EFFICACY OF ORAL ZINC SULPHATE VERSUS TOPICAL APPLICATION OF SALICYLIC ACID (16.7%) & LACTIC ACID (16.7%) COMBINATION IN THE TREATMENT OF PLANTAR WARTS

Background; Warts are common epidermal growths caused by human papillomavirus that often cause significant discomfort and embarrassment. Current treatment options include topical therapies, cryotherapy, laser vaporization, and surgical excision. Objective: To compare the efficacy of oral zinc sulphate versus topical application of  salicylic acid (16.7%) & lactic acid (16.7%) combination in the treatment of plantar warts. Material and Methods; One hundred and fifty six patients with warts fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria coming in Medicine outpatient department were included in the study. Group A, having 78 patients, was given oral zinc sulphate (10 mg/kg/day) in two or three divided doses. In group B, 78 patients were advised to apply a combination of salicylic (16.7%) & lactic acid (16.7%) once at night daily. Results; Of these 156 study cases, 94 (60.3 %) were male patients while 62 (39.7 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 34.42 ± 9.87 years. Monthly family income up to Rs. 30000 was noted in 68 (43.6%) while 88 (56.4%) had monthly family income more than Rs. 30000. Mean weight of our study cases was 61.96 ± 10.29 kilograms. Mean height of our study cases 161.24 ± 12.23 centimeters. Mean BMI of our study cases was 26.52± 1.87 kg/m2 and obesity was present in 31 (19.9%) of our study cases. Mean no. of lesions was noted to be 5.30 ± 2.45 lesions (with minimum no. of lesions was 4 and maximum no. of lesions was 10) and 131 (84%) had up to 5 lesions. Mean duration of disease was 4.69 ± 1.61 months and 112 (71.8 %) had disease duration up to 6 months. Efficacy was noted in 110 (70.5 %). Efficacy in group A was noted to be 83.3 % and in group B was 57.7 % (p= 0.001). Conclusion; Our study results support the use of oral Zinc Sulphate in the treatment of plantar warts as compared to the salicylic acid (16.7%) and lactic acid (16.7%) combination. Efficacy of Zinc Sulphate was significantly higher when compared with combination therapy and it was found to be safe and reliable mode of treatment having no side effects were observed in our study. Use of Zinc Sulphate can help to reduce chance of recurrence and disease morbidity. Being cost effective, it provides cheaper mode of treatment as compared with cryotherapy which is quite expensive which will provide economic relief to our large poor population. Early treatment can help patients to maintain routine daily lives and physical activities such as sports without any pain and side effects. Keywords; Plantar warts, Zinc Sulphate, Salicylic acid, lactic acid. DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/52-0

IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA BY SERUM FERRITIN LEVELS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Background: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) during pregnancy is a common nutritional disorder with adverse effects for the baby, such as premature birth and low birth weight, and the mother, such as cardiovascular symptoms and reduced physical and mental strength. Objective; To determine the frequency of iron deficiency anemia by serum ferritin levels at a tertiary care hospital. Material and Methods; All the patients who meet inclusion criteria of this study were registered from Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Nishtar Hospital Multan. Proper permission was taken from Institutional Ethical Committee to conduct this study. Examination was done including general physical examination. Venous blood sample (3 ml) was taken and sent to the Pathology Laboratory of the Hospital for serum ferritin levels estimation to diagnose iron deficiency anemia. Data was entered and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Results; Our study comprised of a total of 382 patients meeting inclusion criteria of our study. Mean gestational age of our study cases was 29.21 ± 7.16 weeks and 198 (51.8 %) had gestational age up to 30 weeks. Mean age of our study cases was 26.77 ± 4.29 years (with minimum age of our study cases was 20 years while maximum age was 36 years). Our study results have indicated that majority of our study cases i.e. 298 (78.0 %) were aged up to 30 years. Of these 382 study cases, 156 (40.8 %) belonged to rural areas and 226 (59.2 %) belonged to urban areas. Monthly family income up to Rs. 25000 was noted in 213 (55.8%) while more than Rs. 25000 was noted in 169 (44.2%). Of these 382 study cases, 241 (63.1%) were illiterate and 141 (36.9%) were literate. Mean duration of marriage was 5.17 ± 2.41 years and 199 (52.1%) had duration of marriage more than 5 years. Mean body mass index of our study cases was 25.82 ± 2.44 kg/m2 and obesity was present in 56 (14.7 %) of our study cases. Mean serum Ferritin level was 11.43 ± 3.98 mg/dl and iron deficiency anemia was noted in 213 (55.8%) of our study cases. Conclusion; Very high frequency of iron deficiency anemia was noted in our study among pregnant women. Iron Deficiency anemia was significantly associated with gestational age, age, residential status, low family income and duration of marriage. All the clinicians should screen these pregnant ladies for serum ferritin levels at the start of pregnancy and should counsel them for better awareness which will lead to proper management of iron deficiency anemia. Keywords; Iron Deficiency anemia, Pregnancy, Ferritin level. DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/52-1

