Hepatitis c among young male offenders admitted to the central jail, Lahore

This study was designed to observe intraprison incidence of hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection among young offenders admitted to the Central Jail, Lahore. The evaluation was made incidence among 728 young inmates [aged 16 - 30 years] at the Central Jail, Lahore, between June 2009 and November 2009. Screening for Anti-HCV antibodies was performed on immunochromatographic devices and all positive and borderline cases were retested with ELISA system. Among 728 participants, 129 demonstrated serologic evidence of HCV infection. Frequency was calculated 17.7%. The study indicates that HCV infection is highly prevalent among young male offenders and highlights the need to deliver awareness, prevention, and medical management to make them a healthy and useful citizen

[Pet scan in internal medicine]

The nuclear medicine techniques represent an important role in infections and inflammation's evaluation. 18-fluorode soxyglucose [18F-FDG] is a tracer of glucose metabolism, recently produced in Morocco, which provides functional sensitive and high resolution images thanks to Positron Emission tomography [PET]. The indications of FDG-PET in internal medicine include the diagnosis management of certain inflammatory diseases, vasculitis of large vessels, such as temporal arteritis, especially in its systemic presentation, and Takyasu's arteritis. It is also useful for staging sarcoidosis, for differential diagnosis and the therapeutic's evaluation in multiple myeloma. The 18-FDG PET is the most effective for the diagnosis of paraneoplastic syndromes, or carcinomas of unknown primary. In case of fever of unknown origin, it facilitates the identification of the site of the infection and guides investigations conducting to the confirmation of the diagnosis. All, situations frequently found in internal medicine. This article will focus on the role of 18-FDG PET in the pathology specific to internal medicine. However, large scale prospective studies are needed before incorporating FDG-PET in clinical routine, because it is expensive and not available in our country