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Objective: The aims of this retrospective cohort study were to determine the proportion of women on medical therapy to correct anemia, defined as hemoglobin

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5 mm in diameter. These plastics mostly result from degradation of larger plastics. Due to their small size, they are often accidentally ingested by sea faunas, particularly the deposit and filter feeders. However, information on the ingestion of microplastics by sea fauna such as jellyfish is rare. This paper provides evidence of ingestion of microplastics by jelly fishes (Crambionella orsini) along the Kenyan Coast. Samples were taken from three stations (Mikindani and Makupa in Mombasa, and Dabaso in Mida Creek) between 31st January 2018 and 3rd February 2018 using tow nets. Samples were digested using 10 % KOH at 60 °C for 24 hrs and sieved through a 38 µm sieve. Products below 38 µm were filtered using a 0.8 µm Whatman filters, then dried in an oven and viewed under a dissecting microscope for microplastics. Suspected microplastics were confirmed using a hot needle test. Microplastics obtained were mainly fibres of different colours: black, blue, green, colourless, purple, red and yellow. Colourless fibres were the majority accounting for 53 % of the total number of fibres while purple fibres were the least at only 1 %. Mean concentration of microplastics was highest in Dabaso (0.05 mp/g of tissue), whereas in Mikindani and Makupa were almost equal (i.e., 0.03 ± 0.003 mp/g in Mikindani, and 0.03 ± 0.01 mp/g in Makupa). Statistically, the means were not significantly different between the stations (F1, 2 = 1.34; P = 0.43). This study presents evidence of contamination of the Kenyan coastal waters by microplastics and their ingestion by sea fauna such as jellyfish. Results of this study will help reinforce the plastic ban in the country to prevent further accumulation in the environment.

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

STUDY OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to provide a contemporary description of hysterectomy practice and temporal trends in Canada. DESIGN A national whole-population retrospective analysis of data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. SETTING Canada. PATIENTS All women who underwent hysterectomy for benign indication from April 1, 2007, to March 31, 2017, in Canada. INTERVENTIONS Hysterectomy. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS A total of 369 520 hysterectomies were performed in Canada during the 10-year period, during which the hysterectomy rate decreased from 313 to 243 per 100 000 women. The proportion of abdominal hysterectomies decreased (59.5% to 36.9%), laparoscopic hysterectomies increased (10.8% to 38.6%), and vaginal hysterectomies decreased (29.7% to 24.5%), whereas the national technicity index increased from 40.5% to 63.1% (p

The continuous increases in temperature and microplastic concentration have raised grave concerns worldwide. The influence of water temperature and microplastic concentration on microplastic ingestion and retention rates in Holothuria cinerascens (Brandt, 1835) was investigated. H. cinerascens were sampled by handpicking during low tide from Park Rynie beach on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. They were then cleaned and transported to the control temperature room. Animals were placed in pairs in aerating tanks and acclimated for 48 h. For the exposure experiment, 50, 100, and 150 polyethylene fragments per litre of sizes (0.5–1 mm and 1–2 mm) were added to each tank at varied temperatures (19, 24, 28, and 32 °C) and were left for 48 h and 72 h. Thereafter, animals were transferred to tanks void of microplastics and left to depurate for 48 h for the retention experiment. Microplastic collected from the gut and faecal samples were used to calculate the ingestion and retention rates. Water temperature significantly influenced ingestion and retention rates, while microplastic concentration influenced the ingestion rate only. The highest microplastic particle number/g.h was recorded in high microplastic concentration for both ingestion and retention experiments. Also, the highest microplastic particle number/g.h was obtained at 28 °C in the ingestion experiment. More microplastic particle number/g.h was retained at 19 °C in the ingestion experiment. Ingestion rate increased with increased microplastic concentration, and temperature up to 28 °C and then decreased at 32 °C. More microplastics were retained at high temperature (28 °C) and low temperature (19 °C) at 48 h and 72 h exposure, respectively. Increase in water temperature and microplastic concentration will increase the susceptibility of H. cinerascens to ingest more microplastics from their natural habitat.

