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1.
BMC Public Health ; 23(1): 834, 2023 05 05.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37147640

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is a major cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. Paucity of data on cervical cancer burden in countries like Pakistan hamper requisite resource allocation. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the burden of cervical cancer in Pakistan using available data sources. METHODS: We performed a systematic review to identify relevant data on Pakistan between 1995 to 2022. Study data identified through the systematic review that provided enough information to allow age specific incidence rates and age standardized incidence rates (ASIR) calculations for cervical cancer were merged. Population at risk estimates were derived and adjusted for important variables in the care-seeking pathway. The calculated ASIRs were applied to 2020 population estimates to estimate the number of cervical cancer cases in Pakistan. RESULTS: A total of 13 studies reported ASIRs for cervical cancer for Pakistan. Among the studies selected, the Karachi Cancer Registry reported the highest disease burden estimates for all reported time periods: 1995-1997 ASIR = 6.81, 1998-2002 ASIR = 7.47, and 2017-2019 ASIR = 6.02 per 100,000 women. Using data from Karachi, Punjab and Pakistan Atomic Energy Cancer Registries from 2015-2019, we derived an unadjusted ASIR for cervical cancer of 4.16 per 100,000 women (95% UI 3.28, 5.28). Varying model assumptions produced adjusted ASIRs ranging from 5.2 to 8.4 per 100,000 women. We derived an adjusted ASIR of 7.60, (95% UI 5.98, 10.01) and estimated 6166 (95% UI 4833, 8305) new cases of cervical cancer per year. CONCLUSION: The estimated cervical cancer burden in Pakistan is higher than the WHO target. Estimates are sensitive to health seeking behavior, and appropriate physician diagnostic intervention, factors that are relevant to the case of cervical cancer, a stigmatized disease in a low-lower middle income country setting. These estimates make the case for approaching cervical cancer elimination through a multi-pronged strategy.


Subject(s)
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms , Humans , Female , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/epidemiology , Pakistan/epidemiology , Risk Factors , Cervix Uteri , Cost of Illness , Incidence , Global Burden of Disease
2.
JMIR Infodemiology ; 3: e43694, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37113382

ABSTRACT

Background: Social media has served as a lucrative platform for spreading misinformation and for promoting fraudulent products for the treatment, testing, and prevention of COVID-19. This has resulted in the issuance of many warning letters by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While social media continues to serve as the primary platform for the promotion of such fraudulent products, it also presents the opportunity to identify these products early by using effective social media mining methods. Objective: Our objectives were to (1) create a data set of fraudulent COVID-19 products that can be used for future research and (2) propose a method using data from Twitter for automatically detecting heavily promoted COVID-19 products early. Methods: We created a data set from FDA-issued warnings during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used natural language processing and time-series anomaly detection methods for automatically detecting fraudulent COVID-19 products early from Twitter. Our approach is based on the intuition that increases in the popularity of fraudulent products lead to corresponding anomalous increases in the volume of chatter regarding them. We compared the anomaly signal generation date for each product with the corresponding FDA letter issuance date. We also performed a brief manual analysis of chatter associated with 2 products to characterize their contents. Results: FDA warning issue dates ranged from March 6, 2020, to June 22, 2021, and 44 key phrases representing fraudulent products were included. From 577,872,350 posts made between February 19 and December 31, 2020, which are all publicly available, our unsupervised approach detected 34 out of 44 (77.3%) signals about fraudulent products earlier than the FDA letter issuance dates, and an additional 6 (13.6%) within a week following the corresponding FDA letters. Content analysis revealed misinformation, information, political, and conspiracy theories to be prominent topics. Conclusions: Our proposed method is simple, effective, easy to deploy, and does not require high-performance computing machinery unlike deep neural network-based methods. The method can be easily extended to other types of signal detection from social media data. The data set may be used for future research and the development of more advanced methods.

