Ahmed A. Bahnassy

Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension among Saudi Adult Population: A National Survey

This cross-sectional study aimed at estimating prevalence, awareness, treatment, control, and predictors of hypertension among Saudi adult population. Multistage stratified sampling was used to select 4758 adult participants. Three blood pressure measurements using an automatic sphygmomanometer, sociodemographics, and antihypertensive modalities were obtained. The overall prevalence of hypertension was 25.5%. Only 44.7% of hypertensives were aware, 71.8% of them received pharmacotherapy, and only 37.0% were controlled. Awareness was significantly associated with gender, age, geographical location, occupation, and comorbidity. Applying drug treatment was significantly more among older patients, but control was significantly higher among younger patients and patients with higher level of physical activity. Significant predictors of hypertension included male gender, urbanization, low education, low physical activity, obesity, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia. In conclusion prevalence is high, but awareness, treatment, and control levels are low indicating a need to develop a national program for prevention, early detection, and control of hypertension.

Noise level of dental handpieces and laboratory engines.

Impaired hearing in dental practitioners has been the subject of various investigations. Although individual age and susceptibility can play a significant role, the intensity of the noise, distance from the noise source, and total duration of the noise are the important factors in hearing. In this study the noise levels of different handpieces and laboratory engines were evaluated. Handpiece noise measurements were made while instruments were running free and during operation with various cutting tools. These measurements were performed with two kinds of noise-measuring equipment: (1) a precision sound level meter and (2) a noise recording and analyzing circuit. The results indicated that (1) there were significant differences among the noise levels of the various dental engines used, (2) the low-speed, angled-design handpiece has the lowest noise level, whereas the laboratory engine has the highest, (3) the noise level increases during cutting was compared with noncutting, and (4) there was no significant difference between the two methods of measurement.

Trace elements in the human scalp hair and finger nails as affected by infection with Schistosoma mansoni

Abstract The concentration of 13 elements has been determined in finger nail and scalp hair of 4 groups representing normal and infected Schistosoma mansoni subjects. Samples were irradiated by thermal neutrons from a Triga Mark III Reactor, for 10 min. Measurements were made using a HPGe detector coupled with ADC and PDP 11 34 data processing equipment. The results showed significant increases of Al, Cl, I and Br in both finger nails and scalp hair of bilharzial patients above those of normal subjects while Mg, Ca, V, Mn, Cu, Sr, K, S and Na showed significant decreases. Most of the elements showed a higher concentration in finger nails than in hair.

Pilgrims satisfaction with ambulatory health services in Makkah, 2008.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess the level and correlates of patients’ satisfaction with ambulatory health services provided for pilgrims during Hajj period in 2008. Materials and Methods: This was a facility-based, cross-sectional study conducted in the Makkah region during the Hajj season in December 2008. A two-stage technique was used to select 500 patients from those who attended the ambulatory health services. One hundred subjects were selected by systematic random sampling (every fifth) from each of the five hospitals included in the study and asked to fill in a pilot-tested self-administered questionnaire. A total of 487 questionnaires were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and t-test, Mann Whitney test and ANOVA, or Kruskal-Wallis test was used as appropriate after checking for normality. Level of significance level was set to be <0.05 throughout the study. Results: From 478 subjects analyzed, 390 (81.6%) were man, 345 (72.2%) were married, 28.9% had either intermediate or high secondary school education, and 2.4% were skilled laborers. The total satisfaction score for health facilities was 20.45 ± 4.03 of 25. The satisfaction scores were 20.15 ± 4.7 of 25 for patient satisfaction with physicians and 21.35 ± 4.5 for patient satisfaction with paramedical personnel. The overall satisfaction score was 61.5 ± 4.5 of 75 points. There were significant relations between total satisfaction of health facilities with education level and with occupation (P = 0.012, 0.001, respectively). The total satisfaction of patients with physicians was significant only with education level. The overall satisfaction score had a significant relation with occupation (P = 0.03), but a borderline relation with the education level (P = 0.056). Conclusion: Satisfaction with ambulatory Hajj health services is acceptable. Some physicians and waiting area services need special attention to improve satisfaction levels with ambulatory health in the subsequent Hajj seasons.

Endocrine Pancreatic Function in Fetuses of Gestational Diabetic and Nondiabetic Mothers

C-peptide, insulin, and glucagon levels were measured in the cord blood of 112 nondiabetics controls and 63 diabetic mothers. The cord blood levels of insulin and C-peptide were significantly higher in the diabetic compared to the control group. In the control group, C-peptide levels were positively correlated with fetal birthweight. In the diabetic group, there was a positive correlation between birth-weight and both C-peptide and insulin levels. Neonates were stratified into six categories of birthweight centiles. In the diabetic group, the insulin level was significantly higher than in the control group at all categories of birthweight centiles. Also, the C-peptide level was higher in the diabetic than in the control group, except at the >25 and ≥10 categories of birthweight centile. Glucagon levels were significantly higher among controls, at all categories of birthweight centiles, except in fetuses below the 10th centile of birth weight. The insulin/C-peptide ratio, a ratio that reflects hepatic insu...