Pharmacy

Introduction Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Egyptian women. However, the mean tumor size at diagnosis is 4.5 cm, and the median age is approximately 46 years. Both of these factors decrease the utility and cost-effectiveness of a mammography-based screening program typically designed for developed countries. We report the first clinical breast assessment-based screening project in an entirely rural Egyptian community. Methods Targeted population: Women aged 25–65 years in three municipal regions of Dakahlia province, Egypt. The estimated targeted population was 57,500 and participation was voluntary. First stage was performed at primary health care points. Surgeons performed systematic clinical breast examination. All data were collected at Mansoura University. Abnormal findings in the primary examination led to an invitation to the Oncology Center—Mansoura University—where the second stage of the study took place. It comprised repeat examination, ultrasonography, and/or mammography. Therapeutic interventions were performed at the governmentally funded Mansoura Oncology Center. Results Voluntary participation reached 10.2% of the target group and abnormal clinical examination represented 3.2% (191/5,900). The screen-detected cancers were (18/5,900) of examined population, and thus the cancer detection rate of clinical breast assessment-based screening was 30.5 per 100,000 of participating women during 2 years. The tumor size was 1.5 cm (median) and 1.3 cm (mean). The cost of screening per cancer case detected was approximately 415 US$, and the overall cost of treating a screen-detected cancer was 1,015–1,215 US$. Conclusions Clinical breast assessment-based screening with selective mammography is an effective modality, which improves the results of breast cancer management in Egypt.

A group of medicinal plant including Silene (Silene nocturna), Black seed (Nigella sativa) and Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) growing in Egypt were examined for their immunomodulatory effect in Balb/c mice. Treatment (intraperitoneal injection) with five doses of methanolic extract for each plant was found to enhance the total white blood cells count (up to 1.2 × 10(4) cells/mm(3)). Bone marrow cellularity also increased significantly (P < 0.01) after the administration of the extract of each of three test plants. Furthermore, spleen weight of the treated groups was significantly increased (P < 0.01). Two groups of mice were immunosuppressed with cyclophosphamide, the one which pretreated with the plants extracts significantly (P < 0.01) restored their resistance against lethal infection with the predominately granulocyte-dependant Candida albicans. These results confirm the immunomodulatory activity of Silene, Black seed, and Chamomile extracts and may have therapeutical implications in prophylactic treatment of opportunistic infections and as supportive treatment in oncogenic cases.

Fifty items of Al-Kohl collected from northern Jordanian provinces representing: 20 unopened ready to use samples purchased from retail outlets, 20 in-use samples obtained from ladies of different socioeconomic standards and 10 samples of the original stones (used for Al-Kohl preparation) were examined for their microbial contents. Ready to use and in-use samples were much more contaminated than the original stones. On sterility testing, more than 85% of the unused and in-use samples were contaminated with bacteria and or fungi comparing to 50% of the original stone samples. Quantitatively, 90% of the original stones contained less than 100 bacterial or fungal cells/g and the other remaining 10% were in the range of 10(2)-10(3) cfu/g either for bacterial or fungal counts. The level and distribution of the viable microbial counts in unused and in-use samples were comparable and much higher than original stones. More than 70% and 20% of those items contained more than 100 cfu/g of bac...

Published data concerning correlation between virulence factors and resistance markers is relatively scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between antibiotic resistance, gelatinase production and pheromone response in the Enterococcus faecalis pathogens isolated from Egypt. Out of the 19 E. faecalis clinical isolates, 5 were able to produce gelatinase enzyme. These virulent isolates were multidrug resistant and showed high level vancomycin resistance. They were tested for mating ability. They cotransfered pheromone response genes together with vancomycin resistance determinants and gelatinase production to sensitive recipient strains. The gel E gene was detected in all donor isolates and their corresponding transconjugants phenotypically and genotypically. The PCR amplicons of a heavy gelatinase producing isolate and its transconjugants were subjected to sequencing. Significant homology was detected with OG1RF strain following sequence search with a GenBank...

Published data concerning correlation between virulence factors and resistance markers is relatively scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between antibiotic resistance, gelatinase production and pheromone response in the Enterococcus faecalis pathogens isolated from Egypt. Out of the 19 E. faecalis clinical isolates, 5 were able to produce gelatinase enzyme. These virulent isolates were multidrug resistant and showed high level vancomycin resistance. They were tested for mating ability. They cotransfered pheromone response genes together with vancomycin resistance determinants and gelatinase production to sensitive recipient strains. The gel E gene was detected in all donor isolates and their corresponding transconjugants phenotypically and genotypically. The PCR amplicons of a heavy gelatinase producing isolate and its transconjugants were subjected to sequencing. Significant homology was detected with OG1RF strain following sequence search with a GenBank...