3.
Cureus ; 13(7): e16507, 2021 Jul.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34430121

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the use of an aerosol box during video laryngoscopy intubation, we conducted a two-phase simulation-based study to assess if there were significant differences in time needed to safely intubate a patient with an aerosol box in place, as well as assess changes in laryngoscopists' hand motions as determined by changes in accelerometry. 20 anesthesiology providers from our institution participated in the first phase assessing the time to intubation. Use of the aerosol box led to statistically significant increases in intubation times (Wilcoxon-Signed Rank test p < 0.001, z-score = 3.921), with the calculated Pearson's correlation coefficient (r = 0.877) indicating a large effect size. An 8.5 - 11.5 second difference in median intubation times was maintained between corresponding attempts with versus without the aerosol box. 15 participants completed an optional post-assessment survey, with 10 of 15 respondents firmly stating they would not use the box in clinical practice. The hand accelerometry assessment included five anesthesiology providers from our institution. This revealed a statistically significant increase in trials with aerosol boxes for the left hand's general accelerometry with a medium effect size (p = 0.031; z = -1.873; r = -0.484), as well as for the right hand's general accelerometry with a large effect size (p < 0.001; z = -3.351; r = -0.865). Although the aerosol box is an interesting concept, its use is associated with increased time to intubation and a change in ergonomics, which may increase risk during airway management and represents a concern for patient safety.

4.
J Minim Access Surg ; 17(1): 98-100, 2021.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33353895

ABSTRACT

Gastric duplication cyst (GDC) in adults is an extremely rare congenital anomaly. Here, we report the case of a GDC containing gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) in a 60-year-old male patient who presented with abdominal pain. Laparoscopic resection with safe margins was performed following endosonographic localisation of the lesion. Pathologic evaluation revealed GDC containing GIST, and all surgical margins were free from tumours. The patient was discharged with good condition after 2 days and after 3 months of follow-up, the patient was symptom free and had no complications. Gastric duplication is a rare disease and may contain heterotopic tissue or even neoplastic lesions. Definite treatment is complete surgical removal that can be achieved laparoscopically with the aid of intraoperative ultrasonography for precise localisation of the indeterminate lesions.

5.
J Minim Access Surg ; 17(3): 318-321, 2021.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32964872

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Revising the size of the gastric pouch during the conversion of one anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB)/mini-gastric bypass to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is an important point. Even in patients undergoing RYGB, marginal ulcer is regarded as a known complication. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In our Centre of Excellence in Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, 2492 patients underwent OAGB from February 2012 to January 2019. Twelve of 2492 patients were enrolled in this clinical case series because of persistent gastroesophageal reflux-like symptoms which underwent conversional RYGB. All patients regularly received proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) for 6 months after the surgery. After this period, the cases with symptomatic reflux were invited to be visited in the clinic by a bariatric surgeon and a gastroenterologist and received 6 months of PPI therapy until their symptoms disappeared. Twelve refractory reflux cases underwent conversional RYGB after 1 year. An enteroenterostomy was created in all the patients 75 cm distal to the gastrojejunostomy without resizing the gastric pouch, and the jejunal loop was cut just before the gastrojejunostomy. RESULTS: Before conversional surgery, mean ± standard deviation (SD) body mass index (BMI) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)-Q score were found to be 26.45 ± 2.34 kg/m2 and 10.08 ± 0.56, respectively. At 1 year after conversion, mean ± SD BMI in the patients was 28.12 ± 4.71, and GERD-Q score was 5.08 ± 1.5. CONCLUSION: It seems that resizing the gastric pouch is not necessary during the conversion of OAGB to RYGB.

