Adel S. Alharbi

Bio: Adel S. Alharbi is an academic researcher from United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. The author has contributed to research in topics: Asthma & Polysomnography. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 25 publications receiving 223 citations. Previous affiliations of Adel S. Alharbi include King Saud Medical City.

The Saudi initiative for asthma - 2012 update: Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma in adults and children

Abstract: This is an updated guideline for the diagnosis and management of asthma, developed by the Saudi Initiative for Asthma (SINA) group, a subsidiary of the Saudi Thoracic Society. The main objective of SINA is to have guidelines that are up to date, simple to understand and easy to use by nonasthma specialists, including primary care and general practice physicians. SINA approach is mainly based on symptom control and assessment of risk as it is the ultimate goal of treatment. The new SINA guidelines include updates of acute and chronic asthma management, with more emphasis on the use of asthma control in the management of asthma in adults and children, inclusion of a new medication appendix, and keeping consistency on the management at different age groups. The section on asthma in children is rewritten and expanded where the approach is stratified based on the age. The guidelines are constructed based on the available evidence, local literature, and the current situation in Saudi Arabia. There is also an emphasis on patient-doctor partnership in the management that also includes a self-management plan.

Sleep quality and insomnia during the COVID-19 lockdown among the Saudi public: A cross-sectional study.

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: To measure the Saudi population's sleep quality during the lockdown of COVID-19. METHODS: An internet-based questionnaire that was performed during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic among the Saudi population over 2 weeks from April 1 to April 15, 2020. We used the instant messaging application WhatsApp and Twitter to reach the targeted population. Saudi citizens and non-Saudi residents who can read and understand the questionnaire were recruited. Data were analyzed using Stata and SPSS. RESULTS: A total of 790 responses were included. The majority of participants were the Saudi population 735 (92.9%). The prevalence of insomnia and poor sleep quality were 54.4% and 55.5%, respectively. Saudi citizenship was associated with longer sleep duration (p=0.031). Female gender and being married were associated with worse global PSQI, sleep quality, sleep distribution, sleep latency, and daytime dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi population had a high prevalence of insomnia and poor sleep quality. Routine monitoring of the psychological impact of life-threatening outbreaks and the adoption of effective early mental health actions should be considered.

An exome-first approach to aid in the diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia.

Abstract: Unlike disorders of primary cilium, primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) has a much narrower clinical spectrum consistent with the limited tissue distribution of motile cilia. Nonetheless, PCD diagnosis can be challenging due to the overlapping features with other disorders and the requirement for sophisticated tests that are only available in specialized centers. We performed exome sequencing on all patients with a clinical suspicion of PCD but for whom no nasal nitric oxide test or ciliary functional assessment could be ordered. Among 81 patients (56 families), in whom PCD was suspected, 68% had pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in established PCD-related genes that fully explain the phenotype (20 variants in 11 genes). The major clinical presentations were sinopulmonary infections (SPI) (n = 58), neonatal respiratory distress (NRD) (n = 2), laterality defect (LD) (n = 6), and combined LD/SPI (n = 15). Biallelic likely deleterious variants were also encountered in AKNA and GOLGA3, which we propose as novel candidates in a lung phenotype that overlaps clinically with PCD. We also encountered a PCD phenocopy caused by a pathogenic variant in ITCH, and a pathogenic variant in CEP164 causing Bardet–Biedl syndrome and PCD presentation as a very rare example of the dual presentation of these two disorders of the primary and motile cilia. Exome sequencing is a powerful tool that can help “democratize” the diagnosis of PCD, which is currently limited to highly specialized centers.

Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium : A Physician Charter

Abstract: To our readers: I write briefly to introduce the Medical Professionalism Project and its principal product, the Charter on Medical Professionalism. The charter appears in print for the first time in this issue of Annals and simultaneously in The Lancet. I hope that we will look back upon its publication as a watershed event in medicine. Everyone who is involved with health care should read the charter and ponder its meaning. The charter is the product of several years of work by leaders in the ABIM Foundation, the ACP–ASIM Foundation, and the European Federation of Internal Medicine. The charter consists of a brief introduction and rationale, three principles, and 10 commitments. The introduction contains the following premise: Changes in the health care delivery systems in countries throughout the industrialized world threaten the values of professionalism. The document conveys this message with chilling brevity. The authors apparently feel no need to defend this premise, perhaps because they believe that it is a universally held truth. The authors go further, stating that the conditions of medical practice are tempting physicians to abandon their commitment to the primacy of patient welfare. These are very strong words. Whether they are strictly true for the profession as a whole is almost beside the point. Each physician must decide if the circumstances of practice are threatening his or her adherence to the values that the medical profession has held dear for many millennia. Three Fundamental Principles set the stage for the heart of the charter, a set of commitments. One of the three principles, the principle of primacy of patient welfare, dates from ancient times. Another, the principle of patient autonomy, has a more recent history. Only in the later part of the past century have people begun to view the physician as an advisor, often one of many, to an autonomous patient. According to this view, the center of patient care is not in the physician’s office or the hospital. It is where people live their lives, in the home and the workplace. There, patients make the daily choices that determine their health. The principle of social justice is the last of the three principles. It calls upon the profession to promote a fair distribution of health care resources. There is reason to expect that physicians from every point on the globe will read the charter. Does this document represent the traditions of medicine in cultures other than those in the West, where the authors of the charter have practiced medicine? We hope that readers everywhere will engage in dialogue about the charter, and we offer our pages as a place for that dialogue to take place. If the traditions of medical practice throughout the world are not congruent with one another, at least we may make progress toward understanding how physicians in different cultures understand their commitments to patients and the public. Many physicians will recognize in the principles and commitments of the charter the ethical underpinning of their professional relationships, individually with their patients and collectively with the public. For them, the challenge will be to live by these precepts and to resist efforts to impose a corporate mentality on a profession of service to others. Forces that are largely beyond our control have brought us to circumstances that require a restatement of professional responsibility. The responsibility for acting on these principles and commitments lies squarely on our shoulders. —Harold C. Sox, MD, Editor

Iconographies supplémentaires de l'article : Factors involved in the aerosol transmission of infection and control of ventilation in healthcare premises

Abstract: Summary The epidemics of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 highlighted both short- and long-range transmission routes, i.e. between infected patients and healthcare workers, and between distant locations. With other infections such as tuberculosis, measles and chickenpox, the concept of aerosol transmission is so well accepted that isolation of such patients is the norm. With current concerns about a possible approaching influenza pandemic, the control of transmission via infectious air has become more important. Therefore, the aim of this review is to describe the factors involved in: (1) the generation of an infectious aerosol, (2) the transmission of infectious droplets or droplet nuclei from this aerosol, and (3) the potential for inhalation of such droplets or droplet nuclei by a susceptible host. On this basis, recommendations are made to improve the control of aerosol-transmitted infections in hospitals as well as in the design and construction of future isolation facilities.