Pak J Med Sci
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Large spectrum of pathogenic BRCA mutations is known as a major cause of hereditary breast ovarian cancer in human all over the world. The objective of present study was to find out the association of mutations185-del-AG and 185Ins.A at BRCA1 exon-2 with age of onset and family history of gynecological cancer among the selected cohort of breast cancer patients in Pakistani population and to provide guidelines for treatment strategies. ⋯ BRCA1-185 Del AG mutation has association with early age onset of breast cancer. The direct sequencing is very useful approach for BRCA analysis and exon specific selected cohort from Pakistani population.
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Blood transfusion is an essential and life-saving medical intervention. Despite multiple preventive measures transfusion-transmitted hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection continues to be a major healthcare issue in Pakistan. This study was conducted at National Institute of Blood Diseases & Bone Marrow Transplantation to evaluate the frequency of active HCV infection with or without co-infection in blood donors and also to determine comparative efficacy of Multisure HCV antibody assay (MHAA); a new serological device. ⋯ Active HCV infection was present in 0.94% donors. With a sensitivity of 96.89% (95% CI: 95.66-98.12) the multi-parametric device MHAA can effectively detect HCV infection in donors. Thus, it can be used in limited health care settings for HCV screening.
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Post Stroke Cognitive Impairments (PSCI) occur frequently in stroke survivors resulting in devastating consequences affecting daily living of survivors. Currently, there exists scarcity of sound assessment tools for the evaluation of PSCI as most of the commonly used scales offer a number of clinical (requires motor and linguistic skills) and cultural limitations (requires academic exposure). Therefore, current study was aimed at evaluating the efficacy of Neuro-Cognitive Assessment Battery for Stroke patients (N-CABS) in Pakistan. ⋯ The results of the current study favor N-CABS as a psychometrically strong screening instrument to screen PSCI in our culture.
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To determine incidence and characteristics of traumatic Tympanic Membrane perforation in a tertiary care hospital. ⋯ Traumatic tympanic membrane perforation is common in young male. Slap was the commonest cause of traumatic perforation affecting left ear more than right ear. Inferior quadrant of the tympanic membrane was commonly involved and mild degree and conductive type of hearing loss was common.
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To establish a relationship between the Visual Analog Scale for pain (VAS) in the recovery time of epidural analgesia and the Perfusion Index (PI) values at that time and to test the possibility of using PI as an objective tool for pain assessment. ⋯ In this study, it was determined that the pain decreased with epidural analgesia, perfusion index increased and the pain level increased significantly when the perfusion index started to decrease.