Comparative Bony Union Time Analysis of Dynamic Hip Screw and Proximal Femoral Plate Implants

Objective: To determine the comparative and effective applicability of the Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS), and proximal femoral plate (PFP) in terms of the rapid bony union and complications for treating unstable pertrochanteric fractures. Methodology: This comparative study was conducted at the Department of Orthopedic surgery, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad during a period of 8 months from August 2016 to April 2017. Patients ages of 45 to 90 years, with close fresh unstable pertrochanteric fractures (one week) and of either gender were included. All the patients were divided into two groups. Patients in group A underwent PFP treatment and patients of group B underwent DHS treatment. Patients were followed up after 6 weeks and then every 2 weekly afterwards for a total period of 3 months for assessment of bony union both clinically and radiologically. The data was collected on a pre-structured Performa, and analysis was done using SPSS version 26. Results: A total of 84 patients were analysed, and average age of the patients in the PFP group was 66.57 ± 11.71 years and in the DHS group was 70.14 ± 9.03 years. Females were found in majority in both groups. No union was found till six weeks in both groups, while on 2nd month followup, union was found significantly high 19.0% in cases of the PFP group, compared to the 2.4% in the DHS group (p-0.014). On 2.5th months the union rate was significantly higher 59.5% in the PFP group, compared to the 7.1% DHS group (p-0.014), while on the 3rd month followup the union was almost in all cases in both groups (p-0.557) and the overall average union duration was significantly lower in PFP group compared to the DHS (p-0.001). Conclusion: The proximal femoral plate technique for treating unstable pertrochanteric fractures was observed to be more effective in terms of significant rapid bony union with minimum complications compared to the Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS)

TB Meningitis and TB Peritonitis: Abdominal Pseudocyst and VP-Shunt Link

TB meningitis (TBM) carries high morbidity and mortality and is a relatively common extrapulmonary TB in the third world countries. TBM as thick exudative disease manifests on MRI and CT as nodular basal leptomeningitis, hydrocephalus, basal infarcts, and tuberculomas. Hydrocephalus is treated with ventriculoperitoneal shunting (VPS). Shunt malfunction and revision are common. We report a case of multidrug-resistant TBM with spinal involvement and dissemination of the disease via VPS causing TB peritonitis (TBP). TBP presented as a large abdominal pseudocyst around the catheter tip with shunt malfunction. There was no evidence for any other site of extra-CNS disease. TBP per se is relatively less common. This is the first case reporting VPS as a means of TB spread

X-ray Diffraction Study of Aquamarine from Shigar Deposits, Skardu Valley, Northwest Pakistan

Samples of aquamarine collected from pegmatite rocks in Shigar mines, Skardu valley were investigated by powder X-ray diffraction method. Qualitative phase analyses of the samples showed the presence of aquamarine as major phase with quartz, talc and magnesite as minor phases. Lattice parameters were determined by employing CuKα radiations in step-scan mode using a computer program ‘Powder’. The lattice parameters of the Shigar specimens (with CuKα wavelength = 0.15418 nm) are a = 9.214 ± 0.002 (Å), c = 9.202 ± 0.002 (Å) compared to NBS (National Bureau of Standards) beryl data a = 9.215 Å, c =9.192Å. The deviations in the unit cell dimensions (especially the increase in a) of the samples are attributed to the presence of additional components (Cr, Fe, Na and Mg) detected by X-ray fluorescence method

Optical anomaly in near-end-member grossular garnet from the Jeffrey mine, Asbestos, Quebec, Canada

The optical anomalies, surface and lamellar textures of a birefringent grossular garnet crystal from the Jeffrey mine Canada have been investigated by optical polarizing microscope, electron-probe micro-analyzer (EPMA) and infrared spectrometer from the stand point of crystal growth. This grossular shows one-to-one correlation between surface features and its internal textures. The average chemical composition measured by EPMA is Grs97.4Alm1.2Sps1.2Pyr0.1 as a near-end-member grossular. The surface features correspond to the internal textures observed under crossed polarizers. Two growth hillocks with regular growth steps elongated parallel to [001] vertical direction of the (110) face, produce sectoral twins. Such growth steps indicate the orthorhombic symmetry of the crystal correlated with the growth direction. Some irregular or curved growth steps appearing as lamellae in (110) thin section are parallel to the sides of (110) face but inclined to the [001] growth direction; this suggests the monoclinic symmetry. The crystal is optically biaxial (+) and its 2Vx angle being close to 90° could not be measured. Infrared spectroscopy data revealed the presence of [(OH)4] group substitution at [SiO4], the tetrahedral site. Optical birefringence of the grossular is about 0.002. Back-scattered electron imaging could not detect any zonation and compositional differences of the lamellar texture

Theoretical Study of Hydrogen- and Halide-Terminated Germanium Nanowires

We present a density functional theory (DFT) study of ultra-thin finite hydrogen and halogen passivated germanium nanowires implies that surface effects significantly influence their structural, cohesive and electronic properties, which plays important role in the fabrication of nanodevices such as field effect transistors and sensors. We show that full coverage of halogen passivations i.e. with fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl) and bromine (Br) in particular, reduces the band gap of the [1 1 0] GeNWs drastically. Moreover, we find that, Halide-terminated especially chlorine and bromine terminated Ge nanowires show greater ambient stability with increasing molecular weight of the halogen species