Functional evaluation of the urinary tract by duplex Doppler ultrasonography in patients with acute renal colic

Purpose: To determine the role of duplex Doppler ultrasonography (DDU) in Patients with acute unilateral renal obstruction. Subjects And Methods:A total of 161 Patients with suspected renal colic due to urolithiasis were evaluated by DDU followed by intravenous urography (IVU). The mean intra-arterial resistive index (RI) and the difference of mean resistive index between both kidneys (delta RI) were determined for each person. An RI value of ≥0.70 and a delta RI value of ≥0.06 were taken as the discriminatory threshold for obstruction. IVU results were considered the reference standard against which renal DDU findings were compared. Results: IVU showed both kidneys to be normal in 51 Patients and with unilateral ureteric obstruction in 110 Patients. The mean RI for obstructed kidneys was 0.67 (0.048), which was significantly higher (P-value Conclusion: Delta RI is more sensitive and specific than RI in acute renal obstruction. However, due to relatively low sensitivity for detection of partial obstruction, DDU cannot replace IVU as the standard imaging technique

ENVISAGING KSE 100 INDEX USING THE BOX-JENKINS METHODOLOGY

Investment in stock portfolios has never been a risk-free course of action as countless factors impinge on the end result of such a venture. Although fairly rewarding, the element of uncertainty involved keeps many potential investors away as they fail to adequately forecast what moves the stock market is going to make in the near future. The enticement of receiving returns, however, is appealing enough for investors to have their money invested in the stock market. But the ability to forecast the market remains their major necessity. In operational terms, there are two ways of forecasting the current and future values of any time series including stock indices. One way is to regress stock returns over all those factors that have an effect on stock market performance. The other method is making predictions on the basis of the past performance of the stock market. The current paper has adopted the second method of forecasting and has made use of the ARIMA technique. Monthly stock returns data of KSE 100 Index was collected from 1997 to 2019 which translated into 266 observations. It was realized that the technique used in the study helped in adequately predicting stock returns, although only in the short run. The outcomes of this study may be of help for prospective stock market investors, specifically short-term, in deciding when, and when not, to extend their investments at Pakistan Stock Exchange

Influence of different formulation variables on the performance of transdermal drug delivery system containing tizanidine hydrochloride: in vitro and ex vivo evaluations

The present study was aimed at preparation of transdermal patches of tizanidine HCl, evaluation of the effect of polymers on in vitro release pattern of the drug, and the effect of permeation enhancers on the penetration of the drug through the rabbit skin. Various proportions of hydrophilic (HPMC) and hydrophobic (Eudragit L-100) polymers were used with PEG 400 as film-forming agent, and Span 20 or DMSO as permeation enhancer. The formulations were assessed for physicochemical characteristics and in vitro drug release studies using USP paddle over disc method in phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.4) at 32.0±1°C. On the basis of in vitro studies and physicochemical evaluations, S03-A and S04-A were selected at Eudragit : HPMC ratios of 8 : 2 and 7 : 3, respectively, for further ex vivo analysis. The effects of different concentrations of Span 20 and DMSO were evaluated on excised rabbit skin using Franz diffusion cell. Cumulative drug permeation, flux, permeability coefficient, target flux, and enhancement ratio were calculated and compared with the control formulations. Kinetic models and Tukey’s multiple comparison test were applied to evaluate the drug release patterns. Formulation SB03- PE containing Eudragit L-100:HPMC (7:3) with Span 20 (15% w/w) produced the highest enhancement in drug permeation, and followed zero order kinetic model with super case-II drug release mechanism

Impact of Microcredit Scheme on Socio-economic Status of Farmers (A case study of PRSP in District Gujranwala)

Pakistan is an agricultural country and the majority of the population belongs to rural areas, therefore rural sector is the main source of economic development and manpower in the country. The development of rural areas is essential for the enhancement of agriculture sector and for the betterment of rural communities. The aim of the present study was to find the impact of microcredit on socio- economic status and living standards of the farmers in rural areas of district Gujranwala. The universe for the present study was all farmers who got loan from the Punjab Rural Support Program in district Gujranwala for agricultural purpose. The Sample of 185 respondents was selected from the targeted population using the simple random sampling technique. A survey was conducted to carry out the study in which a close ended structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from the farmers. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to draw the results from the study. Through descriptive analysis, the study clearly demonstrated that microcredit has played a positive role in improving the socioeconomic status of farmers after getting the loan. In this regard the study observed that microcredit played the positive role in changing and improving the living standards, diet patterns, health status and childrens education of the respondents. Chi square test was used to test the proposed hypothesis of the study and to verify the association between variables. The results of the Chi square test revealed that there was a significant impact of microcredit in improving socioeconomic status and household living standard of the farmers.&nbsp