Influence of Heavy and Low Television Watching on Study Habits of Secondary School Students—A Study

The study was undertaken to find out the influence of heavy and low TV watching on study habits of secondary school students. A sample of 500 students was drawn randomly from various Government secondary and higher secondary schools of District Srinagar (J&K). Heavy and low TV viewers were identified on the basis of Q3 and Q1.  Besides, Study Habits Inventory by M.N Palsane and Anuradha Sharma was administered to assess the study habits. The collected data was analyzed by using Mean, Standard Deviation and ‘t’ test. Line graph was plotted in order to make the results transparent. The results revealed a significant difference between the mean scores of heavy and low TV viewers on study habits. Key Words: Heavy and Low TV; Watching; Study Habits; Secondary School Student

Deniable Authentication Protocol using Promised Signcrypion Based on Hyper Elliptic Curve

Anonymity and deniability has an essential role in promising internet environment. Promised signcrypion enable the sender to generate signcryptext with promised property sending it to the receiver. According to the promised property only the intended receiver can verify the original source generating the message. Hyper elliptic curve is considered suitable for constrained devices due to its lesser size key. In this paper we proposed an efficient promised signcrypion scheme based on the hardness of hyper elliptic curve discreet logarithm problem (HECDLP). We compare proposed scheme with existing scheme in term of cost (computational and communication). The proposed scheme reduces computational cost about 87.42% at sender side and 90.56% at receiver side and total communication overhead about 61.45 %. This scheme ensure the security issues like message confidentiality, message integrity, sender anonymity, authenticity

Internet usage among university students in relation to their life style, academic achievement and attitude towards research.

Information and communication technology is the latest in a series of technological advances that have changed the world in varied ways. The last two decades have noticed a techno-revolution caused by the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It is hard to imagine the future that is not supported, in one way or other, by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). An information world, called the cyber world, comes into being between the social and physical worlds. Looking at the current widespread diffusion and the use of ICT in modern societies, especially by the younger ones (called as digital generation) affects their way of life. ICTs in general and the Internet in particular is one of the most important and complex innovations of mankind. As we approaching a new millennium, the Internet has revolutionised our: society, economy, education as well as technological system. If there were a vote for the thing which very much influenced people's lives in the 21st century, it is none other than Internet. Most people are seen to accept Internet as a revolutionary medium which has changed the lifestyle of present generation. Gates (2000) asserted that Internet has significantly influenced the lifestyle of each one and mostly the student community. Internet is acknowledged globally as a technology dominated resource in education, social interaction and entertainment (Salako & Tiamiyu, 2007).Digital copy of Ph.D thesis.University of Kashmir

Proxy Signcrypion Scheme Based on Hyper Elliptic Curves

Delegation of rights is promising in Internet applications like distributed computing, e-cash systems, global distribution networks, grid computing, mobile agent applications, and mobile communications. This paper presents a novel Proxy Signcrypion Scheme based on hyper elliptic curves, attractive for resource constrained environment due to its shorter key size. It has properties of warrant integrity, message integrity, message confidentiality, warrant unforgeability, message unforgeability, proxy non repudiation and public verifiability. The proposed scheme has reduced computational cost as compared to the other existing schemes

An Efficient and Secure Cluster-Based Architecture for AMI Communication in Smart Grid

ABSTRACT Smart Grid has revolutionized Traditional Grid System by merging bi-directional communication network and information technology. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is an integral part of Smart Grid used to measure power consumed and demands at consumer-end. In this article, we propose an efficient and secure cluster-based architecture for AMI in Smart Grid, which fulfills the primary security requirements like confidentiality, authentication and integrity. Analysis shows that the proposed secure architecture for AMI in Smart Grid is efficient in terms of resource utilization

Proxy Promised Signcrypion Scheme Based on Elliptic Curve Crypto System

With the rapid growth in internet technology anonymity, repudiation and smacking the contents of messages are required for illegal businesses such as money laundering etc. In this paper we design and analyze a proxy promised signcrypion scheme based on elliptic curve cryptosystem. In this system the sender/original signer can give the authority of signcrypion to another entity namely proxy signcrypter and he generates promised signcryptext on the place of sender. The scheme is accomplished aim to improve the previous crypto-systems, due to the elliptic curve small system parameter, small public key certificates, faster implementation, low power consumption and small hardware processor requirements. This ECC based scheme provides high security and efficiency