Pak J Med Sci
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To assess the accuracy of emergency physicians (EPs) in the interpretation of non-contrast CT Brain (NCCT Brain) by examining the inter rater reliability between EPs and radiology specialists. ⋯ A four months prospective cohort study was conducted at emergency department of King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We studied the daily performance of our EPs, and compared it to the radiological report issued within the week after. Data were analyzed by calculating sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and agreement (kappa statistic), using radiology report as the reference standard. Results : Out of 241 cases eligible for the study, 210 (87.14%) were concordant, and 31 (12.86%) were discordant. The agreement (kappa) was to be 0.64. Conclusion : We concluded that our EPs are moderately accurate at interpreting NCCT Brain studies. Further education and training programs were necessary for all our EPs to improve the accuracy. Further studies are required to determine the most cost-effective method of minimizing consequential misinterpretations.
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To compare the postoperative complications between Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) and endotracheal tube (ETT) during low-flow anesthesia with controlled ventilation. ⋯ If careful measures regarding insertion techniques, correct LMA position and routine monitoring of LMA cuff pressure are taken, LMA can be used as a safe alternative with lower incidence of post operation complication compared with ETT during low-flow controlled anesthesia with modern anesthetic machines.
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Vancomycin resistance is due to change in ligase enzyme that destroys the binding of the drug. The gold standard is culture; but now molecular methods have also been developed. The aim was to detect the VRE rate at ICUs by culture and BD GeneOhm™ VanR and compare the results of both assays. ⋯ This study showed low VRE positivity due to factors like inhibition in PCR or culture negativity due low inoculum for bacterial growth. Early detection of VRE is an important issue especially in ICUs and molecular techniques are important tools; but against all, we still need to confirm this method with culture based techniques and in order to do this further studies with higher number of patients with VRE colonisation are required.
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Pakistan is among the countries having high prevalence of HCV infection in the population but there is dearth of proper epidemiological data regarding acquisition of HCV infection in the pregnant population. Our objective was to determine the seroprevalence of HCV antibodies in healthy pregnant women and to assess the potential risk factors for HCV infection in HCV positive subjects and in the control group. ⋯ HCV seropositive pregnant women were more likely to have a history of blood transfusion, therapeutic injection use, surgery and sharing household items.
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Tooth avulsion constituting an emergency for children and adolescents necessitates management approaches ensuring the survival of avulsed teeth. The aim of this study was to determine the causes of tooth avulsion and to examine some factors affecting the clinical & radiographic assessment of their prognosis after replantation. ⋯ In this study, during the 9-year period, it was determined that 5.87% of all traumatic dental consisted of avulsion injuries. Thirty-three avulsed teeth in 26 patients were replanted, and 12 replanted teeth were revealed as failures. A high rate of success can be obtained when the avulsed teeth are kept under wet conditions and brought to a dental clinic as soon as possible.