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Introduction: Clinical Health Electives are an important part of academic curriculum in medical universities throughout the world. Electives are useful in developing personal and professional growth among students. Hence understanding the importance of electives among medical undergraduates on their academic life is important.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional based study was conducted among medical undergraduates in Karachi, Pakistan. A total number of 300 students from 3rd, 4thand 5thyear of MBBS were taken as a sample. Consent was taken from the participants and questionnaire was filled from everyone. Study population was selected who did at least one clinical elective in their whole academic period.Results: According to our analysed results, undergraduate students from both private and public sector medical institutes perceived clinical electives as an advantage to themselves. Majority of the students saw their clinical and academic performances to be on a higher level. This shows tha opting for electives regardless of its type (local or international) have proven to be fruitful for the undergraduates’ personal growth and academic career, allowing more scope for understudies to practice and enhance their skills they have only done a limited number of times, which inevitably leads to a steep learning curve.Conclusion: There was a positive influence of clinical electives observed among the students. Overall the academic and clinical performance of theundergraduates enhanced by opting clinical electives and has positive impact on them
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Background: In the 1970’s the introduction of Fine Need Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) proved to be the key method for examining the nature and malignant potential of many palpable lesions like thyroid, salivary glands and lymphadenopathies. Breast pathologies is one of the entity that can also be diagnosed with FNAC. Breast cancer is the most common malignancy of women with overall 100,000 cases being reported annually around the globe. The most frequent lesion encountered using FNAC in breast is fibro-adenoma followed by fibrocystic disease, breast abscess, chronic inflammatory conditions and suspicious malignant masses. In current cross sectional study we tried to find frequency of different breast lesions by FNAC.Methodology and Results: 649 samples were recruited from the Vital Laboratory Larkana with different pathological lesions of breast during the year 2014 and 2015 by non-probability consecutive sampling. 613 (95%) were females and 32 (5%) were male withmean age of 30.812.8 years. Majority of case were of 20-39 years of age (55.8%). Most of the cases were diagnosed with benign lesions (329, 51%) followed by inflammatory lesions (132, 20.5%) and gynecomastia (15, 2.3%). Right breast was moreaffected (329, 51%). In present study we found a strong association of diagnosis with gender (p =0.000) and age (p =0.000).Conclusion: So in this study it isconcluded that large number of females with breast pathologies present with benign lesions like fibro-adenomaat the age of 20-39 years. It isalso concluded that in this age group mastitis and abscesses are common due to different risk factors
ABSTRACT
Background: Scandinavian countries were the first to use fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) as a diagnostic tool in the 1930. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a diagnostic approach, which helps the clinicians in diagnosis of the various lesions. Most common sites which can be targeted include breast lumps, lymph nodes, thyroid masses and other palpable swellings. The most common lesion encountered isthyroid nodule. In current cross sectional study we tried to find frequency of different thyroid lesions by fine needle aspiration cytology in different rural areas of Sindh.Methodology and Results: 158 samples were recruited from the Vital Laboratory Larkana with different pathological midline neck (thyroid) swelling during 2014 and 2015 by non-probability consecutive sampling. 125 (79.1%) were females and 33 (20.9%) were males with a ratio of 4:1. Majority of case were of 20-39 years of age (52.5%). Most of the cases were diagnosed with nodular goiter (88.6%) followed by colloid goiter (4.4%). In present study we failed to find any association of diagnosis with gender (p =0.211) and age (p =0.553).Conclusion: So in this study we concluded that large number of thyroid lesions present with nodular goiter at the age of 20-39 years. The frequency is increased for these lesions due to different risk factors.
ABSTRACT
Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma is prevalent in South Asian countries with rising cases of its incidence and mortality. Despite advancements in treatment, survival and recurrence rates are poor. Immunotherapy is a novel therapeutic modality in immunooncology. Immune checkpoint proteins are under investigation for clinical implications amongst which Programmed Death Ligand-1 has shown valuable results in certain malignancies. Aims: To determine the immunohistochemical expression of Programmed Death Ligand-1(PD-L1) in oral squamous cell carcinoma and to find an association of Programmed Death Ligand-1 with stage and clinicopathological parameters of oral squamous cell carcinoma.Study Design:Cross-sectional study.Place and Duration of Study:Ziauddin Medical University, Karachi, 1 Year duration during 2018-2019.Methods: A total number of140 biopsy confirmed cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma were recruited in the study. Immunohistochemical expression of Programmed Death Ligand-1 was evaluated and associated with the clinicopathological parameters of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The data was statistically analyzed through Descriptive statistics and Chi square test by using SPSS v.20.Results: Out of 140 participants, 74% were males (n=103) and 26% were females (n=37). Programmed Death Ligand-1 positivity was observed in 62.1% of cases (n=87). The Mean age of the participants was 48.91 ± 11.7 years. The most common site of cancer involvement was buccal mucosa and majority of participants were habitual of consuming chewable products i.e. Pan, Gutka and betel nut (89; 64%). Stage III and IV tumours comprised a major portion of cases in our study.(52; 37%), (56; 40%).A statistically significant p-value was noted for the association of Programmed Death Ligand-1 with stage II and IV tumours. (P-values: 0.029, 0.001)The association of Programmed Death Ligand-1 with other variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, sites or habits was not statistically significant.Conclusion:This study concludes that the statistical significance of Programmed Death Ligand-1 expression with tumour stage is suggestive of worsening prognosis and might have detrimental effects as tumour progresses in advanced stage. Programmed Death Ligand-1 positivity in patients having oral squamous cell carcinoma could be useful in future research in the light of cancer immunotherapy which has shown success in oncology.