Publications by authors named "Paracha M"

Article Synopsis
  • Continuous chromosome missegregation, or chromosomal instability (CIN), is common in cancer and can lead to cell death if levels exceed a certain threshold.* -
  • Cancer cells with higher CIN show increased sensitivity to ionizing radiation, as seen in both HPV-positive and negative head and neck cancer models, and laryngeal tumors with high CIN respond better to radiation therapy.* -
  • Docetaxel, a chemotherapeutic drug, enhances radiation sensitivity through CIN by creating abnormal cell division (multipolar spindles), challenging previous assumptions about its mechanism and highlighting CIN as a potential biomarker for radiation response in cancer treatment.*
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Leptomeningeal metastasis/leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (LMC; terms used interchangeably) is an inflammatory complication of primary tumors that involves the spread of the disease to the meninges (specifically the arachnoid and pia maters) and spinal cord. In the United States, approximately 110,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and the prognosis is usually poor. Complications of LMC include cognitive impairment, cranial nerve dysfunction, ischemic stroke, and mortality.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pakistan has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, and a study was conducted to assess the prevalence of TB in adults and the risk of M. tuberculosis infection in children in Karachi, focusing on areas with and without prior active case-finding (ACF) activities.
  • The research involved surveys between March 2018 and May 2019, with almost 35,000 adults and over 1,500 children participating, revealing a higher prevalence of TB in areas with no prior ACF (421 cases per 100,000) compared to areas with prior ACF (279 cases per 100,000).
  • The findings indicated that ACF efforts in Korangi district likely reduced TB prevalence and transmission,
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Advances in connectivity, communication, computation, and algorithms are driving a revolution that will bring economic and social benefits through smart technologies of the Industry 4.0 era. At the same time, attackers are targeting this expanded cyberspace to exploit it.

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Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune pathology manifested by loss of hair.

Objective: To evaluate and compare the efficacy and safety of tofacitinib and azathioprine in patients with AA and variants.

Methods: In this double-blind randomized controlled trail (RCT) carried out at the Department of Dermatology, Medical Teaching Institute-Lady Reading Hospital (MTI-LRH), Peshawar, Pakistan, patients aged ≥ 12 years diagnosed with AA, alopecia totalis (AT) or alopecia universalis (AU) with minimum 50% scalp hair loss for a period ≥ 06 years were included.

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Peripheral neuropathy and amputation are common complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) that significantly impact the quality of life of the affected individuals. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of peripheral neuropathy, the level of amputation, and the quality of life in patients with DM. This cross-sectional study was conducted after approval of the synopsis involving 225 diagnosed patients with DM on pre-defined eligibility criteria, selected from public sector OPDs, specialized diabetes centres, and centres manufacturing orthotics and prosthetics.

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Introduction: Paraneoplastic encephalitis (PE) represents a rare but significant complication in patients with testicular cancer (TC). Given the paucity of comprehensive literature on this topic, our review seeks to consolidate current knowledge and provide evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis, prognosis, and management of PE in the context of TC.

Materials And Methods: In adherence to PRISMA guidelines, a systematic literature review was conducted from 1950 to April 2024 using PubMed.

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Objective: To examine recent literature and determine common clinical risk factors between antecedent traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the following development of opioid misuse and provide a framework for clinical identification of at-risk subjects and evaluate potential treatment implications within this association.

Design: A comprehensive systematic literature search of PubMed was conducted for articles between 2000 and December 2022. Studies were included if the human participant had any head trauma exposure and any chronic opioid use or dependence.

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Many antipsychotic (AP) medications work by reducing dopamine levels. As hyperdopaminergia is known to cause psychosis, antipsychotics work to relieve these symptoms by antagonizing dopamine receptors and lowering dopamine levels. Dopamine is also a known negative modulator of the prolactin pathway, which allows for drug agents like dopamine agonists (DAs) to be incredibly effective in managing tumors that secrete excess prolactin (prolactinomas).

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Background: Previous studies showed that deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals have low health literacy related to prescription labels. This study examined the DHH's experience with understanding prescription labels and how technology can impact that experience.

Objectives: The purpose of this qualitative study was twofold: (1) gain a more enhanced understanding of DHH experiences in understanding prescription labels with a focus on language needs, expectations, and preferences, and (2) assess the potential role of technology in addressing the communication-related accessibility issues which emerge from the data.

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Objective: To review the current literature surrounding the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and opioid use disorder (OUD) to guide clinical identification of high-risk individuals and assess treatment implications.

