No abstract

In addition to knowledge, socioeconomic factors, such as family income, household crowding, and the number of siblings are associated with asthma control among children in Saudi Arabia. Further research is needed to investigate the role of these factors.

This study aims to establish reference ranges for thyroid tests in young Saudi adults using the Centaur immunoassay method. Physical examination is performed and thyroid function tests include thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3). These are performed on 291 young Saudi adults (182 [63%] females and 109 [37%] males; average age: 27 years [range 18-50]). Clinical thyroid abnormality, related symptoms and/or abnormal thyroid function tests exclude a person from the study and thus a total of 276 subjects (171 [62%] females and 105 [38%] males) are used to establish the new reference ranges. Combined female and male ranges for TSH, FT4, and FT3 were found to be 0.48-6.30 miu/L (9.00-18.62 pmol/L and 3.39-6.85 pmol/L, respectively). Mean TSH and FT4 levels were significantly different (P<0.0001) from those quoted by the manufacturer. Ranges for TSH were 0.48-6.30 miu/L (female) and 0.52-4.89 miu/L (male) (P=0.08). Female ranges for FT4 and FT3 were 9.00-17.15 pmol/L and 3.39-5.82 pmol/L, respectively. Male ranges were 9.92-18.62 pmol/L (P=0.0001) and 4.36-6.85 pmol/L (P<0.0001). The range of TSH levels in the young local Saudi population proved to be higher than that quoted by the manufacturer. FT4 range was lower and narrower than that quoted by the manufacturer. Significant differences between female and male populations suggest that partitioning of the reference ranges by gender is necessary.

No abstract

Our objective was to investigate the degree of dietary awareness of Saudi patients on chronic hemodialysis and influencing factors on this awareness. This is an interviewadministered survey-based cross-sectional study carried out on adult dialysis patients at the King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh. The first part of the survey consisted of the collection of demographic data and the second part consisted of questions in the areas of awareness on the dietary influence of sodium, potassium, fluid intake and calcium/phosphorous and lipids. The questions are simply answered as "yes" or "no." The overall awareness score was 79%. The awareness scores were highest in the area of lipids (86.5%) and lowest in the fluid intake area (71.3%). The scores for sodium, phosphorous/calcium and potassium were 80%, 79.6% and 73%, respectively. The degree of awareness was influenced by the number of visits by the dietitian (P = 0.008) and the educational level of the patients (P = 0.02), but not by age, duration on dialysis or gender. In conclusion, our findings suggest that there is a need for better of awareness among our dialysis patients. The highest score for awareness was seen in the cholesterol-related questions and the lowest score was seen in the fluid intake questions area. This is influenced by the number of visits by the dietitian and the educational level of the patients, but not by age, duration on dialysis or gender.