This study examined the association of depression, anxiety, and stress with Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Bahrain, an island-country with a very high prevalence of T2DM. This was a cross-sectional study involving administering Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS)-21 structured depression, anxiety, and stress scale to 143 T2DM patients and 132 healthy controls. Higher proportion of T2DM patients were found in the mild-moderate and severe- extremely severe depression (p=0.002), anxiety (p<0.001), and stress (p<0.001) groups. Chronic disease and disease duration were significantly associated with the 3 disturbances, while employment status was associated with anxiety and depression. Logistic regression analysis showed that anxiety, depression, and stress were associated with T2DM after adjusting for all variables, while age was the only significant variable associated with stress. These results suggest a positive contribution of T2DM to increased depressive and/or anxiety and/or stress disorders among the patients examined, thereby recommending counseling for T2DM patients.

No abstract

In view of these differences between Bahraini and Lebanese, this demonstrates that the contribution of HLA class II to the genetic susceptibility to T1D must be evaluated with regard to specific HLA haplotypes and also ethnic origin and racial background.

The COVID-19 pandemic has tremendously affected higher education institutions, that started, as a result of the pandemic to transition into more convenient options for teaching and assessment. 1 While medical schools around the globe are putting all their efforts to ensure readiness of students and faculty to efficiently use digital facilities and technology in their learning and teaching, the assessment of clinical competencies remains a difficult area that needs innovative solutions and adaptations. 2,3 Technology-enhanced learning is more than just a necessary transition in the COVID-19 era. It has been a target for years. This pursuit, however, has been persistently met by a great deal of resistance. Faculty have felt for years that they were not ready to fully use the available technologies. 4 With the transition that was mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic, all faculty were urged by the school administration to transform to using technology in the absence of any other available alternative. We need to capitalize on this achievement. Assessment, however, remains a problem that requires much more than the introduction of technology. Many

Purpose Previous studies identified follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) and luteinizing hormone/ choriogonadotropin receptor (LHCGR) genes as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) susceptibility loci, which was dependent on the racial/ethnic background of studied population. We investigated the association of genetic variants in FSHR and LHCGR with PCOS in Bahraini Arab women. Methods A retrospective case-control study, involving 203 women with PCOS, and 211 age-and ethnically-matched control women. FSHR and LHCGR genotyping was done by allelic exclusion method (real-time PCR).Results Significantly lower frequencies of heterozygous LHCGR rs7371084 and FSHR rs11692782 genotype carriers were seen between women with PCOS vs. controls, and increased frequency of heterozygous homozygous LHCGR rs4953616 genotype carriers were detected between women with PCOS compared to control women. Limited linkage disequilibrium was noted among LHCGR and FSHR SNPs, and 2 blocks were constructed: the first (Block 1) spanning 61 kb contained the six tested LHCGR SNPs, and the second (Block 2) spanning 298 kb contained four of the five tested FSHR SNPs. Higher frequency of LHCGR GTCAAG haplotype was seen in women with PCOS compared to controls; the frequencies of the remaining LHCGR haplotypes, and all FSHR haplotypes were similar between cases and controls. Conclusion This is the first study to confirm the association of novel LHCGR (rs7371084, rs4953616) and FSHR (rs11692782) SNPs with PCOS. The differential association of LHCGR and FSHR variants with PCOS confirms the racial/ ethnic contribution to their association with PCOS.

Whereas the genetic risk for type 1 diabetes is linked to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II genes, the HLA association in type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes is less clear. The association between HLA class II genotypes and type 2 diabetes was examined in adult Bahrainis, an Arab population with a high prevalence of type 2 diabetes. HLA-DRB1* and -DQB1* genotyping of 86 unrelated type 2 diabetes patients (age, 51.6 ؎ 8.2 years; mean duration of diabetes, 7.7 ؎ 7.1 years) who had a strong family history of diabetes (52 of 72 versus 0 of 89 for controls, P < 0.001) and 89 healthy subjects was done by PCR-sequence-specific priming.

No abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the world of medical education, moving it years ahead of time into the future. Many concepts needed to be changed, so did the methodologies. Nevertheless, clinical assessment remained tricky. This work highlights the outcome of the work of College of Medicine and Medical Sciences at the Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain in performing virtual clinical examination using Zoom&trade;. Tips in this article are meant to help plan, implement and evaluate clinical assessments virtually.