseases in Saudi Arabia. The severity of depression was significantly associated with survivors who have 3 children or more (p = 0.029). No other significant associations have been found between the severity of depression and other factors such as age, geographical locations, marital status and the most common chronical diseases. Depression level must be evaluated in the breast cancer survivors especially in women who have had children and during the first year of recovery.
Background Cardiovascular health (CVH) has been defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) a... more Background Cardiovascular health (CVH) has been defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) as the presence of the “Life’s Simple 7” ideal lifestyle and clinical factors. CVH is known to predict longevity and freedom from cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death for women in the United States. DNA methylation markers of aging have been aggregated into a composite epigenetic age score, which is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, it is unknown whether poor CVH is associated with acceleration of aging as measured by DNA methylation markers in epigenetic age. Methods and results We performed a cross-sectional analysis of racially/ethnically diverse post-menopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative cohort recruited between 1993 and 1998. Epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) was calculated using DNA methylation data on a subset of participants and the published Horvath and Hannum methods for intrinsic and extrinsic EAA. CVH was calcul...
Objective An understanding of the etiologic heterogeneity of colorectal cancer (CRC) is critical ... more Objective An understanding of the etiologic heterogeneity of colorectal cancer (CRC) is critical for improving precision prevention, including individualized screening recommendations and the discovery of novel drug targets and repurposable drug candidates for chemoprevention. Known differences in molecular characteristics and environmental risk factors among tumors arising in different locations of the colorectum suggest partly distinct mechanisms of carcinogenesis. The extent to which the contribution of inherited genetic risk factors for sporadic CRC differs by anatomical subsite of the primary tumor has not been examined. Design To identify new anatomical subsite-specific risk loci, we performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses including data of 48,214 CRC cases and 64,159 controls of European ancestry. We characterized effect heterogeneity at CRC risk loci using multinomial modeling. Results We identified 13 loci that reached genome-wide significance (P<5×1...
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