We proposed the ECW/TBW ratio and BIVA as surrogate methods for the clinical assessment of frailty. We tested successfully both approaches with nursing home patients and free-living volunteers and compared them to a national data base. The advent of new, portable instruments will enable field tests to further validate our proposed "Frailty Factor" in future studies. We found no correlation between frailty and cognitive decline in the nursing home.

No abstract

Background: Although diabetes mellitus is a well-researched systemic endocrinal disease, literature is scarce addressing the co-occurrence of oropharyngeal dysphagia with diabetes. Objective: The aim of this work was to screen Egyptian diabetic patients for symptoms suggestive of oropharyngeal dysphagia using the validated Arabic version of the Eating Assessment Tool (A-EAT-10). Participants and Methods: 200 Egyptian adult diabetic patients, aged from 18 to 59 years participated in the study. The inclusion criteria were being diabetic patients of type 1 or type 2. Patients were asked to complete the A-EAT-10 questionnaire. Results: Age progression and being female were found to be risk factors for dysphagia among diabetic patients participating in this study. The most common symptom among diabetic patients who complained of dysphagia was “I cough when I eat.” Conclusion: The present study suggests the presence of oropharyngeal swallowing problems among patients with diabetes mellitus.

Objective: The aim of this study was to standardize an Egyptian Arabic Pragmatic Language Test (EAPLT) using linguistically and socially suitable questions and pictures in order to be able to address specific deficits in this language domain. Participants and Methods: Questions and pictures were designed for the EAPLT to assess 3 pragmatic language subsets: pragmatic skills, functions, and factors. Ten expert phoniatricians were asked to review the EAPLT and complete a questionnaire to assess the validity of the test items. The EAPLT was applied in 120 typically developing Arabic-speaking Egyptian children (64 females and 56 males) randomly selected by inclusion and exclusion criteria in the age range between 2 years, 1 month, 1 day and 9 years, 12 months, 31 days. Children’s scores were used to calculate the means and standard deviations and the 5th and 95th percentiles to determine the age of the pragmatic skills acquisition. Results: All experts have mostly agreed that the EAPLT gives a general idea about children’s pragmatic language development. Test-retest reliability analysis proved the high reliability and internal consistency of the EAPLT subsets. A statistically significant correlation was found between the test subsets and age. Conclusion: The EAPLT is a valid and reliable Egyptian Arabic test that can be applied in order to detect a pragmatic language delay.

Background Understanding comorbidity of psychiatric disorders with specific learning disorders (SLD) is important because the presence of any additional disorder to the learning disability may affect the severity and prognosis of the SLD symptoms and requires specific treatments and interventions. Main body of the abstract The purpose of this systematic review was to describe the prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders among children with SLD between 6 and 18 years. English studies published between 2013 and 2018 were located through searches of PubMed and ScienceDirect. In this review, only 5 articles met the inclusion criteria. The quality of the included studies was assessed with the Cochrane risk of the bias assessment tool. The prevalence of ADHD and anxiety disorder was reported in 4 studies. Prevalence of conduct disorder (CD) and depression was reported by 3 studies, and 2 studies reported the prevalence of oppositional defined disorders (ODD). Although this review included a small number of studies that used a diversity of methods to diagnose psychiatric disorders, the results of the prevalence rates were homogenous. Short conclusion The included studies reported that ADHD had the highest prevalence rate among children with SLD followed by anxiety and depressive disorders. Both CD and ODD were the least prevalent and are linked to the existence of ADHD. Further worldwide future studies are needed to estimate the prevalence rate of such psychiatric disorders among children with SLD, taking into consideration the use of agreed assessment methods for diagnosing the psychiatric disorders and the SLD.