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New at the CTGA Database

News from CAGS

IHF Honours UAE Pioneers in Medicine

Facts & Figures

Forthcoming Events

CAGS Newsletter
Issue 3, September 2005

Editorial

Dear Colleagues,

In contrast to many other cities of the world, scientific activity in Dubai never ceases during summer time. Few days ago, Dubai hosted the International Pathology and Genetics Conference and Exhibition (Dubai-Pathogenetics) 2005. The conference was partially supported by the Centre for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS) and embraced a large number of eminent scientists of the world.

This issue of the CAGS Newsletter includes few contributions from our readers. Many other contributions will appear in the future reflecting the cooperative atmosphere we wish to see among scientific communities in the region.

We also wish to thank the sister newsletter OrphaNews Europe and the Public Health Genetics Unit Newsletter for transmitting the word of CAGS, reviewing the CTGA database, and also describing the CAGS Newsletter.

www.cags.org.ae

Genetic Disorders in the Arab World
Bartter Syndrome

Bartter syndromes are defined as a family of inherited recessive autosomal heterogeneous renal tubular disorders, or tubulopathies. All disease variants follow autosomal recessive inheritance and share the following characteristic clinical features: renal salt wasting, hypokalemic metabolic alkalosis, normotensive hyperreninemic hyperaldosteronism, and hyperplasia of the juxtaglomerular apparatus.

Neonatal variants of Bartter syndrome are classified genetically into four subtypes. In type I Bartter syndrome, the sodium potassium-2 chloride (NKCC2) luminal channel is mutated. In type II Bartter syndrome, the luminal ROMK potassium channel is affected. Type III Bartter syndrome is related to mutations in the basolateral ClC-Kb chloride channel. A recently identified form of Bartter syndrome includes infants with uniformly concomitant sensorineural deafness (BSND), a condition originally described in an Arab Bedouin kindred.

The CTGA database currently reports on the occurence of Bartter Syndrome in Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The CTGA Database

Arab Medical Institutions
Kasr Al-Aini Medical College, Cairo University, Egypt

The Cairo University Medical College (Kasr Al-Aini) offers B.Sc. in Medicine and Surgery in 35 academic and clinical disciplines. In 1827, the medical school was established and it embraced around 300 students from Egypt and abroad. In 1832, distinguished graduates were sent to Paris for post-graduate studies, ultimately constituting the first medical education staff in Egypt.

At present, Kasr Al-Aini has a student population of more than 10,000 with more than 1,000 students graduating every year. The college has a faculty of over 3,000 covering various branches of medicine, while Kasr Al-Aini Hospital has a staff of nearly 10,000 doctors, technicians, and nurses.

For the marked role in medical education, and its contributions to the welfare of Egyptian and Arab societies, its ardent bid to provide the Arab medical sector with thousands of doctors over 170 years, and for its humanitarian services, Kasr Al-Aini received the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences as the best Arab medical institution for the year 2004.

www.kasralainy.edu.eg

Arab Medical Journals
Medical Principles and Practice

Medical Principles and Practice is the official journal of the Kuwait University Health Science Centre. The journal is a general medical journal that focuses on recent advances made in basic medical sciences and clinical practice. Since 1976, Medical Principles and Practice publishes original peer-reviewed articles in the health sciences in the form of papers, solicited reviews, case reports, short communications, conference proceedings, discussion forums and letters. The journal attracts original papers not only from Kuwait and the Middle East, but also from the international scientific and medical communities as a whole. Medical Principles and Practice is listed in bibliographic services, including MEDLINE, Science Citation Index, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica and IMEMR (WHO).

Medical Principles and Practice

A Glimpse into Arab Papers
Recombinant human interleukin 11 and bacterial infection in patients with [correction of] haematological malignant disease undergoing chemotherapy: a double-blind placebo-controlled randomised trial.

Lancet. 2003 Jan 25; 361(9354):275-80.

Author: Ellis M. et al.

Address: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates.

Bacteremia in patients with hematological malignant disease causes substantial morbidity. Recombinant human interleukin 11 (rhIL-11) prevents gastrointestinal epithelial disintegrity and has immunomodulatory actions. In order to ascertain whether or not treatment with rhIL-11 can prevent gut-associated infections, Ellis et al., conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled randomised trial on 40 patients with hematological malignant disease who were undergoing chemotherapy. Results of the study indicated that rhIL-11 reduces the frequency and load of bacteremia in patients with hematological malignant disease undergoing chemotherapy, possibly by gastrointestinal cytoprotective or immunological mechanisms.

PubMed

Arab Medical Websites
GulfMD

GulfMD - The world of Health, Progress and Hope - has been conceived to meet a growing demand by the general public for highly detailed info about healthcare practitioners. It provides free access to a gamut of healthcare, medical and drug information for consumers and healthcare providers in the Middle East. The portal provides health news, up-to-date medical references, medical imagery, graphics and animation, information about medical communities, live events in the United Arab Emirates, and hosts a database of doctors, clinics and hospitals in the Middle East. The site has captured extensive information including symptoms and diagnosed conditions treated, procedures performed, and others.

GulfMD