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From the
Editor
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Chief Editor:
A. Abyad
MD, MPH, AGSF, AFCHSE
Email: aabyad@cyberia.net.lb
This issue of the journal has rich number of
research papers in addition to review on self
plagiarism issue and a CME article.
A joint paper from Australian and Iran looks
at the background and history of plagiarism
and self plagiarism, reviews aspects of academic
self plagiarism from the academic, the institution
and publisher's point of view and provides a
handy check-list of the current definitions
and requirements.
A paper from Pakistan attempt to estimate the
proportion of pharmacies with high temperature
(>25°C) inside pharmacy outlets in two
talukas (sub-districts) of district Thatta,
Sindh. The authors stressed that medicines are
the essential tools for preventive, curative
and control of diseases. If these medicines
are ineffective then its aftermath can cause
wastage of resources. Medicines lose their required
effectiveness due to inadequate storage on required
temperature. An exploratory cross sectional
study design was conducted from August 2013
to August 2014. All pharmacies of two talukas
were approached by doing a census. Descriptive
analysis was done to calculate the frequencies
and proportions. All pharmacies (n=62) were
having a temperature of >25?C inside the
pharmacies. Medicines were exposed to sunlight
in 39 (63%) of the pharmacies and 39 (63%) of
pharmacies had refrigerators to keep insulin
and vaccines. Median duration of electricity
shut downs was 12 hours per day and 11% of the
pharmacies had back up power supply. The authors
concluded that more than a quarter of pharmacy
owners were aware about maintaining the required
temperature of < 25?C but none of them was
maintaining required temperature. Considering
the electricity shut down, it is important to
make cost effective and long term strategies
to maintain the efficacy of medicines. Proper
legislation need to be enforced with continuing
training programs for pharmacy owners. Further
research is required to explore different ways
of maintaining required temperature to ensure
the adequate efficacy of medicines.
A paper from Turkey looked at Left renal atrophy
in sickle cell diseases. The authors were intereted
to understand whether or not there is a difference
according to renal atrophy between the left
and right sides in sickle cell diseases (SCDs).
All patients with SCDs were enrolled into the
study. The study included 311 patients (153
females). There were seven cases (2.2%) with
left renal atrophy against one case (0.3%) with
right renal atrophy (p<0.001). Associated
thalassemias were detected in 44.0% and splenomegaly
in 12.5% of the patients. There were digital
clubbing in 6.4%, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease in 4.8%, leg ulcers in 12.8%, stroke
in 7.0%, chronic renal disease in 8.6%, pulmonary
hypertension in 11.8%, cirrhosis in 3.5%, coronary
heart disease in 8.0%, and exitus in 5.7% of
the patients. The authors concluded that renal
atrophy is significantly higher on the left
side in SCDs. Splenomegaly induced flow disorders
in left renal vessels, structural anomalies
of the left renal vein including nutcracker
syndrome and passage behind the aorta, and possibly
the higher arterial pressure of left kidney
due to the shorter distance to heart as an underlying
cause of endothelial damage induced atherosclerosis
may be some of the possible causes. Because
of the higher prevalences of left varicocele
probably due to drainage of left testicular
vein into the left renal vein, high prevalences
of associated thalassemias with SCDs as a cause
of splenomegaly, and tissue ischemia and infarctions
induced edematous splenomegaly in early lives
of the SCDs cases, splenomegaly induced flow
disorders of left renal vein may be the most
significant cause among them.
A paper from Kuwait looked at the effect of
eye drop excipients against Acanthamoeba polyphaga.
They screened a variety of such eye drop excipients
used for bacterial keratitis in order to identify
any candidates that show inhibitory activity
against Acanthamoeba polyphaga, one of the protozoal
species responsible for the Acanthamoeba Keratitis.
Acanthamoeba keratitis is a serious eye infection
which is notoriously difficult to treat successfully.
The currently employed drugs have significant
disadvantages in that they have to be administered
at hourly intervals for extended periods of
time. The AlamarBlueTM assay has been optimized
for determination of selected eye drop excipients
efficacy against potentially pathogenic strain,
Acanthamoeba polyphaga. The most effective agents
were found to be fusidic acid and framycetin
sulfate, with a combination of the two providing
a reduction in A. polyphaga metabolic activity
of around 75%. The authors concluded that these
eye drop excipients can serve as new sources
for the discovery and development of much needed
new antimicrobials for both Acanthamoeba keratitis
and bacterial keratitis.
The author of a paper from Iran advises that
for novice researchers within the health domain
it would be absolutely essential to determine
when they should start writing and publishing
an article based on their recent research project.
There are plenty of reasons which justify writing
an article as soon as the necessary data are
gathered and analyzed. The aim of the article
is to discuss some of these most important rationales.
Another paper from Australia, in a continuing
series, highlights the practical issues regarding
modern day office surgery and provides practice
tips along with some graphic examples of adverse
events, particularly what to do when errors
occur.
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