Foundation University Medical Journal

Comparison of kidney transplantation outcomes in patient with Hepatitis C achieving Rapid Viral Response versus Complete Early Viral Response

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate graft survival and patient survival and renal function together with HCV recurrence data between patients who reached RVR and CEVR after getting antiviral therapy.

Study Design: It was a cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Armed Forces Institute of Urology, CMH Rawalpindi from October 2024 till March 2025.

Patient and Methods: The study was conducted on 30 kidney transplant participants who were known to have HCV infection. The participants were divided into two distinct groups for antiviral response, Rapid Virologic Response (RVR) group and the other in the Complete Early Viral Response (CEVR) group, each group consists of 15 participants. Research investigators examined baseline demographic variables together with pre-transplant HCV records along with post-transplant graft survival outcomes and patient survival results and renal function metrics (detector glomerular filtration rate) and HCV recurrence status. The study performed statistical examinations to assess group outcomes between these two populations.

Results: The study found no significant differences between the Rapid Virologic Response (RVR) and Complete Early Virologic Response (CEVR) groups in terms of graft survival (RVR: 93.3%, CEVR: 86.7%; p=0.51), HCV recurrence (RVR: 6.7%, CEVR: 13.3%; p=0.56), renal function (RVR: 54.6 ± 9.8, CEVR: 53.9 ± 10.2; p=0.85).

Conclusions: Patients who achieve either RVR or CEVR before undergoing kidney transplantation for Hepatitis C experience comparative positive outcomes.

House job - A mess or a success

Shabnum Sibtain, Huma Tahseen, Muhammad Atif Qureshi, Muhammad Zahid Latif — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Objectives: To explore the perceptions of doctors undertaking house jobs and the factors affecting their future career decisions.

Study design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and duration of study: Chaudhary Muhammad Akram Teaching and Research Hospital Lahore Pakistan, January to June 2024.

Participants & Methods: Three hundred and seventy-eight house officers from the private teaching hospital were surveyed using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included 22 items.

Results: The results showed that 69.6% (263) of respondents were male and 30.4% (114) female, with 47.9% (180) having 10 to 12 months of training. Only 28.3% (106) were satisfied with their training, and 57.2% (216) reported not receiving an induction. A significant portion 78% (294) felt their salary was inadequate and 70.8% (267) stated they spent more time on clerical work than clinical duties. Additionally, 64.7% (244) expressed dissatisfaction with their emergency experience, while 65.2% (246) felt unsupported during night shifts. Harassment was reported by 47.1% (178). 66.8% (252) viewed the house job system as disorganized. Regarding career preparation, 43.6% (164) found the house job helpful, but 50.9% (192) lacked confidence in applying their knowledge. Most respondents, 90.7% (342) were satisfied with the 12-month duration and 94.7% (358) favoured three-month specialty rotations. Furthermore, 85.4% (322) preferred a 40-hour work week.

Conclusion: The study identifies; inadequate induction, limited emergency exposure and insufficient night support as key gaps in junior doctors' training.

Association of worst pattern of invasion with clinicopathological characteristics in oral squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective study

Kanwal Iqbal, Fizza Abidi, Zofeen Hashim Bhurgri, Sana Fatima — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Objective: Over the past few decades, research on a variety of prognostic histopathological indicators has been captivated by the biological aggressiveness of OSCC (Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma). The association between the worst pattern of invasion (WPOI) with various clinicopathological characteristics is not well documented in the literature. The purpose of the present research was to assess the association of WPOI with clinicopathological factors in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Study design: Retrospective study

Place and duration of study: Ziauddin University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan from March 2023 to December 2024.

Patients and methods: The histological reports of forty-two OSCC patients who received primary surgery were reviewed in this retrospective study. The cases were assessed for the WPOI, perineural invasion (PNI), lympho-vascular invasion (LVI), depth of invasion (DOI), nodal status, histological grade and tumor staging. To assess the association between WPOI and clinicopathological characteristics, the Fisher's exact/Chi-square test was employed. To find significant risk factors for WPO-V, univariate logistic regression was employed. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 25.

Results: Of the 42 patients, 33.33% (n=14) and 66.66% (n=28) had WPOI I-IV and V respectively. There was a significant association between WPOI and site of tumor (0.005), histological grade (0.009), PNI (0.000), and tumor staging (0.000). However, there was no association seen with LVI, DOI or nodal status.

Conclusion: We have found significant association between WPOI and clinipathological characteristics in patients of OSCC. It is imperative to include the easily identifiable histological characteristic of the pattern of invasion when reporting oral SCCs. However, more detailed studies with a larger cohort are required for composing a definitive risk stratification module based on WPOI for OSCC.

Comparison of tear film dysfunction after phacoemulsification between diabetics and non-diabetics

Wali Waqar Qureshi, Maham Fazal, Tehmina Nazir, Asfandyar Asghar, Naila Obaid — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Objectives: To compare early postoperative tear film break-up time (TBUT) after phacoemulsification between diabetic and non-diabetic cataract patients.