Inclusion of KI67 significantly improves performance of the PREDICT prognostication and prediction model for early breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: PREDICT (http://www.predict.nhs.uk) is a prognostication and treatment benefit tool for early breast cancer (EBC). The aim of this study was to incorporate the prognostic effect of KI67 status in a new version (v3), and compare performance with the Predict model that includes HER2 status (v2). METHODS: The validation study was based on 1,726 patients with EBC treated in Nottingham between 1989 and 1998. KI67 positivity for PREDICT is defined as >10% of tumour cells staining positive. ROC curves were constructed for Predict models with (v3) and without (v2) KI67 input. Comparison was made using the method of DeLong. RESULTS: In 1274 ER+ patients the predicted number of events at 10 years increased from 196 for v2 to 204 for v3 compared to 221 observed. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) improved from 0.7611 to 0.7676 (p=0.005) in ER+ patients and from 0.7546 to 0.7595 (p=0.0008) in all 1726 patients (ER+ and ER-). CONCLUSION: Addition of KI67 to PREDICT has led to a statistically significant improvement in the model performance for ER+ patients and will aid clinical decision making in these patients. Further studies should determine whether other markers including gene expression profiling provide additional prognostic information to that provided by PREDICT.SEARCH was funded through a programme grant from Cancer Research UK (C490/A10124) and this work is supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Cambridge.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BioMed Central via http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-14-90

Neuroendoscopic Management of Hydrocephalus in Children

Objective: To determine the Neuroendoscopic management of hydrocephalus in children.Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at the Department of Neurosurgery, Peoples University of Medical and Health Science for women Nawabshah from January 2014 to May 2015. All of the patients with hydrocephalus diagnosed on history, clinical examination and CT scan included in the study. Subjects with co–morbidities such as uncontrolled diabetes, cardiac diseases or uremia were excluded. Patients with age of 6 months to 13 years either gender were included in the study. Aesculap rigid rod lens neuroendoscope with 0 degree was utilized. Warm ringers were utilized for irrigation, a Fogarty embolectomy catheter was utilized for ETV. Hemostasis was accomplished with irrigation, tamponade or coagulation. Endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) was labeled successfully when characteristics of intracranial hypertension (ICP) clinically improved and the size of ventricular decreased on post-operative CT scan. All the data was recorded in the Proforma.Results: Thirty patients with male to female ration 2.5:1 were administered. Age ranged between 6 months and 12 years with a mean of 22.03 months. There were 15(%) cases of Tri Ventricular Hydrocephalus, 10 cases of Tetra Ventricular Hydrocephalus. Two cases of Dandy Walker Hydrocephalus, one case of Asymmetrical Ventricles Hydrocephalus and postoperative fever occurred in two subjects. CSF leak appeared in one patient who was managed conservatively. No operative mortality was found.ETV worked effectively for Hydrocephalus treatment in 99.9% patients included in the study

SPECTRUM OF PLEURAL EFFUSION DUE TO RENAL PATHOLOGIES AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objective: To determine the spectrum of pleural effusion due to renal pathologies at tertiary care hospital. Patients And Methods: The one year cross sectional study was conducted at tertiary care hospital. All the patients either gender who were diagnosed as chronic kidney disease (on haemodialysis) were included in the study. These patients were allowed to undergo necessary investigations and treatment. All the specific patients had thorough clinical history, relevant clinical examination and important investigations to explore the pulmonary pathology (pleural effusion) while the frequency / percentages (%) and means ±SD computed for study variables. Results: During one year study period total fifty patients with pleural effusion were explored and studied. The frequency for male and female population was 32 (64%) and 18 (36%) with mean ± sd for age of male and female individuals was 59.82±7.83 and 53.85±6.94 respectively. Gender male 30 (60%), female 20 (40%), pleural effusion 32 (64%). The cause includes idiopathic (unknown) 05 (10%), over hydration 15 (30%), heart failure 06 (12%), parapneumonic effusion 08 (16%), uremic pleuritis 05 (10%), tuberculous pleurisy 06 (12%), malignancy (prostate cancer) 05 (10%). Conclusion: Pleural effusion is regular in hospitalized patients getting long haul hemodialysis due to chronic kidney disorders. Keywords: Pleural effusion, Kidney, Lung and Renal disease

Structure Preserving Splitting Techniques for Ebola Reaction–Diffusion Epidemic System

In this paper, we deal with the numerical solution of the reaction–diffusion Ebola epidemic model. The diffusion which is an important phenomenon for the epidemic model is included in the model. This inclusion has made the model more comprehensive for studying the disease dynamics in the human population. The quantities linked with the model indicate the population sizes which are taken as absolute, therefore, the numerical schemes utilized to solve the underlying Ebola epidemic system should sustain the positivity. The numerical approaches used to solve the underlying epidemic models are explicit nonstandard finite difference operator splitting (ENSFD-OS) and implicit nonstandard finite difference operator splitting (INSFD-OS) techniques. These schemes preserve all the physical features of the state variables, i.e. projected schemes hold the positive solution acquired by the Ebola diffusive epidemic model. The underlying epidemic model illustrates two stable steady states, a virus-free state, and a virus existence state. The suggested approaches retain the stability of each of the steady states possessed by the assumed epidemic model. A numerical example and simulations for validation of all the characteristics of suggested techniques are also investigated