Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to T A Ali.
The characteristics of intracranial tuberculoma on computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are not well known. The authors present a patient with an intracranial tuberculoma in whom the diagnosis was confirmed only after surgical excision.
This was a primary health care (PHC) study aiming at the investigation of the prevalence and nature of sexual dysfunction among a sample of type II diabetic men, in comparison with the control groups of hypertensive men and apparently healthy men with no chronic medical illness. Subjects were assessed by PHC physicians using a sexual dysfunction semistructured questionnaire and a questionnaire designed for medical history and sociodemographic data. Clinical assessments for peripheral vascular disease and peripheral neuropathy were carried out for the diabetic group only. The estimated high prevalence rate of sexual dysfunction among the diabetic group (89.2%) was significantly greater than the hypertensive group (43.6%), and the apparently healthy group (16.7%). The commonest clinical presentations of sexual dysfunction among the diabetic men were impaired morning and spontaneous erections, erectile weakness, and ejaculatory disturbances. Lesser common presentations were reduced sexual interest and complete erectile failure. There were no significant associations between the sexual dysfunction and clinically obvious physical complications of diabetes, or factors that might affect sexual functioning (i.e., alcohol or drug misuse or marital disharmony). However, the validity of these results is questioned due to the small numbers used for statistical analysis.
Micro-organisms are generally grown in the laboratory in nutrient-rich medium containing large amounts of sugars, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients which are considered essential for their growth. Modification of these conditions on an industrial scale provides an ideal environment in which micro-organisms can produce large quantities of useful products such as antibiotics, biochemicals, and enzymes. Natural environments, in contrast, contain only trace amounts of nutrients. Micro-organisms which are adapted for growth under these conditions are called oligotrophs. Many bacteria and fungi can grow as oligotrophs by scavenging traces of nutrients from solution or from the atmosphere. The ability of micro-organisms to grow in this way has a number of important biotechnological, medical and environmental implications.
The specific radioactivity of urinary hippurate glycine was determined after injecting guinea pigs with benzoate and either dl-[2-(14)C]glutamate or dl-[5-(14)C]glutamate. The isotope dilution factor for the formation of [(14)C]glycine was significantly greater (30%) with C-2 labelled glutamate. With either form of labelled glutamate the hippurate glycine was largely carboxyl-group labelled. The observations suggest a route for the incorporation of glutamate carbon into glycine that involves C-5 but not C-2. A hypothesis for glycine biosynthesis from l-glutamate is advanced, consistent with these findings, that includes conversion of l-glutamate to 4-hydroxy-2-oxoglutarate, the scission of the latter to glyoxylate and pyruvate, and the formation of glycine by transamination.