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Background: The global incidence of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral infection, has grown dramatically in recent decades with about half of the world's population is now at risk. Its clinical manifestations include headache, fever, skin rashes, leukopenia and arthralgia. Local data evaluating age and gender based differences in clinical signs and symptoms of dengue are scarce at best. Objective: To compare the clinical signs and symptoms of dengue across gender and age based groups. Methods: A secondary data analysis of a randomized controlled trial on the effects of silymarin on hepatic enzymes and clinical manifestation of dengue was conducted. The clinical signs and symptoms of the dengue patients were recorded at the baseline before giving trial intervention. Chisquare test was used to make desired comparisons across gender and age based groups whereas the significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The study results showed that rash (p=0.047) and infected conjunctiva (p=0.013) were significantly associated with gender of the patients whereas nausea and vomiting (p=0.01), headache (p=0.016), retro-orbital pain (p=0.049) and infected conjunctiva (p=0.032) were significantly associated with age of the patients. Conclusion: A significant association of rash and injected conjunctiva with gender of dengue patients and of nausea and vomiting, headache, retro-orbital pain and injected conjunctiva with age of dengue patients was found. Further evaluation of study findings because of their potential implications for the symptomatic management of dengue patients is recommended.

Objective: To compare two different teaching methods in Forensic Medicine on the basis of assessment tools. Study design and setting: A cross sectional analytical study was conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Al-Tibri Medical College and Hospital, from February to August 2019 Methodology: Total 100 students of third year MBBS were included in this study after taking ethical approval from the ethical review committee. These students were randomly divided into two groups of 50 students each, with Group A being taught through the traditional didactic lectures and Group B by Team Based Learning (TBL). Both groups were assessed using different assessment tools. Each assessment was of 25 marks and for comparison of marks, independent “t” test was applied comparing the mean value through SPSS version 20.0 and the level of significance was taken at < 0.05. Results: The students involved in Team Based Learning performed superior than teacher centered strategy. In Group A, the students were taught via traditional lecture-based method and Group B was introduced to Team Based Learning. The mean score of assignment in Group A and Group B showed P value <0.001 that showed significantly higher grades in student-centered teaching. Conclusion: Team based learning showed significant successful results in all assessment methods, therefore, it has been concluded through our study that Team Based Learning is a more effective method of teaching Forensic Medicine and it helps in making learner autonomous.

Objectives: Multiple studies are conducted to establish the frequency of electrolyte imbalance outside Pakistan but there is little data available locally. This study was therefore intended to assess the electrolyte imbalance in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy which can help to reduce the morbidity related to electrolyte imbalance by replacing them appropriately.Methodology: An observational study using non-probability convenient sampling technique was conducted for a year from April 2016 to March 2017 at the Oncology Department of Jinnah Post graduate Medical Center, Karachi after taking the ethical approval from the hospital's Ethical Review Committee. An informed consent was taken from a total of 256 cases diagnosed with various cancers and on an ongoing chemotherapeutic regimen before including them in the study. Age, height, weight, gender, body surface area, type of cancer, chemotherapy protocol, number of days on chemotherapy, electrolyte levels before and after therapy were the variables included. Data was analyzed using the SPSS 20 version. Descriptive statistics of demographic variables was presented as mean, standard deviation and frequency in percentages.Results: 256 patients were included in the study. The mean age of patients was 43.21±12.85 years. 52.7% of the patients showed a reduction in the level of sodium after treatment, followed by 52.2% of the patients showing a reduction in the level of potassium after treatment. 14.8% of the patients presented with reduced chloride levels, with 84.4% of the patients maintaining normal chloride levels before and after treatment. Furthermore, 87.1% of the patients, maintained normal magnesium levels, with 2.7% of the patients presenting with increased magnesium levels after therapy. Conclusion:Our study predicted the significant reduction in the sodium and potassium levels in cancer patients on chemotherapeutic agents. However most of the patients maintained the normal levels of chloride and magnesium.