Malaria in children: study of 160 cases at a private clinic in mansehra

This Study was conducted in a private clinic to report frequency, presentation and management of malaria in children presenting with fever. 160 Children of age varying from 42 days to 15 years were included in this study, during a period of 1999-2004. Malaria was confirmed in 154 cases, including 114 male and 46 female children. In 6 cases malarial parasite was not seen on microscopic examination of their blood films. 142 cases were found to be suffering from vivax and 12 were suffering from falciparum malaria. Most of the cases were treated with amodiaquine and some of them were treated with other antimalarial drugs

Effectiveness of routine urine analysis of patient attending rural health centers in Abbottabad

Renal diseases may be discovered accidentally during routine urinalysis. This study was done to see the significance of urinalysis and study the magnitude of abnormal urinalysis in patients with no symptoms of renal disease. From 15th February to 16th March 2005, a total of 1000 samples of urine were collected from the patients attending three rural health centers of Abbottabad. Dipstick Method was used for urinalysis. there were 600 males and 400 female patients. The age ranged from 1 to 55 years. Proteinuria was present in 2.3%, hematuria in 4.8% patients, pyuria in 10.2% and glycosuria in 2% patients. In our setup routine urine analysis should be performed in all patients to identify the presence of unrecognized renal diseases which may benefit from simple therapeutic measures

HbsAg and HCV: Increasing test requests and decreasing frequency of positive tests at clinical laboratory of Ayub teaching hospital, Abbottabad

This audit was carried out to assess the frequency of positive results out of the total test requests made for HBsAg and HCV at our laboratory. The frequencies for three years were compared for significance. We have reported monthly total test requests and frequency of positive tests for each of these years in this article. This study is an audit of all HBsAg and HCV test requests received at clinical laboratory of Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad during a three year period from 2002-2004. Both the tests were made using Rapid device [immunochromatographic kits] method. Frequencies of positive results were calculated from the total test requests for each month of these three years. Cumulative frequencies were compared for statistical significance of difference. Total HBsAg tests requested for years 2002, 2003 and 2004 were 2058, 2563 and 5207 respectively. The frequencies of HBsAg positive cases out of these were 5.53%, 4.36% and 2.68% respectively. The number of test requests for HBsAg increased significantly from 2002 to 2003 and 2004, while the frequency of positive tests decreased significantly [p<.001] during this period. Total HCV requests for years 2002, 2003 and 2004 were 1261, 1671 and 4638 respectively. The frequencies of HCV positive cases out of these were 14.19%, 8.79% and 5.84% respectively. Just like HBsAg, number of test requests for HCV increased significantly from 2002 to 2003 and 2004, while the frequency of positive tests decreased significantly [p<.001] during this period. Conclusions: The test requests have considerably increased in the last few years, probably as a result of increasing awareness of clinicians and public. However most of these tests are negative. In view of high prevalence of both HBsAg and HCV in Pakistan, this overcautious attitude of clinicians is understandable although this is a burden on the pocket of patients and hospital resources