Determination of correlation between cytokines IL 6, IL8, IL10, IL12, IL17 and severity of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients having hepatitis C.

Objectives: To determine the correlation between the levels of interleukins 6, 8, 10, 12 and 17 and the severity of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients positive for hepatitis C.

Methods: The retrospective, cross-sectional, analytical study was conducted at the Department of Medicine, Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and comprised data of hepatocellular carcinoma patients who were positive for hepatitis C on polymerase chain reaction test from March 2021 to December 2022. A control group of healthy patients was also included.

Outcomes of Double-Face Buccal Mucosal Urethroplasty for Treating Anterior Urethral Stricture in Adult Males.

Objective: To assess the results of double-face buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty (BMG) for treating anterior urethral stricture in adult males.

Study Design: An observational study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Urology, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi, Pakistan, from 2021 to 2022.

Outdoor thermal sensation scale through biometeorological assessment for semi-arid climate.

Extreme temperatures in urban areas cause discomfort leading to a rise in health risks, like heat-related mortality (hyperthermia). It is, hence, important to have a comfortable thermal environment. Assessing outdoor thermal comfort is challenging and complicated due to its dependencies on biometeorological and psychological factors.

Discharge Perfection: Assessing Documentation Quality at Mardan Medical Complex, Pakistan (2024 Audit Debut).

Background Patient discharge summaries not only play a vital role in ensuring continuity of care and patient safety but also serve as a communication tool between the primary and tertiary care settings. However, despite their paramount importance, most discharge summaries are either inaccurate or miss essential clinical information, posing considerable danger to patients. This clinical audit assesses the quality of discharge summaries at Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan, Pakistan, to identify areas for improvement.

Correlation between plasma fibrinogen levels and microvascular complications in type 2 diabetes.

Objectives: To determine how plasma fibrinogen levels impact the severity of microvascular complications in people with type 2 diabetes while focussing on the molecular mechanisms of fibrinogen's role in such complications.

Methods: The analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2022 to March 2023 at the Department of Medicine, Mardan Medical Complex and Teaching Hospital, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and comprised adult patients of either gender who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and microvascular complications. Each patient was subjected to an evaluation of microvascular complications, including diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy, using validated diagnostic criteria and clinical examinations.

Endemic Bladder Stone Disease in Children, Pattern And Current Management: Experience From A Centre In Peri-Urban Setting In Pakistan.

Purpose: To share our recent experience of the pattern and demography of endemic bladder calculi in children and the outcomes of current management strategies for the removal of bladder calculi in a peri-urban setting.

Material And Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study was carried out at a dedicated urology centre. All patients with endemic bladder stones from January 2020 to December 2021 managed at our centre were included in this study.

Microscopic investigation and pharmacognostic evaluation of leaves of Anemone rupicola Camb.

There is almost no scientific literature available on the phytochemistry and pharmacognosy of this plant so the basic aim of the study is to analyze pharmacognostic features of dried leaves of Anemone rupicola Camb. Morphology was studied by using the features like margins, shape, length, width, surface and so forth. For anatomical examination leaves were preserved in formalin acetic alcohol (FAA) and cutting the thin section of leaves and petiole with razor blade.

Dynamics of the time-fractional reaction-diffusion coupled equations in biological and chemical processes.

This paper aims to demonstrate a numerical strategy via finite difference formulations for time fractional reaction-diffusion models which are ubiquitous in chemical and biological phenomena. The time-fractional derivative is considered in the Caputo sense for both linear and nonlinear problems. First, the Caputo derivative is replaced with a quadrature formula, then an implicit method is used for the remaining part.

Repurposing of Plant-based Antiviral Molecules for the Treatment of COVID-19.

COVID-19, stemming from SARS-CoV-2, poses a formidable threat to global healthcare, with a staggering 77 million confirmed cases and 690,067 deaths recorded till December 24, 2023. Given the absence of specific drugs for this viral infection, the exploration of novel antiviral compounds becomes imperative. High-throughput technologies are actively engaged in drug discovery, and there is a parallel effort to repurpose plant-based molecules with established antiviral properties.

Epidemiology Of Male Urethral Strictures In Pakistan.

Urethral stricture disease is relatively common in Pakistan, constituting 4-5% of the urological workload. Despite the high prevalence, little is known about its epidemiology in the country. The current narrative review comprised search on PubMed, Pak MediNet and Google Scholar databases for studies done in Pakistan and published between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2021.

Homozygous Mutations in and Genes Resulted in Autosomal Recessive Forms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease in Consanguineous Pakistani Families.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is a heritable neurodegenerative disease of peripheral nervous system diseases in which more than 100 genes and their mutations are associated. Two consanguineous families Dera Ghazi Khan (PAK-CMT1-DG KHAN) and Layyah (PAK-CMT2-LAYYAH) with multiple CMT-affected subjects were enrolled from Punjab province in Pakistan. Basic epidemiological data were collected for the subjects.

Traditional uses, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology of the Genus : A High-value Medicinal Plant.

Biologically active secondary metabolites, essential oils, and volatile compounds derived from medicinal and aromatic plants play a crucial role in promoting human health. Within the large family Asteraceae, the genus consists of approximately 500 species. species have a rich history in traditional medicine worldwide, offering remedies for a wide range of ailments, such as malaria, jaundice, toothache, gastrointestinal problems, wounds, inflammatory diseases, diarrhoea, menstrual pains, skin disorders, headache, and intestinal parasites.

