From the Editor
..........................................................................................................................

Abdul Abyad, MD, MPH, MBA, AGSF, AFCHSE (Chief Editor)

Address correspondence to:
Abdul Abyad, MD, MPH, MBA, AGSF, AFCHSE (Editor)
Abyad Medical Center & Middle East Longevity Institute
Azmi Street, Abdo Center, 2nd Floor
PO BOX 618, Tripoli LEBANON
Tel & Fax: 961 6 443684/5/6
Email: aabyad@cyberia.net.lb
Web: www.amc-lb.com

I would like to take this opportunity to thanks the authors who support the journal and send us their valuable papers. In addition I would like to announce the second middle east congress of ageing and alzheimer's of which the MEJFM is one of the official organisers of this conference. The conference website is : http://www.meama.com/secondconference/index.htm. We would like to encourage our readers to attend and to submit abstracts for the conference.

In this edition a paper from Jordan looked at Pattern of inflammatory markers in children with asthma and allergic rhinitis. The study included 42 healthy children (mean age 9±5 years) and 70 pediatric patients during regular control of respiratory allergic diseases, asthma (n=47) and rhinitis (n=23), mean age 7±4 years. The author concluded that children with respiratory allergic diseases had greater concentrations of hsCRP in serum compared with healthy children.

A paper from An Najah University looked at PREVALENCE OF ALLERGIC RHINITIS & ITS RISK FACTORS AMONG AN-NAJAH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. The study sample consisted of around 1000 (52% females, & 48% males) randomly selected students from all colleges of the University. Data were collected through structured interview including questionnaire filling. The Results show relatively lower allergic rhinitis prevalence in Palestine compared to some neighbouring countries, but were consistent with studies done in Turkey. The results confirmed the strong relationship of Allergic Rhinitis and respiratory infections and Asthma.

A paper from Iran looked at the concept of disease clustering for public health specialists. The examination of disease clustering has become a flourishing area in medical research during recent decades. The term cluster usually refers to uncommon diseases of non-infectious origin such as leukaemia, spontaneous abortion and suicides, which are repeatedly supposed to be due to environmental exposures. The aim of the present article is to discuss some of the most important fundamental issues surrounding this concept for the public health specialists within the Middle East region.

A paper from Turkey looked at PERIPHERAL GIANT CELL GRANULOMA using a CASE REPORT. The author reports that a 30-year-old female patient admitted to their clinic with the complaint of painless swelling and gingival growth underwent total excision of an exophytic lesion causing purplish-red colored gingival growth found during clinical examination in the upper jaw in the region of right vestibular 1st molar tooth. Histopathological examination revealed PGCG. The author stressed that effective treatment of PGCG requires not only complete excision of the lesion, but also elimination of irritating factors.

Zeid AA and Dahabrah M looked at the Pattern of inflammatory markers in children with asthma and allergic rhinitis. The study included 42 healthy children (mean age 9±5 years) and 70 pediatric patients during regular control of respiratory allergic diseases, asthma (n=47) and rhinitis (n=23), mean age 7±4 years. The study results demonstrated that children with respiratory allergic diseases had greater concentrations of hsCRP in serum compared with healthy children.

Dr. Mazen Ahmad Asayreh from Jordan has submitted a paper on chest pain in women. The author found that in women referred with chest pain, a diagnosis of normal coronary arteries was common.