HLA- DR Alleles in Pakistani Patients of Pemphigus Vulgaris.

Objective: To determine frequency of HLA-DR alleles in Pakistani patients of pemphigus vulgaris in comparison with local healthy controls.

Study Design: Cross-sectional, comparative study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Department of Immunology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, from January 2011 to January 2014.

End-of-Treatment-Response in patients treated for hepatitis C virus with standard interferon and ribavirin based on viral load.

Objective: To determine the End-of-Treatment-Response (ETR) to standard interferon and ribavirin based regimen in patients of chronic hepatitis C and to compare the ETR response in low and high viral load groups.

Study Design: Descriptive study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Virology Department, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, from March 2012 to May 2013.

High prevalence of protein C, protein S, antithrombin deficiency, and Factor V Leiden mutation as a cause of hereditary thrombophilia in patients of venous thromboembolism and cerebrovascular accident.

Objectives: To determine the frequency of Protein C, Protein S (PC & PS), antithrombin deficiency (AT III) and Factor V Leiden mutation (FVL) as a cause of thrombophilia in the patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) and cerebrovascular accident (CVA).

Methods: It was an observational study conducted at Department of Haematology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, Pakistan. All patients referred for thrombophilia screening from July 2009 to June 2012 were screened.

Impact of nucleic acid amplification test on screening of blood donors in Northern Pakistan.

Background: The Armed Forces Institute of Transfusion located in Rawalpindi, Northern Pakistan, acts as a regional blood center with more than 50,000 donations collected annually. Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) was introduced in our institution in September 2012 for screening all seronegative blood donors.

Study Design And Methods: The study was conducted from September 21, 2012, to September 20, 2013.

Frequency of p53 gene mutation and protein expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: To determine the frequency of p53 gene mutation and protein expression in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) and to establish correlation between the two.

Study Design: Analytical study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Histopathology Department and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, from May 2010 to May 2011.

Molecular and serological assessment of chronic HBV carriers and additional burden of applying updated guidelines in Pakistan.

Objective: To assess the additional burden of the patients eligible for treatment, based on recommendations on viral load, in the light of 2009 version of AASLD guidelines, as compared to 2004 guidelines and to determine the frequency of HBeAg in chronic HBV carriers.

Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Virology Department, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, from November 2010 to January 2012.

Age-related frequency of triple negative breast cancer in women.

Objective: To determine frequency of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in Pakistani women with respect to age.

Study Design: Observational study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, from July 2005 to July 2010.

CD 10 expression intensity in various grades and stages of urothelial carcinoma of urinary bladder.

Objective: To evaluate CD10 expression in urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder and the association of immunohistochemical (IHC) CD10 expression intensity with grade and stage.

Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional analytical study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, from January to December 2011.

Changing pattern of malignancies: analysis of histopathology based tumour registry data and comparison of three decades at Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Objective: To assess the pattern of malignancies from tumour registry data and to find any changing pattern by comparing corresponding data from earlier periods.

Methods: The descriptive study was carried out at the Department of Histopathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, Pakistan. All malignant tumours from 2002-2011 were analysed for age groups, gender distribution, and type of tumour with relation to the site.

Comparison of friedewald formula and modified friedewald formula with direct homogeneous assay for low density lipoprotein cholesterol estimation.

Objective: To compare the Friedewald and modified Friedewald formulae with direct homogeneous assay for serum lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels estimation.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, from June to December 2011.

HLA-DR alleles among Pakistani patients of coeliac disease.

Objectives: To investigate whether certain DR alleles might also contribute to the genetic susceptibility among Coeliac disease patients in Pakistan.

Methods: The case-control study was conducted at the Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, from October 2011 to January 2012, and analysed 25 children diagnosed to have coeliac disease as per the criteria set by the European Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, which included histopathological alterations in duodenal biopsies, clinical response to gluten withdrawal, and presence of anti-endomyseal antibodies. Patients were compared with a group of 150 healthy subjects.

Pseudocitrobacter gen. nov., a novel genus of the Enterobacteriaceae with two new species Pseudocitrobacter faecalis sp. nov., and Pseudocitrobacter anthropi sp. nov, isolated from fecal samples from hospitalized patients in Pakistan.

Four isolates of Gram-negative facultatively anaerobic bacteria, three of them producing NDM-1 carbapenemase, were isolated from hospitalized patients and outpatients attending two military hospitals in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and studied for their taxonomic position. Initially the strains were phenotypically identified as Citrobacter species. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences then showed that the four strains shared >97%, but in no case >98.