6.
Postgrad Med J ; 97(1143): 5-9, 2021 Jan.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32817495

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cognitive apprenticeship model (CAM) is an instructional model for situated learning. There is limited data available on application of the CAM in clinical settings. The aim of the study was to identify learning strategies using CAM, which in the opinion of learners are effective in ward rounds. METHODS: Participants were residents and medical students who rotated through internal medicine at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. We sought learners' opinion on a structured questionnaire based on four principal dimensions of cognitive apprenticeship. A previously determined set of 10 defined competencies were compared with CAM's six teaching/learning (T/L) methods (modelling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration) as well. Mean and SD were calculated. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare scores. RESULTS: Of 195 participants, there were 100 men (51.3%) and 95 women (48.7%). Perceived learning for six T/L methods, ranged from 3.7 to 3.9 (max=5). Coaching and scaffolding had the highest scores. Statistically significant difference between the student and resident groups was noted. Medical students perceived coaching and scaffolding (4.1 and 4.05) and residents rated coaching, articulation and exploration as most effective (3.9 and 3.8). Majority (82.1%) reported a positive learning environment in wards. CONCLUSIONS: CAM enabled to identify two T/L methods (scaffolding and coaching) that are important for learning in ward round. Limited differences in perceived effectiveness of the T/L methods indicate that variety can be used to sustain interest in learners. Positive learning environment, team diversity and tasks of increasing complexity contribute to learning.


Subject(s)
Cognition , Education, Medical, Undergraduate , Internal Medicine/education , Learning , Students, Medical/psychology , Teaching Rounds , Cross-Sectional Studies , Humans , Models, Educational , Pakistan , Surveys and Questionnaires
7.
Front Digit Health ; 2: 585559, 2020.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34713057

ABSTRACT

As the volume of published medical research continues to grow rapidly, staying up-to-date with the best-available research evidence regarding specific topics is becoming an increasingly challenging problem for medical experts and researchers. The current COVID19 pandemic is a good example of a topic on which research evidence is rapidly evolving. Automatic query-focused text summarization approaches may help researchers to swiftly review research evidence by presenting salient and query-relevant information from newly-published articles in a condensed manner. Typical medical text summarization approaches require domain knowledge, and the performances of such systems rely on resource-heavy medical domain-specific knowledge sources and pre-processing methods (e.g., text classification) for deriving semantic information. Consequently, these systems are often difficult to speedily customize, extend, or deploy in low-resource settings, and they are often operationally slow. In this paper, we propose a fast and simple extractive summarization approach that can be easily deployed and run, and may thus aid medical experts and researchers obtain fast access to the latest research evidence. At runtime, our system utilizes similarity measurements derived from pre-trained medical domain-specific word embeddings in addition to simple features, rather than computationally-expensive pre-processing and resource-heavy knowledge bases. Automatic evaluation using ROUGE-a summary evaluation tool-on a public dataset for evidence-based medicine shows that our system's performance, despite the simple implementation, is statistically comparable with the state-of-the-art. Extrinsic manual evaluation based on recently-released COVID19 articles demonstrates that the summarizer performance is close to human agreement, which is generally low, for extractive summarization.

8.
Obes Surg ; 29(11): 3776-3777, 2019 11.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31529395

ABSTRACT

One anastomosisgastric bypass(OAGB) is currently known as a standard bariatric procedure worldwide. A rare event after OAGB is internal hernia throgh the Petersen's defect.


Subject(s)
Gastric Bypass/adverse effects , Hernia, Abdominal , Postoperative Complications , Humans
9.
Int J Biol Macromol ; 136: 1209-1218, 2019 Sep 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31252016

ABSTRACT

In the present research, a biopolymer Chitosan (C) grafted with ethylenediamine (EDA) and methyl acrylate (MA) were compared for the adsorption of Congo red dye from aqueous phase. The grafted chitosan product was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and point of zero charge to study the change in mechanical and thermal properties. The effects of process variables like adsorbent loading, initial dye concentration, initial solution pH, contact time and temperature on adsorption phenomena were investigated. The equilibrium isotherm data was analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, and the adsorption followed the Langmuir isotherm model (R2 = 0.992 and 0.991 for EDAC and MAC, respectively). The maximum adsorption capacity of EDAC and MAC for Congo red uptake calculated from Langmuir isotherm model was 1607 mg/g and 1143 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption kinetics was studied using pseudo 1st and 2nd order models. Pseudo second order rate model provided the best fit for both grafted adsorbents with R2 ≥0.99. The values of Gibbs free energy (-9.628 and -8.878 kJ/mol), enthalpy (44.9 and 42.2 kJ/mol) and entropy (0.18 and 0.17 J/mol·K) revealed spontaneous and endothermic adsorption of Congo red onto EDAC and MAC surface. The pollutant adsorption test indicated that chitosan grafting with ethylenediamine is superior to Methyl acrylate grafting agent.


