Hidayatulfathi Othman

Repellency of essential oil of Piper aduncum against Aedes albopictus in the laboratory.

Abstract The repellent activity of Piper aduncum essential oil against Aedes albopictus was investigated under laboratory conditions with human volunteers. The lowest median effective dose (ED50) value was 1.5 µg/cm2 at 60 sec of exposure when compared to 90 sec (2.1 µg/cm2) and 120 sec (1.8 µg/cm2) of exposure. At 0.4 g, the essential oil gave a high protection (95.2%) against Ae. albopictus bites or landing at 2 h postapplication. The percentage of protection was reduced to 83.3% after 4 h, 64.5% after 6 h, and 51.6% after 8 h postapplication. As a comparison, treatment with 10% deet gave 100% protection against mosquito biting/landing for 4 h postapplication. There was no significant difference in percentage protection reduction between the plant extract and the commercial product deet, respectively (P  =  0.739). The essential oil, which was not as good as deet, still gave moderate protection against Ae. albopictus biting even until 4 h postapplication. In conclusion, the P. aduncum essential oil has the potential to be used as a repellent against the dengue/dengue hemorrhagic fever vector, Ae. albopictus.

Study of Heavy Metal Levels among Farmers of Muda Agricultural Development Authority, Malaysia

Heavy metals, particularly cadmium, lead, and arsenic, constitute a significant potential threat to human health. This study was conducted to determine the levels of cadmium, lead, and arsenic in nail samples from farmers at Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA), Kedah, Malaysia, and evaluate factors that can contribute to their accumulations. A total of 116 farmers participated in this study. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to analyze concentration of heavy metals in the nail samples and questionnaires were given to participants to get demographic, health status, and their agricultural activities data. In this paper, the level of heavy metals was within the normal range and varies according to demographic factors. We found that there were significant correlations between working period with level of lead and arsenic (r = 0.315 and r = 0.242, resp., P < 0.01) and age with lead level (r = 0.175, P < 0.05). Our findings suggested that agricultural activities could contribute to the accumulation of heavy metals in farmers. Hence, the control of environmental levels of and human exposure to these metals to prevent adverse health effects is still an important public health issue.

297 Hyperprolactinaemia association with lupus nephritis disease activity

Background and aims Prolactin has been found to be associated with immune regulation in SLE. The aim of this study is to determine the correlation between high prolactin level in comparison with IL – 6 with lupus nephritis disease activity in UKMMC. Methods In this cross-sectional study, the analysis was conducted in SLE patients who attended Nephrology clinic in UKMMC from August 2015 till February 2016 Results Out of 43 patients with lupus nephritis, 27.9% of the patients had raised serum prolactin. The median of serum prolactin level at 0 min was 19.91 ng/ml (IQR: 15.95–22.65 ) for active lupus nephritis that was significantly higher as compared to the median of serum prolactin level 14.34 ng/ml (IQR: 11.09–18.70 ) for patients in remission (p=0.014). The serum prolactin level was positively correlated to SLEDAI (rhos : 0.449, p=0.003 ) and UPCI level in lupus nephritis patients (rhos : 0.241, p=0.032). Assessment of serum IL-6 levels found that the active lupus nephritis patients were having a higher median level of 65.91 pg/ml (21.96–146.14) compared to in remission level of 15.84 pg/ml (IQR: 8.38–92.84), (p=0.039). ROC curve analysis of serum prolactin 0 min and serum prolactin 30 min and IL-6 level for prediction of SLE diseases activity provide the cutoff value of serum prolactin 0 min was 14.63 ng/ml with sensitivity 91.7% and specificity 58.1% and AUC of 0.74 (p=0.015). Conclusions Baseline fasting serum prolactin level was found to be a sensitive biomarker for evaluation of lupus nephritis disease activity.