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Introduction: The most important step in controlling the spread of any communicable disease is to stick to preventive measures and COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Keeping this in mind, a KAP study was performed in the rheumatology unit of a tertiary care hospital of Islamabad. The main idea was to know the level of understanding of rheumatologic patients with respect to COVID-19 pandemic and its preventive measures. Objective: The objective of the study was to understand the knowledge, attitude and practices of rheumatologic patients towards COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study in which consecutive, non-probability sampling technique was used. Results: There were 37 males and 73 females in the study group, with mean age of 38.75±13.9 years. The total knowledge score was 17 points. It was found that 12 (10.9%) participants had poor knowledge regarding COVID-19, whereas 27 (24.5%) and 71 (64.5%) had good and excellent knowledge respectively. The total attitude score of study participants 7 points. It was found that 11 (10.0%) participants had poor attitude, whereas 72 (65.5%) and 27 (24.5%) had good and excellent attitude. The total practice score was 11 points. It was calculated that 30 (27.3%) study participants had poor practices regarding COVID-19 prevention, whereas 78 (70.9%) had good practices and only 2 (1.8%) had excellent practices. Conclusion: Overall, it was noted that KAP of our rheumatologic patients towards COVID-19 infection was reasonable, however, there is always room for improvement.

Thrombocytopenia is one of the cardinal features of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). It is recognized as the earliest and rarely the sole manifestation of SLE at the time of diagnosis. This report narrates the case of one such patient who had an abrupt onset of life-threatening thrombocytopenia and was subsequently diagnosed as having SLE.

Background: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a common problem which interferes with the normal use of the hand. It has general population prevalence of 16%. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the validity of high-resolution ultrasound (US) in carpal tunnel syndrome in adult patients using nerve conduction studies (NCS) as gold standard. Study design & Settings: Cross sectional validation study with purposive (non-probability) sampling conducted in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital, Islamabad in collaboration with outdoor departments of Neurology and Rheumatology of the same hospital. Study duration: The study was conducted in Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital Islamabad for duration of one year, from November 2021 to November2022. Methods : 152 patients were included in study group who underwent ultrasound by using 12 – 15MHz linear transducer. Later on their nerve conduction studies were performed & results were compared. Results: There were 152 patients included in the study, with 47 (30.9%) males and 105 (69.1%) females and overall mean age of 33.74±11.58 years. The sensitivity of ultrasound to detect carpel tunnel syndrome was calculated to be 90.6% while specificity was found to be 82.52 %. The positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of 86.5%, 87.3% and 86.8% was reported, respectively. Conclusion: High resolution US is an accurate imaging study with diagnostic accuracy of 86.8% and gives results comparable to NCS. It can be used in patients unsuitable for the latter modality. Keywords: Carpel tunnel syndrome (CTS), ultrasound (US), Nerve conduction studies (NCS).