FENOFIBRATES FOR SERUM LIPID ABNORMALITIES

Allopathic drugs used as hypolipidemic agents have a number of unwanted effects. Herbal therapy for Hyperlipidemia is getting attention due to their less frequent side effects. In this study we have compared hypolipidemic effects of Fenofibrate 40 mg with Nigella sativa. Seventy-five hyperlipidemic patients from National Hospital Lahore were enrolled for the study. Consent was taken from all enrolled participants and were divided in three equal numbers i.e.; twenty-five in each group. Group 1 was on Nigella sativa, group 2 was on Gemfibrozil and third group was on placebo therapy. They were advised to take drugs for two months. After completion of the study pretreatment and post-treatment values of LDL cholesterol were analyzed statistically. In 25 patients who were on Nigella sativa, their LDL cholesterol decreased from 191.14±3.45 to 159.40±2.98 mg/dl. 31.7 mg/dl LDL reduction was observed when compared with the placebo group. In 25 patients who were on Fenofibrate 40 mg, their LDL cholesterol decreased from 197.77±3.91 mg/dl to 159.62±2.20 mg/dl. LDL reduction in this group was 38.2 mg/dl. These changes are highly significant with p-values of <0.001. We concluded from this study that the hypolipidemic characteristic of Nigella sativa is comparable and therapeutically as effective as traditionally used hypolipidemic medication Fenofibrate

Spot the fake lungs: Generating Synthetic Medical Images using Neural Diffusion Models

Generative models are becoming popular for the synthesis of medical images. Recently, neural diffusion models have demonstrated the potential to generate photo-realistic images of objects. However, their potential to generate medical images is not explored yet. In this work, we explore the possibilities of synthesis of medical images using neural diffusion models. First, we use a pre-trained DALLE2 model to generate lungs X-Ray and CT images from an input text prompt. Second, we train a stable diffusion model with 3165 X-Ray images and generate synthetic images. We evaluate the synthetic image data through a qualitative analysis where two independent radiologists label randomly chosen samples from the generated data as real, fake, or unsure. Results demonstrate that images generated with the diffusion model can translate characteristics that are otherwise very specific to certain medical conditions in chest X-Ray or CT images. Careful tuning of the model can be very promising. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to generate lungs X-Ray and CT images using neural diffusion models. This work aims to introduce a new dimension in artificial intelligence for medical imaging. Given that this is a new topic, the paper will serve as an introduction and motivation for the research community to explore the potential of diffusion models for medical image synthesis. We have released the synthetic images on https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/hazrat/awesomelungs.Comment: 8 pages. Submitted to AICS 2022 conferenc

What are the most important teeth in the field of Forensic Odontology?

The society has been aided by Forensic Odontology for centuries. The aim of this review article is to briefly present the role of the human teeth in the different aspects of forensic odontology and highlight the most important teeth, if any. Recent increase in vanity culture and drastic improvements in the field of aesthetic dentistry and orthodontics resulted in a decrease of dental treatment and an increase of standard well-aligned teeth, causing reduction on dental distinctiveness of individuals. As reflection, a transitional phase of the history of Forensic Odontology will make the forensic dentist less dependent on an intermediate dentist’s work in order to carry out a comparative dental analysis. Other factors such as dental anatomy and surrounding areas will be more explored. Forensic dentists of this century are more likely to carry out more demanding comparative dental analysis. In summary, the assessment of all teeth is important combined with further information from the oral cavity

Monozygotic and Dizygotic Twins Differences in Fingerprint Patterns of Swat District

Background: The identification of individual is important for both legal and humanitarian reasons. It is of great importance because every individual exists as an entity in a society and is dealt with as such by the legal system. The most commonly used method for identification is fingerprinting which relies on the uniqueness of ridges present on thumbs and fingers. These are unique in arrangements and remain constant throughout an individual’s life. Fingerprints of no two individuals are same even if they are twins. The power of discrimination of the basis of fingerprinting is about one in 64 billion. The study was designed to carry out analysis of fingerprints from mono and dizygotic twins and to differentiate them on the basis of fingerprinting.Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study carried out among 30 pairs of twins including 17 pair of monozygotic twins and 13 pair of dizygotic twins. After taking an informed expressed consent, the participants were asked to press their individual fingers on the stamp pad. They were asked to then put and roll the stamped finger onto an A4 size paper on which blocks for each finger were already made. Both left and right hands were fingerprinted and with the help of magnifying glass, different types were identified including Arches, Composite type, Loops and Whorls. SPSS software was used for data analysis.Results: There was 7.6% of Arch type, 6.1% of tented arches, 1.5% of plain arches, 62.32% of loops, 6.66% of double loop, and 3.83% of central pocket loop, 44.83% of ulnar loop, 7% of radial loop, 0.83% of accidental loop, 29.93% of whorls, 9% of plain whorl and 20.1% of central the pocket whorl.Conclusion: When the left and right thumbs are compared with each other using eight (8) points, there are matches on the first six (6) points, matching percentage for each of these pairs of fingers is 75%. But when the both fingers were rotated on 180° and compared, the matching percentage was 87.5%. These 8 points fingerprinting can be used to distinguish twins.Keywords: Fingerprint; Identification; Twin; Monozygotic; Dizygotic

SINGLE BLIND PLACEBO CONTROLLED STUDY OF PSYLLIUM FIBRES TO REDUCE RISK OF MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

ABSTRAC

Frequency of Complications Following Cataract Surgery in Diabetic Patients at Tertiary Care Hospital

