Recent Publications

Upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are prevalent among patients after -bariatric surgeries. Gastroscopy is an important procedure to investigate symptoms. Our primary aim was to evaluate the yield, effectiveness and safety of gastroscopy procedure obtained in a 3-months period after bariatric operation for exploring upper GI symptoms origin. (Amir Mari, Tawfik Khoury, George Daud, Ahmad Lubany, Mohammad Safadi, Wisam Sbeit, Rinaldo Pellicano, Mahmud Mahamid)

Reported by Avi Peretz, President of the Israel Society for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (ISCLS).

White blood cells (WBCs) play a major role in inflammation, with effects on the vascular wall, the microvascular blood flow, and endothelial cells and endothelial function. Previous studies have shown that a high WBC count may increase the risk of cardiovascular complication rate and mortality after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between preoperative WBC count and the post-CABG clinical outcome.

A walking blood bank (WBB) refers to the use of fellow combatants for battlefield blood donation. This requires pretesting combatants for infectious diseases and blood type. A fundamental prerequisite for this technique is that the donating soldier will suffer minimal physiological and mental impact. The purpose of the current study is to assess the effect of blood shedding on battlefield performance.

The airborne combat search and rescue unit (CSAR) has successfully implemented a low titer group O whole blood (LTOWB) program for the pre-hospital treatment of bleeding patients, and as its experience grows this product will be made available to other units and in civilian hospitals.

Congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) can cause significant neurologic manifestations and other untoward sequelae. Neither the current epidemiology nor the disease severity of CT in Israel is known.

Evaluates the performance of Influ A + B K-SeT®, a rapid influenza antigen detection kit, in order to determine whether its implementation as a point-of-care test in the emergency room (ER) is justified.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a major cause of chronic liver disease. Several extrahepatic manifestations have been reported in relation to NAFLD. However, data regarding pancreatobiliary manifestation are scarce. This study aims to explore the association of pancreatobiliary manifestation with NAFLD.

Ramadan is a month within the Islamic lunar calendar when Muslims are required to fast (abstain from food and drink) during the daytime (from sunrise to sunset) for the entire month. Due to the established connection between fasting and dehydration and acute sialadenitis (infection of salivary glands), the aim of this study is to determine if there is a higher frequency of sialadenitis among the Muslim population during Ramadan than during other months of the year. (Michael V Joachim, Yasmine Ghantous, Suleiman Zaaroura, Kutaiba Alkeesh, Tameem Zoabi, Imad Abu El-Na'aj)

To the best of our knowledge, our case is the first to describe caterpillar sign (CS) to appear temporally in an infant with definitive infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS), confirming that abdominal ultrasonography (US) is the imaging modality of choice when this entity is suspected. (Bshara Mansour, Adib Habib, Hussein Shamaly, Zahi Abou Nassar, Ahlam Abu Ahmad)

Nuclear lamins (NLs) are essential components of the animal cell nucleus involved in the regulation of a plethora of molecular and cellular processes. Mutations in NLs can lead to the development of a wide range of distinct disease phenotypes, laminopathies, consisting of cardiac, neuromuscular, metabolic and premature aging syndromes. In addition, alterations in the expression of nuclear lamins were associated with different types of neoplastic diseases. This integrative review summarizes and discusses the recent findings on the emerging roles of ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like modifiers (ULMs) in the regulation of NLs, highlighting the intriguing molecular associations and cross-talks occurring between NLs and these regulatory molecules under physiological conditions and in the disease states.

Presents seven pediatric patients with appendicitis, all with late diagnosis resulting from different aspects of the fear from the current global COVID-19 pandemic.

The objectives of this study were to gather an expert opinion survey and to evaluate the suitability of summarized indications and interventions for damage control orthopedics (DCO).

As the COVID-19 pandemic escalates, teams around the world are now advocating for a new approach to monitoring transmission: tapping into cellphone location data to track infection spread and warn people who may have been exposed. Here we present data collected in Israel through this approach so far and discuss the privacy concerns, alternatives and different ‘flavors’ of cellphone surveillance. We also propose safeguards needed to minimize the risk for civil rights.

Growing evidence shows the contribution of physical activity interventions to the gut microbiome. However, specific physical activity characteristics that can modify the gut microbiome are unknown. This review's aim was to explore the contribution of physical activity intervention characteristics on human gut microbiome composition, in terms of diversity, specific bacterial groups, and associated gut microbiome metabolites.