Design: A PubMed search was conducted from the year 2000 to 2022 using a series of primary and secondary search terms. A total of 21,524 unique results were screened for relevancy to ACEs and OUDs.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates healthcare disparities faced by Deaf individuals using American Sign Language (ASL) in the emergency department (ED), focusing on their access to common care practices compared to hearing individuals.
  • - Data from ED visits in 2018 showed that Deaf ASL users were significantly less likely to receive laboratory tests, peripheral intravenous lines, and imaging compared to hearing patients, along with fewer hospital admissions.
  • - The findings indicate a systemic issue in the provision of ED care for Deaf patients, highlighting the need for further research to understand and address these disparities.
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The advancements and reliance on digital data necessitates dependence on information technology. The growing amount of digital data and their availability over the Internet have given rise to the problem of information security. With the increase in connectivity among devices and networks, maintaining the information security of an asset has now become essential for an organization.

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Chromosome segregation during mitosis is highly regulated to ensure production of genetically identical progeny. Recurrent mitotic errors cause chromosomal instability (CIN), a hallmark of tumors. The E6 and E7 oncoproteins of high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical, anal, and head and neck cancers (HNC), cause mitotic defects consistent with CIN in models of anogenital cancers, but this has not been studied in the context of HNC.

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A seven-year retrospective study was held at the Department of Dermatology, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, between 2013 to 2020 to determine the demography and clinical features of pemphigus. Among 148 patients included in this study 88 (58%) were females and 60 (40%) were males with a female to male ratio of 1.46:1.

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 The H-index (H ), an author-level metric of scholarly impact, is predictive of future scientific achievement. We sought to analyze the scholarly impact of student authorship on the H of corresponding authors (CAs) within a major academic journal in the specialty of ophthalmology.  We compared the H of all unique CAs for manuscripts published in (Journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology) in 2008, 2012, and 2016.

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Background: Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is a morbid condition that generates stigmatization and disfiguring scars. Pakistan is among the ninety-eight countries where cutaneous Leishmaniasis is endemic. Purpose of study was to compare the efficacy of miltefosine and meglumine antimoniate in the treatment of cutaneous Leishmaniasis.

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Background: Acne vulgaris is a commonly diagnosed dermatological condition characterised by pilosebaceous unit blockage or inflammation. It may manifest as inflammatory, non-inflammatory, or a combination of the two. The acne vulgaris mostly the face of individual and chest and back of individual is also affected sometime.

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Background: Azathioprine is first line immunosuppressive agent in treatment of chronic actinic dermatitis. The role of methotrexate has been effective in different dermatosis and it seems reasonable to use it in the treatment of chronic actinic dermatitis.

Aims: We sought to compare the efficacy of methotrexate versus azathioprine in treatment of chronic actinic dermatitis.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study compares nonmotor symptoms (NMS) in early Parkinson's disease (PD) patients versus non-PD individuals using data from two observational studies.
  • Results show that NMS are more prevalent in PD, with sexual dysfunction and anosmia being particularly significant.
  • The findings indicate that while many NMS are more common in early PD, their frequency can vary over time and depending on how they are assessed.
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Persistent/chronic inflammatory pain involves multiple pathophysiological mechanisms and is far more complex than acute/momentary pain. Current therapeutics for chronic inflammatory pain are often not effective because the etiology responsible for the pain is not addressed by traditional pharmacological treatments. Cathepsin K is a cysteine protease that has mostly been studied in the context of bone and joint disorders.

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The automated generation of radiology reports provides X-rays and has tremendous potential to enhance the clinical diagnosis of diseases in patients. A new research direction is gaining increasing attention that involves the use of hybrid approaches based on natural language processing and computer vision techniques to create auto medical report generation systems. The auto report generator, producing radiology reports, will significantly reduce the burden on doctors and assist them in writing manual reports.

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Introduction: Understanding the trend of student authorship is crucial in determining its correlation to scholarly impact for corresponding authors. Our objective is to investigate student authorship rates over time in articles published in JAMA Internal Medicine (IM), as well as to examine potential effects student authors have on scholarly impact scores of corresponding authors via H-index measures.

Methods: Authorship data including student authors (SA), first student authors, and corresponding authors (CA) from prior JAMA IM publications between 2010 and 2018 were collected, with a total of 701 studies.

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Assessment of the effectiveness of tuberculosis control strategies requires the periodic measurement of transmission in populations, which is notoriously difficult. One well-established method is to measure the prevalence of infectious pulmonary tuberculosis in the population which is then repeated at a second time point after a period of 'intervention', such as scale up of the Search-Treat-Prevent strategy of the Zero TB Cities initiative, allowing for a 'before and after' comparison.  The concurrent adult pulmonary tuberculosis prevalence survey (using digital radiography and Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra) and child infection survey (using QuantiFERON-TB® Gold Plus) will primarily provide a baseline measure of the burden of adult infectious tuberculosis in Karachi and assess whether a large-scale interferon gamma release assay survey in children aged 2 to 4 years is feasible.

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Microsatellite instability (MSI) is a molecular marker of deficient DNA mismatch repair (dMMR) that is found in approximately 15% of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Testing all CRC patients for MSI/dMMR is recommended as screening for Lynch Syndrome and, more recently, to determine eligibility for immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced disease. However, universal testing for MSI/dMMR has not been uniformly implemented because of cost and resource limitations.

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