Magdy Balaha - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Magdy Balaha

Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Sep 1, 2021

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) went through a rapid escalation until it became a pandemic disease. The no... more COVID-19 (Coronavirus) went through a rapid escalation until it became a pandemic disease. The normal and manual medical infection discovery may take few days and therefore computer science engineers can share in the development of the automatic diagnosis for fast detection of that disease. The study suggests a hybrid COVID-19 framework (named HMB-HCF) based on deep learning (DL), genetic algorithm (GA), weighted sum (WS), and majority voting principles in nine phases. Its segmentation phase suggests a lung segmentation algorithm using X-Ray images (named HMB-LSAXI) for extracting lungs. Its classification phase is built from a hybrid convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture using an abstractly-designed CNN (named HMB1-COVID19) and transfer learning (TL) pre-trained models (VGG16, VGG19, ResNet50, ResNet101, Xception, DenseNet121, DenseNet169, MobileNet, and MobileNetV2). The hybrid CNN architecture is used for learning, classification, and parameters optimization while GA is used to optimize the hyperparameters. This hybrid working mechanism is combined in an overall algorithm named HMB-DLGA. The study experiments implemented the WS approach to evaluate the models' performance using the loss, accuracy, F1-score, precision, recall, and area under curve (AUC) metrics with different pre-defined ratios. A collected, combined, and unified X-Ray dataset from 8 different public datasets was used alongside the regularization, dropout, and data augmentation techniques to limit the overall overfitting. The applied experiments reported state-of-the-art metrics. VGG16 reported 100% WS metric (i.e., 0.0097, 99.78%, 0.9984, 99.89%, 99.78%, and 0.9996 for the loss, accuracy, F1, precision, recall, and AUC respectively) concerning the highest WS. It also reported a 99.92% WS metric (i.e., 0.0099, 99.84%, 0.9984, 99.84%, 99.84%, and 0.9996 for the loss, accuracy, F1, precision, recall, and AUC respectively) concerning the last reported WS result. HMB-HCF was validated on 13 different public datasets to verify its generalization. The best-achieved metrics were compared with 13 related studies. These extensive experiments' target was the applicability verification and generalization.

Journal of advances in medicine and medical research, May 21, 2022

Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is character... more Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is characterized by hypertension, proteinuria, and features of multi-organ disease, and it complicates about 2 to 8% of pregnancies with increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, aim of this study was to evaluate the following blood markers in preeclampsia; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet to lymphocyte ratio, red cell distribution width, mean platelet volume and platelet value. Subjects and Methods: This was diagnostic research, observational method and cross-sectional design that was conducted at Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Tanta University Hospitals, from 1-7-2020 to 1-11-2021. After fulfilling the Research and Ethics Committee guidelines, pregnant women were counseled to be enrolled in this study. Results: There was significant decrease in PLR in severe preeclampsia group compared to control group (P<0.001) as well as mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001); while there was no statistically significant difference between control group and mild preeclampsia group (P>0.05). There was significant elevation in RDW in severe preeclampsia group compared to control group (P=0.005) as well as mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001); There was significant reduction in MPV in severe preeclampsia group compared to mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001) as well as control group (P<0.001); while there was no statistically significant difference between mild preeclampsia group Original Research Article

