ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and its association with disease activity
Study Design: Cross sectional analytical
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the department of Immunology and Serology, the Children Hospital and the Institute of Child Health Lahore, from Jun 2015 to Jun 2016
Material and Methods: All consecutive patients in a period of three months from Jun to Aug who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were enrolled from Out Patient Department and Medical Unit 1. Demographic profile including age and gender were recorded. Type of arthritis was assigned according to ILAR. The severity of the disease of patients was assessed by using the JADAS-27 score at the time of presentation. Statical analysis of data was done on SPSS version 17.0 for obtaining statistical results
Results: Out of 45 patients, 44 percent [n=20] were males and 56 percent [n=25] were females between the age of 3-17 years. polyarthritis was found in 51.1 percent [n=23] followed by oligoarthritis 37.7 percent [n=17] and systemic onset disease 11.1 percent [n=5]. Morning stiffness [97.8 percent] and fever [86.7 percent] were the most common clinical presentations. All patients with systemic onset disease had fever [n=5] followed by skin rash, hepatosplenomegaly and lymphadenopathy. Creactive protein was positive in 30 [66.67 percent] patients. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate was raised in 41 [91.11 percent] patients. Rheumatoid factor [RF] positivity was observed in 12 [26.67 percent] cases. Anti-nuclear antibodies were found positive in 3 [6.66 percent] patients. Out of 45 patients 5 were in clinical remission, 11 were in minimal disease activity and 29 had severe clinical disease activity. Maximum 11 cases of severe disease activity lie between 30-40 JADAS-27 score each for CRP and ESR.
Conclusion: There was significant association between Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score and Clinical Disease Activity. CRP and ESR were proved to be good inflammatory markers in JIA
ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the frequency of HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis and malaria in blood donors at Children Hospital and Institute of Child Health [ICH], Lahore and compare with other local and international published data
Study Design: Descriptive study
Place and Duration of Study: This was conducted at the blood bank of Children's Hospital and ICH, Lahore from October 2015 to February 2016. Patient and Methods: All adult male blood donors who had donated blood during above mentioned period, between 18 to 55 years of age were included in this study. Each and every donor was subjected to a predetermined, prepared questionnaire to find out their eligibility for donation. All blood donors' serum samples were screened for HBsAg, Anti-HCV, syphilis, HIV and malaria by immuno chromatography technique according to manufacturer instruction
Results: Statistical analysis showed that out of 10,048 blood donors, 7.94% [n=798] were infected with any one of the above mentioned diseases and 92.05% [n=9,250] had no infection. The overall frequency of HBsAg, HCV, HIV, syphilis and malaria were found to be 1.59%, 3.75%, 0.11%, 2.08% and 0.39% respectively. The co-infections of HCV + Syphilis, HBsAg + HCV, HBsAg + Syphilis, HCV + malarial parasite [M.P] and HBsAg + HIV + syphilis was 0.12%, 0.11%, 0.01% and 0.0099% respectively
Conclusion: There is a decreasing trend of HBsAg, HCV infections but increasing trend of HIV and syphilis infections in blood donors that is an alarming situation
ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the frequency of HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis and malaria in blood donors at Children Hospital and Institute of Child Health [ICH], Lahore and compare with other local and international published data
Study Design: Descriptive study
Place and Duration of Study: This was conducted at the blood bank of Children's Hospital and ICH, Lahore from October 2015 to February 2016
Patient and Methods: All adult male blood donors who had donated blood during above mentioned period, between 18 to 55 years of age were included in this study. Each and every donor was subjected to a predetermined, prepared questionnaire to find out their eligibility for donation. All blood donors' serum samples were screened for HBsAg, Anti-HCV, syphilis, HIV and malaria by immuno chromatography technique according to manufacturer instruction
Results: Statistical analysis showed that out of 10,048 blood donors, 7.94% [n=798] were infected with any one of the above mentioned diseases and 92.05% [n=9,250] had no infection. The overall frequency of HBsAg, HCV, HIV, syphilis and malaria were found to be 1.59%, 3.75%, 0.11%, 2.08% and 0.39% respectively. The co-infections of HCV + Syphilis, HBsAg + HCV, HBsAg + Syphilis, HCV + malarial parasite [M.P] and HBsAg + HIV + syphilis was 0.12%, 0.11%, 0.01% and 0.0099% respectively
Conclusion: There is a decreasing trend of HBsAg, HCV infections but increasing trend of HIV and syphilis infections in blood donors that is an alarming situation
ABSTRACT
Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory and multifactorial disease, with a high prevalence rate in Pakistan. To find a relation between serum IL-4 and IgE levels with oxidized LDL in atherosclerosis. In this observational, cross sectional study 99 male patients, between forty and sixty years of age, with a history of ischemic heart disease [IHD] and established atherosclerotic plaques and angiography were recruited. The study was completed within three years [Jan 2007 to Jan 2009]. One hundred and on age and gender matched healthy subjects with no known history of IHD were also recruited. All the study participants were non-diabetics. Serum IL-4, IgE and oxidized LDL [ox-LDL] levels were measured by quantitative ELISA technique. Serum IL-4 levels were generally undetectable or very low, but were higher in the patient group compared to the control subjects. Similarly, oxidized LDL and serum IgE levels were also increased in the patient group compared to the control, but the differences were not statistically significant. Our study could not detect any relationship between IL-4 and IgE levels with LDL oxidation in atherosclerosis