Fine needle aspiration cytology of thyroid nodule: diagnostic accuracy and pitfalls

Background: To evaluate the utility of FNAC in patients with Thyroid Nodule. Methods: Records of all patients treated surgically for thyroid nodule(s) at Aga Khan University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2004 were reviewed. The patients who had pre operative FNAC as first line of the evaluation and the final post operative histopathology report available were included in the study. Results: 125 patients (90 female 35 male) had thyroid surgery. The cytological diagnosis was made according to following categories: Benign, Follicular lesion, Malignant and Inadequate sampling. Among 63 Benign cases , 57 were benign and 6 turned out to be malignant. Among 44 cases from Follicular group , 31 were benign and 13 were malignant. Out of 15 patients from Malignant group, 14 were malignant and 1 was benign. Among three patients from the Inadequate sampling group , 2 turned out to be benign and one was malignant. The overall results showed a sensitivity of 98%, specificity of 70%, and positive predictive value of 91%, negative predictive value of 93% and diagnostic accuracy of 91%. Conclusion: We conclude that FNAC is an invaluable and minimally invasive procedure for pre operative assessment of patients with a thyroid nodule in our setting as well. FNAC has high sensitivity in picking up malignancy in thyroid and also has high diagnostic accuracy in the evaluation of thyroid nodules

Frequency of NSAID induced peptic ulcer disease

Objective: To determine the frequency of peptic ulcer disease in patients on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). Methods: Record of eight hundred and twenty consecutive patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy; from January 1998 to December 2000 were reviewed. The endoscopic diagnosis varied from gastritis, peptic ulcer to duodenitis. The use of NSAID was documented by reviewing medical records of patients with peptic ulcer. Results: Peptic ulcers were found in 43% (353/820) patients. NSAID associated peptic ulcers were identified in 14.7% (52/353) patients. Diclofenac and aspirin were most common NSAIDs associated with peptic ulcers in 32.7% (17/52) and 30.7% (16/52) patients, respectively. Duodenal ulcer was more common than gastric ulcer 65.3% (34/52) and 42.3% (22/52), respectively. H. pylori infection was present in 46% (24/52) of the cases. NSAIDs treatment and / or H. pylori infection compared to non NSAIDs and non H. pylori infected peptic ulcer disease were significantly associated with gastric ulcer (p = 0.004) and duodenal ulcer (p = 0.009) respectively. Conclusion: NSAID-associated peptic ulcer disease is common in Pakistan and most frequently associated with gastric and duodenal ulcer. H. pylori infection is common in association with NSAID related peptic ulcers (JPMA 56:218;2006

New Criteria for Meromorphic Multivalent Alpha-Convex Functions

The aim of the present paper is to obtain sufficient condition for the class of meromorphic p-valent alpha convex functions of order ξ and then to study mapping properties of the newly defined integral operators. Many known results appeared as special consequences of our work

Analysis of Ellis Fluid in Wire Coating

The focus of the present work is concerned with the study of wire coating analysis using Ellis fluid. Using the binomial series method, closed form solution is obtained and further in the closed form of solution, we discussed a special case for the parameter , and obtained the expressions for axial velocity, shear stress, average velocity, volume flow rate and temperature distribution. Thickness of the coated wire and force on the total wire are also calculated. The effect of different parameters of interest on the variation of the velocity profile, volume flow rate, shear stress, radius of coated wire and force on the total wire are discussed and presented graphically

Climatic data acquisition system for satellite communications

Several climatic dynamic phenomena such as rain and turbulence can seriously affect the quality of satellite communications. This project presents the design and implementation of a data acquisition system. The system provides accurate vital information to facilitate proper analysis of anticipated problems so that solutions can be incorporated when designing earth-satellite systems. Signals from the beacon of MEASAT3 located at 91.5ËšE orbit is received by a 2.4 meter Parabolic dish. The signal is measured in real-time by a Spectrum Analyzer using a General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) cable which provides high speed transmission. The system is equipped with a synchronized 0.2mm tipping bucket rain gauge. For data logging and analysis a system was developed using LabView version 8.6. The logging process involves data recording every 0.1 second

Bis(1,3-dibutylthiourea)dicyanido­mercury(II)

In the title compound, [Hg(CN)2(C9H20N2S)2], the Hg atom lies on a twofold rotation axis. There is only half a mol­ecule in the asymmetric unit. The Hg atom has a distorted tetra­hedral coordination involving the S atoms of two 1-butyl-3-propyl­thio­urea groups and the C atoms of the two CN− anions. In the crystal packing, adjacent mol­ecules are connected by inter­molecular N—H⋯N and N—H⋯S hydrogen bonds, forming infinite chains in three dimensions

Public Debt and Economic Growth Nexus: Evidence from South Asia

It is well established in literature that the public debt and economic growth bear positive and non-linear relationship. However, in recent literature, evidence of no causal relationship is found when accounted for endogeneity in case of advanced economies (Panizza and Presbitero, 2014). Chudik, et al. (2017) analyse the data on forty countries and find no evidence of universally applicable threshold effect in the relationship between debt and growth. These advancements in the debt-growth literature provides the motivation to re-explore the relationship between public debt and economic growth under non-linearity and endogeneity in context of developing economies of South Asia including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri-Lanka for the period 1980-2014. There exists a significant, positive but non-linear relationship between the public debt and economic growth for the selected set of developing countries when accounted for endogeneity and non-linearity. The negative association between the public debt and economic growth for the SAARC region is found when the debt level is higher than 61% of GDP, which is significantly lower than developed economies (90% of GDP). Individual threshold levels for debt-to-GDP ratio divulge that Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India need to control their public borrowings as their current debt levels are higher and/or around the respective threshold levels

Extending Shelf Life of Guava Fruits by Mint oil and UVC Treatments

A lot of quarantine methods have been developed to replace fumigants in the control of arthropods and microorganisms in post–harvest management of fruits and vegetables. That is, guava fruit is infested in Sudan by a number of hexapods which include Ceratitis capitata Weid., Ceratitis quinaria (Bez.), Certatitis cosyra WLK., Bactrocera invadens Drew, Trusta & White and Bactrocera zonata (Saunders).This study aims at using some uncommonly used treatments in improving the storability of guava fruits in Sudan. That is, UVC (ultraviolet rays type C) and coating with mint oil were used to disinfest guava from fruit flies at ambient temperature. The results, after 9 days bench storage, showed an infestation percentage of 20, 33 and 38% for mint, UVC and the control, respectively. The corresponding data for the range of infestation were 18, 20 and 48 and for the mean number of insects in infested fruits were 8.3, 8.8 and 15.2. The quality indexes studied reflected 9.5, 20.5 and 22.6% weight loss, for the mint oil, UVC and the control lots, respectively. The corresponding data for marketable retention (%) were 100, 10 and 13; the fruit firmness, 1.6, 0.3, and 0.1; acidity (%), 0.2 for all; ascorbic acid (mg/ 100 g pulp), 196, 190, and 194; reducing sugar (g/ 100g), 8.2, 7.6, and 7.6; sensory quality includes appearance (%), 84, 42, and 30; taste (%), 79, 41, and 34; flavor (%), 88, 42, and 40, respectively. These results revealed the edge of mint oil coating over UVC and the untreated lots