Frequency of raised urinary trypsinogen-2 in acute pancreatitis

Objectives To determine the frequency of raised Urinary Trypsinogen-2 in diagnosed patients of acute pancreatitis

Methodology Settings Patients in emergency refer to General Surgery ward-3 Jinnah Post Graduate and Medical Centre Karachi. Duration Six months, started from 20-01-2012 to 19-07-2012. Study Design Cross sectional descriptive study. Subjects and Methods All cases of Acute Pancreatitis diagnosed by Upper Abdominal Pain, Raised Serum Amylase and/or Serum Lipase and Abdominal CT Scan findings, were included in the study. Urinary Trypsinogen-2 dipstick test was done. All patient related data including age, gender, sex and raised Urinary Trypsinogen-2 or normal, was recorded. Data analysis was done on SPSS version 10. Frequency and percentage was calculated for gender and raised trypsinogen-2. Age and gender wise stratification was done to see the effect of these variables on outcome

Results Mean age of the patients was 38.14 +/-7.42 years. The minimum age was 24 years, while the maximum age was 63 years. Raised urinary trypsinogen-2 level was present in 55 [65.5%] patients. Stratification of age group shows, that 40 [66.7%] patients in age group

Conclusion The frequency of raised Urinary Trypsinogen-2 in diagnosed patients of acute pancreatitis was found to be high

Surgical closure of ASD's and concomitant procedures needed in adults: a 3 year cardiac centre experience

Objective the study aims to evaluate the surgical closure of Atrial Septal Defect [ASD] and concomitant surgical procedures needed at Cardiac Care Centre

Introduction an ASD is a hole of variable size in the atrial septum. A patent foramen ovale that is functionally closed by overlapping of limbic tissue superiorly and the valve of the fossa oval inferiorly [in response to the normal left-to-right atrial pressure gradient] is excluded. ASDs generally permit left-to-right shunting at the atrial level. Partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection [PAPVC] is a condition in which some but not all pulmonary veins connect to the right atrium or its tributaries, rather than to the left atrium

Methodology a prospective cohort study was done at Tabba heart institute. 115 consecutive patients were reviewed and investigated. All the patients with surgical closure of ASD and concomitant surgical procedures who returned for follow-up from June 2011 to May 2016 in the study were included as population sample

Results total ASD repair only patients were 80 and patients who needed concomitant procedures too were 35. The size of the defect ranged from 3mm to 58mm, with a mean of 26.96+/-11.02mm. The relative frequencies of different ASDs were secundum 57 [80.2%], primum 4 [5.6%], and sinus venosus 10 [14.08%]. Major post-operative complications by Age group and by procedure were evaluated and presented

Conclusion it was concluded from our results that surgical repair of atrial septal defects and its variants is associated with very low morbidity in different age groups due to its excellent results

Zuckerkandl tubercle: an important landmark in thyroid surgery

To find out the frequency of Zuckerkandl Tubercle [ZT] and the position of recurrent laryngeal nerve with reference to ZK. Cross-sectional observational study. Surgical Ward-3, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre [JPMC], Karachi, from June 2010 to August 2011. Patients having goiter, aged between 12 - 60 years were admitted through OPD and operated after informed written consent. After admission, they underwent surgery. ZT and recurrent laryngeal nerve position i.e. whether medial, lateral or posterior to ZT was identified during surgery. Data was collected on pre-designed proforma and analysed on SPSS version 15 for descriptive statistics. Out of the 84 patients ZT was found in 52 [61.90%] patients. Nineteen patients had grade-I [less than 0.5 cm], 22 [42.3%] had grade-II [0.5 - 1 cm] and 11 [21.1%] had grade-III [more than 1 cm] ZT. During surgery, 33 [63.4%] patients had recurrent laryngeal nerve medial to ZT, 15 [28.8%] patients had lateral and in 4 [7.6%] patients recurrent laryngeal nerve was engraved posteriorly. Zuckerkandl tubercle was found in about 62% cases; recurrent laryngeal nerve was located pre-dominantly medial to ZT

8[th] October 2005 earthquake - an experience of diagnostic laboratory services in disaster

An earth quack measuring 7.6 on Richter scale with its epicenter located at 19 km north east of Muzaffarabad struck eight districts of northern areas of Pakistan, and adjacent areas of India. An estimated death toll of about 73,338 was reported. Around +3.5 million people were affected by natural disaster. Such a large number of population required special attention in the form of winterized shelters, heating, medical care, food, water and sanitation. This situation posed a unique challenge for health services including provision of diagnostic laboratory services for short term as well as long term basis. Laboratory services were established at various locations as a part of medical care to provide diagnostic facilities as well as blood transfusion services. This article presents few important lessons learnt in this aspect of medical care