International Surgery Journal, Jul 26, 2022

Infertility is a complicated condition that has a huge impact on patients as regards medical, psy... more Infertility is a complicated condition that has a huge impact on patients as regards medical, psychosocial, and economic aspects. Aspects of having children from a cultural and religious perspective play some roles. Infertile couples who were undergoing therapy for infertility reported higher levels of emotional discomfort and lower marital satisfaction. 1,2 Infertility is defined as a reproductive system disorder characterized by the failure of clinical pregnancy after twelve months or more of unprotected sexual contact, according to the World Health Organization. 3 Globally, the number of infertile people is rapidly rising. It affects roughly 10-15% of couples in their reproductive years. Female causes are responsible for 40-45% in etiology of infertility. 4 In the USA, it is estimated that 10% of women aged 15 to 44 have trouble getting pregnant or ABSTRACT Background: The two approaches for evaluating the female reproductive system are hysteroscopy and laparoscopy. Laparoscopy is becoming a standard component of infertility evaluation by virtue of its capability to visualize and manipulate the uterus, the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Hysteroscopy has become an important investigative tool for discovering possible causes of female infertility by examining the uterine cavity. The goal of this study was to examine the role of hystero-laparoscopy in diagnosis women with unexplained infertility. Methods: A total of 202 cases who were 20-35 years old women with 1ry or 2ry unexplained infertility were studied in this cross-sectional observational analytical study. All patients were subjected to: evaluation (physical, abdominal and bimanual), routine laboratory investigations, basic investigations (documentation of sound ovarian factor: hormonal assays and pelvic ultrasonography, normal hysterosalpingography, normal husband semen analysis) and hysterosalpingography (HSG) was reviewed or completed. Results: Abnormal laparoscopic was significantly higher in secondary cases compered to primary infertility (p=0.043). Abnormal combined hystero-laparoscopic was significantly higher in 2ry infertile cases compered to 1ry infertile cases (p=0.006). Pairwise comparison between 1ry and 2ry infertility was statistically significant difference (P=0.004). Conclusions: The percentage of abnormalities found during laparoscopy and hysteroscopy, are difficult to be visualized by the use of other noninvasive methods. While a thorough history, thorough examination, and early studies such as pelvic ultrasonography can all lead to the suspicion of numerous abnormalities, a considerable percentage of abnormalities may go undetected.

Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is character... more Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is characterized by hypertension, proteinuria, and features of multi-organ disease, and it complicates about 2 to 8% of pregnancies with increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, aim of this study was to evaluate the following blood markers in preeclampsia; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet to lymphocyte ratio, red cell distribution width, mean platelet volume and platelet value. Subjects and Methods: This was diagnostic research, observational method and cross-sectional design that was conducted at Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Tanta University Hospitals, from 1-7-2020 to 1-11-2021. After fulfilling the Research and Ethics Committee guidelines, pregnant women were counseled to be enrolled in this study. Results: There was significant decrease in PLR in severe preeclampsia group compared to control group (P<0.001) as well as mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001); whil...

Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research, 2021

Background: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a condition in which the fetus does not rea... more Background: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a condition in which the fetus does not reach its growth potential. It is well known that a fetus affected with late IUGR has smaller abdominal size. The aim of the study is to evaluate the fetal liver size, fetal hepatic artery blood flow and other fetal vascular Doppler indices in cases of late IUGR. Methods: This observational analytical, cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 pregnant women at or above 32 weeks. Participants were divided into two groups: Group 1 (study group): 50 pregnant women as study group who were affected with IUGR. Group 2 (control group): 50 normally pregnant women as control group. Results: There was no statistically significant correlation between fetal weight and liver length. There was a positive highly statistically significant correlation between symphysial fundal height and the estimated fetal weight by ultrasound in cases of IUGR. There was a statistically significant decrease in the liv...

Context Millions of women worldwide want to delay or stop their next birth. In spite of that they... more Context Millions of women worldwide want to delay or stop their next birth. In spite of that they do not use any method of contraception or they use less effective methods. These women are said to have unmet needs for family planning. Aim The aim of the present study is to provide an estimate of the level of unmet need and determining predictors in Mosul City in the North of Iraq. Methods and participants A cross sectional survey was done among 1,786 currently married fecund women attending the immunization unit of the chosen primary health care centers. A standard questionnaire formula was used and filled by direct interview with the participants. Results According to the standard formulation the level of unmet need was 20.2%. While according to the expanded formulation 34.9% of women have unmet needs for contraception. Several factors were shown to have a significant impact on the level of unmet needs. These are maternal age at 30-39 years, urban residence, high maternal education...

The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 2011

There is no research on the predictors of birth defects in Al Ahsa Governorate in the Eastern Pro... more There is no research on the predictors of birth defects in Al Ahsa Governorate in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The aim of this research was to detect the predictors of isolated structural birth defects in live births. We conducted this study from April 2006 to 2010. Live births with isolated birth defects represented our sample for this retrospective case control study. Univariate analysis was done for all possible risk factors. Logistic regression analysis was done for all predictors in relation to different birth defects. Out of 37168 live births, isolated structural birth defects were found in 318 cases. Obesity ( body mass index &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; 30) was a significant predictor for increased nervous system anomalies ( odds ratio (OR): 7.83, CI: 3.9-15.4), facial defects (OR: 5.92, CI: 2.8-12.4), genitourinary anomalies (OR: 4.6 CI: 1.9-11.1), and cardiac malformations (OR: 2.7 CI: 1.3-5.7). Consanguinity increased the risk for cardiac malformations (OR: 3.32, CI: 1.54-7.17). Low socio-economic status increased the risk for nervous system anomalies (OR: 2.09, CI: 1.18-3.7), facial defects (OR: 2.33, CI: 1.25-4.33) and musculoskeletal anomalies (OR: 2.3, CI: 1.29-4.09). Maternal obesity represented the most common predictor for certain categories of isolated structural birth defects including nervous system, facial, genitourinary and cardiac.