Microplastic pollution has been recognized as a global threat in marine environments and a danger to prey, predators and humans. Yet there have been limited studies in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) and along the Kenyan coast making it difficult to estimate the extent of such pollution. This is the first study on microplastics (MPs) in the surface waters within creeks (Tudor, Port-Reitz and Mida creeks) in Kenya. Sampling was done in January/ February and September 2018 to collect microplastics from surface water. Neuston nets of 500 μm (large) and 250 μm (medium) size were towed for ten minutes and 50 litres of seawater sieved through a 20 μm net (small) in three replicates. The samples were digested in 10 % Potassium Hydroxide, sieved, and then filtered with cellulose nitrate membrane microfilters. Concentrations of total microplastics, different shapes and colours were established under a microscope. High concentrations of small size (20-250 μm) MPs were encountered and Tudor and Port Reitz had higher concentrations compared to Mida Creek. The study provides data on microplastic concentrations within the creeks and recommends focussing on small size microplastics for monitoring purposes, which due to their high concentrations can be hazardous to organisms.

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Microplastics (MPs) are plastics less than 5 mm in diameter. Their small size renders them invisible to deposit- and filter-feeding fauna, leading to unintentional ingestion. This study investigate...

Objective Population-based data on perioperative complications among women with endometrial cancer and severe obesity are lacking. We evaluated 30-day complication rates among women with and without class III obesity (body mass index ≥ 40 kg/m2) undergoing primary surgical management for endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC), and how outcomes differed according to surgical approach (open vs. minimally invasive). Methods We performed a retrospective population-based cohort study of women with EEC undergoing hysterectomy in Ontario, Canada, between 2006 and 2015. We evaluated perioperative complications in the whole cohort, and in a 1:1 matched analysis using hard and propensity score matching to ensure similar distributions of patient, tumour, provider and institution-level factors between women with and without class III obesity (identified using a surgical billing code). The primary outcome of interest was the 30-day perioperative complication rate. Results 12,112 women met inclusion criteria; 2697 (22.3%) had class III obesity. We matched 2320 (86%) women with class III obesity to those without. The composite complication rate was significantly higher among women with class III obesity (23.2% vs. 18.4%, standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.12), primarily due to wound infection/disruption (12.1% vs. 6.2%). There was no difference in outcomes for women with and without class III obesity when a minimally invasive approach was used. Conclusions Wound infection/disruption was increased for women with class III obesity compared to women without. Otherwise, perioperative complications were similar between the matched pairs. When minimally invasive approaches were used, women with class III obesity had a similar risk of complications as women without obesity.

This study reviews the development and conventional qualitative analysis of aquaculture in Africa, specifically by reviewing the aquaculture sector of key players (Egypt, Nigeria and Uganda) as a r...

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Microplastic pollution has been recognised as a global threat in marine environments and a danger to prey, predators and humans. Yet, there have been few studies in the western Indian Ocean, specifically along the Kenyan coast, which makes it difficult to estimate the extent of such pollution in the region. This is the first study on microplastics (MPs) in the sediments within creeks and estuaries (Tudor, Port Reitz and Mida creeks) on the Kenyan coast. In January/February and September 2018 sediment samples were collected for MPs analysis. The concentration of MPs differed between the sampling seasons and was distinctively higher in the second sampling season across particle sizes, suggesting that there were more MPs from larger terrestrial discharges due to increased runoff. The concentrations of total MPs, and the occurrence of different sizes, shapes and colours, were established under a microscope. The overall mean concentration was highest for the large size category of MPs (500–4 999 μm) at 9.1 (SE 0.8) particlescm−2, with Tudor Creek being more polluted with MPs than Port Reitz and Mida creeks. We recommend formulation of policies on proper plastic waste management and disposal to protect nearshore ecosystems which are rich in marine biodiversity.

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided

Deborah Robertson provides an overview of recently published articles that may be of interest to non-medical prescribers. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided