JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association
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Of 188 patients with cardiac arrest, who received cardiopulmonary resuscitation over a period of 13 months, 34 (18%) survived to leave the hospital. Most cardiac arrests (36%) occurred at the age of 60-69 years. ⋯ Poor outcome was associated with initial rhythm of asystole. These figures suggest that the incidence of successful outcome for CPRs in hospital has not changed significantly over the past twenty-five years.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Comparative study of repair of incisional hernia.
Repair of incisional hernias was compared with four different techniques in 55 patients to determine the best method of repair with least chance of recurrence. The maximum incidence of incisional hernia was seen in 30-39 years age group and was most frequently seen after gynaecological surgery (37 cases). ⋯ History of wound infection of previous surgery was recorded in 45.5% of cases which appeared to be the important risk factor in causation of incisional hernia. It was also observed that simple repair of incisional hernia was associated with a high recurrence than that where synthetic mesh was used in repair where no recurrence was recorded.
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We studied the carbon monoxide (CO) fractions in hookah and cigarette smoke, using a carbon monoxide micro smokerlyzer (model EC50, BEDFONT, U. K.). Mean carbon monoxide fractions (% by volume) of hookah smoke, using domestic charcoal were 0.38 +/- 0.07 (large hookah; unfiltered); 1.40 +/- 0.43 (small hookah; unfiltered); 0.34 +/- 0.06 (large hookah; filtered); 1.36 +/- 0.35 (small hookah; filtered) and 0.41 +/- 0.08 (cigarette smoke). ⋯ Use of commercial charcoal gives significant rise in CO fractions (P < 0.001). Comparison of filtered and unfiltered smoke shows no significant difference in values. We conclude that the CO hazard is as high with hookah smoking as with cigarette smoking.
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The red cell distribution width (RDW) is an index of the variation in red cells size (anisocytosis). A study was conducted to examine the validity of using RDW in improving classification of microcytic anaemias. A total of 300 blood samples collected from a patient population aged 3 months to 55 years who were referred for haemoglobin electrophoresis were examined at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH). ⋯ Also, of the 82 thalassemia minor, 28 patients had normal haemoglobin level, of which 6 had elevated RDW and of the 54 with low haemoglobin level, 35 had elevated RDW. RDW was normal in 41 patients with thalassemia minor trait. Our results suggest that RDW alone cannot be used as a reliable indicator to distinguish between thalassemia minor and other causes of microcytosis.