Background Hip fractures impose significant morbidity and mortality. Red cell distribution width (RDW) appears to be an emerging tool in predicting mortality following hip fractures. Several factors can influence the RDW value including genetic factors and ethnicity. The purpose of the study was to assess the relation between RDW level at admission and hip fracture mortality within 6 months among Arab/Middle East populations. Methods We conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study including 549 patients (274 female and 275 male) diagnosed with a hip fracture undergoing surgery from February 2016 to December 2019. All included patients shared the same country of origin which is Arab Middle East country. Statistical analysis, including binary regression, was performed to assess the relationship between RDW and mortality within 6 months of admission. Other predictors of mortality following hip fracture surgery were also assessed. Results The mean age was 76.42 (±9.19) years. Seventy (12.8%) of participants died within 6 months. No statistically significant association (P=0.053) between RDW level at admission and mortality within 6 months of surgery was found. Binary regression demonstrated that the only independent predictors of mortality were age (P= 0.003, odds ratio 1.048 with 95% CI 1.016 to 1.080) and male gender (P= 0.021, odds ratio 1.872 with 95% CI 1.100 to 3.185). Conclusion Although the previous studies reported that RDW is one of the predictors of mortality in hip fracture patients, our study found no relation in the Arab population. This finding may confirm the influence of genetic factors and ethnicity on RDW value. We recommend further large-scale multicenter studies to solidly establish the relationship between RDW and hip fracture mortality among the Arab/Middle East population.

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common cause of sleep-disordered breathing with a large proportion of the patients exhibiting positional OSA (POSA). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the differences in the demographics, comorbidities, and polysomnographic features between POSA and non-POSA (NPOSA) in a Jordanian sample to further discern the propulsive elements for each group. METHODS: In this study, we evaluated 1037 adult patients with OSA. POSA was defined as an overall apnea and hypopnea index (AHI) >5, an overall AHI severity at least 1.4 times the nonsupine severity (overall/NS-AHI), and a minimum amount of time (i.e., 20 min) in the supine and nonsupine positions. To compare the clinical characteristics between POSA and NPOSA patients, statistical analyses were performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of POSA was 41.7%. In comparison to NPOSA patients, POSA patients had higher female sex prevalence, milder OSA, lower body mass index, lower hypertension prevalence, and lower hemoglobin A1C levels compared to NPOSA patients. Moreover, sleep efficiency, total sleep time, and supine sleep time were significantly higher in POSA patients. Nonsupine sleep time, total AHI, rapid eye movement (REM) AHI, non-REM (NREM) AHI, supine AHI, nonsupine AHI, left and right AHI, mean oxyhemoglobin saturation (SpO 2 ) awake, mean REM and NREM SpO 2 , SpO 2 nadir, and time SpO 2 below 90% were significantly lower among POSA patients. The multivariate regression analysis showed that only female gender and hypertension were significantly associated with POSA. CONCLUSION: POSA is common among OSA patients and demonstrates different clinical characteristics in comparison to NPOSA. Future prospective studies are needed to better characterize the POSA patients and investigate the benefit of positional therapy.

Introduction Aneurysmal bone cysts (ABC) are expansile, lytic, and benign but locally aggressive lesions. Pelvic ABCs are rare and sometimes difficult to manage surgically. Case Report A 17-year-old female presented with progressive pain and swelling in the right inguinal region. Pelvis radiograph showed a lytic expansile lesion of the superior pubic ramus. A multiloculated cystic lesion was evident on magnetic resonance imaging, and postoperative histopathological evaluation confirmed the diagnosis of ABC. The patient was treated successfully with an intralesional curettage and bone grafting. The postoperative course was uncomplicated with complete healing and no recurrence after 14 months of follow-up. Conclusion ABC of the pubic ramus is a rare entity. Complete intralesional curettage and bone ‎grafting ‎is an effective treatment for pubic ABC. An individualized management approach ‎considering ‎the surgical team expertise, tumor size, and proximity to neighboring structures ‎is recommended.‎.

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The free space optics (FSO) is considered as an attractive technology of telecommunication networks, due to several benefits as compared to other communication systems. However, signal degradation due to various weather conditions caused by wave attenuation can distort the performance of (FSO) connection link. The optimum performance is achieved by connecting a 5 Gbps optical amplifier at different places within the system. A laser source of 35 dBm power was transmitted at different weather conditions. Two systems were compared and analyzed. Results represented by both parameters (Q-factor, BER).