Introduction Nocardiosis is a rare opportunistic bacterial infection usually seen in immunosuppressed patients. It is caused by gram-positive, aerobic actinomycetes of the Nocardia genus. The most common site of infection is lungs; but it may affect other organs or even disseminate into blood. Methods In this a 10-year retrospective review, all diagnosed cases of Pulmonary Nocardiosis in a tertiary care hospital were included. The clinical and radiological characteristics, course of complications and lifesaving interventions, and disease outcome were evaluated. Results Among the 55 identified cases, most common risk factor was chronic steroid therapy (n=38; 69.1%). Among respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n=13; 23.6%) and tuberculosis (n=12; 21.8%) were the most common. On chest radiograph, pleural effusion (n=23; 41.8%) and consolidation (n=22; 40.0%) were the common findings. Complications were observed in 32 (58.2%) patients with septicemia and respiratory failure being the most common (n=15; 46.8% in each). Dissemination occurred in 10 (31.2%) patients. The mortality rate of Nocardia is 34.5% (n=19). Conclusion The disease burden of Nocardia is underestimated by clinicians and researchers. Pulmonary Nocardia should always be a differential diagnosis of signs of lower respiratory tract infection and must be excluded in patients not responding to treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary tuberculosis. Early recognition and individualized management plan can ensure successful recovery.

Objective: The primary aim of our study was to assess the variation of PEFR with BMI in normal medical students of Karachi, Pakistan.Design: Cross-sectional study.Setting: Medical students of Karachi Medical and Dental College.Participants: 138 non-smoker healthy medical students composed of 111 females and 27 males.Variable Parameters: They include mean age, body height and body weight and PEFR. They were marked separately for each gender. Results:The mean BMI in females was found out to be 18.54±2.10 corresponding with that of mean PEFR value 431.62±56.62 whereas in males the mean BMI was 25.07±2.96 corresponding with that of mean PEFR value 533.70±23.22. Also there is a statistically significant variation in PEFR with an increase in BMI. Conclusion:The study concludes that PEFR is affected positively by variation in BMI. Also young males have more BMI and PEFR values than their young female counterparts. A large sample size with accurate peak flow meter is required along with ethnic consideration of the study population for better and accurate results.

Background: Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder which affects millions of people throughout the world. However, it has been discovered that there is a great degree of ignorance regarding the science of epilepsy among the general masses as well as the populace of medical students. Studies have been conducted whose results have shown that, there has been fabrication regarding the clinical presentation & treatment of epilepsy among the common man. Numerous appear to link epilepsy to evil spirits and possession that can be healed by spiritual treatments by certain specialists given the designations of 'demonologists', 'paranormal investigators' or 'mystics'. In such circumstances, medical students can prove to be a major source to educate the society at large. Therefore, it is crucial that their knowledge & attitude towards epilepsy is accurate and thus, must be evaluated at an early stage in their medical career, so that these future physicians may play a pivotal role in the public awareness of epilepsy. Method:This study was conducted in Pakistan, at a Government sector medical college, namely, Karachi Medical and Dental College. This is a cross-sectional study. Data was collected between October to December of the year 2014. 270 medical students were given the KAP (knowledge, attitude & practice) form of epilepsy to fill out. The software used to interpret and tabulate the results was SPSS v.16 for Windows. The chi-square test was employed to determine the proportion of knowledge of epilepsy among medical students. The p-value calculated was equal to 0.05. Findings:In this study, 270 medical students were recruited, of which 90 were males (33.3%) where as 180 were females (66.6%). The ages of the student participants were within the range of 18 This article is available at: www.intarchmed.com and www.medbrary.com 2 to 24 years. The analysis of our study demonstrates that: 85.1% of the medical students consider epilepsy to be a neurological disorder; 6.66% believe epilepsy is an infectious disease; 4.44% believe it to be a hereditary disease, whereas, 3.7% of the students reckon it is a psychiatric illness. Generalized tonic clonic seizures was deemed to be the most common form of epilepsy (25.5%) with complex partial seizures being the least common form (1.85%), as well as relatively unknown by the students.It was discovered through this study that, students were much less acquainted with the knowledge regarding the treatment of the disorder: multiple drug therapy was considered as the treatment by 56.66% of the students, spiritual treatment by 3.7%, spiritual treatment with medication by 20%, surgical treatment by 17.4% & 2.22% deemed epilepsy as a self limiting disease. Conclusion:It has been observed with this survey that the medical students of Pakistan are well aware of the knowledge of epilepsy and it being a medical condition. However, the students need to be educated early on in their training to be physicians, about certain aspects and details of the neurological disorder, for instance, th...

Background and objective Myocardial infarction (MI) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Early diagnosis of MI remains the mainstay of prompt treatment. Thus, the shorter the door-toneedle time, the more efficient is the emergency department (ED) to cope with a heart attack emergency. To improve the diagnosis of MI, this study aimed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of (qualitative) troponin I kit against the quantitative lab test for troponin I.

Ganglioneuroblastoma is a neural tissue neoplasm, which is derived from the neural crest cells. It is mostly seen in the pediatric population but is very rarely found in the lower thoracic spine. Here, we report a rare case of ganglioneuroblstoma occurrence in the lower thoracic spine. A 2.5-year-old boy presented with spinal compression symptoms and on magnetic resonance imaging, a mass was identified over T10 to L1. The tumor showed round blue cells and mature ganglion cells with hypermitotic activity. Immunohistochemical synaptophysin and neurofilament staining was positive, confirming the diagnosis. The patient showed significant improvement after surgical excision of the tumor. This is the first reported case of ganglioneuroblastoma in the lower thoracic spine that was successfully treated in Pakistan.