Online J Health Allied Scs, 2011

Background: A number of studies have highlighted the physical health problems associated with ado... more Background: A number of studies have highlighted the physical health problems associated with adolescent pregnancy in Saudi Arabia, However there were few studies dealing with the postpartum psychiatric disorders. The study aims to determine the prevalence of postpartum psychological distress and to evaluate the associated risk factors in a sample of primigravid young women in Al Ahsa region, Saudi Arabia. Methods: We assessed the prevalence of postnatal mental health in 190 young mothers attending the maternity ...

Avicenna Journal of Medicine

Background The item-writing flaws (IWFs) in multiple-choice questions (MCQs) can affect test vali... more Background The item-writing flaws (IWFs) in multiple-choice questions (MCQs) can affect test validity. The purpose of this study was to explore the IWFs in the published resources, estimate their frequency and pattern, rank, and compare the current study resources, and propose a possible impact for teachers and test writers. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2017 to December 2020. MCQs from the published MCQ books in Obstetrics and Gynecology was the target resources. They were stratified into four clusters (study-book related, review books, self-assessment books, and online-shared test banks). The sample size was estimated and 2,300 out of 11,195 eligible MCQs were randomly selected. The MCQs (items) were judged on a 20-element compiled checklist that is organized under three sections as follows: (1) structural flaws (seven elements), (2) test-wiseness flaws (five elements), and (3) irrelevant difficulty flaws (eight elements). Rating was done dichotom...

Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research, 2021

Background: The prevalence of maternal hyperglycemic disorders during pregnancy is increasing due... more Background: The prevalence of maternal hyperglycemic disorders during pregnancy is increasing due to the obesity epidemic and increasing age of the pregnant mothers. This study aimed to assess the cardiac function and structure in fetuses of gestational and pre-gestational mothers suffering diabetes compared to those of healthy mothers using fetal echocardiography. Methods: This cross-sectional study included a total number of 60 pregnant women, they were classified into three equal groups; group I included 20 pregnant women with pre-gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), group II included 20 pregnant women with GDM, and group III included 20 healthy pregnant women as the control group. These women were subjected to complete history taking, laboratory investigations, and fetal echocardiography evaluation for cardiac function using M mode, 2 dimensional, and pulsed wave Doppler. Results: Interventricular septum (IVS) as well as left ventricular (LV) wall thickness were significantly in...

Background: The premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is particularly common in the younger age groups and,... more Background: The premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is particularly common in the younger age groups and, therefore represents a significant public health problem in young girls. This study aims to estimate the prevalence, severity, determinants of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and its impact among the female medical students in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Method: This study was performed at the College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, from June through December 2009. It included 250 medical students. They filled different questionnaires covering American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) criteria to diagnose PMS, demographic & reproductive factors, physical activity and mental condition. Regression analysis was conducted for all the predictors. Results: PMS was diagnosed in 35.6 % of cases, distributed as 45 % mild, 32.6 % moderate and 22.4 % severe. There were significant trends for older age, rural residence, family income and family history of PMS. The dominant limi...

Introduction: The study aims to evaluate the efficiency of distractors by analyzing the items use... more Introduction: The study aims to evaluate the efficiency of distractors by analyzing the items used in 18 courses along the first year of the CBMBP curriculum. The study is among few large studies discussing distractor efficiency in the Middle East. It is the largest in Egypt and Arabic area. Settings: Tanta Faculty of Medicine, Egypt from December 2016 until July 2017. This study was conducted on the CBMBP exams after the end of the semesters of the first year. The study design was repeated cross-sectional study. 16 courses, 28 tests and 1855 MCQs were evaluated. Methods: The MCQs were analyzed using Difficulty Index (Dif I), Discrimination Index (Dis I), using the point biserial (pbs) and analysis of distractor efficiency (DE) by calculation the non-functioning distractors (NFD). Results: The mean difficulty index (Diff I) was 0.71, 46% of the questions in the easy category while the difficult questions represented 11%. The mean discrimination index (Disc I) was 0.27 with 15% of th...

