Background: Epistaxis is one of the commonest emergencies encountered by ENT physicians as well as to family and emergency physicians. It is common among school children as they are easily injured during different school activities. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding first aid management of epistaxis among school teachers in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted in November 2017 among Saudi school teachers in AlAhssa region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The data were collected by a well-structured online questionnaire which was designed including questions about the biographical data of the teacher, questions about the past knowledge of the emergency management of epistaxis and questions assessing the awareness of the method applied as a management of epistaxis. Result: We received 485 valid responses. 76% of teachers were female, 93% worked in public and 40% were in primary schools. 54% of participants had received information about first aid to stop nose bleeding or hemorrhage. 67% said that their students experienced epistaxis before. Interestingly, 15% said they would not try to stop the bleeding, and only 25% said they would press on the cartilaginous part of nose. However, a higher percentage (57%) knew that they should tilt the head forward.

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide disease that severely affects the fetuses and immunocompromised patients and results in many critical and life threatening conditions. The present study aimed to evaluate the awareness of toxoplasmosis and its preventive behaviors among female students in King Faisal University in Al-Ahssa. Subjects and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in April 2014 among female students in KFU. The data were collected by a questionnaire from 88 participants. Results: Results showed that 65.4% were not aware of toxoplasmosis, and only 28.2% were aware of its complications or risk factors. This study showed that some people are at risk to get toxoplasmosis as they do not wash their hands with water and soap before eating (48.8%), do not wash the fruits and vegetables with water and soap (78.2%), drink tank water (51.3%) and cat owners don't follow the proper measures for their cats. However, some people practice some of the preventive behaviors as they do not raise the cats (93.6%) and do not consume unpasteurized or unboiled milk (100%) or undercooked meat (92.3%). Conclusion: The current study proved the low awareness of toxoplasmosis which emphasized the need to educate the people in Al-Ahssa about the preventive methods, especially the pregnant women to prevent the severe complications of congenital infections.

One of the main objectives of the present study is to investigate the relationship between the board variables (namely: board size, board meetings, board compositions, board diversity, and CEO duality), variables and Qatari financial institutions’ performance measured by ROA, ROE, and EPS. Another objective of this paper is to compare the performance of conventional financial institution are more profitable than Islamic ones. The study uses 56 listed financial institutions in the Qatari exchange market. The panel data regression was used to analyse the data in this paper. The results found that the board meeting is positively associated with all performance measures. Moreover, board size has a positive relationship with EPS while board compositions are positively associated with ROA. However, board diversity has a negative relationship with all performance measures. Finally, the results failed to report any statistically significant and negative relationship between CEO duality and financial institutions’ performance. In addition, the results indicate that Islamic institutions are of lower performance compared to non-Islamic institutions.

Background and objective Anemia is a common prognosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD). It is predominantly managed with synthetic erythropoietin. The principal objective of this study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of the use of short-acting erythropoietin with the long-acting one to maintain serum hemoglobin (Hb) concentration within the range of 10.5-12 g/dL. Method This was a retrospective cohort study involving patients diagnosed with stage 5 CKD according to the Saudi Society of Nephrology and Transplantation conducted at eight tertiary care centers in the Tabuk region, Saudi Arabia. We compared the cost-effectiveness of long-acting erythropoietin with the short-acting one. The decision analysis model and Markov model were established to simulate a cohort of 55-year-old patients to estimate the incremental cost and quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) for chronic hemodialysis patients (CHP) treated with either darbepoetin-alfa or epoetin-beta for at least nine months. The incremental cost per QALY was the main outcome marker for using both medications. Serum HB levels were monitored on a monthly basis and costs were calculated. Results A total of 291 CHP met our inclusion criteria; 194 of them were treated with darbepoetin-alfa while 97 were treated with epoetin-beta. The mean age was 56.3 ± 11.2 years for the darbepoetin-alfa group and 55.2 ± 7.8 years for the epoetin-beta cohort. The baseline serum Hb was 10.68 ± 0.98 g/dL for darbepoetin-alfa patients and 11.63 ± 0.32 g/dL for the epoetin-beta group (p=0.003). We observed a significant difference between the percentage of patients successfully treated with epoetin-beta and those managed with darbepoetinalfa (80.4% vs. 63.92%, p=0.01) with considerably less cardiovascular side effects. The average annual cost per patient was estimated at $919.47 and $12,319.41 for epoetin-beta and darbepoetin-alfa respectively. Also, the average effectiveness was 0.58 for darbepoetin-alfa vs. 0.

Introduction. Dental caries is a serious problem affecting numerous populations around the world. During the last decade, there was a significant increase of its prevalence in many countries. Hence, the dental epidemiological status requires some further analysis. Aim. This study was designed to assess the prevalence of dental caries among adults of various age and gender groups treated by dental students of English Division at the Chair and Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics of the Medical University of Lublin. Material and methods. The authors collected and analyzed the dental history of patients who had been treated at the university dental clinic in Lublin throughout 2013 and 2014. Results and Conclusions. The mean DMFT index of examined group of patients increases with age and it tends to be higher in women than men. Class I dental caries according to Black’s classification was the most prevalent, followed by class II, class III, class V and class IV. Caries tends to affect molars and premolars most commonly. In addition, these teeth were most likely to be extracted and restored.