Subject(s)
Chitosan/chemistry , Coloring Agents/chemistry , Coloring Agents/isolation & purification , Congo Red/chemistry , Congo Red/isolation & purification , Water Pollutants, Chemical/chemistry , Water Pollutants, Chemical/isolation & purification , Acrylates/chemistry , Adsorption , Ethylenediamines/chemistry , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Kinetics , Thermodynamics , Water/chemistry , Water Purification
10.
Int J Biol Macromol ; 122: 667-676, 2019 Feb 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30399379

ABSTRACT

This research study shows the adsorptive potential of biopolymer based nanocomposite for the removal of Pb(II) ions from aqueous phase. The nanocomposite was synthesized by Femur calcined hydroxyapatite and glutaraldehyde cross-linked chitosan. Characterizations like Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were performed to investigate the structural modifications, mineral composition and the surface texture of prepared nanocomposite. The adsorption of Pb(II) ions over nanocomposite reveals that the synthesized solid sorbent has promising abatement tendency for heavy metal ions. The adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics and the equilibrium data of lead ions adsorption was best fitted to Sips isotherm model. The uptake capacity of synthesized nanocomposite increased from 209 mg/g to 354 mg/g with rise in temperature from 18 °C to 48 °C. The thermodynamic analysis suggested that the Pb(II) ions adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. Additionally, enthalpy of adsorption (~22.07 KJ/mol) indicated that the heavy metal ions were chemisorbed over nanocomposite surface. Adsorption of Pb2+ increased about ~1.6 times in the observed pH range and highest uptake was obtained at pH 5.


Subject(s)
Durapatite/chemistry , Femur/chemistry , Lead/chemistry , Lead/isolation & purification , Nanocomposites/chemistry , Water Purification/methods , Water/chemistry , Adsorption , Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic , Feasibility Studies , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Kinetics , Surface Properties , Thermodynamics , Water Pollutants, Chemical/chemistry , Water Pollutants, Chemical/isolation & purification
11.
East Mediterr Health J ; 24(9): 813-822, 2018 Dec 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30570113

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Pakistan has recently observed a significant growth in public health education programmes. Little is known about the structure of these programmes nor whether they are adequately responsive to national health system needs. AIMS: We reviewed existing public health degree programmes in Pakistan along with an exploration of the national public health market and health system needs. METHODS: A mixed-methods study was conducted between January 2015 and March 2016. Seventeen public health degree programmes were reviewed for programmatic and instructional attributes. Thirteen key-informant interviews were conducted to explore health system needs and challenges related to public health workforce. RESULTS: We found substantial variation in public health academic programmes in terms of offered courses, credit hours, number of faculty and tuition costs. About 70% of public health degree programmes were generic (i.e. with no specific concentration track) and only 18% offered practicums. Overall median tuition cost in 2016 was US$ 10 350. During key-informant interviews, emerged themes for challenges included lack of practical public health skills, limited knowledge of latest theoretical principles, poor communication skills and insufficient IT orientation. Identified themes about knowledge and skills areas to address future public health challenges of Pakistan included system thinking mind set, healthcare IT skills, and leadership and management skills. CONCLUSIONS: Public health education in Pakistan falls short of meeting current national challenges. Pakistan needs a national public health accreditation body for regulating education, harmonizing global standards to local context and developing relevant career pathways.


