CASE REPORT: A 24-year-old male presented with painless hardening of the right testis. There was no gynaecomastia, and serum levels of human chorionic gonadotropin and α-fetoprotein were normal. Ultrasound depicted hyperechogenic, clearly demarcated intratesticular lesion. Partial orchiectomy was performed. Macroscopically, tumour appeared as almost entirely calcified round mass, measuring 10 mm. Histopathological evaluation showed well-circumscribed, unencapsulated tumour composed of massive calcified geographic formations, surrounded with tumour cells. Neoplastic cells were large, polygonal, with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm, and formed irregular cords, pseudo tubular structures, and nests in a fibrous and myxoid stroma, surrounded with lymphocytes. Other forms of calcification were also present: Needle-like deposits and lamellar, mulberry-like structures. There was no necrosis, mitotic activity and nuclear pleomorphism. Immunohistochemical study was positive for inhibin α and negative for Melan A, EMA, synaptophysin, chromogranin and AFP.
DISCUSSION: LCCSCT needs to be differentiated from other, more frequent, sex cord stromal tumours. Clinical and genetical evaluation of these patients had to be performed, due to connection of LCCSCT with genetic abnormalities. In evidently benign cases, organ-sparing surgery should be considered for younger patients, followed by long term follow-up.
CASE REPORT: We report a case of myofibroblastoma in an octogenarian male presenting with painless solitary breast lump. Mammography (digital tomosynthesis) and ultrasound showed a well-circumscribed hyperdense mass and hypoechoic, solid, oval mass with peripheral vascularity respectively. Patient underwent wide local excision.
DISCUSSION: Diverse characteristics of myofibroblastoma on imaging necessitates histopathological analysis for an accurate diagnosis. Myofibroblastoma are often confused with fibroadenomas due to the benign imaging characteristics and with malignant neoplasia due to their wide morphological spectrum. Surgical excision is considered curative.
CASE REPORT: We report a case of a 75-year-old man who presented with symptoms of obstructive jaundice. Ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) showed an ill-defined lobulated soft tissue lesion at the head/uncinate process of the pancreas measuring 4.5 x 4.9 x 5.8 cm. The patient underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for suspected pancreatic head/uncinate process carcinoma. Histopathology and immunohistochemical assessment of the pancreatic lesion established the diagnosis of a low-grade follicular lymphoma.
DISCUSSION: Clinical and imaging features of primary pancreatic lymphoma may often overlap with pancreatic carcinoma. There is a value of obtaining preoperative tissue diagnosis such as tissue biopsy and fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology with or without flow cytometry to make an accurate diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and alleviate the need of more radical surgery in pancreatic lymphoma.
Materials and Methods: The study used a qualitative exploratory design, comprising 12 in-depth interviews. A semi-structured topic guide was used to explore all relevant aspects of the topic, which were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim. All the interviews were conducted in a few beauty salons in purposively selected city areas in the state of Kedah, Malaysia.
Results: Of the 12 patients, seven (58%) reported a positive experience of facial candling treatment, with improvement in the condition of their allergic rhinitis. Specific themes about the experience of facial candling treatment that were identified within the transcript data included knowledge about facial candling, options for disease treatment, effectiveness of facial candling, sources of information, comparison, application of treatment, treatment budget, and safety. The major strength lies in the fact that reasons for using facial candling were uncovered from the perspectives of people with allergic rhinitis through the in-depth interviews.
Conclusions: The motives of these participants for using facial candling are mainly due to cultural influence and its low cost of treatment. There were mixed responses from the participants about the usefulness of facial candling. Most of the respondents had not assessed the safety of prolonged use of facial candling and regarded it as a safe procedure as this has been practiced for generations.
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study conducted in two different cities of Malaysia. A convenience sampling approach was adopted. A total of 787 participants agreed to participate in the current research. A validated questionnaire translated into national language was used for data collection.
Statistical Analysis Used: Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.
Results: About 302 respondents were in the age range of 18 - 25 years old (38.4%). There were marginally more females (55.7%) than males (44.3%). Although 99.9% of the participants used a toothbrush, a significant majority (n = 590, 75%) used more than a single device to maintain their oral hygiene. Only 311 respondents knew that toothpicks were inappropriate to use to remove food between teeth and gums, while a majority (n = 592, 75.2%) did not realize that some mouthwashes can stain the teeth. Less than half (42.1%) knew that improper use of miswak might harm the teeth.
Conclusions: Although their oral hygiene behaviors are relatively at a higher level, their perceived oral health benefits did not compare well.
