BACKGROUND Oral Isotretinoin is the most effective choice in the treatment of severe acne, It is the most widely prescribed teratogenic drug in the USA and Canada. Due to large number of its adverse effects and the necessity of long term use, patients have difficulties in complying with the treatment and some may refuse taking the drug. OBJECTIVES To assess knowledge, concerns and awareness o...

BACKGROUND In Saudi Arabia where there is lack of dermatologists in primary health care centers, patients with simple or minor skin conditions have to attend to hospitals to be treated. We analyzed the data of patients with cutaneous disorders attending the tertiary referral hospital in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia, with the aim to identify the most common conditions that patients complain of,...

PURPOSE The worldwide prevalence of refractive errors (RE), which is a common cause of treatable visual impairment among children, varies widely. We assessed the prevalence of correctable visual impairment (uncorrected RE) in primary school children in Qassim, Saudi Arabia. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted in 21 primary schools. A total of 5176 children (mean age 9.5±1.8 years), ...

OBJECTIVE To explore visfatin levels and its relationship to obesity, insulin resistance, lipid profile and inflammation in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with and without macroangiopathy. METHODS The study was designed in the College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and implemented between April 2006 and May 2007. It involved 84 subjects divided into...

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to examine the smoking habits among male secondary school students in Al-Qassim, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and to assess their knowledge and attitudes towards smoking. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted in Al-Qassim region, KSA during March 2003. Randomly selected was 14 out of 110 government male secondary schools. In the sample section, c...