Publications by authors named "Akhtar Ahmed"

The use of blockchain technology has been proposed to provide auditable access control for individual resources. Unlike the case where all resources are owned by a single organization, this work focuses on distributed applications such as business processes and distributed workflows. These applications are often composed of multiple resources/services that are subject to the security and access control policies of different organizational domains.

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Objective: To assess the outcomes of low-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) with tumour size 1 to 4 cm post-thyroidectomy in patients who never received radioactive iodine (RAI) ablation and to compare the outcomes with those who received RAI therapy.

Study Design: Observational study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (KIRAN) Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2016 to December 2020.

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Background Liver surgery is a major and challenging procedure for the surgeon, the anesthetist, and the patient. The objective of this study was to evaluate the postoperative nonhepatic complications of patients undergoing liver resection surgery with perioperative factors. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 79 patients who underwent liver resection surgeries at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore, Pakistan, from July 2015 to December 2022.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the value of absolute renal uptake (ARU %) in patients by using Tc-99m MAG-3 and Tc-99m DMSA scan.

Material And Methods: Absolute renal uptake is calculated using Tc-99m MAG-3 and Tc-99m DMSA in renal scintigraphy, Itoh and Tauex kidney depth methods used, respectively. n = 40 adult patients of both genders were included.

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Current Internet of Things (IoT) devices provide a diverse range of functionalities, ranging from measurement and dissemination of sensory data observation, to computation services for real-time data stream processing. In extreme situations such as emergencies, a significant benefit of IoT devices is that they can help gain a more complete situational understanding of the environment. However, this requires the ability to utilize IoT resources while taking into account location, battery life, and other constraints of the underlying edge and IoT devices.

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Insulinoma, a neuroendocrine tumor originating from pancreatic islets, presents unique challenges in diagnosis and management. We present a case of a 73-year-old female with recurrent hypoglycemia leading to syncope, who underwent emergency pancreatectomy for a secreting insulinoma with multiple comorbidities. This case report aims to shed light on the complexities of insulinoma management and the importance of tailored perioperative strategies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is the second most common type of invasive breast cancer and can have atypical metastatic patterns, including gastric involvement.
  • A 62-year-old woman showed signs of gastric outlet obstruction due to a gastric mass, which was initially thought to be primary adenocarcinoma based on endoscopic findings.
  • F-FDG PET/CT scans revealed both gastric and axillary metastases, prompting the need to differentiate between primary gastric cancer and metastatic breast ILC, as treatment options differ significantly.
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Potentially difficult airways warrant the use of airway adjuncts, which, if not used with caution, can cause trauma to the oral cavity. Although most operators are familiar with modern airway adjuncts, as they are not routinely used, adverse events can occur. Since its introduction, a video laryngoscope (VL) has been lauded as a necessary instrument for airway management in and out of the operating room.

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Objective: To see if transporting paediatric patents to operation theatres using a battery operated vehicle decreases preoperative anxiety and reduce incidents of postoperative adverse events.

Methods: The study was conducted from May to August 2019 at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Pakistan, and comprised paediatric patients aged 3-5 years assessed as American Society of Anaesthesiologists grade I and II who were scheduled to undergo elective intrathecal chemotherapy under general anaesthesia. The subjects were randomised into intervention group A and control group B.

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Cloud and edge-computing based platforms have enabled rapid development of distributed business process (BP) applications in a plug and play manner. However, these platforms do not provide the needed capabilities for identifying or repairing faults in BPs. Faults in BP may occur due to errors made by BP designers because of their lack of understanding of the underlying component services, misconfiguration of these services, or incorrect/incomplete BP workflow specifications.

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The most common complication of tracheostomy tubes in children is blockage of the tube. We report a case where ventilation after induction of anaesthesia was not possible even though there were no signs of impending obstruction. An eight-year-old child, recently diagnosed with left tonsillar embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, presented for an MRI face and bone marrow biopsy before starting treatment.

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An emergency response process outlines the workflow of different activities that need to be performed in response to an emergency. Effective emergency response requires communication and coordination with the operational systems belonging to different collaborating organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to establish information sharing and system-level interoperability among the diverse operational systems.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has identified weaknesses and stresses in the existing healthcare and governance system, even in the most developed countries. Given the scale and scope of the pandemic, existing healthcare systems are heavily resource constrained, and home-based isolation has been considered as a potential first step for reducing both the disease spread and the stress on the healthcare system. However, the needs and requirements of home-based isolation are extremely unique for each patient, depending on their medical condition and comorbidities, family responsibilities, and environmental constraints.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been evolving in Pakistan with the emergence of the United Kingdom, South African, and Brazilian variants. These variants of concern (VOC) are known for increased transmissibility and can also be responsible for avoiding immune responses. The gold standard to detect VOC is sequencing, however routine genomic surveillance in resource-limited countries like Pakistan is not always readily available.

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Objective To determine the proportion of patients receiving venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis after oncological surgeries as per the hospital standards and its comparison with the international guidelines. Methodology In the month of September 2019, all patients after elective oncological surgeries were reviewed for VTE prophylaxis administration and education. Results were shared with the department of surgery and Hospital Quality and Patient Safety Department.

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The use of blockchain technology has been proposed to provide auditable access control for individual resources. However, when all resources are owned by a single organization, such expensive solutions may not be needed. In this work we focus on distributed applications such as business processes and distributed workflows.

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Background & Objective: The high-throughput analysis of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) is an active area of biomarker research. The oral cancer remains a common cancer among Pakistani males that continues to present at an advance stage, thus exhibiting poor survival. MiRNA 21 (miR-21) is the most consistently over-expressed miRNA in different types of tumor tissues.

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Objective: A recent trend in diagnosis of oral cancer in young age is observed, however its impact on various clinicopathological parameters needs to be explored. The aim of the current study was to compare and analyze impact of age at diagnosis with clinicopathological parameters of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Methods: In this cross sectional study conducted at Department of Oncology Ziauddin Hospital Karachi, we included histologically confirmed cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma.

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Background & Objective: MiRNAs are a systematic class of small non-coding RNAs with impending role as tumor biomarkers. Our objective was to identify the level of expression of Mir-195 in patients with breast cancer along with its correlation with clinicopathologic features.

Methods: A total of 209 females in which 139 histologically diagnosed breast cancer (BC) cases and 70 healthy controls matched for age, their relative clinical and histopathological findings were recorded from their laboratory reports and hospital record of the patients.

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Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiation in squamous cell carcinoma of cervix and the frequency of acute toxicity.

Study Design: Case series.

Place And Duration Of Study: Department of Clinical Oncology, Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (KIRAN), Karachi, from September 2010 to September 2011.

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(99m)Tc MAG3 scintigraphic scan is sensitive at depicting focal parenchymal abnormalities and can be used for the measurement of overall renal function. We experienced a 5-year-old boy presenting with bilateral flank fain, intermittent urinary stream and dysuria. On the post-void delayed image of (99m)Tc MAG3 scintigraphic scan vesicoureteral reflux was detected in left non-functioning kidney, which was missed on voiding cystourethrography.

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The quantification of the tumour volume is essential for the assessment of therapy-induced changes. Traditional methods of assessing the response of neuroendocrine tumours using radiological methods yield poor results, particularly within the liver. The aim of this study was to establish whether it would be possible to identify a method using functional volumes to predict the response of tumours to various therapies.

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