Introduction. Congenital Palmaris Longus (PL) absence was found in 15%–20.25% of population globally. This condition and Flexor Digitorum Superficialis (FDS) tendon absence in little finger are not known in Saudi Arabia. We studied prevalence of PL and FDS agenesis in Saudi Arabian population. Methods. A random cross-sectional study was carried out after an ethical approval in the Riyadh universities. Schaeffer's test was used to examine PL absence. The Modified test was used to examine FDS absence. Data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and the SPSS Software version 22. Results. The volunteers, 331, males 164 (49.5%) and females 167 (50.5%), mean age of 23 (SD ± 5.3), showed right hand dominance in 294 (88.8%) and bilateral absence of PL and FDS in 15.1% and 14.8%, respectively. The hand dominance showed no significant relation between PL and FDS absence, p value = 0.788, 0.835, respectively. Generally, we found a weak correlation between absence of the PL and FDS, p value ≥ 0.595. Conclusion. The bilateral absence of PL and FDS was found as 15.1% and 14.8%, respectively. Variation of the FDS tendon absence was an independent entity for the PL absence. The dominance of hands was not related to the tested variables found in PL and FDS agenesis.

Objective:The aim of this study was to measure the growth of scientific research, authors’ productivity, affiliation with the institute and geographic locations published in the Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences during the period of 2001 – 2010.Methods:This numerical analysis was conducted during mid-August 2016 to mid-October, 2016. The data for the study was downloaded from websites of e-journal of Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences (PJMS) and Pak Medi-Net Com.Results:A total number of 1199 articled were covered by PJMS in 10 volumes and 40 issues with contribution of 3798 (3%) authors during 2001 – 2010. The average number of papers per issue is 30%. A gender wise contribution of males was higher 3050 (80%) than the females 748 (20%). A majority of articles were multi-authored 1052 (87%) as opposed to single author contribution 147 (13%). All 1199 articles were covered under four major disciplines i.e Basic medical sciences, medicine & allied, surgery & allied and radiological sciences and 39 sub-specialties according to medical subject headings (MeSH). It observed that 467 (39%) articles were published in Pakistan and 732 (61%) articles produced by other 32 countries. The Karachi city of Pakistan has produced 199 (16%) articles as highest as its national level and followed by Tehran (Iran) 77 (6%) as followed internationally.Conclusion:This study reveals that the participation of 32 countries in the PJMS publications proves it to be an internationally circulated journal to support research with the constant approach of publishing articles to each volume in basic medical sciences, biomedical, clinical and public health sciences.Abbreviations:DOAJ: Directory of Open Access JournalsIMEMR: Index Medicus Eastern Mediterranean RegionHEC: Higher Education Commission (Pakistan)PJMS: Pakistan Journal of Medical SciencesMeSH: Medical Subject HeadingsPMDC: Pakistan Medical & Dental CouncilSCIE: Science Citation Index Expanded

Results: After getting approval from the ethics review committee, the mean age and prevalence of EHTN among the studied 563 participants from Tharparkar desert were assessed and found to be 37 (±16.4 years, range 10-82 years) and 81 (14.4%), respectively. Participants leading a sedentary lifestyle showed higher prevalence of EHTN (19.2%) than those leading an active lifestyle (1.9%). Participants having job with mild physical activity had higher prevalence of EHTN (19.4%) than those having jobs with active lifestyle (2.9%); p-values were <0.001 in both cases. The analysis of data for participants not doing exercise and prevalence of EHTN did not show statistically significant p-value (i.e., 0.57). Conclusion: It is concluded that in the Tharparkar desert, mild physical activity and jobs with sedentary lifestyle were significantly associated with the prevalence of EHTN. The comparison of participants doing versus not-doing exercise showed nonsignificant results because of the small sample size of those responding positive for exercise.

Background: Obesity is identified as a complex multifactorial disorder and a notable growing global problem. Body fat percentage (BFP) is more reliable method as compared to BMI for assessing the risk of developing disease. Essential hypertension and Type-2 diabetes mellitus are both associated with adiposity. Aims & Objective: In this study, we planned to observe the association, if any, of raised BFP levels in strict-vegetarians and comparatively analyzed with non-vegetarians in context to the indicated diseases. Materials and Methods: After getting approval from ethical review committee of the Aga Khan University for this Random, Cross sectional and population based study, 563 subjects were selected randomly (males 295, females 268, strict-vegetarians n= 324 (58.0%), non-vegetarian n=235 (42.0%) in 2012 from Tharparker, Pakistan. We recorded demographic and anthropometric data, presence of blood pressure, type-2 diabetes mellitus and co-morbidities. Analysis of BFP was carried out by Deurenberg formula. Level of BFP >20 in males and > 25 in females was taken as raised/abnormal. Data was analyzed descriptively and categorically by using SPSS-21 for comparative analysis of prevalence of the essential hypertension (EHTN) and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Comparative analysis of association of raised levels of BFP was carried out in context to EHTN and T2DM in vegetarian and nonvegetarian population. A p-Value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Vegetarian subjects, n= 324 (58.0%), showed minimum age as 15 years; maximum 82 (mean 39.6, Std. Deviation 16.6). Nonvegetarian subjects, n= 235 (42.0%), had minimum age 10 years; maximum 76 years (mean 33.7, Std. Deviation 15.5). More male subjects had raised BFP (270 = 94.7%) than females (129 = 49%), p-Value 0.000. Despite positive association of raised BFP levels with EHTN and T2DM, the comparative analysis of association of raised BFP levels among the vegetarian and non-vegetarian cohort in relation to both EHTN and T2DM showed non-significant p-Values (0.105 and 0.347 respectively). Conclusion: Raised body fat percentage in the strict-vegetarian and non-vegetarian cohorts showed a non-significant association to produce essential hypertension and type-2 diabetes mellitus. Findings point to some other risk factors which could be responsible to produce the disease in the studied cohorts. Doing exercise and reducing caloric intake is strongly advised as the best measure to maintain a normal phenotype.