Insulinoma is a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour that primarily leads to episodes of hypoglycaemia due to inappropriate and excessive secretion of insulin. It classically presents with neuroglycopenic and autonomic sympathetic symptoms, which resolve promptly with glucose administration. Elevated level of insulin and Cpeptide in the presence of low plasma glucose level and absence of plasma sulfonylurea are diagnostic features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses significant challenges to global public health. The major cause of AMR development is previous use of antibiotics, hospitalization, and the lack of efficient methods for screening AMR pathogens. Mass spectrometry techniques offer rapid, sensitive, and early detection of AMR both on proteomics and metabolomics levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Incentive-linked prescribing, which is when healthcare providers accept incentives from pharmaceutical companies for prescribing promoted medicines, is a form of bribery that harms patients and health systems globally. We developed a novel method using data collectors posing as pharmaceutical company sales representatives to evaluate private doctors' engagement in incentive-linked prescribing and the impact of a multifaceted educational intervention on reducing this practice in Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods: We made a sampling frame of all doctors running for-profit, primary-care clinics and randomly allocated participants to control and intervention groups (1:1).
Introduction: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a common vasculitis predominantly affecting larger vessels, especially in individuals aged 70-79. Cerebrovascular ischemic events (CIE), such as stroke and transient ischemic attacks, are serious but rare complications of GCA, with a pooled prevalence of 4%. Some studies found that within 2 weeks of GCA diagnosis, 74% and 34% of patients experience transient or severe ischemic events, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIce melting, a common yet complex phenomenon, remains incompletely understood. While theoretical studies suggest that preexisting defects in ice generate "off-lattice" water molecules, triggering bulk ice melting, direct experimental evidence of their form has been lacking as the transparent and transient nature of ice poses significant challenges for observation with current techniques. Here, we introduce an ice-melting-induced lyophilization (IMIL) technique that employs graphene-based nanoprobes to replicate and track liquid evolution within melting bulk ice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF