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Abdullah Syed

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Review Open access Jul 2026

Screening for atrial fibrillation in older adults in primary care: a cross-sectional pilot study in Qatar

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice, and its prevalence is increasing in aging populations. It is a leading cause of acute stroke, heart failure, and other cardiovascular morbidities. AF is often asymptomatic and is frequently diagnosed late, typically after a patient presents with acute stroke. Early detection and treatment can prevent such life-threatening events, making AF screening a public health priority. However, diagnosing asymptomatic AF remains challenging. While international guidelines recommend AF screening, Qatar lacks documented prevalence data and formal screening programs. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of an AF screening program for older adults in Qatar. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among individuals aged ≥65 years registered with the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC)-Qatar, which serves approximately 70% of Qatar's population. A simple random sample of 139 to 385 individuals was determined to ensure a sampling error of 5% to 3%, assuming a 10% AF prevalence. The participants underwent screening via standard ECG tracing that were reviewed independently by both the family physicians and a cardiologist. Results The prevalence of AF among the study population was 5.4%. Newly diagnosed cases accounted for 2% of the 249 participants screened. All newly detected patients had CHA2DS2-VA scores indicating the need for anticoagulant therapy to reduce stroke risk. Furthermore, compared with cardiologists, the family physicians in primary care successfully identified 75% of AF cases through ECG. Conclusions If implemented nationally among individuals aged ≥65 years, the screening program could identify 747 undiagnosed AF cases among the 37,371. AF screening for individuals aged ≥75 years appears to provide an effective strategy for reducing the cost and supporting the implementation of a targeted screening strategy in Qatar.

A. Alnuaimi, Shahid Ahmad, Abdullah Syed et al. · Frontiers in Public Health · 1 citation

Open access Jul 2026

Metagenomic analysis of tongue samples from healthy subjects identifies distinct microbiome orotypes

Abstract Background The tongue dorsum harbors a complex microbiome that remains incompletely characterized. Objective This study aimed to characterize the tongue microbiome—including its phageome—in a healthy Qatari population. Design Shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed on tongue-coating samples from 92 systemically healthy adults to comprehensively profile the bacteriome, phageome and functional potential of the tongue microbiome. Results Taxonomic profiling revealed a predominantly bacterial community (>99%) dominated by Veillonella, Streptococcus, Neisseria, Rothia, Prevotella, Haemophilus and Pauljensenia. Among low-abundance domains, the fungus Saccharomyces and the protist Entamoeba were most prevalent. Dirichlet–multinomial mixture clustering identified three distinct bacterial ‘orotypes’ (C1–C3) showing significant compositional separation (PERMANOVA, p = 0.001) and alpha diversity differences at both genus and species levels. A major compositional gradient involved enrichment of Neisseria and Haemophilus in C2, their absence in C3 and intermediate representation in C1. Functional profiling revealed a conserved core of housekeeping pathways across orotypes, wherease adaptive functionsdiffered across orotypes, particularly in the Neisseria/Haemophilus-enriched C2 orotype. The phageome was dominated by Uroviricota (class Caudoviricetes). Conclusion The findings identify distinct tongue microbiome orotypes with conserved core functions, divergent taxonomic and metabolic profiles, and provide new insights into the tongue phageome, establishing a foundation for investigating their roles in health.

S. Al-Maweri, R. Ba-Hattab, A. Alomairi et al. · Journal of Oral Microbiology · 0 citations