Can early orthotic support and physical Therapy improve the functional level and Decrease rate of surgical interventions In spastic cerebral palsy?

cerebral palsy is a disorder of movement and posture that results from a non progressive lesion of brain within 3 years of age. To determine the role of early orthotics and physical therapy in improving the functional status and in decreasing the rate of surgical interventions in management of spastic diplegic cerebral palsy child

Body mass index or body fat! which is a better obesity scale for Pakistani population?

Ojective: To compare two methods of classifying obesity based on body mass index and body fat percentage.Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2012 to August 2013 at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi. Male and female volunteers between the ages 15-65 years were selected using simple random sampling. They were classified into different groups for body mass index and body fat percentage measured through bioelectrical impedance scale. The subjects were sub-grouped into underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. SPSS 11 was used for statistical analysis.Results: The mean age of the 828 healthy volunteers was 25.67±10.10 years. A total of 552 (66.6%) subjects had a higher body fatpercentage and were misclassified by body mass index. Only 276 (33.3%) subjects had body fat percentage values corresponding to the body mass index classification. The difference in terms of categorising obesity was highly significant (p\u3c0.001). Both body mass index and body fat percentage showed positive correlation with age (r=0.144; p=0.001) (r=0.261; p=0.001) and weight (r=0.578; p=0.001) (r=0.444; p=0.001) respectively. Moreover body fat percentage showed a significant positive association with gender (r=0.109; p=0.027) whereas BMI did not.Conclusions: Body fat percentage should be incorporated for a better understanding as well as categorising of obesity

Role of labour admission test in predicting pregnancy outcome in low-risk cases

Background: The present study was carried out to determine the role of labour admission test (LAT) in detecting fetal hypoxia in labour and to correlate the findings of the test with perinatal outcome in low-risk cases.Methods: In this study 150 low risk pregnant term women were subjected to LAT and classified according to NICE 2017 guidelines. Pregnancy outcome in terms of need for operative delivery and neonatal status at birth were noted. Data was analysed statistically by Chi-square test.Results: The LAT was normal in 78.67%, suspicious in 17.33% and pathological in 4%. Operative delivery for fetal distress was observed in 18.75% of normal group, in 50% of suspicious group and in 100% of pathological group. The incidence of meconium-stained liquor was significantly high in pathological (50%) and suspicious group (19.23%). The incidence of low 5-minute Apgar score was significantly high in pathological LAT group (33.33%) as compared to suspicious (7.69%) and normal LAT groups (2.54%). Admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) was significantly high in pathological test group (50%). LAT in this study showed 48.15% sensitivity, 96.75% specificity and 76.47% positive predictive value as a screening tool for predicting fetal distress in low-risk patients suggesting that a normal LAT in early labour is an indicator of good pregnancy outcome.Conclusions: LAT is an effective, non-invasive screening method with good specificity to detect fetal distress in low-risk woman and helps to plan management accordingly to improve pregnancy outcome

Information Seeking Behavior and Needs of Women Parliamentarians of Pakistan: A Case Study

This study probes into the information needs and seeking behavior of women parliamentarians in the 12th National Assembly of Pakistan during 2002 through 2007. It attempts to answer some of the questions raised on women’s political participation in the parliament and their information habits and needs by analyzing their preferred sources used in preparing for speeches, resolutions, bills, and laws. It also measures their information and communication technology skills. The study gauges their dependence and perception about the National Assembly Library and other sources of information available and suggests possible means by which information services to parliamentarians can be further enhanced. The findings of this study may present aspects which have never before been considered by researchers in trying to meet women parliamentarians’information needs

Exploring the Impact of Augmented Reality on Customer Experiences and Attitudes: A Comparative Analysis with Websites

Augmented Reality is used by various customers’ concerned companies to augment their stimuli, shopping experiences, and customers’ purchasing behavior. Hence, AR driven enabling stimulates customer engagement and their shopping attitude by providing a vivid technology experience. Prior studies found that AR novelty, trust, and vividness influenced the customer usage attitude. There have extant literature presented in the context of AR applications, it is widely used through numerous gadgets but the author intends to explore holistic features that tend to grasp customers’ experiences and attitudes to find the variance between AR vs. Websites. AR potentially disrupted the real-world environment by providing hedonic visual benefits and eliminating the physical efforts that tend to stimulate customers who mesmerize with AR compared to a website. The author chose the Houzz AR app and its website to gather data and provide a better understanding of both scenarios. The author conducted two-field experiments to illustrate positive customer attitudes that satisfied their experience towards the AR app rather than the traditional website. AR app is vivid and novel to engage a customer and moderate their attitude towards the technology immersion. Finally, this study provides multiple implications such as unique visual illustrations, sensational features, and innovation resulting in satisfied customer experience, considering both features in real and virtual world environments