Validation of modified estimated glomerular filtration rate in chronic kidney disease patients.

Objective: To derive the ethnic factor and validate the modified estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) by Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients of Rawalpindi.

Study Design: Cross- sectional study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, from July 2011 to July 2012.

Adverse effects of low dose methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Objective: To determine the frequency of adverse effects attributed to Methotrexate (MTX) toxicity and serum minimum toxic concentration with low dose MTX in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients.

Study Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Department of Chemical Pathology and Endocrinology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, from March 2010 to March 2011.

Development of mouse hybridomas for production of monoclonal antibodies specific to Burkholderia mallei and Burkholderia pseudomallei.

Burkholderia mallei and B. pseudomallei are designated category B biothreat agents on the "select agents" list established by the NIH and CDC. Development of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that could effectively differentiate these two closely related species of bacteria and other non-pathogenic Burkholderia bacteria is urgently needed.

Characterization of acrylic polyamide plastic embolization particles in vitro and in human tissue sections by light microscopy, infrared microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis.

Vascular embolization is a well-established practice for the treatment of tumors and vascular lesions. Rounded beads (microspheres) of various materials (collagen, dextran and trisacryl-polymer-gelatin) were developed to solve problems encountered with earlier versions of embolic material. We performed histochemistry, Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis on two uterine and one hepatic specimen with unidentified intravascular foreign material, and examined a reference embolization product for comparison.

Limitations of tissue microarrays in the evaluation of focal alterations of bcl-2 and p53 in whole mount derived prostate tissues.

Several investigators have reported the correlation of p53 and bcl-2 immunoreactivity with post operative prostate specific antigen (PSA) recurrence. Focal and or clustered expression is typical for these biomarkers. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of tissue microarrays to detect p53 and bcl-2 overexpression and their prognostic significance.

Demonstration of de novo HIV type 1 production by detection of multiply spliced and unspliced HIV type 1 RNA in paraffin-embedded tonsils.

HIV-1 infection of tonsils takes place when virus spreads systemically, and may occur when tonsillar tissue serves as the initial portal of HIV-1 entry. The HIV replication cycle includes the production of regulatory and accessory gene mRNAs, produced by splicing of genomic mRNA, that are hallmarks of de novo virus production. We sought to demonstrate, for the first time, the presence of multiply spliced viral RNA transcripts in archival tissue as a marker for active virus replication.

Presenting features in Pakistani patients suffering from the antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody--classical subtype (c-ANCA) associated vasculitis.

Objectives: To study the clinicopathological features in c-ANCA positive patients suffering from vasculitis with a view to find out the most common mode of presentation.

Study Design: Retrospective.

Settings: Department of Immunology, AFIP, Rawalpindi, MH Rawalpindi, CMH Rawalpindi, Department of Rheumatology, PIMS, Islamabad, RGH Rawalpindi, FFH, Rawalpindi.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with primary manifestation in gonads--a clinicopathological study.

Analysis of 19 cases of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with primary manifestation in gonads, diagnosed during 1984-1990 at AFIP Rawalpindi is presented. It constituted 10.4% of all extranodal lymphomas during the same period in this institute.

Burkitt's lymphoma--a study of 50 consecutive cases.

A retrospective study of Burkitt's lymphoma done over a period of 7 years is presented. The relative frequency of Burkitt's lymphoma as compared to other non-Hodgkin's lymphomas was 6.35%.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma--clinicopathological pattern.

A study of histopathological and clinical features of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 495 consecutive cases, diagnosed at AFIP during 1984-1989 is presented. Children below the age of 15 years were not included in this study. The relative frequency of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was 4.

Gastric carcinoma--a study of 100 cases in northern Pakistan.

We describe 100 consecutive patients with histologically proven gastric carcinoma who were admitted to various hospitals in Northern Pakistan. Twenty-six per cent of patients were under 40 years of age. In a majority of patients the tumour was of a morphological type associated with poor prognosis.

Ossifying fibromyxoid tumor of soft parts. A clinicopathological analysis of 59 cases.

We describe 59 cases of a microscopically unique neoplasm that has not been previously reported. The tumor almost exclusively affected adults (range 14-79 years) and had a male predominance (38 men and 21 women). It presented in most cases as a small, painless, well-circumscribed mass (median, 4 cm) in subcutis or muscle.