Non-specific skin purpura.

Essential thrombocythemia is one of the myeloproliferative neoplasms. Palpable purpura is a rare manifestation that may delay diagnosis and treatment. We report a case of essential thrombocythemia in a 50-year-old man, who presented with recurrent thigh pain for the past one year with nonspecific localized purpura. His full blood count revealed isolated thrombocytosis of 880,000/µL with an impression of myeloproliferative disorder from peripheral blood film. He was referred urgently to the hematology team, which proceeded with a venesection. His condition improved with hydroxyurea. This was a rare case of chronic presentation of myeloproliferative neoplasm detected at a primary care clinic.

Hybrid membrane filtration-advanced oxidation processes for removal of pharmaceutical residue.

Reports of pharmaceuticals exist in surface water and drinking water around the world, indicate they are ineffectively remove from water and wastewater using conventional treatment technologies. The potential of adverse effect of these pharmaceuticals on public health and aquatic life, also their continuos accumulation have raised the development of water treatment technologies. Hybrid treatment processes like membrane filtration and advance oxidation processes (AOPs) are likely to give rise to efficient simultaneous degradation and separation mechanisms. Conventional membrane filtration techniques can remove the majority of contaminants, but the smallest, undegraded, and stabilized pharmaceutical wastes persist in the treated water. After some 20 years, researchers have recognized the important role of AOPs in the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater because these technologies are capable of oxidizing recalcitrant, toxic, and non-biodigradable compounds into numerous by-products and finally, inert end-products via the intermediacy of hydroxyl and other radicals. Evidently, membranes are subjected to the fouling phenomenon by the contaminants in wastewater, hence resulting in a reduction of clean water flux and increase in energy demand. In such situations, these membrane hybrid AOPs exert a complementary effect in the elimination of membrane fouling, thus enhancing the performance of the membrane. Therefore, in this review, we describe the basic aspects of the removal and transformation of certain pharmaceuticals via membranes and AOPs. In addition, information and evidences on membrane hybrid AOPs in the field of pharmaceutical wastewater treatment is also presented.

Fibreoptic bronchoscopy--a Malaysian experience.

Two hundred and ninety-three bronchoscopies were done for 285 patients (78% males, 22% females) at Hospital University Sains Malaysia between 1984 and 1988. The mean age was 56.4 years (range 13 to 90 years). 70.2% of patients underwent bronchoscopies to confirm or exclude the diagnosis of carcinoma of the bronchus, out of which 58% were confirmed to have bronchial carcinoma. 77% of the 98 patients with visible endobronchial tumours had biopsy specimens diagnostic of malignancy. Brushing and washing cytology increased the positive yield to 92%. The commonest histological type of bronchial carcinoma identified was squamous cell carcinoma (48.1%), followed by small cell carcinoma (27.1%), anaplastic/undifferentiated carcinoma (12.9%), adenocarcinoma (9.4%) and large cell carcinoma (2.4%). Bronchoscopy for the investigation of haemoptysis identified the commonest cause as 'bronchitis'. There were no complications noted in our series. Notable differences of our experience compared to that of the western series were the high percentage of bronchoscopy done for infective respiratory disorders and the younger age of our patients.

Lung cancer in Kelantan.

A review of 119 patients (88 males and 31 females) with carcinoma of the lung seen at the Hospital University Sains Malaysia (HUSM) from 1984 to 1989 was done. The mean age of the patients was 60.3 years with a high proportion (76.6%) of them were between 41 and 70 years. Seventy five percent of patients (84% of men and 26% of women) were smokers. The Chinese have a significantly higher preponderance to carcinoma of the lung. The commonest histological type found was squamous cell carcinoma in men and adenocarcinoma in women. Small cell carcinoma was uncommon. Squamous cell and large cell/undifferentiated type of carcinoma were significantly associated with smoking behaviour of the patients.

The use of an electronic thermometer in intraoral temperature measurement.

The applicability of an electronic thermometer CRAFTEMP in taking intraoral temperatures was determined. Sublingal temperatures in ten young subjects with complete natural dentitions, and the temperatures at the denture base-mucosa interface and on the polished surface of both maxillary and mandibular complete dentures in ten elderly patients were measured. The results showed that there was a temperature difference between the polished surface of the maxillary denture and the denture base-mucosa interface. This was statistically significant in the female but not in the male subjects. No temperature difference could be demonstrated with any of the mandibular dentures. The CRAFTEMP was found to be a convenient and reliable method for intraoral temperature measurement.