Banti\u27s syndrome: case report and review of literature.

In 1898 Banti described a disorder characterized by splenomegaly and hypersplenism, resulting in portal hypertension and anemia in the absence of hematological disease. 1 Banti\u27s syndrome is also known as non-cirrhotic portal hypertension (NCPH) in India and Idiopathic Portal Hypertension (IPH) in Japan. Hepatoportal sclerosis seems to be its counterpart in the United States. 2,3 Banti\u27s syndrome is a disorder of unknown etiology, clinically characterized by portal hypertension (varices and portosystemic collateral vessels), splenomegaly, and anemia (hypersplenism). 3 It has been reported from Indian subcontinent. 4-6 In a Pakistani case series of portal hypertension, 18 out of 37 patients were found to have IPH as the etiology. 6 We report a case of Banti\u27s syndrome in an 20-year old girl presenting to us with anemia and splenomegaly

An enzymatic method for the detection of human serum albumin

Albumin is the most abundant protein in human serum. A dye-binding method is commonly used in clinical laboratories for its estimation using different types of dyes. However, all these dye methods were interfered by a variety of compounds. Here we present a method for the detection of albumin in human serum and other biological fluids. The principle is based on the fact that lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme-5 (LDH-5) binds specifically to Dextran-Blue (DB). Albumin inhibits the binding of LDH-5 with DB. Absence of LDH activity in DB fraction after gel filtration indicates the presence of albumin in sample and vice versa

Exosomes and Their Role in Viral Infections

Exosomes are excretory nano-vesicles that are formed by the cell’s endocytic system and shed from the surface of almost all types of cells. These tiny extracellular vesicles, once thought to be “garbage bags for cells,” carry a wide variety of molecules of cellular origin, including proteins, lipids, and RNAs, that are selectively incorporated during the formation of exosomes. Exosomes are now known to play a central role in several important biological processes such as cellular communication, intercellular transfer of bioactive molecules, and immune modulation. Recent advances in the field have shown that a number of animal viruses can exploit the exosomal pathway by incorporating specific cellular or viral factors within exosomes, in order to modulate the cellular microenvironment and influence downstream processes such as host immunity and virus spread. In this chapter, we provide an overview of our current understanding of exosome biogenesis and how this normal physiological process is hijacked by some pathogenic viruses. Viral components that appear to be selectively incorporated into exosomes and the potential role of these exosomes in viral pathogenesis are discussed. Identifying viral signatures in exosomes and their mode of action is fundamental for any future diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for viral infections

Huge Multinodular Goiter with occult carcinoma: A case report

Enlarged nodular goiters are becoming increasingly infrequent. They are still common in certain geographical areas and can present with compressive symptoms to the trachea, oesophagus and recurrent laryngeal nerve. Surgical treatment of enlarge goiter involves a high degree of skill which can lead to serious complications. We present a case 73 year old female patient who had huge enlarged multinodular goiter for more than 15 years. Surgery was planned and thyroidectomy was done. Surgical excision resolved the local symptoms. Histopathological examination revealed papillary carcinoma with multiple cysts and areas of haemorrhage and necrosis

Assessment of cardiovascular risk in primary care.

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A phase I/II study of rovalpituzumab tesirine in delta-like 3-expressing advanced solid tumors

Delta-like protein 3 (DLL3) is highly expressed in solid tumors, including neuroendocrine carcinomas/neuroendocrine tumors (NEC/NET). Rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) is a DLL3-targeting antibody-drug conjugate. Patients with NECs and other advanced DLL3-expressing tumors were enrolled in this phase I/II study (NCT02709889). The primary endpoint was safety. Two hundred patients were enrolled: 101 with NEC/NET (large-cell NEC, gastroenteropancreatic NEC, neuroendocrine prostate cancer, and other NEC/NET) and 99 with other solid tumors (melanoma, medullary thyroid cancer [MTC], glioblastoma, and other). The recommended phase II dose (RP2D) was 0.3 mg/kg every 6 weeks (q6w) for two cycles. At the RP2D, grade 3/4 adverse events included anemia (17%), thrombocytopenia (15%), and elevated aspartate aminotransferase (8%). Responses were confirmed in 15/145 patients (10%) treated at 0.3 mg/kg, including 9/69 patients (13%) with NEC/NET. Rova-T at 0.3 mg/kg q6w had manageable toxicity, with antitumor activity observed in patients with NEC/NET, melanoma, MTC, and glioblastoma

The modified Adomian decomposition method for solving Chaotic Lü system

In this paper, a numerical scheme based on adaption of standard adomian decomposition method (ADM) is applied to thechaotic Lü system. Then, the standard ADM is converted into a hybrid numeric-analytic method called the modified ADM (MADM). Numerical comparisons with the standard ADM and the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method (RK4) is made in order to prove that MADM is the reliable method for nonlinear problems

Estimating Joint Probability Distribution With Low-Rank Tensor Decomposition, Radon Transforms and Dictionaries

In this paper, we describe a method for estimating the joint probability density from data samples by assuming that the underlying distribution can be decomposed as a mixture of product densities with few mixture components. Prior works have used such a decomposition to estimate the joint density from lower-dimensional marginals, which can be estimated more reliably with the same number of samples. We combine two key ideas: dictionaries to represent 1-D densities, and random projections to estimate the joint distribution from 1-D marginals, explored separately in prior work. Our algorithm benefits from improved sample complexity over the previous dictionary-based approach by using 1-D marginals for reconstruction. We evaluate the performance of our method on estimating synthetic probability densities and compare it with the previous dictionary-based approach and Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs). Our algorithm outperforms these other approaches in all the experimental settings

Surgical Audit of Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: Analysis of various cases admitted to surgical unit of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from Jan 2016 – Dec 2016 at Department of General Surgery, PIMS Islamabad. The record of all the cases admitted in Surgical Unit II during the year 2016 was reviewed. All data was collected on a specially designed performa that included basic information of patients like demographics characters, mode of admission i.e. emergency, outpatient department, referred or transferred from another unit, management i.e. operation or conservative treatment, the outcome of management i.e. discharge, referred or death, and the presence of co-morbidities. Data was recorded and analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Results: Total number of admissions during the study period was 822, out of these 54.3% (n=447) were males and 45.60% (n=375) were females. The mean age of the patients was 35.9. The Record showed that 33.09% procedures were performed in an emergency while 66.91% were elective. Among these appendicectomy was the commonest emergency procedure while cholecystectomy was the commonest elective procedure. Majority of patients (94.89%) were discharged with full recovery and there were 19 (2.31%) deaths. Conclusion: Most patients were managed by surgery elective. Cholecystectomy being the most common elective procedure followed by breast surgeries and Appendicectomy was the most common operation performed in emergency. In Pakistan, there is a need for Surgical Audit in our hospitals for proper planning and betterment of health care system of the country. It is recommended to start computerized audit and sharing of patient’s database

Fibre-sized energy generation in multi-functional fabrics

This study investigates the prospects of manufacturing Piezo-fabrics with embedded piezoelectric yarns that have the potential to convert the human movement-induced mechanical strain on the fabric into electrical energy. The impact of fabric architecture on electrical power output and the translation of simulated work (in ANSYS) into real electrical outputs through the experimental validation of the piezoelectric yarns was also investigated