KCNQ1 rs2237895 polymorphism is associated with Gestational Diabetes in Pakistani Women

Background and Objective: Genetic studies on gestational diabetes (GDM) are relatively scarce; moreover, limited data is available for KCNQ1 polymorphism in Pakistani pregnant women. We aimed to determine the frequency of KCNQ1 rs2237895 in GDM and normal pregnant controls and its association with GDM-related phenotypes.Methods: A total of 637 pregnant females (429 controls and 208 cases) in their second trimester were classified according to the International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study criteria in this study. Their blood samples were genotyped for KCNQ1 SNP rs2237895 using PCR-RFLP method and sequencing. Fasting and two hour-post glucose load blood levels, serum HbA1c, insulin, and anthropometric assessment was performed.: Pearson\u27s Chi Square test, Mann- Whitney U test, and regression analyses were performed. A p-value of \u3c 0.05 was considered significant.Results: The variant genotyped was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p \u3e 0.05). The rs2237895 showed an association with GDM (OR 2.281; 1.388-3.746: p \u3c 0.001) and remained significant after multiple adjustments for age and body mass index (OR 2.068; 1.430-2.997: p=0.005). The C allele showed positive association with insulin level, and HOMA-IR in study subjects.Conclusions: This study identifies that KCNQ1 rs2237895 polymorphisms might be associated with risk of GDM in Pakistani population and that it is related to higher glucose levels and insulin resistance. Further large scale studies are required to consolidate on the functional aspect of this polymorphism

Gestational diabetes mellitus and the predisposing factors

Objective: To evaluate the occurrence of gestational diabetes mellitus and its association with demographic and anthropometric variables in pregnant women.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Memon Hospital in Karachi, from February 2014 to December 2015, and comprised pregnant women who were screened by 75-g 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test, (24-28 weeks of gestation) and classified as per the criteria of the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group. Weight, body mass index and serum glycated haemoglobin levels were measured. Women with pre-gestational diabetes were excluded. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 1,210 participants, 208(17.2%) had gestational diabetes, while 1,002(82.8%) did not have the condition. Gestational diabetes was associated with advancing age, deranged glycated haemoglobin, elevated body mass index at booking (p0.05).Conclusions: Pre-existing adiposity and presence of strong family history rendered a considerable number of pregnant women to suffer from gestational diabetes

Confronting our mistakes: A comprehensive evaluation of radiographic errors in digital chest radiography among adult population in a public sector hospital

Objective: To find out the various types of radiographic errors in digital chest radiography and their effect on image quality leading to image rejection. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Radiology department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for a period of One month, September 2019. The study included 1560 digital Chest X-Rays, reaching the Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS), fulfilling the inclusion criteria. All these X-rays were analyzed by two radiology residents for the presence of radiographic errors in them. The various radiographic errors were then classified as: Positioning error, poor collimation, Artifacts, improper exposure, motion blur and mislabeling. The frequency of each radiographic error was measured along with their implication on image quality resulting in three major image categories: ACCEPT, JUST ACCEPTABLE and REJECT. The SPSS was adopted for inferential statistical analysis. Results: The study included 1013 (64.9%) male patients and 547 (35.1%) female patients. The mean age came out to be 36 +/- 15 years. Out of 1560 X-rays, 964 (61.8 %) had radiographic errors in them while 596 (38.2%) were completely devoid of radiographic errors. Positioning error (44.5 percent) was the most frequently encountered error followed by poor collimation (29.8%), artifacts (14.9%), Improper exposure (8%), motion blur (2.2%) and mislabeling (0.5%). The rejection rate came out to be 16.5 %. The major cause of image rejection was anatomy cutoff, especially the cut-off of cardio phrenic (CP) angle. Conclusion: Positioning errors represent the commonest cause of image rejection in chest radiography. The main identified pitfall was lack of radiographer’s education and training in performing an examination and indicates a need to improve their performance. Key words: Digital Radiography, Chest X ray, Radiographic error, Image reject &nbsp