Background: Successful audiology service delivery depends on support from the community, and agreement to utilize hearing healthcare programs. Assessment of parents' awareness regarding hearing loss (HL) and audiology services is necessary for the development of suitable hearing programs for children. Previous studies reported that early detection and intervention for hearing problems are typically strongly supported by parents. The current study sought to evaluate parents' knowledge and attitudes regarding childhood HL and hearing services. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted at five centers in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. A self-report questionnaire was administered to collect demographic data in addition to 31 questions regarding the knowledge and attitudes of parents toward HL. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21 was used for data analysis. A pvalue cut-off point of 0.05 at 95% CI was used to determine statistical significance. The analyses examined the association between socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge and attitudes toward HL using chi-square tests. Results: Overall, participants included in this study were 243 participants. Of these, 105 (43.2%) were fathers, and 138 (56.8%) were mothers. Ages ranged from 21 to 60+ years. Assessment of the prevalence of various aspects of knowledge and attitudes among parents toward childhood HL revealed that 103 participants (42.4%) possessed good knowledge, while 140 participants (57.6%) possessed poor knowledge. In contrast, the attitude analysis revealed that 224 participants (92.2%) expressed positive attitudes, while only 19 participants (07.8%) showed a negative attitude regarding audiology services. We found a significant association between age group and knowledge (p = 0.002). Conclusion: Most parents in our sample possessed poor knowledge regarding childhood HL. However, most parents expressed positive attitudes regarding audiology services. The current findings suggest a need to increase awareness among parents regarding childhood HL.
Introduction: The growing number of students with Autism will set challenge to school teachers to become better prepared to take the necessary action to serve and to assist children with autism. Aim: The aim in this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of school teachers regarding Autism Spectrum Disorder in Badaya city of Al-Qassim region, kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to find out any differences in school teachers knowledge based on (gender, educational level, experience, contact with students with autism, type of school). Methods: a cross sectional study was conducted in Badaya City on school teachers from December 2017 until March 2018 to assess their knowledge about Autism spectrum disorder. Autism knowledge Questionnaire was completed by 248 school teachers participated in the research study, data was collected from answers of the 30 questions of the questionnaire for all participants, and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Results: total level of knowledge in our sample of school teachers was 48.7%, a statistical significant differences between school teachers’ knowledge based on type of school, contact with children with autism favoring public schools p value=0.00, and previous contact with students with autism p value=0.03 which have higher level of knowledge. Educational level, grade of teaching, experience, gender did not significantly affect teachers’ knowledge. Conclusion: School teachers had a weak level of knowledge about Autism Spectrum disorder. Previous contact with students with autism definitely raises level of knowledge.
Introduction: Catheter placement and stability are well-known challenges in atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. As a result, steerable sheaths were developed to improve catheter stabilization and maintain proper catheter-tissue contact. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to see if employing a steerable sheath influences procedure outcome. Method: We performed a comprehensive literature search for studies that evaluated the efficacy and safety of Steerable Sheaths (SS) compared to Non-Steerable Sheaths (NSS) in AF ablation. The primary outcome was the rate of atrial arrhythmia (AA) freedom by the time of the last follow-up. The secondary outcomes were the procedure-related complications and procedural characteristics. Risk ratio (RR) or the mean difference (MD) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the random-effects model. Results: A total of 10 studies, including 967 AF patients (mean age: 59.2±11.1 years, 516 patients managed with SS vs. 454 with NSS), were included. SS group showed a higher rate of freedom of AA compared to NSS (RR: 1.19; 95% CI 1.09, 1.29; P < 0.001). Both techniques had similar rate for procedural-related complication (RR: 1.09, 95% CI 0.50, 2.39; P = 0.83). The SS strategy had a shorter procedure time (MD -10.6 (min.), 95% CI -20.97, -0.20; P = 0.05) but comparable fluoroscopic and radiofrequency application times to the NSS group. Conclusions: The steerable sheaths for AF catheter ablation not only reduced the total procedure time but also significantly increased the rate of successful ablation while maintaining a similar safety profile when compared to the traditional non-steerable sheaths.
Objectives: To investigate the utility of AngioVac-assisted vegetation debulking (AVD) in right sided infective endocarditis (RSIE) Background: AngioVac is a vacuum-based device that was approved in 2014 for the percutaneous removal of undesirable materials from the intravascular system. Although there are multiple reports on the use of the AngioVac device to aspirate right-sided heart chamber thrombi, data on its use to treat RSIE is limited. Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature search for studies that evaluated the utility of AVD. The primary outcomes of our study were the procedural success, defined as the ability of AngioVac to produce residual vegetation size <50% (RVS<50%) without serious procedural complications, and the clinical success, defined as composite of RVS<50%, in-hospital survival, absence of recurrent bacteremia, and valve function not requiring further intervention. The secondary outcomes included the individual components of the primary outcomes and average length of hospital stay. The pooled means and proportions of our data were analyzed using random-effects model, generic inverse variance method, and represented with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: A total of 44 studies, including 301 patients (mean age: 44.6±18.2 years, 71.6% males) were included. Procedural success was achieved in 89.2% of patients (95% CI:82.3%-93.6%, I 2 =0%). Clinical success was achieved in 79.1% of patients (95%CI:67.9%-87.2%, I 2 =15%). Overall survival rate was 89.7% (95% CI:83.1%-93.9%%, I 2 =9%). Conclusions: Our meta-analysis demonstrates that AVD is a promising therapeutic option for RSIE offering a high success rate with a low complication rate across a wide range of patients.
Introduction: Chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous intervention (PCI) is an evolving challenge within interventional cardiology. Anticoagulation during percutaneous intervention remains part of the standard of care for patients undergoing PCI to prevent thrombotic complications peri-procedurally. Unfractionated heparin (UFH) is a commonly used for CTO PCI-related anticoagulation. However, bivalirudin (BV), a synthetic, reversible, direct thrombin inhibitor, has been utilized as an alternative to UFH in CTO patients undergoing PCI. This meta-analysis aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of bivalirudin versus UFH for CTO PCI. Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature search using PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases through May 2022 for all studies evaluating efficacy and safety of bivalirudin versus UFH in CTO patients undergoing PCI. The primary outcome was mortality. Secondary outcomes were major adverse cardiac events (MACE), major bleeding events, peri-procedure myocardial infarction (MI), in-stent thrombosis, and unplanned revascularization. Pooled risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained by the Mantel-Haenszel method within a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed by I2 statistic. Results: A total of 5 studies containing 1347 patients with CTO undergoing PCI on anticoagulation (631 BV versus 716 UFH) were included. No significant difference existed between BV and UFH regarding mortality [RR: 0.54 (95% CI: 0.19-1.56); P 0.26 , I2 0%]. Major bleeding events were significantly lower in BV compared with UFH [RR: 0.33 (95% CI: 0.19-0.66); P 0.001, I2 0%]. MACE [RR: 0.75 (95% CI: 0.55-1.00); P 0.05, I2 2%], peri-procedure MI [RR: 0.80 (95% CI: 0.56-1.15); P 0.24, I2 0%], in-stent thrombosis [RR: 0.68 (95% CI: 0.19-2.39); P 0.55, I2 17%] and unplanned revascularization [OR: 0.77 (95% CI: 0.29-2.07); P 0.61, I2 0%] were similar between the two groups. Conclusions: BV seems to be safer than UFH in preventing major bleeding in anticoagulated patients with CTO undergoing PCI; there is no significant difference between groups in terms of mortality, MACE, peri-procedure MI, in-stent thrombosis, or unplanned revascularization. Future randomized controlled trials are needed.
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