Evaluation of predictive factors of renal function recovery in renal failure secondary to urinary tract obstruction.

Objective: To determine the factors associated with renal function recovery in individuals with kidney failure due to obstruction in the urinary tract.

Methods: The prospective, descriptive study was conducted July 2020 to August 2021 at the Department of Urology, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi, and comprised adult patients of either gender who had renal failure secondary to obstructive urinary tract. Baseline data regarding patients' variables, including age, gender, duration of symptoms (<25 days or >25 days), haemoglobin (<9.

Vision beyond the Field-of-View: A Collaborative Perception System to Improve Safety of Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems.

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) that interact with each other to achieve common goals are known as collaborative CPSs. Collaborative CPSs can achieve complex goals that individual CPSs cannot achieve on their own. One of the examples of collaborative CPSs is the vehicular cyber-physical systems (VCPSs), which integrate computing and physical resources to interact with each other to improve traffic safety, situational awareness, and efficiency.

Fabrication of a Double Core-Shell Particle-Based Magnetic Nanocomposite for Effective Adsorption-Controlled Release of Drugs.

There has been very limited work on the control loading and release of the drugs aprepitant and sofosbuvir. These drugs need a significant material for the control of their loading and release phenomenon that can supply the drug at its target site. Magnetic nanoparticles have characteristics that enable them to be applied in biomedical fields and, more specifically, as a drug delivery system when they are incorporated with a biocompatible polymer.

Augmentation Cystoplasty in Adult Patients with Renal Impairment.

Bladder augmentation is beneficial in patients with neurogenic bladder due to spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and tuberculous bladder. This retrospective study was done to determine the outcome of augmentation cystoplasty in adult patients with renal dysfunction. The study was done at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), Karachi from January 2010 till December 2019.

SafeSoCPS: A Composite Safety Analysis Approach for System of Cyber-Physical Systems.

The System of Cyber-Physical Systems (SoCPS) comprises several independent Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) that interact with each other to achieve a common mission that the individual systems cannot achieve on their own. SoCPS are rapidly gaining attention in various domains, e.g.

In-Plane Seismic Strengthening of Brick Masonry Using Steel and Plastic Meshes.

Unreinforced masonry structures are vulnerable to seismic loading due to their brittle behavior, and must therefore be strengthened. This paper presents the seismic performance of brick masonry strengthened with steel and plastic meshes. For this purpose, twenty masonry wallets of (600 × 600 × 113 mm) were constructed, keeping the same materials and workmanship.

Numerical Solutions of Variable Coefficient Higher-Order Partial Differential Equations Arising in Beam Models.

In this work, an efficient and robust numerical scheme is proposed to solve the variable coefficients' fourth-order partial differential equations (FOPDEs) that arise in Euler-Bernoulli beam models. When partial differential equations (PDEs) are of higher order and invoke variable coefficients, then the numerical solution is quite a tedious and challenging problem, which is our main concern in this paper. The current scheme is hybrid in nature in which the second-order finite difference is used for temporal discretization, while spatial derivatives and solutions are approximated via the Haar wavelet.

Induction of Semi-Dwarf Trait to a Three Pistil Tall Mutant Through Breeding With Increased Grain Numbers in Wheat.

Multi-ovary wheat (three pistil) is a unique germplasm for the seed production of hybrid wheat. The purpose of the present study was to transfer the multi-ovary trait to semi-dwarf plants to increase the production of grains in wheat crops. Therefore, tall, semi-dwarf, and dwarf plants were crossed with plants with the three-pistil trait.

Past, Present and Future of Urology in Pakistan.

There is very little published literature on urologic diseases prior to 1947 from areas now constituting Pakistan. From inception of the country to 1970s, urology was part of surgery practiced by general surgeons except for two urology units established in 1960s. The real take off of urology began with introduction of transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) in 1980s, ushering the era of endourology; the second era of which began with ureteroscopy along with extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) in 1987-1989, percutaneous nephrolithotomy in 1992 and introduction of percutaneous nephrostomy in 1997.

Morpho-palynological investigation of gymnospermal flora from subalpine and alpine zones of northern Pakistan using LM and SEM.

The pollen morphology, with special reference to exine sculpture, of some species of the gymnosperms was assessed for the first time from the subalpine and alpine zones of western Himalayas northern Pakistan. The pollen of all these species is airborne and allergenic, so pollen morphology helps for identification of this allergenic pollen at specific level. Different morpho-palynological characteristics were analyzed including size range of pollen, polar and equatorial diameter ratio, exine ornamentation, sculpturing, exine thickness, pollen type, and shape.

Outcomes of Cystectomy with MAINZ Pouch II and Epispadias Repair in Exstrophy Epispadias Complex in Adults: A Single-centre Experience from Pakistan.

Objective: To evaluate surgical outcomes and renal functions after cystectomy + MAINZ Pouch II and epispadias repair as a staged procedure in adult patients with exstrophy epispadias complex (EEC).

Study Design: Descriptive study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Department of Urology, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), Karachi, from January 2004 to December 2020.