Subject(s)
Delivery of Health Care , Health Services Needs and Demand , Delivery of Health Care/organization & administration , Education, Public Health Professional/organization & administration , Health Workforce , Humans , Interviews as Topic , Pakistan , Public Health Practice
12.
Clin Respir J ; 12(3): 1191-1196, 2018 Mar.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28508572

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive interstitial lung disease (ILD) that predominantly affects older adults. IPF has the highest mortality burden of all ILDs. Data on mortality in patients with IPF is limited in developing countries. OBJECTIVES: To identify factors associated with mortality in patients with IPF at a tertiary care center in Pakistan. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi, Pakistan from January 2005 to December 2015. Patients were assessed for smoking status, clinical onset of disease, pulmonary hypertension, disease severity based on spirometry and hypoxemia. RESULTS: A total of 239 cases were reviewed, of which 103 were non-survivors. A total of 45 (18%) were current smokers and 71 (29.7%) were ex-smokers. Smoking was more common in non-survivors (56.3% P ≤ .01). Pulmonary hypertension was present in 18.8% of patients. 95.4% of patients who had received pirfenidone treatment were alive at the time of study. On multivariate analysis, pirfenidone treatment (OR 0.03; 95% CI 0.01-0.08), current smoking (OR 2.60; 95% CI 1.04-6.58), age older than 60 years (OR 2.63; 95% CI 1.04-6.58) and hypoxemia (OR 3.29; 95% CI 1.58-6.84) were the factors associated with mortality. CONCLUSION: Smoking, age greater than 60 years and hypoxemia were identified as factors that increased the odds of mortality in IPF patients, whereas pirfenidone was found to lower the odds of mortality.


Subject(s)
Hypertension, Pulmonary/etiology , Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/mortality , Risk Assessment , Smoking/adverse effects , Tertiary Care Centers/statistics & numerical data , Age Factors , Age of Onset , Aged , Disease Progression , Female , Humans , Hypertension, Pulmonary/epidemiology , Hypoxia/diagnosis , Hypoxia/epidemiology , Hypoxia/etiology , Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/diagnosis , Incidence , Male , Middle Aged , Odds Ratio , Pakistan/epidemiology , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , Risk Factors , Severity of Illness Index , Smoking/epidemiology , Spirometry , Survival Rate/trends
13.
J Pak Med Assoc ; 67(7): 1065-1069, 2017 Jul.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28770888

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical features and patterns of interstitial lung disease. METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised record of patients diagnosed with interstitial lung disease from January 2005 to December 2015. All patients aged 16 years and above diagnosed with interstitial lung disease on the basis of clinical features, radiological features on high-resolution computed tomography of the chest, and lung biopsies were included. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Of the 537 patients, 324(60.3%) of the participants were females. The overall mean age was 60.5±14.9 years. The most common co-morbid condition was diabetes mellitus in 72(13.4%) patients, followed by hypertension in 48(8.9%) and ischaemic heart disease in 21(3.9%). The most common interstitial lung disease was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 217(40.4%) patients, followed by non-specific interstitial pneumonia in 106(19.7%), sarcoidosis in 82(15.3%) and connective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease in 56(10.4%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was found to be the most common interstitial lung disease subtype followed by non-specific interstitial pneumonia, sarcoidosis and connective tissue disease-related-interstitial lung disease.


Subject(s)
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/epidemiology , Lung Diseases, Interstitial/epidemiology , Sarcoidosis, Pulmonary/epidemiology , Adult , Aged , Alveolitis, Extrinsic Allergic/diagnostic imaging , Alveolitis, Extrinsic Allergic/epidemiology , Alveolitis, Extrinsic Allergic/pathology , Biopsy , Comorbidity , Connective Tissue Diseases/complications , Connective Tissue Diseases/diagnosis , Connective Tissue Diseases/epidemiology , Connective Tissue Diseases/pathology , Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia/diagnostic imaging , Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia/epidemiology , Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia/pathology , Diabetes Mellitus/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Hypertension/epidemiology , Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/diagnostic imaging , Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/pathology , Lung/diagnostic imaging , Lung/pathology , Lung Diseases, Interstitial/diagnostic imaging , Lung Diseases, Interstitial/etiology , Lung Diseases, Interstitial/pathology , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/complications , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/diagnostic imaging , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/epidemiology , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/pathology , Male , Middle Aged , Mixed Connective Tissue Disease/complications , Mixed Connective Tissue Disease/diagnostic imaging , Mixed Connective Tissue Disease/pathology , Myocardial Ischemia/epidemiology , Pakistan/epidemiology , Retrospective Studies , Sarcoidosis, Pulmonary/diagnostic imaging , Sarcoidosis, Pulmonary/pathology , Scleroderma, Systemic/diagnostic imaging , Scleroderma, Systemic/epidemiology , Scleroderma, Systemic/pathology , Tertiary Care Centers , Tomography, X-Ray Computed
14.
Bioinorg Chem Appl ; 2017: 2853925, 2017.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28386208

