Effect of host plant on cornucopia of mango fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their triumphant management in context of climate change.

A study was performed to assess the preference of fourteen mango cultivars for fruit flies and their management by bagging. So the choice of Tephritid flies to mango cultivars during fruiting phase is crucial. Fourteen different cultivars of mango viz., 'Dusehri', 'Malda', 'Langra' early cultivars, 'Chaunsa', 'Fajri Klan', 'Sensation' medium whereas 'Sanglakhi', 'Retaul-12', 'Mehmood Khan', 'Tukhmi', 'Kala Chaunsa', 'Chitta Chaunsa', 'Dai Wala' and 'Sobey De Ting' late cultivars were assessed for their suitability for fruit flies. The results indicate that the population density of fruit flies was higher on late cultivars like 'Sanglakhi' (20.61 percent), 'Mehmood Khan' (20.22 percent) and 'Reutal-12' (19.92 percent) were proved to be highly susceptible to fruit flies. Among these the cultivar 'Reutal-12' was selected being commercial and future cultivar for the management of fruit flies through bagging. The results reported that the attack of tephritid fruit flies and other insect pests were zero in bagged fruits as compared with control. It was further recorded that the bagged fruits has maximum average fruit weight i.e. 203.50 and 197.83 g per fruit was noted in those treatments where butter paper bag and brown paper bag was wrapped with better coloration as compared with un-bagged fruit with 159.5 g per fruit. Similarly, on an average fruit length were more i.e. 90.17, 91.33 mm in bagged fruit and 85.33 in un-bagged fruits. Furthermore, bagged fruits have zero incidence of disease with reduced fruit crack, fruit sunburn, mechanical damage, bird damage, fruit blemished and agrochemical residues on the fruit. So, it is concluded that the special attention should be given on 'Reutal-12' for the management of fruit flies when devising an IPM program for the control of fruit flies. Further, bagging has proved to be the good agricultural practices for the production of quality mango.

Assessing adriamycin-induced early cardiotoxicity by estimating left ventricular ejection fraction using technetium-99m multiple-gated acquisition scan and echocardiography.

BACKGROUND: Adriamycin cardiotoxicity begins with the first dose of therapy. The insult may be subclinical initially, but with continued treatment can result in clinical congestive heart failure. Therefore, a study for the detection of early cardiotoxicity of adriamycin by left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) estimation using technetium (Tc)-99m multiple-gated acquisition (MUGA) scan and echocardiography (ECHO) was conducted. METHODS: LVEF was assessed in 42 patients with different cancers, advised to receive adriamycin (average received dose = 95.2 ± 6.82 mg/cycle, protocol dose = 65 ± 10 mg/m) in each of six cycles. The percentage of LVEF (%LVEF) was determined as a baseline after every successive cycle, simultaneously, by a Tc-99m MUGA scan (reference method) and ECHO. RESULTS: A significant decline of 12.17 ± 5.01 and 9.26 ± 4.82 (P < 0.001) in %LVEF was noted at the end of adriamycin therapy, estimated by a Tc-99m MUGA scan and ECHO respectively. Thirteen of 42 (31%) and six of 42 (14%) patients developed protocol-defined cardiotoxicity, determined by a Tc-99m MUGA scan and ECHO, respectively. The incidence of cardiotoxicity was 2.4, 2.4, 4.8, 16, and 31.2% at the median cumulative adriamycin dose of 210, 380, 450 , 550 , and 615 mg/m, respectively. CONCLUSION: Subclinical adriamycin cardiotoxicity was detectable from the third cycle and if not detected earlier continued therapy may progress to severe and irreversible cardiotoxicity. A decline of 5% or more of %LVEF instead of 10% should be considered as a significant marker of subclinical cardiotoxicity. A Tc-99m MUGA scan is more sensitive than ECHO for the estimation of subtle changes in %LVEF. Ideally, %LVEF must be determined at baseline and after every cycle, and if not possible then preferably from the third cycle onwards.

Omental caking: a rare manifestation of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour.

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour (MPNST) is a very rare tumour with an incidence of one per 100,000 and constitutes between 3 to 10% of all soft tissue sarcomas. Most of the sarcoma involve the extremities and retroperitoneal regions. However, this case presented with mass in left inguinal region and then spread rapidly to omentum, assuming the appearance of an omental cake. Mass responded well to chemotherapy comprising of Ifosfamide and Doxorubicin.

Nephrotoxicity of CDDP assessed estimating glomerular filtration rate with 99mTc-DTPA plasma sample method.

OBJECTIVE: To assess early nephrotoxicity of CDDP (Cis-diamminedichloroplatinum) manifested by a decline in the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimated by plasma two sample clearance method (PSC 2) after 99mTc-DTPA injection. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine, Karachi, from September 2004 to January 2005. METHODOLOGY: The renal function was assessed on 36 patients suffering from different types of cancer and receiving CDDP in doses of (3) 50 mg/m(2) before and after in each of six CDDP cycles. The GFR was determined by PSC 2 method after 99mTc-DTPA injection). A paired sample t-test was used for comparison of the mean value with significance at p < 0.01. RESULTS: There were (28 males and 8 females; age range being 16-68 years) The average decline in GFR baseline to the end of sixth cycles was 43.86 ml/min/1.73m(2) (p=0.000) as estimated by PSC 2 method. There was a significant fall of average 9.36 ml/min/1.73m(2) (p < 0.01) in GFR as observed in each cycle of CDDP estimated by the PSC 2 method. In the initial four cycles, CDDP produced a major nephrotoxic effect of average 10.27 ml/min/1.73m(2) (p < 0.01) fall in GFR. This then gradually declined to a plateau of an average decline in GFR of 7.76 and 7.31 ml/min/1.73m(2) (p=0.000) after the 5th and 6th cycle respectively. CONCLUSION: CDDP produced an early nephrotoxicity which was manifested by a significant decline in GFR in each cycle. Tc-99m PSC 2 method for GFR estimation should be used periodically for the early detection of nephrotoxicity induced by CDDP.

