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Background: Systemic sclerosis is an autoimmune multisystem disorder which affects the patients' physical and psychological functioning. Scleroderma health assessment questionnaire used to measure physical disability in systemic sclerosis patients. It consists of Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index plus five visual analogue scores related to systemic sclerosis symptoms. There is no Arabic questionnaire specifically measuring physical disability in Arabic systemic sclerosis patients; therefore, this study aimed to translate the scleroderma health assessment questionnaire, culturally adapt it, and test its reliability and validity. Method: The scleroderma health assessment questionnaire was translated into Arabic according to translation and cross-cultural adaptation guidelines. Convergent validity is measured by correlation of scleroderma health assessment questionnaire scores for 56 patients with short-form health survey scores, while discriminate validity is tested by stratifying clinical manifestations of patients and disease subtypes. Reliability measured by the intraclass correlation coefficient by interviewing patients twice 14 days apart. Results: There was a strong correlation between the short-form health survey scores: physical component score and Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index and scleroderma health assessment questionnaire global scores (r = − 0.659**, − 0.727**), while a moderate correlation between the short-form health survey scores physical component score, and scleroderma health assessment questionnaire, visual analogue scores, and all scleroderma health assessment questionnaire visual analogue score subtypes except for Raynaud's and digital ulcer, was found (r = − 0.495**, − 0.458*, − 0.495**, − 0.403*). The mental component score of the short-form health survey scores was moderately correlated with Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index and scleroderma health assessment questionnaire global scores (r = − 0.507**, − 0.51**), while it was mildly correlated with scleroderma health assessment questionnaire visual analogue score and only its subtype overall severity score (r = − 0.398*, − 0.375*). Also, statistically significant association is between diffuse disease type and digestive visual analogue score (p = 0.001). The Arabic edition of scleroderma health assessment questionnaire has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.845. Conclusion: The translated Arabic version is a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess Egyptian systemic sclerosis patients' functional disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in Egypt in women. There are about 39% of total malignancies in Egyptian females and it is a leading cause of mortality among them. Objective The aim of this study was to compare locoregional recurrence rate after oncoplastic breast surgery versus wide local excision of breast carcinoma. Patients and methods This prospective study was conducted at Ain Shams University Hospitals on 50 patients, −25 of them underwent oncoplastic breast surgery and −25 underwent wide local excision, as a part of the treatment of breast cancer, to compare the rate of a breast cancer recurrence over 1.6 years starting from December 2018. Approval of the Ethical Committee and written informed consent from all participants were obtained. Results Our study included 50 patients, 25 of them underwent wide local excision for stages 1 and 2 breast cancer, the other 25 underwent oncoplastic breast surgery for stages 1 and 2 breast cancer. Our mean age was 44.24±8.13 years (28–60 years). In total, nine (18.0%) had a positive family history of mammary cancer, five (10.0%) patients were diabetic, three (6.0%) patients were hypertensive, the mean size of the tumor was 3.54±1.16 (1–5) cm. Grades of the tumor were grade 1 32 (64.0%), grade 2 11 (22.0%), and grade 3 7 (14.0%); sentinel lymph node biopsy was done in six (12.0%) of patients; there is a high correlation between the closest free margin and the technique of surgery used where 96% of cases undergoing oncoplastic breast conservation surgery had the closest free margin more than 2 cm in comparison to 24% of cases undergoing wide local excision. Regarding recurrence rate, although there are two cases of locoregional recurrence that occurred after wide local excision versus no recurrence in the oncoplastic breast conservation surgery group, this has been of no statistical significance. There is a significant relation between diabetes mellitus and cosmetic outcome, where 20% of diabetic patients have poor cosmetic outcome and 90% of patients with the excellent cosmetic outcome have no comorbidities. Conclusion On short-term follow-up done in our study of 1.5 years, there is no significant difference in the recurrence rate of stages 1 and 2 breast cancer after wide local excision and oncoplastic breast surgery, but there has been a significant increase in the size of the closest free margin in oncoplastic breast surgery compared with wide local excision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fascioliasis represents one of the most significant parasitic and foodborne zoonotic diseases in the world. Resistance to currently deployed human and veterinary flukicides is a growing health problem. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) have developed enormous importance in nanomedicine. The current study aims to evaluate the flukicide activity of ZnO-NPs on the adult stages of Fasciola hepatica, in vitro assay., Methods: Mature flukes of F. hepatica were collected from the biliary tracts of cattle liver from the main slaughterhouses in Aswan Governorate, Egypt. The co-precipitation process was utilized to create ZnO-NPs. The adult active flukes of F. hepatica (n = 6) were transferred in Petri dishes (triplicates) containing different concentrations of ZnO-NPs (0.5, 0.10 and 0.12 mg/mL), with simultaneous maintenance of control in only PBS. The treated and control groups of flukes were maintained inside an incubator at 37°C ± 1°C. Mortality and paralysis of the flukes were observed. The adult flukes were picked up for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination from the control medium, and those exposed to the highest effective concentration of ZnO-NPs. ZnO-NPs showed dose-dependent flukicide efficacy against the adult flukes., Results: At 0.12 mg/mL concentration of ZnO-NPs, the mortality of flukes was attained early in 4.05 ± 0.033 h. The photomicrographs obtained by SEM of the flukes revealed that ZnO-NPs (0.12 mg/mL) had a potent effect on the integument surface and genital system of F. hepatica. Most of the tegument was damaged with complete erosion and loss of the spines and papillae. Furthermore, a severe rupture in the genital system causes the uterus to burst and releases eggs through the genital pore., Conclusions: Hence, it could be concluded that ZnO-NPs performed effective anthelmintic activity against the adult stages of F. hepatica, in vitro. The results of the present study recommend the use of ZnO-NPs as new preparations with anthelmintic activity., (© 2024 The Author(s). Veterinary Medicine and Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)