Study design: Quasi-experimental (comparative) study.

Place and duration of study: Ophthalmology Department, Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan; July 2024 – September 2024.

Patients and methods: Sixty-six patients scheduled for phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation were enrolled by consecutive non-probability sampling: 33 long-standing diabetics (> 5 years) and 33 non-diabetics. Exclusion criteria included prior ocular surface disease, significant meibomian gland dysfunction, prior ocular surgery, topical ocular medication use, or complicated surgery. All surgeries used a 2.8 mm temporal clear corneal incision under topical anesthesia. TBUT was measured at slit lamp using fluorescein one day preoperatively and one day postoperatively. TBUT <10 s was considered abnormal. Statistical analysis employed paired-samples t-tests for within-group comparisons and independent-samples t-tests for between-group comparisons (SPSS v23); p<0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Mean preoperative TBUT did not differ between groups (diabetics 12.70±3.72 seconds; non-diabetics 12.79±3.65 seconds; p=0.92). Postoperatively, TBUT decreased in both groups, with a significantly greater reduction in diabetics (7.36±2.16 seconds) than non-diabetics (10.42±3.56 seconds) (p<0.01).

Conclusion: Diabetic patients experienced a significantly larger early postoperative decline in TBUT following phacoemulsification compared with non-diabetics. Consideration should be given to prophylactic or early postoperative lubricants for diabetic patients to mitigate dry-eye symptoms.

Evaluation of a new glucometer compared to a trusted lab method: improving accuracy in diabetes monitoring

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Objective: Accurate blood glucose monitoring is vital for effective diabetes management, as it guides treatment decisions and helps prevent complications.
Study design: The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of a new personal glucometer, MedSenso (MS), by comparing its glucose readings with those from the standard Cobas Pro laboratory analyzer.
Place and duration of study: The multicentered study was conducted at Islamabad Diagnostic Center Pakistan, having over during Nov 2024 to Mar 2025 after ethical approval.
Patients and Methods: We tested 200 venous blood samples from diabetic patients using both devices.
Results: The results demonstrated a strong correlation between MedSenso and Cobas Pro, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of r = 0.978. The Cobas Pro measured an average glucose level of 208.40 mg/dL, while MedSenso showed a slightly lower average of 198.06 mg/dL. The standard deviations were 90.27 mg/dL and 85.33 mg/dL, respectively, indicating slightly more consistent readings from MedSenso. Bland–Altman analysis showed that the differences between devices were small and within clinically acceptable limits, suggesting that the variation is unlikely to impact routine patient care.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that MedSenso provides glucose measurements comparable to those of a laboratory-grade analyzer. Given its ease of use and rapid results, MedSenso could be a dependable tool for point-of-care monitoring in clinics and home settings. However, laboratory confirmation is recommended when highly precise glucose values are critical for clinical decisions.

Contemporary methods of teaching undergraduate medical students

Alam Sher Malik — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The most practical definition of teaching describes it as “a process that facilitates learning”. Within this perspective, the role of a teacher is envisaged as a guide, mentor, and facilitator who supports students in their pursuit of knowledge. Many teaching approaches have been described, which has generated frequent debates in the literature concerning their relative effectiveness. The following section explains some of the modern methods of teaching along with the educational theories that underpin them.

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896-1934), a Russian psychologist, presented the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Unfortunately, he died at a young age of 37 and most of his scholarly work was published posthumously.

A narrative review on microencapsulation: techniques and clinical aspects

Sheikh Abdul Khaliq, Sarfraz Ahmad, Kamran Haidar, Muhammad Jiyad Shaikh — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Microencapsulation technique is a process of converting solid, liquid and gases into microcapsules by using various processing techniques. It is used in pharmaceutical, food and agriculture industries. Microencapsulation technique shows broad potential opportunities for resolving important clinical problems by various drug targeting strategies; therefore, aim of current review is to summarize all published studies pertaining to different types of drug delivery system based on microencapsulation. This is a narrative review conducted from the literature from 2009 to 2024. More than 40 articles were downloaded. After abstracting related data, checking quality of data, it is presented in form of PRISMA flow diagram. Most practical microencapsulation techniques and their outcomes; solventevaporation method for immiscible phases, fluid-bed/air-suspension coating for taste-masking and linear release of modified-release drugs, phase-separation/coacervation method for desired particle-size for encapsulation, polymeric method, spraying-drying for appropriate particle-size, hot-melt method for taste-masking and maintaining structure of crystals. Clinical benefits accomplished by this technique are; ibuprofen and clarithromycin by tastemasking, fenretinide by enhancing solubility, diclofenac sodium by reducing side-effects, retinol by reduction of toxicity, omeprazole by oral route stability.

Drug development by microencapsulation technique is having wide ranging beneficial clinical implications in terms of superiority for uniformity, bioavailability, toxicity, stability and patient acceptance.