Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item The establishment of a population-specific reference value for the ruler drop test for the clinical assessment of reaction time(Elsevier, 2023) Rajapaksha, S.; Kitulwatte, I.; Senarathne, U.; Edirisinghe, A.; Perera, P.BACKGROUND: Reaction time (RT) is the interval between a stimulus and an appropriate voluntary response in an individual. Alcohol is known to result in delayed RT. In Sri Lanka, an alleged drunken driver is legally subjected to a medico-legal examination to confirm or exclude impairment. The guideline for examining a drunk person in Sri Lanka includes the ruler drop test (RDT) as a test of RT. RDT is a simple test of visual reaction time in which the subject attempts to stop a falling ruler, and the height fallen is used to determine the time taken to react to the event. However, a formal study has yet to be carried out to establish population-specific reference values to interpret RDT results. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using 903 adults ≥18 years. A nonparametric approach was applied for deriving the reference values based on an inter-percentile interval. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 56.6% females, and the mean age of the participants was 41.6 years. Most (95%) of the study population could catch the ruler at or less than 40.0 cm of average height. The average height on RDT increased from younger to older age groups. However, subgrouping based on other variables, including sex, age, and alcohol consumption, did not show any statistically significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: The population-specific cut-off limit to identify alcohol intoxication by RDT in a Sri Lankan adult is 'average height' >40 cm.Item Factors influencing alcohol use among adolescents in South Asia: A Systematic review(Piscataway, NJ, 2020) Athauda, L.K.; Peiris-John, R.; Ameratunga, S.; McCool, J.; Wickremasinghe, R.OBJECTIVE: Alcohol is the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years among 15- to 19-year-olds globally; yet, social and structural determinants of alcohol use among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries are largely unknown. Given that a quarter of the global adolescent population lives in South Asia, this systematic review aims to identify factors influencing alcohol use among 10- to 19-year-olds living in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). METHOD: We systematically searched eight databases (SCOPUS, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL Plus, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, AMED, EBSCO Host), gray literature, and relevant websites for studies reporting influences at psycho-individual, family, school, peer, neighborhood, or country levels. QATSDD (Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs) was used for quality assessment. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42017084773). RESULTS: Twenty-three studies were eligible for inclusion. Male gender, age greater than 14 years, depression, religious belief, parental/family members' drinking, reduced parental attention, peer-drinking/pressure/approval, and urban neighborhood were associated with increased risks of adolescent drinking. No information was available from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Maldives. There is little evidence available on the determinants at a national (legislature, industry, and media), school, and personality level. CONCLUSIONS: The distal determinants of alcohol use among adolescents living in South Asia are largely unknown. As adolescent drinking behaviors change in response to social media and industry influence, more evidence is needed to reflect the South Asia context.Item Novel genetic associations for blood pressure identified via gene-alcohol interaction in up to 570K individuals across multiple ancestries(Public Library of Science, 2018) Feitosa, M.F.; Kraja, A.T.; Chasman, D.I.; Sung, Y.J.; Winkler, T.W.; Ntalla, I.; Guo, X.; Franceschini, N.; Cheng, C.Y.; Sim, X.; Vojinovic, D.; Marten, J.; Musani, S.K.; Li, C.; Bentley, A.R.; Brown, M.R.; Scwander, K.; Richard, M.A.; Noordam, R.; Aschard, H.; Bartz, T.M.; Bielak, L.F.; Dorajoo, R.; Fishaer, V.; Hartwig, F.P.; Horimoto, A.R.V.R.; Lohman, K.K.; Manning, A.K.; Rankinen, T.; Smith, A.V.; Tajiddin, S.M.; Wojczynski, M.K.; Alver, M.; Boissel, M.; Cai, Q.; Campbell, A.; Chai, J.F.; Chen, X.; Divers, J.; Gao, C.; Goel, A.; Hagemeijer, Y.; Harris, S.E.; He, M.; Hsu, F.C.; Jackson, A.U.; Kahonen, M.; Kasturiratne, A.; Komulainen, P.; Kuhnel, B.; Laguzzi, F.; Luan, J.; Matoba, N.; Nolte, I.M.; Padmanabhan, S.; Riaz, M.; Rueedi, R.; Robino, A.; Said, M.A.; Scott, R.A.; Soffer, T.; Stancakova, A.; Takeuchi, F.; Tayo, B.O.; van de