Abstract: Abstract: The organic geochemical and biomarker analyses of the Miocene source rocks of some wells in the onshore Nile Delta, suggested that the Abu Madi Formation has poor immature to marginally mature source rocks of Type III Kerogen deposited under the terrestrial environment. The Sidi Salem Formation has fair-to-good mature source rocks of producing mixed oil and gas, originating mainly from marine organic sources. The Moghra Formation has mature good source rocks for Type (II/III) kerogen, derived from organic matter and rich in both terrigeneous and marine sources. The geochemistry of condensates revealed that the Abu Madi and Moghra condensates originated from marine organic matters with little input from a terrestrial source, while Sidi Salem condensate was derived from more contribution of terrestrial organic matters. Abu Madi condensate is less mature than Sidi Salem and Moghra condensate. The geochemical thermal modeling of the Miocene source rocks indicates that the Abu Madi formations are in the early stages of hydrocarbon up until the present time, while Moghra and Sidi Salem formations are in the mature stage of hydrocarbon generation up until the present time. This indicates that the studied condensates have probably migrated from deeply buried source rocks which are at a higher level of maturity rather than from less mature source rocks in the study area. Keywords: condensatesEgyptonshore Nile Deltasource rocksthermal geochemical models ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author is grateful to the authorities of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and the Belayim Petroleum Company for permitting the publication of this work. Thanks are due to the StratoChem (New Madi) and Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI), Cairo, Egypt, for the different organo-geochemical analyses. Thanks is due to Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Y. Zein El Din, Geology Department, Al Azhar University, for critical reading and reviewing this work.
Organic matters from the KK 85-1and HH 83-1wells in the Central Gulf of Suez were analyzed by two well-proven organic geochemical methods: Rock-Eval pyrolysis and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analyses. These techniques were used to obtain independent parameters of organic matter composition, thermal maturity, and environment of deposition. The study reveals a close concordance between Rock-Eval pyrolysis data and biomarkers parameters such as steranes and triterpanes. Rock-Eval pyrolysis in conjunction with GC–MS analyses shows that the organic matters contain two types of kerogen (Type-II/III and Type III), which lie dominantly prior to the peak stage of the conventional oil window (end of diagensis–beginning of catagensis). The case study shows that these methods are suitable for a proper assessment of the petroleum potential of source rocks and the rapid geochemical characterization of sedimentary organic matter.
Background: There are subgroups of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) in whom diabetic retinopathy (DR) does not develop despite poor long-term control of their disease, while others exercising fairly good control, develop retinopathy. So, we aimed to investigate the association of DR with −2578 polymorphism of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene, which has been reported to be associated with increased VEGF production, in Egyptian diabetic patients.Materials and Methods: This is a case control study in which 148 diabetic patients were enrolled. Among them, 44 subjects had proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), 30 had non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), and 74 individuals without retinopathy served as controls. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the VEGF gene, a C→A transversion at −2578 (the C/A polymorphism), was investigated by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).Results: We found a higher frequency of the polymorphic genotype in both the NPDR (66.7%) and PDR (72.7%) groups compared to the wild C/C genotype (33.3% in NPDR and 27.3% in PDR), but with no statistically significant difference from the control group. Significant association of the progression of DR to the polymorphic genotype was achieved at diabetes duration more than 20 years.Conclusion: Despite of the higher frequency of both the polymorphic genotype and the A allele in cases with DR compared to the control group, there might be no significant association between the VEGF gene polymorphism and DR per se, unless it is longstanding.
To study the natural history, patterns and clinical characteristics of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in Egypt.We designed a case-series study in the gastroenterology centre of the Internal Medicine department of Cairo University, which is a tertiary care referral centre in Egypt. We included all patients in whom the diagnosis of ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD) was confirmed by clinical, laboratory, endoscopic, histological and/or radiological criteria over the 15 year period from 1995 to 2009, and we studied their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Endoscopic examinations were performed by 2 senior experts. This hospital centre serves patients from Cairo, as well as patients referred from all other parts of Egypt. Our centre received 24156 patients over the described time period for gastro-intestinal consultations and/or interventions.A total of 157 patients with established IBD were included in this study. Of these, 135 patients were diagnosed with UC (86% of the total), and 22 patients, with CD (14% of the total). The mean ages at diagnosis were 27.3 and 29.7, respectively. Strikingly, we noticed a marked increase in the frequency of both UC and CD diagnoses during the most recent 10 years of the 15 year period studied. Regarding the gender distribution, the male:female ratio was 1:1.15 for UC and 2.6:1 for CD. The mean duration of follow up for patients with UC was 6.2 ± 5.18 years, while the mean duration of follow up for patients with CD was 5.52 ± 2.83 years. For patients with UC we found no correlation between the severity of the disease and the presence of extraintestinal manifestations. Eleven patients had surgical interventions during the studied years: 4 cases of total colectomy and 7 cases of anal surgery.We observed a ratio of 6:1 for UC to CD in our series. The incidence of IBD seems to be rising in Egypt.
Glatiramer acetate, a mixture of synthetic polypeptides able to prevent autoimmune encephalomyelitis in experimental models, is used as a treatment for patients with active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. We report one case of glatiramer acetate induced hepatitis. Liver biopsy was consistent with a diagnosis of drug induced hepatitis and alanine aminotransferase returned to normal values after treatment discontinuation. The present case should serve as a warning that glatiramer acetate may cause acute liver disease.
Physical and specific geochemical analyses are used in detail for the petroleum geochemical studies to permit the correlation of six crude oil samples from Western Desert Egypt. Different analytical techniques, including liquid chromatographic separation, gas chromatography, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), were used to characterize the oil samples. The oils were identified using oil characterization parameters including specific gravity (°API), sulfur content, distribution of n-alkanes, carbon preference index (CPI), pristane/phytane ratio, isoprenoid/n-alkane ratios, and detailed biological marker analysis. All these parameters showed that the studied oil samples are correlated with each other, where they are similar in their oil type maturation and source depositional environments.
Effect of provenance of organic matter evaluated through the distribution of occurrence of triterpanes and steranes in surface sediments from coastal stations located in the Gulf of Suez Gulf. The samples have been studied in four coastal stations located in the Gulf of Suez namely: Al–Nasr Oil Company (NPC), West outlet of SOPC, Inlete of SOPC, and El-Sukhna of Loloha Beach. Saturated hydrocarbons were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, to assessing of organic content and maturity level of the sediments. The results showed that the hydrocarbons are originated mainly from predominance of petrogenic and biogenic hydrocarbons with high maturity level.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) and fine needle biopsy (FNB) are effective techniques that are widely used for tissue acquisition. However, it remains unclear how to obtain high-quality specimens. Therefore, we conducted a survey of EUS-FNA and FNB techniques to determine practice patterns worldwide and to develop strong recommendations based on the experience of experts in the field.This was a worldwide multi-institutional survey among members of the International Society of EUS Task Force (ISEUS-TF). The survey was administered by E-mail through the SurveyMonkey website. In some cases, percentage agreement with some statements was calculated; in others, the options with the greatest numbers of responses were summarized. Another questionnaire about the level of recommendation was designed to assess the respondents' answers.ISEUS-TF members developed a questionnaire containing 17 questions that was sent to 53 experts. Thirty-five experts completed the survey within the specified period. Among them, 40% and 54.3% performed 50-200 and more than 200 EUS sampling procedures annually, respectively. Some practice patterns regarding FNA/FNB were recommended.This is the first worldwide survey of EUS-FNA and FNB practice patterns. The results showed wide variations in practice patterns. Randomized studies are urgently needed to establish the best approach for optimizing the FNA/FNB procedures.