Background: The COVID-19 first appeared in Wuhan city of China. It was treated as a case of pneumonia having no etiology, first appeared in December 2019. Its spread was at a rapid pace worldwide. It was named as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization on 11 th February 2020, as of 5 th June 2020, there are 87,113 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 196 students of SMBBMU through an online questionnaire. It was self-generated and evaluated by epidemiologists. The questionnaire was developed through the WHO advisory from the Coronavirus disease advice for public: Myth busters. It contains socio-demographic information and Twenty-four (24) questions related to myths and knowledge for COVID-19 and the response of questions was taken on true/false basis. Results: A total of 196 students participated out of which 100 were females and 96 were males, the mean age of the participants was 22.4005 ± 4.97, and 168(85.7%)participants were unmarried. The highest ratio involved in this study was of the first year, which was about 82 (41.8%). The most common source of information was social media (n=118; 60.2%). Overall,77.21% of the students were aware of the myths and realities regarding COVID-19.Data were analyzed through SPSS 24.Conclusion:The students had sound knowledge regarding the myths and realities of COVID-19.It is the responsibility of public health care providers to spread this knowledge into every part of the country through social media and other sources at their disposal.

Objectives: The current study aimed to determine the Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis (SBP) risk due to increased use of Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) among cirrhotic patients with ascites. Methods: This retrospective case-control study was conducted at Chandka Medical College & Hospital, Larkana from March 2013 to February 2014, involving 215 cirrhotic patients with ascites. Paracentesis was performed to distinguish cirrhotic patients with SBP and Polymorphonuclear Neutrophil (PMN) count ≥ 250 neutrophils/mm3 (cases) and non-SBP with PMN count < 250 neutrophils/mm3 (controls). The demographic details, history of PPIs use before admission and duration of Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) were inquired and statistical analysis was carried through SPSS Version 23.0. Results: Increased pre-hospital PPI intake was observed among cirrhotic patients with SBP (69.8%) as compared to those without SBP (48.8%; p = 0.014). The mean duration of PPI use was 19.16 ± 4.772 days, and it was more significant among older cirrhotic patients (p < 0.05). Increased duration of CLD was observed among PPI users, i.e. 20.47 ± 6.305 months vs. 18.95 ± 5.527 months among non-PPI users (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results show that cirrhotic patients with ascites consuming PPIs are more likely to develop SBP as compared to non-PPI users. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.3476 How to cite this:Shaikh BA, Shaikh ZA, Shah AH, Kumar A. Determining the Risk of Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis due to increase use of Proton Pump Inhibitors among cirrhotic patients with ascites. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(4):---------.   doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.3476 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a world public health problem that is related with high morbidity and mortality. CKD patients can present with different skin manifestations, often benign with much impact on quality of patients life. Study Design: Case-series study. Setting: Nephrology Unit Civil Hospital Larkana. Period: From 1st January 2018 to 30th June 2018. Material and methods: 141 patients of ESRD on regular HD for at least 1 month. Patients were chosen randomly for evaluation of cutaneous changes regardless of their gender, age, sex and etiology of ESRD. General and dermatological examination of the skin, hair, nails, and oral mucosa was performed by consultant dermatologist. Data were analyzed by using IBM SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive analyses performed using mean with standard deviation and median with inter quartile ranges of quantitative data set. Count and percentages were reported for categorical data set. Results: In the present study there were one hundred and forty one patients. Out of them skin manifestations of patients, 87.9% had Xerosis, 31.9% found with skin hyper pigmentation, 9.2% had Subungal Hyperkeratosis, 24.1% had Uremic Pruirtis, 45.4% had Pallor, and 6.4% found with Bruises. There were 9.9% cases of Alopecia, 17.7% cases of half n half nail, 1.4% cases of half n half nail with alopecia, 9.2% cases of Koilionychia, 0.7% cases of Koilionychia with alopecia, 2.8% found with koilonychias and half n half nail, 2.1% with leuconycia and koilionychia, 15.5% with Leuconychia, 2.1% found with Leuconychia and alopecia, and 0.7% found with Leuconychia, koilonychia & alopecia in Hair and Nail changes. Conclusion: The range of skin manifestations vary in different studies. Although often benign with much impact on quality of patient’s life and life can be threatening. Early treatment of skin disorders can improve the quality of life.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the exchange reaction taking place among the bovine serum albumin (BSA), 5,5 ′ -dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid (ESSE), reduced glutathione, N-acetylcysteine, D-penicillamine (thiolates), and silver metal (AgI). For this purpose, stock solutions of BSA and Ellman’s reagent were prepared by dissolving 264 mg of BSA in 5 ml of reaction buffer (0.1 M KH2PO4 at pH 7.8) and 23.8 mg of ESSE in 1.0 ml of reaction buffer which were mixed together. Mixture of BSA-AgI was prepared in a separate procedure by dissolving 0.17 mg of silver nitrate in 1 ml of reaction buffer and then dissolving BSA (200 mg) in the same solution of silver nitrate. Blocking of Cys-34 of BSA with AgI was confirmed by treating different dilutions of BSA-AgI (500 μM) solutions with the solutions of ESSE (85 μM) and ES- (85 μM) and recording the spectra (300-450) with a UV-visible spectrophotometer. The chromatographed AgI-modified BSA ((BSA-S)AgI)) samples (typically 500 μM) were subsequently mixed with thiolates (reduced glutathione, N-acetylcysteine, and D-penicillamine). AgI and modified BSA (typically 500 μM each) were treated with these low molecular weight thiolates and allowed to react overnight followed by chromatographic separation (Sephadex G25). The redox reactions of AgI-modified BSA with various low molecular weight thiols revealed a mechanically important phenomenon. In the case of reduced glutathione and N-acetylcysteine, we observed the rapid release of a commensurate amount of Ellman’s anion, indicating that an exchange has taken place and low molecular weight thiols (RSH) substituted AgI species at the Cys-34 of BSA eventually forming disulfide (BSA-SSR) at Cys-34. It can be anticipated from the phase of study involving bovine serum albumin that low molecular weight thiolates (reduced glutathione and N-acetylcysteine) take off AgI which are attached to proteins elsewhere in the physiological system, making these toxic metals free for toxic action.