Materials and Methods: The questionnaire was divided into two sections: the first section assessed the visits to community pharmacies, purpose, interaction with pharmacy staffs, professional fee, and improvements to pharmacy practices; the second section evaluated the characteristics of respondents including an e-consent form. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (version 11.5).
Results: The highest number of respondents (66.1%) consulted with the pharmacists for cough and cold, 33.1% for gastric and stomach ailments, and 28.9% for diarrhea and constipation. Only 34% of cases were handled by the pharmacists, whereas 52.1% by the sales assistant. Approximately 88.5% showed satisfaction with the counseling provided. A total of 46.3% did not know whom they dealt with, whereas 51.2% wanted personal attention of the pharmacists instead of the sales assistants. However, 66.9% of respondents preferred to a private consultation room. Records of only 32.2% of respondents were secured by the pharmacies, whereas 42.1% showed interest to pay a professional fee. Moreover, 83.3% agreed the fee of RM5 only, whereas 20.8% agreed to RM10. Among the respondents, majority agreed to pay a fee willingly, but approximately 30% stayed neutral.
Conclusion: There is a need for the community pharmacists to play vital roles firsthand at the front desk to serve the patients professionally instead of handing over the responsibilities to the sales assistant.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed, and a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 106 respondents. The survey comprised four sections including sociodemographic, knowledge, attitude, and practice.
Results: Total percentage scores for KAP for FH were 86.06%, 32.40%, and 19.91%, respectively, whereas the KAP scores for DS were 89.36%, 34.26%, and 19.94%, respectively. This study revealed that the respondents had good knowledge but poor attitude and practice toward FP. Total mean percentage of KAP scores for DS was higher than FH. Besides, no significant difference was observed in KAP toward FP across different genders, age, education, and income levels among FH. However, for DS, significant difference (p = 0.008) was observed in knowledge toward FP between genders. Significant association (p = 0.048) was also reported in practice toward FP with age among DS. This study also found a significant association between knowledge and attitude (p = 0.032) and knowledge and practice (p = 0.017) toward FP among FH.
Conclusion: Nevertheless, among DS, no significant association was observed between knowledge, attitude and practice toward FP. The findings may help them to plan effective methods to promote better understanding about FP and improving their knowledge and awareness.
Objectives: We evaluated the performance of a malaria rapid diagnostic test (MRDT) against blood smear microscopy (BSM) among HIV-positive patients in relation to anti-retroviral treatment (ART) status, CD4+ count, fever, cotrimoxazole prophylaxis and malaria density count.
Method: A cross-sectional study involving 1521 consenting randomly selected HIV-positive adults attending two ART clinics in Kano, Nigeria, between June 2015 and May 2016. Venous blood samples were collected for testing with MRDT, BSM, and CD4+ T cells count by cytometry. Biodata and other clinical details were extracted from patient folders into an Excel file, cleaned, validated, and exported for analysis into SPSS version 23.0. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values of MRDT were compared with BSM with a 95% confidence interval.
Results: Malaria parasites were detected in 25.4% of enrollees by BSM and 16.4% by MRDT. Overall sensitivity of MRDT was 58% and specificity was 97%. Cotrimoxazole prophylaxis and fever status did not affect MRDT sensitivity and specificity. Unexpectedly, the sensitivity was highest at parasite density count of less than 500 cells/µL. At CD4+ T cells count over 500 cells/µL the sensitivity was higher (62.4%) compared to 56% at less than 500 cells/µL. In the non-ART group sensitivity was higher (65%) compared to those on ART (56%) but the specificity was similar. All differences were significant for all variables (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: Although the MRDT specificity was good, the sensitivity was poor, requiring further evaluation for use in malaria diagnosis among HIV-malaria co-infected persons in these settings.
RESULTS: The key volatile compounds and aroma profile of six pineapple varieties grown in Malaysia were investigated by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O), gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry and qualitative descriptive sensory analysis. A total of 59 compounds were determined by GC-O and aroma extract dilution analysis. Among these compounds, methyl-2-methylbutanoate, methyl hexanoate, methyl-3-(methylthiol)-propanoate, methyl octanoate, 2,5-dimethyl-4-methoxy-3(2H)-furanone, δ-octalactone, 2-methoxy-4-vinyl phenol, and δ-undecalactone contributed greatly to the aroma quality of the pineapple varieties, due to their high flavour dilution factor. The aroma of the pineapples was described by seven sensory terms as sweet, floral, fruity, fresh, green, woody and apple-like.
CONCLUSION: Inter-relationship between the aroma-active compounds and the pineapples revealed that 'Moris' and 'MD2' covaried majorly with the fruity esters, and the other varieties correlated with lesser numbers of the fruity esters. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to establish similarities among the pineapples and the results revealed three main groups of pineapples.