Most, P.J.; Varga, T.V.; Vitart, V.; Wang, Y.; Ware, E.B.; Warren, H.R.; Weiss, S.; Wen, W.; Yanek, L.R.; Zhang, W.; Zhao, J.H.; Afaq, S.; Amin, N.; Amini, M.; Arking, D.E.; Aung, T.; Boerwinkle, E.; Borecki, I.; Broecki, I.; Broeckel, U.; Brown, M.; Brumat, M.; Burke, G.L.; Canouil, M.; Chakravarthi, A.; Charumathi, S.; Ida Chen, Y.D.; Connel, J.M.; Correa, A.; de Las Fuentes, L.; de Mutsert, R.; de Silva, H.J.; Deng, X.; Ding, J.; Duan, Q.; Eaton, C.B.; Ehret, G.; Eppinga, R.N.; Evangelou, E.; Faul, J.D.; Felix, S.B.; Forouhi, N.G.; Forrester, T.; Franco, O.H.; Friedlander, Y.; Gandin, I.; Gao, H.; Ghanbari, M.; Gigante, B.; Gu, C.C.; Gu, D.; Hagenaars, S.P.; Halmans, G.; Harris, T.B.; He, J.; Heikkinen, S.; Heng, C.K.; Hirata, M.; Howard, B.V.; Ikram, M.A.; InterAct Consortium; John, U.; Katsuya, T.; Lakka, T.A.; Langefeld, C.D.; Langenberg, C.; Launer, L.J.; Lehne, B.; Lewis, C.E.; Li, Y.; Lin, S.; Lin, U.; Liu, J.; Liu, J.; Loh, M.; Louie, T.; Magi, R.; McKenzie, C.A.; Meitinger, T.; Metspalu, A.; Milaneschi, Y.; Milani, L.; mohlke, K.L.; Momozawa, Y.; Nalls, M.A.; Nelson, C.P.; Sotoodehnia, N.; Norris, J.M.; O'Connel, J.R.; Palmer, N.D.; Perls, T.; Pedersen, N.L.; Peters, A.; Peyser, P.A.; Poulter, N.; Raffel, L.J.; Raitakari, O.T.; Roll, K.; Rose, L.M.; Rosendaal, F.R.; Rotter, J.I.; Schimidit, C.O.; Schreiner, P.J.; Schupf, N.; Scott, W.R.; Sever, P.S.; Shi, Y.; Sidney, S.; Sims, M.; Sitlani, C.M.; Smith, J.A.; Snieder, H.; Starr, J.M.; Strauch, K.; Stringham, H.M.; Tan, N.Y.Q.; Tang, H.; Taylor, K.D.; Teo, Y.Y.; Tham, Y.C.; Turner, S.C.; Uitterlinden, A.G.; Vollenweider, P.; Waldenberger, M.; Wang, L.; Wang, Y.X.; Wei, W.B.; Williams, C.; Yao, J.; Yuan, J.M.; Zhao, W.; Zonderman, A.B.; Becker, D.M.; Boehnke, M.; Bowden, D.W.; Chambers, J.C.; Deary, I.J.; Esco, T.; Farall, M.; Frankd, P.W.; Freedman, B.I.; Froguel, P.; Gasparini, P.; Gieger, C.; Jonas, J.B.; Kamatani, Y.; Kato, N.; Kooner, J.S.; Kutalik, Z.; Laakso, M.; Laurie, C.C.; Leander, K.; Lehtimaki, T.; Study, L.C.; Magnusson, P.K.E.; Olderhinkel, A.J.; Penninx, B.W.J.H.; Polasek, O.; Porteous, D.J.; Rauramaa, R.; Ssamani, N.J.; Scott, J.; Shu, X.O.; van der Harst, P.; Wagenknecht, L.E.; Wareham, N.J.; Watkins, H.; Weir, D.R.; Wickremasinghe, A.R.; Wu, T.; Zheng, W.; Bouchard, C.; Christensen, K.; Evans, M.K.; Gudnason, V.; Horta, B.L.; Kardia, S.L.R.; Liu, Y.; Pereira, A.C.; Psaty, B.M.; Ridker, P.M.; van Dam, R.M.; Gauderman, W.J.; Zhu, X.; Mook-Kanamori, D.O.; Fornage, M.; Rotimi, C.N.; Cupples, L.A.; Kelly, T.N.; Fox, E.R.; Hayward, C.; van Duijn, C.M.; Tai, E.S.; Wong, T.Y.; Kooperberg, C.; Palmas, W.; Rice, K.; Morrison, A.C.; Elliott, P.; Caulfield, M.J.; Munroe, P.B.; Rao, D.C.; Province, M.A.; Levy, D.Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertensionItem Patterns of alcohol use and occurrence of alcoholic fatty liver disease: a prospective, community cohort, 7-year follow-up study(Sri Lanka Medical Association, 2017) Niriella, M.A.; de Silva, S.T.; Kasturiratne, A.; Perera, K.R.; Subasinghe, S.K.C.E.; Kodisinghe, S.K.; Piyaratna, T.A.C.L.; Vithiya, K.; Dassanayake, A.S.; de Silva, A.P.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Wickremasinghe, A.R.; Kato, N.; de Silva, H.J.INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES: Data is limited on alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD). We investigated patterns of alcohol use and AFLD, among urban, adult, Sri Lankans. METHODS: Study population (selected by age-stratified random sampling from Ragama MOH-area) was screened initially in 2007 (35-64 years) and re-evaluated in 2014. On both occasions they were assessed by structured-interview, anthropometric measurements, liver ultrasound, biochemical and serological tests. AFLD was diagnosed on ultrasound criteria, unsafe alcohol consumption (Asian standards: males>14units, females>7units per week) and absence of hepatitis B/C markers. Controls were individuals with unsafe alcohol consumption, but had no ultrasound criteria of AFLD. Case-control genetic-association for PNPLA3 (rs738409) polymorphism for AFLD was performed. RESULTS: A total of 2983/3012 (99%) had complete data. 272/2983(9.1%) were unsafe-drinkers [males- 70; mean-age 51.9 (SD-8.0) years]. 86/2983 (2.9%) of the cohort and 86/272 (31.6%) of unsafe-drinkers had AFLD [males-85; mean-age 50.2 (SD-8.6) years]. Males [p<0.001], increased waist circumference (WC) [p=0.001], BMI>23kg/m2 [p<0.001], raised triglycerides (TG) [p<0.001], low education level (LEL-not completed secondary-education) [p<0.01] and low monthly household-income (23kg/m2 [p<0.001], raised TG [p<0.001] and LEL [p<0.05] independently predicted incident-AFLD. The genetic association study [133-cases (combined 2007-2014), 97-controls] showed no association with AFLD at PNPLA3 (rs738409). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of AFLD was 2.9% in 2007 and annual incidence among heavy drinkers, after 7-year follow-up was 5.7%. Incident-AFLD was associated with males, obesity, raised TG and LEL.