ABSTRACT

Multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and iron oxide impregnated carbon nanotubes (CNTs-iron oxide) were investigated for the adsorption of hazardous toluene and paraxylene (p-xylene) from aqueous solution. Pure CNTs were impregnated with iron oxides nanoparticles using wet impregnation technique. Various characterization techniques including thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, elemental dispersion spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and nitrogen adsorption analysis were used to study the thermal degradation, surface morphology, purity, and surface area of the materials. Batch adsorption experiments show that iron oxide impregnated CNTs have higher degree of removal of p-xylene (i.e., 90%) compared with toluene (i.e., 70%), for soaking time 2 h, with pollutant initial concentration 100 ppm, at pH 6 and shaking speed of 200 rpm at 25°C. Pseudo-second-order model provides better fitting for the toluene and p-xylene adsorption. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models demonstrate good fitting for the adsorption data of toluene and p-xylene.

15.
Cult Health Sex ; 19(11): 1225-1238, 2017 Nov.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28398172

ABSTRACT

Notions of masculinity, which promote the role of men as providers and decision-makers, alongside men's opposition to modern forms of contraception, have long been assumed to be a barrier to women's use of contraception in Pakistan. There has been little in-depth exploration of varieties of masculinity and how these may influence men's views of child-bearing or fertility preferences. This study used Participatory Ethnographic and Evaluation Research to explore married men's (aged 18 to 45 years) perceptions of marriage, child-bearing and fertility control. A total of 31 men were recruited as researchers in two provinces (Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), who, in turn, each interviewed two male friends. Men overall supported a 'smaller' family size and use of contraceptive methods. Drivers of this preference included perceived economic constraints, the desire to invest in children's education, and wider acceptability of contraceptive use. Limiting family size was associated with both the value of competent male providers taking care of their children, as well as being poor. Men wanted to have better access to information through a range of channels. Understanding the sociocultural contexts in which masculinities are constructed is essential before involving men in family planning programmes, so that gender inequalities are not reinforced.


Subject(s)
Contraception/psychology , Family Planning Services/methods , Masculinity , Adult , Contraception Behavior/psychology , Family Characteristics , Humans , Male , Marriage , Pakistan
16.
Saudi J Kidney Dis Transpl ; 28(2): 285-291, 2017.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28352009

ABSTRACT

Accurate dry weight estimation (DW) to achieve euvolemia is one of the key objectives of hemodialysis (HD). While conventionally DW is estimated by clinical examination, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) has been proposed as an objective method to determine DW and has been tested extensively in the Western population. We aim to validate BIA for determining DW in a Pakistani population against the conventional clinician's method. This is a single-center validation study conducted at two outpatient HD units of Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi. One hundred and forty-eight DW readings of patients who were on maintenance HD were taken both by BIA technology and by clinical assessment. The clinician was blinded to readings obtained by BIA. Data analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19. Median age of patients was 63 years (range 12-89). Nearly 54.1% of the samples were female (n = 80). Spearman's correlation between the clinician's estimate and BIA-derived DW showed a correlation coefficient of 0.982, which was statistically significant (P <0.001). This association remained significant when stratified analysis was carried out by dividing the sample into subgroups according to age, gender, body mass index, and total body water content. Inter-rater reliability analysis using the kappa statistics showed almost perfect agreement between the two methods, κ = 0.929 (95% confidence interval, 0.878-0.980, P <0.001). BIA has been validated as a tool for DW assessment of HD patients in Pakistan in comparison to clinical method.