Diagnostic accuracy of Tc-99m-MIBI for breast carcinoma in correlation with mammography and sonography.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the accuracy of 99mTc-MIBI scintimammography (SMM) in differentiating malignant breast cancer from benign breast mass and in detecting axillary lymph node metastasis in comparison with mammography and ultrasonography. STUDY DESIGN: Comparative cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: At the Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (KIRAN), Karachi, from December 2006 to May 2007. METHODOLOGY: A total of 28 patients (both with breast lumps or/and axillary masses) included were in the study. They underwent clinical examination, mammography and ultrasound imaging followed by planar SMM using a single head detector. All subjects received a 740-1110 MBq bolus injection of 99mTc-Sestamibi. 5-10 minutes and 1 hour delayed images were acquired after the injection. SMM scans were considered positive when there was focal area of increased radiotracer uptake. Qualitative (visual) as well as quantitative evaluation of scans was done and compared with ultrasound and mammography, taking histopathology as Gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values (NPV and PPV respectively) were determined. RESULTS: There were 22 patients presenting with breast lesions (20 palpable, 2 non-palpable) and 6 patients with axillary lump. Scintimammography accurately predicted malignant lesions in the breast (sensitivity 93.3%, specificity. 71.4%, PPV 87.5%, NPV 83.3%, overall accuracy 86.4%) as well as in patients with axillary metastasis (sensitivity 100%, specificity 66%, PPV 75%, NPV 100%, accuracy 83%). A combination of scintimammography with any other imaging modality provides better results than a single test to detect breast cancer. CONCLUSION: SMM has good diagnostic accuracy in the detection of breast cancer as well as in axillary metastasis in association with mammography and ultrasound.

Institution-based cancer incidence in a local population in Pakistan: nine year data analysis.

At present no national level of cancer registry program exists in Pakistan and the data available from different sources, necessary for incidence, prevalence, morbidity/mortality, and etiological assessment of cancer and cancer control programs, are from hospital or institutional databases. Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (KIRAN) is a comprehensive healthcare facility for diagnosis, treatment and research of all cancers. This is a retrospective analysis of the cancer patients of both genders of all age groups to determine frequencies of different cancers presented to this Institute from 1st January 2000 to 31 December 2008. A total of 16,351 cancer patients were registered at KIRAN during the nine year period. Male cancers accounted for 48.1% and female cancers 51.8%. Some 558 (3.4%) were in children (0-15 years). The mean ages at presentation for males and females were 50-/+9.6 and 47-/+7.4 years respectively. In males the five most frequent malignancies were head and neck (32.6%), lung (15%), gastrointestinal tract (GIT) (6.9%), lymphoma (6.1%), and bone and soft tissue (4.9%). In females breast cancer was the most common cancer accounting for 38.2% followed by head and neck (15.1%), cervical (5.5%), ovarian (4.9%) and GIT cancer (4.9%) respectively. Cancer prevalence in different age groups with respect to gender and the epidemiologies of most common cancers with reference to our cultural and environmental factors and dietary habits are also discussed. Overall cancer incidence in nine years in this tertiary care cancer institution showed that head and neck cancers in males and breast cancers in females are most common, at rates almost highest in Asia. Mean age and male to female ratio in all other cancers are essentially comparable to other developing countries.

Quantitative evaluation of salivary gland dysfunction after radioiodine therapy using salivary gland scintigraphy.

AIM: The most frequent non-thyroidal complication of high-dose (131)I therapy for thyroid carcinoma is salivary gland dysfunction, which may be transient or permanent. In this study, we assessed radioiodine-induced permanent salivary gland dysfunction using quantitative salivary gland scintigraphy. METHODS: Salivary scintigraphy was performed with (99m)Tc-pertechnetate on 50 thyroid carcinoma patients who had been given radioiodine for thyroid ablation; 20 normal subjects were imaged as the control population. Dynamic scintigraphy was performed and time-activity curves for four major salivary glands were generated. The glandular functional parameters maximum secretion, time at maximum count and uptake ratio of the parotid and submandibular glands were calculated. Correlation of the administered dose and subjective symptoms with findings of salivary gland scintigraphy was evaluated. RESULTS: The maximum secretion and uptake ratio were decreased in 46% and 42% of patients who received radioiodine therapy, respectively. Salivary gland dysfunction correlated well with the administered dose. The parotid glands were more affected than the submandibular glands. Fifty-two per cent of patients were symptomatic, 69.23% of whom showed salivary gland dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Parenchymal damage to the salivary glands induced by radioactive iodine treatment can be evaluated by salivary gland scintigraphy. The impairment was worse in parotid glands and increased with the total dose. The maximum secretion and uptake ratio were found to be sufficiently sensitive to distinguish the severity of the damage.