Objectives : To evaluate the effects and sequelae of transccrvical resection of the endomctrium (... more Objectives : To evaluate the effects and sequelae of transccrvical resection of the endomctrium (TCRE) and thermachoice balloon ablation in the management of perimenopausal dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Design: Prospective study. Setting : Tanta and Cairo University Hospitals. Patients : The study included 70 women complaining of primenopausal dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Intervention: Women were randomized to cither treatment with the cndomelrial resection or thermal balloon ablation and followed up for 6 months. Outcome measures: Evaluation of treatment efficacy was done by a scoring system. Quantification of the quality of life aspects was done via a special questionnaire. Results: The present study revealed that hysteroscopic resection of the endomctrium takes an average time of 34.2±10.52 minutes. Regarding the operative and postoperative complications, one patient had perforation, another case developed postoperative hematometra and a third case had persistent excessive b...

Education in Medicine Journal, 2019

Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 2012

The prevalence of postnatal depression in Bahrain is unknown and screening for known risk factors... more The prevalence of postnatal depression in Bahrain is unknown and screening for known risk factors does not take place. This study estimated the prevalence of postnatal depressive symptoms and the associated risk factors among a random sample of Bahraini women attending primary health care centres with their babies for the 8-week child checkup. The Arabic version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used with a cutoff score of ≥ 12 for depression. The prevalence of postnatal depressive symptoms among 237 mothers was 37.1%. No significant relationships were identified between depression symptoms and any of demographic variables or pregnancy/birth characteristics studied. However, several psychosocial risk factors were significantly associated with postnatal depression and, after multiple regression analysis, a history of depressive symptoms and perceived lack of support from the husband remained significant factors. Further studies that include diagnostic assessments are needed to confirm these findings.

Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Sep 1, 2021

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) went through a rapid escalation until it became a pandemic disease. The no... more COVID-19 (Coronavirus) went through a rapid escalation until it became a pandemic disease. The normal and manual medical infection discovery may take few days and therefore computer science engineers can share in the development of the automatic diagnosis for fast detection of that disease. The study suggests a hybrid COVID-19 framework (named HMB-HCF) based on deep learning (DL), genetic algorithm (GA), weighted sum (WS), and majority voting principles in nine phases. Its segmentation phase suggests a lung segmentation algorithm using X-Ray images (named HMB-LSAXI) for extracting lungs. Its classification phase is built from a hybrid convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture using an abstractly-designed CNN (named HMB1-COVID19) and transfer learning (TL) pre-trained models (VGG16, VGG19, ResNet50, ResNet101, Xception, DenseNet121, DenseNet169, MobileNet, and MobileNetV2). The hybrid CNN architecture is used for learning, classification, and parameters optimization while GA is used to optimize the hyperparameters. This hybrid working mechanism is combined in an overall algorithm named HMB-DLGA. The study experiments implemented the WS approach to evaluate the models' performance using the loss, accuracy, F1-score, precision, recall, and area under curve (AUC) metrics with different pre-defined ratios. A collected, combined, and unified X-Ray dataset from 8 different public datasets was used alongside the regularization, dropout, and data augmentation techniques to limit the overall overfitting. The applied experiments reported state-of-the-art metrics. VGG16 reported 100% WS metric (i.e., 0.0097, 99.78%, 0.9984, 99.89%, 99.78%, and 0.9996 for the loss, accuracy, F1, precision, recall, and AUC respectively) concerning the highest WS. It also reported a 99.92% WS metric (i.e., 0.0099, 99.84%, 0.9984, 99.84%, 99.84%, and 0.9996 for the loss, accuracy, F1, precision, recall, and AUC respectively) concerning the last reported WS result. HMB-HCF was validated on 13 different public datasets to verify its generalization. The best-achieved metrics were compared with 13 related studies. These extensive experiments' target was the applicability verification and generalization.