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of complications following cataract surgery in diabetic patients admitted in the ophthalmology unit. METHODOLOGY: A prospective descriptive interventional case series study was conducted after approval of the ethical committee, from June 2017-June 2020 at the Ophthalmology department MTI-MMC. A total of 129 patients from either gender were enrolled in study. All the study patients went through detailed history and complete ocular examination. After necessary investigations, surgical procedure was carried out. Results were analyzed through the SPSS-24 version. RESULTS: Out of the total 129 eyes of the diabetic patients, fifty-nine (45.7%) were males and seventy (54.3%) were females with a ratio of 1:1.2. Uveitis leads the chart in complications found in twenty (15.50%) eyes while PODR being the least common found in only ten (7.75%) eyes. Worse visual acuity was observed in fourteen (10.85%) eyes. Striate keratopathy and posterior capsule opacification were found in sixteen (12.40%) and fifteen (11.62%) eyes respectively. Among the patients, 15.7% were having more than one complication during follow-up visits and eighty-eight (68.2%) eyes were found to have none complication. The age group 51-60 years observed frequent complications as compared to other groups. Similarly female gender (38.57%) has frequent complications as compared to males (2.7%). CONCLUSION: The study concludes Uveitis as the most common complication observed in 15.50% 0f the eyes while worse visual acuity (10.85%) and progression of diabetic retinopathy (7.75%) being the least common. Striate keratopathy was found in 12.40% while posterior capsule opacification in 11.62% of the eyes

Pemeliharaan maslahah di sebalik pensyariatan konsep berpakaian wanita menurut Islam

Tulisan ini cuba menghuraikan berkenaan konsep pemeliharaan maslahah yang diutarakan Islam dalam pensyariatan hukum-hakam Syariah. Walaupun begitu, tulisan ini hanya akan memfokuskan dalam aspek konsep pakaian wanita di hadapan lelaki bukan mahram sahaja dengan bersandarkan kepada rujukan-rujukan perpustakaan meliputi kajian terhadap teks-teks seperti tafsir al-Quran, fiqh dan sebagainya. Pemilihan fokus ini disebabkan terdapat pelbagai pandangan negatif yang dilemparkan oleh sesetengah ahli masyarakat terhadap konsep ini. Sehubungan itu, tulisan ini akan cuba mengutarakan hukum-hakam berkaitan pakaian wanita termasuk keadaan-keadaan yang diberikan kelonggaran syarak (rukhsah) beserta penjelasan berkenaan maslahah di sebaliknya. Secara umumnya, tulisan ini merumuskan bahawa pensyariatan konsep pakaian ini antara lainnya bertujuan menutup jalan yang boleh membawa kepada jenayah seksual terhadap wanita dan secara tidak langsung menyumbang kepada keharmonian hidup masyarakat. Tulisan ini diharapkan dapat memberikan manfaat yang besar kepada sumbangan ilmiah berkaitan cara hidup Isla

A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials of carotid endarterectomy vs stenting

ObjectiveThe purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to synthesize the available evidence derived from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) regarding the relative efficacy and safety of endarterectomy vs stenting in patients with carotid artery disease.MethodsWe searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Current Contents, and Cochrane CENTRAL through July 2010 to update previous systematic reviews. Two reviewers determined trial eligibility and extracted descriptive, methodologic, and outcome data (death, nonfatal stroke, and nonfatal myocardial infarction). Random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool relative risks and the I2 statistic was used to assess heterogeneity.ResultsThirteen RCTs proved eligible enrolling 7484 patients, of which 80% had symptomatic disease. Methodological quality was moderate to high, with better quality among RCTs published after 2008. Compared with carotid endarterectomy, stenting was associated with increased risk of any stroke (relative risk [RR], 1.45; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.99; I2 = 40%), decreased risk of periprocedural myocardial infarction (MI; RR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.26- 0.71; I2 = 0%), and nonsignificant increase in mortality (RR, 1.40; 95% CI, 0.85-2.33; I2 = 5%). When analysis was restricted to the two most recent trials with the better methodology and more contemporary technique, we found stenting to be associated with a significant increase in the risk of any stroke (RR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.35-2.45) and mortality (RR, 2.53; 95% CI, 1.27-5.08) and a nonsignificant reduction of the risk of MI (RR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.12-1.23). For every 1000 patients opting for stenting rather than endarterectomy, 19 more patients would have strokes and 10 fewer would have MIs. Outcome data in asymptomatic patients were sparse and imprecise; hence, these conclusions apply primarily to symptomatic patients.ConclusionCompared with endarterectomy, carotid artery stenting (CAS) significantly increases the risk of any stroke and decreases the risk of MI

SINGLE BLIND PLACEBO-CONTROLLED STUDY ON COMPARISION OF EFFECTS OF ZINGIBER OFFICINALE BEFORE AND AFTER TREATMENT IN HYPERLIPIDEMIA

Hyperlipidemia had have proved in many research studies causing atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, angina and myocardial infarction. Hypolipidemic drug’s low compliance made medicinal herbs to replace conventional hypolipidemic agents for treating primary or secondary hyperlipidemic patients. Zingiber Officinale (Ginger) is one of those medicinal herbs.  This research was conducted at General Hospital Lahore Pakistan from March to May 2015. It was single-blind placebo controlled study. Inclusion criteria was primary and secondary hyperlipidemic patients age range from 18 to 65 years. Male and female patients were included in this work. Randomly selected eighty patients were divided in two equal numbers. Group-I was tested group and Group-II was on placebo therapy. Their base line values of LDL-cholesterol and plasma total cholesterol were measured in Biochemistry laboratory of the Hospital.  When used in 40 hyperlipidemic patients this herb’s paste preparation reduced LDL-cholesterol and plasma total cholesterol significantly. Mean values of LDL-cholesterol and plasma total cholesterol with SEM before and after treatment were calculated and analyzed biostatistically by using SPSS version 5.0. P-values >0.05 were used for non-significant change in parameters. P-values <0.01 and <0.001 were used for significant and highly significant changes respectively