Subject(s)
Body Weight , Kidney Diseases/therapy , Models, Biological , Renal Dialysis , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Body Composition , Child , Electric Impedance , Female , Humans , Kidney Diseases/diagnosis , Kidney Diseases/physiopathology , Male , Middle Aged , Pakistan , Predictive Value of Tests , Renal Dialysis/adverse effects , Water-Electrolyte Balance , Young Adult
17.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther ; 8(1): 74-80, 2017 Feb 06.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28217377

ABSTRACT

AIM: To study the effect of itopride on gastric accommodation, gastric emptying and drinking capacity in functional dyspepsia (FD). METHODS: Randomized controlled trial was conducted to check the effect of itopride on gastric accommodation, gastric emptying, capacity of tolerating nutrient liquid and symptoms of FD. We recruited a total of 31 patients having FD on the basis of ROME III criteria. After randomization, itopride was received by 15 patients while 16 patients received placebo. Gastric accommodation was determined using Gastric Scintigraphy. 13C labeled octanoic breadth test was performed to assess gastric emptying. Capacity of tolerating nutrient liquid drink was checked using satiety drinking capacity test. The intervention group comprised of 150 mg itopride. Patients in both arms were followed for 4 wk. RESULTS: Mean age of the recruited participant 33 years (SD = 7.6) and most of the recruited individuals, i.e., 21 (67.7%) were males. We found that there was no effect of itopride on gastric accommodation as measured at different in volumes in the itopride and control group with the empty stomach (P = 0.14), at 20 min (P = 0.38), 30 min (P = 0.30), 40 min (P = 0.43), 50 min (P = 0.50), 60 min (P = 0.81), 90 min (P = 0.25) and 120 min (P = 0.67). Gastric emptying done on a sub sample (n = 11) showed no significant difference (P = 0.58) between itopride and placebo group. There was no significant improvement in the capacity to tolerate liquid in the itopride group as compared to placebo (P = 0.51). Similarly there was no significant improvement of symptoms as assessed through a composite symptom score (P = 0.74). The change in QT interval in itopride group was not significantly different from placebo (0.10). CONCLUSION: Our study found no effect of itopride on gastric accommodation, gastric emptying and maximum tolerated volume in patients with FD.

18.
Stroke Res Treat ; 2016: 5610797, 2016.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27688924

ABSTRACT

Background. Stroke is an important morbidity for low and middle income countries like Bangladesh. We established the first stroke registry in Bangladesh. Methods. Data was collected from stroke patients who were admitted in Department of Neurology of BIRDEM with first ever stroke, aged between 30 and 90 years. Patients with intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid and subdural hemorrhage, and posttrauma features were excluded. Results. Data was gathered from 679 stroke patients. Mean age was 60.6 years. Almost 68% of patients were male. Small vessel strokes were the most common accounting for 45.4% of all the patients followed by large vessel getting affected in 32.5% of the cases. Only 16 (2.4%) died during treatment, and 436 (64.2%) patients had their mRS score of 3 to 5. Age greater than 70 years was associated with poor outcome on discharge [OR 1.79 (95% CI: 1.05 to 3.06)] adjusting for gender, duration of hospital stay, HDL, and pneumonia. Age, mRS, systolic blood pressure, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, and stroke severity explained the Barthel score. Conclusion. Mortality was low but most of patient had moderate to severe disability at discharge. Age, mRS, systolic blood pressure, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, and stroke severity influenced the Barthel score.

20.
Middle East J Dig Dis ; 5(3): 163-7, 2013 Jul.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24829688

ABSTRACT

Primary colorectal lymphoma (PCL) is a rare condition that accounts for asmall percentage of all gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies. There are severalreports in the literature regarding the most common features of PCL. However,primary lymphoma in the rectosigmoid junction has been rarely reported. Ourcase was a 67-year-old male who presented with non-specific symptoms ofbowel obstruction which, upon further workup, was diagnosed as a rare case ofPCL located in the rectosigmoid junction.

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