Journal of advances in medicine and medical research, May 21, 2022

Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is character... more Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is characterized by hypertension, proteinuria, and features of multi-organ disease, and it complicates about 2 to 8% of pregnancies with increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, aim of this study was to evaluate the following blood markers in preeclampsia; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet to lymphocyte ratio, red cell distribution width, mean platelet volume and platelet value. Subjects and Methods: This was diagnostic research, observational method and cross-sectional design that was conducted at Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Tanta University Hospitals, from 1-7-2020 to 1-11-2021. After fulfilling the Research and Ethics Committee guidelines, pregnant women were counseled to be enrolled in this study. Results: There was significant decrease in PLR in severe preeclampsia group compared to control group (P<0.001) as well as mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001); while there was no statistically significant difference between control group and mild preeclampsia group (P>0.05). There was significant elevation in RDW in severe preeclampsia group compared to control group (P=0.005) as well as mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001); There was significant reduction in MPV in severe preeclampsia group compared to mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001) as well as control group (P<0.001); while there was no statistically significant difference between mild preeclampsia group Original Research Article

International Surgery Journal, Jul 26, 2022

Infertility is a complicated condition that has a huge impact on patients as regards medical, psy... more Infertility is a complicated condition that has a huge impact on patients as regards medical, psychosocial, and economic aspects. Aspects of having children from a cultural and religious perspective play some roles. Infertile couples who were undergoing therapy for infertility reported higher levels of emotional discomfort and lower marital satisfaction. 1,2 Infertility is defined as a reproductive system disorder characterized by the failure of clinical pregnancy after twelve months or more of unprotected sexual contact, according to the World Health Organization. 3 Globally, the number of infertile people is rapidly rising. It affects roughly 10-15% of couples in their reproductive years. Female causes are responsible for 40-45% in etiology of infertility. 4 In the USA, it is estimated that 10% of women aged 15 to 44 have trouble getting pregnant or ABSTRACT Background: The two approaches for evaluating the female reproductive system are hysteroscopy and laparoscopy. Laparoscopy is becoming a standard component of infertility evaluation by virtue of its capability to visualize and manipulate the uterus, the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Hysteroscopy has become an important investigative tool for discovering possible causes of female infertility by examining the uterine cavity. The goal of this study was to examine the role of hystero-laparoscopy in diagnosis women with unexplained infertility. Methods: A total of 202 cases who were 20-35 years old women with 1ry or 2ry unexplained infertility were studied in this cross-sectional observational analytical study. All patients were subjected to: evaluation (physical, abdominal and bimanual), routine laboratory investigations, basic investigations (documentation of sound ovarian factor: hormonal assays and pelvic ultrasonography, normal hysterosalpingography, normal husband semen analysis) and hysterosalpingography (HSG) was reviewed or completed. Results: Abnormal laparoscopic was significantly higher in secondary cases compered to primary infertility (p=0.043). Abnormal combined hystero-laparoscopic was significantly higher in 2ry infertile cases compered to 1ry infertile cases (p=0.006). Pairwise comparison between 1ry and 2ry infertility was statistically significant difference (P=0.004). Conclusions: The percentage of abnormalities found during laparoscopy and hysteroscopy, are difficult to be visualized by the use of other noninvasive methods. While a thorough history, thorough examination, and early studies such as pelvic ultrasonography can all lead to the suspicion of numerous abnormalities, a considerable percentage of abnormalities may go undetected.

Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is character... more Background: Preeclampsia is one of the major health problems during pregnancy, which is characterized by hypertension, proteinuria, and features of multi-organ disease, and it complicates about 2 to 8% of pregnancies with increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, aim of this study was to evaluate the following blood markers in preeclampsia; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet to lymphocyte ratio, red cell distribution width, mean platelet volume and platelet value. Subjects and Methods: This was diagnostic research, observational method and cross-sectional design that was conducted at Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Tanta University Hospitals, from 1-7-2020 to 1-11-2021. After fulfilling the Research and Ethics Committee guidelines, pregnant women were counseled to be enrolled in this study. Results: There was significant decrease in PLR in severe preeclampsia group compared to control group (P<0.001) as well as mild preeclampsia group (P<0.001); whil...

Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research, 2021

Background: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a condition in which the fetus does not rea... more Background: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a condition in which the fetus does not reach its growth potential. It is well known that a fetus affected with late IUGR has smaller abdominal size. The aim of the study is to evaluate the fetal liver size, fetal hepatic artery blood flow and other fetal vascular Doppler indices in cases of late IUGR. Methods: This observational analytical, cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 pregnant women at or above 32 weeks. Participants were divided into two groups: Group 1 (study group): 50 pregnant women as study group who were affected with IUGR. Group 2 (control group): 50 normally pregnant women as control group. Results: There was no statistically significant correlation between fetal weight and liver length. There was a positive highly statistically significant correlation between symphysial fundal height and the estimated fetal weight by ultrasound in cases of IUGR. There was a statistically significant decrease in the liv...

Context Millions of women worldwide want to delay or stop their next birth. In spite of that they... more Context Millions of women worldwide want to delay or stop their next birth. In spite of that they do not use any method of contraception or they use less effective methods. These women are said to have unmet needs for family planning. Aim The aim of the present study is to provide an estimate of the level of unmet need and determining predictors in Mosul City in the North of Iraq. Methods and participants A cross sectional survey was done among 1,786 currently married fecund women attending the immunization unit of the chosen primary health care centers. A standard questionnaire formula was used and filled by direct interview with the participants. Results According to the standard formulation the level of unmet need was 20.2%. While according to the expanded formulation 34.9% of women have unmet needs for contraception. Several factors were shown to have a significant impact on the level of unmet needs. These are maternal age at 30-39 years, urban residence, high maternal education...

The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 2011

There is no research on the predictors of birth defects in Al Ahsa Governorate in the Eastern Pro... more There is no research on the predictors of birth defects in Al Ahsa Governorate in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The aim of this research was to detect the predictors of isolated structural birth defects in live births. We conducted this study from April 2006 to 2010. Live births with isolated birth defects represented our sample for this retrospective case control study. Univariate analysis was done for all possible risk factors. Logistic regression analysis was done for all predictors in relation to different birth defects. Out of 37168 live births, isolated structural birth defects were found in 318 cases. Obesity ( body mass index &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; 30) was a significant predictor for increased nervous system anomalies ( odds ratio (OR): 7.83, CI: 3.9-15.4), facial defects (OR: 5.92, CI: 2.8-12.4), genitourinary anomalies (OR: 4.6 CI: 1.9-11.1), and cardiac malformations (OR: 2.7 CI: 1.3-5.7). Consanguinity increased the risk for cardiac malformations (OR: 3.32, CI: 1.54-7.17). Low socio-economic status increased the risk for nervous system anomalies (OR: 2.09, CI: 1.18-3.7), facial defects (OR: 2.33, CI: 1.25-4.33) and musculoskeletal anomalies (OR: 2.3, CI: 1.29-4.09). Maternal obesity represented the most common predictor for certain categories of isolated structural birth defects including nervous system, facial, genitourinary and cardiac.

Online J Health Allied Scs, 2011

Background: A number of studies have highlighted the physical health problems associated with ado... more Background: A number of studies have highlighted the physical health problems associated with adolescent pregnancy in Saudi Arabia, However there were few studies dealing with the postpartum psychiatric disorders. The study aims to determine the prevalence of postpartum psychological distress and to evaluate the associated risk factors in a sample of primigravid young women in Al Ahsa region, Saudi Arabia. Methods: We assessed the prevalence of postnatal mental health in 190 young mothers attending the maternity ...

Avicenna Journal of Medicine

Background The item-writing flaws (IWFs) in multiple-choice questions (MCQs) can affect test vali... more Background The item-writing flaws (IWFs) in multiple-choice questions (MCQs) can affect test validity. The purpose of this study was to explore the IWFs in the published resources, estimate their frequency and pattern, rank, and compare the current study resources, and propose a possible impact for teachers and test writers. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2017 to December 2020. MCQs from the published MCQ books in Obstetrics and Gynecology was the target resources. They were stratified into four clusters (study-book related, review books, self-assessment books, and online-shared test banks). The sample size was estimated and 2,300 out of 11,195 eligible MCQs were randomly selected. The MCQs (items) were judged on a 20-element compiled checklist that is organized under three sections as follows: (1) structural flaws (seven elements), (2) test-wiseness flaws (five elements), and (3) irrelevant difficulty flaws (eight elements). Rating was done dichotom...

Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research, 2021

Background: The prevalence of maternal hyperglycemic disorders during pregnancy is increasing due... more Background: The prevalence of maternal hyperglycemic disorders during pregnancy is increasing due to the obesity epidemic and increasing age of the pregnant mothers. This study aimed to assess the cardiac function and structure in fetuses of gestational and pre-gestational mothers suffering diabetes compared to those of healthy mothers using fetal echocardiography. Methods: This cross-sectional study included a total number of 60 pregnant women, they were classified into three equal groups; group I included 20 pregnant women with pre-gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), group II included 20 pregnant women with GDM, and group III included 20 healthy pregnant women as the control group. These women were subjected to complete history taking, laboratory investigations, and fetal echocardiography evaluation for cardiac function using M mode, 2 dimensional, and pulsed wave Doppler. Results: Interventricular septum (IVS) as well as left ventricular (LV) wall thickness were significantly in...

Background: The premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is particularly common in the younger age groups and,... more Background: The premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is particularly common in the younger age groups and, therefore represents a significant public health problem in young girls. This study aims to estimate the prevalence, severity, determinants of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and its impact among the female medical students in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Method: This study was performed at the College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, from June through December 2009. It included 250 medical students. They filled different questionnaires covering American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) criteria to diagnose PMS, demographic & reproductive factors, physical activity and mental condition. Regression analysis was conducted for all the predictors. Results: PMS was diagnosed in 35.6 % of cases, distributed as 45 % mild, 32.6 % moderate and 22.4 % severe. There were significant trends for older age, rural residence, family income and family history of PMS. The dominant limi...

Introduction: The study aims to evaluate the efficiency of distractors by analyzing the items use... more Introduction: The study aims to evaluate the efficiency of distractors by analyzing the items used in 18 courses along the first year of the CBMBP curriculum. The study is among few large studies discussing distractor efficiency in the Middle East. It is the largest in Egypt and Arabic area. Settings: Tanta Faculty of Medicine, Egypt from December 2016 until July 2017. This study was conducted on the CBMBP exams after the end of the semesters of the first year. The study design was repeated cross-sectional study. 16 courses, 28 tests and 1855 MCQs were evaluated. Methods: The MCQs were analyzed using Difficulty Index (Dif I), Discrimination Index (Dis I), using the point biserial (pbs) and analysis of distractor efficiency (DE) by calculation the non-functioning distractors (NFD). Results: The mean difficulty index (Diff I) was 0.71, 46% of the questions in the easy category while the difficult questions represented 11%. The mean discrimination index (Disc I) was 0.27 with 15% of th...

Objectives : To evaluate the effects and sequelae of transccrvical resection of the endomctrium (... more Objectives : To evaluate the effects and sequelae of transccrvical resection of the endomctrium (TCRE) and thermachoice balloon ablation in the management of perimenopausal dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Design: Prospective study. Setting : Tanta and Cairo University Hospitals. Patients : The study included 70 women complaining of primenopausal dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Intervention: Women were randomized to cither treatment with the cndomelrial resection or thermal balloon ablation and followed up for 6 months. Outcome measures: Evaluation of treatment efficacy was done by a scoring system. Quantification of the quality of life aspects was done via a special questionnaire. Results: The present study revealed that hysteroscopic resection of the endomctrium takes an average time of 34.2±10.52 minutes. Regarding the operative and postoperative complications, one patient had perforation, another case developed postoperative hematometra and a third case had persistent excessive b...

Education in Medicine Journal, 2019

Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 2012

The prevalence of postnatal depression in Bahrain is unknown and screening for known risk factors... more The prevalence of postnatal depression in Bahrain is unknown and screening for known risk factors does not take place. This study estimated the prevalence of postnatal depressive symptoms and the associated risk factors among a random sample of Bahraini women attending primary health care centres with their babies for the 8-week child checkup. The Arabic version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used with a cutoff score of ≥ 12 for depression. The prevalence of postnatal depressive symptoms among 237 mothers was 37.1%. No significant relationships were identified between depression symptoms and any of demographic variables or pregnancy/birth characteristics studied. However, several psychosocial risk factors were significantly associated with postnatal depression and, after multiple regression analysis, a history of depressive symptoms and perceived lack of support from the husband remained significant factors. Further studies that include diagnostic assessments are needed to confirm these findings.