Malignant tumours of the scrotum are very rare. Several type of occupations have been identified as high risk for the development of SCC of scrotum e.g paraffin and shale oil workers (1), textile workers (2) etc. We report a rare case of SCC of scrotum. Search of our records in the Urology and Pathology departments of our Centre showed that this is the only case of SCC of the scrotum in the last 10 years.
This paper involves the obtained results of an "Elective Program" project which was carried out by Phase I Medical Students of the 1998-1999 academic year at the Faculty of Medicine (FOM), University of Malaya (UM). A questionnaire was designed to survey the attitudes of teachers at FOM-UM, the subject of choice of a 4-student group who were supervised by a faculty member. Students obtained a list of faculty members (teachers) of all academic departments from the Dean's Office and rehearsed their interviewing skills prior to collecting the data of the questionnaire, within a 1-week period. Respondents were 146 out of 275 in total (53%), which included all academic ranks and clinical and non-clinical teachers. Results showed that respondents were well qualified, have enough teaching experience and teach in a variety of forms. All teachers liked to teach and were motivated; however, 15% felt unhappy about their teaching and 6% did not think that their teaching was effective. The nlajority (96%) of teachers liked their teaching to be evaluated and many revealed several means to assist and 111otivate students. Teachers felt that there was room for improvenlent in the aspect of student-teacher interactions. Results of this project revealed that FOM-UM is well endowed by qualified, motivated and caring teachers who wish for better interactions with their students. I
Improving upon the quality of teaching by teaching staff at all educational institutions is oil very significant objective. Eva luation of teaching performed by individuals at such institutions would be instrumental in assessing the quality of such teaching and a tool towards its improvement. In this article, one scheme for teaching evaluation by students and another by peers are proposed and discussed. Assessment by students may provide contrasting results to those obtained from peers. For a "just and fair'" overalJ assessment of one's teaching., it is recommended that students' evaluation would be combined with those of peers. Results of such an evaluation of teaching should be perceived as being valuable in providing feedback to the teacher and can be utilized for many purposes by academicians and administrators. KEYlVORDS: Academia, classroom teaching., evaluation by peers, evaluation by students, proposed schemes.
Introduction: Flexible denture is an alternative treatment modality for removable partial denture (RPD) that aid the retention by ensuring seal around the entire border of the denture. It is also referred as hypoallergenic denture especially for those who are allergic towards conventional acrylic denture which is the poly-methylmethacrylate monomer (PMMA) and metal (cobalt chromium). The flexible material exhibits lower flexural modulus than conventional type of baseplate material denture that makes it nearly unbreakable. Nowadays, there are a handful of different flexible materials in the dental market for the general dental practitioners to choose but somehow the studies on the properties of these different types of flexible materials are sparse.
Objectives: The present study is to study the development of the flexible materials, the different type of flexible materials and their physical properties.
Methods: From the limited article journals available, the authors have summarized the history, development and constituents of different type of flexible materials used in fabricating denture. Besides that, the authors also discussed about the indications, contraindications, advantages and disadvantages of the materials in denture constructions based on all the published researches available on this topic using published materials available in the dental library, University of Malaya and the databases (Science Direct, PubMed).
Conclusion: Each flexible material has its pros and cons. Therefore, careful selection of material and understanding of the flexible dentures’ indications and contraindications are utmost importance to make sure the best treatment outcome. Hence, patients’ best interest and quality of life can be upheld.
This paper attempts to examine the socio-demographic profile of the respondents in Migrant Health studies. It was based on questionnaire survey among 820 respondents from the Klang Valley and the State of Kelantan from 6th January 1998 to 14th January 1999. Majority of the respondents (47.9%) were from Bangladesh, followed by Indonesia (14.8%), Thailand (13.7%), Myanmar (20.4%), Pakistan (9.9%) and Others (1.3%). The male to female ratio is 7:1. He age of respondents ranged from 18 to 69 years with a mean of 30.5 years. More than 70% of them are adults (25-44 years). Females were older than males (mean age of 33.8 years and 30.5 years respectively). Majority of the respondents were married (females 75.8% and males 52.6%), 93.7 were Muslims. About 87.4% of them had some formal education. Majority of the foreign workers were employed as factory workers (35.7%), followed by construction workers (18.3%), agricultural workers (33.6%), service workers (13.3%) and self-employed (11%). Nevertheless, the profile of these responding do not conform to the national profile.
The majority of migrant workers studied in this pilot survey were male, from Bangladesh and Muslim. The mean age was 30 years and the majority were aged between 21-30 years. Although almost half of them had 7-13 years of schooling, or an equivalent to secondary education, the majority were work- ing in the Service industry, predominantly in cleaning services. It is noted that this enlployment trend varied from the national situation, whereby majority of legal migrant workers (Indonesian and Thai) are found in the agricultural sector. More than two thirds of the migrant workers were provided with various forms of housing by the employer. However, it is not known if such acconunodation was adequate or not, as there were no questions about housing structures aod extent of overcrowding. Majority of them stated that they had better amenities, such as piped drinking water and sanitaly toilets, here in Malaysia compared to those in their home countries. Yet, the real extent of better sani- tation is difficult to assess since verification of such amenities could not be done. From their self- reports, it appears that the majority did not engage in risk behaviours, such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse. It is pertinent, however, to include other risk behaviours in the study, particularly the area of sexual behaviour. The pilot study yielded 28 female Indonesian migrant workers. More than two thirds of them were married. Although none of the married women reported that they were pregnant at the time of the survey, more than two thirds of then1 had betweenl-3 children in Malaysia. Since the age range of these children would be an important indicator of the need for preventive health care, it is proposed that age range of the accompanying children and their immunisation status be included in the questionnaire. Just below half of them were currently practising family planning, and more than two thirds were using modern methods, such as, pill, Norplant and IUD. It is recotnmended that in addition to pregnancy and family planning information, the study could also collect data on gynaeco- logical health and the health seeking behaviour for these problems.
A review of the questionnaire was carried out basically to assess the relevance of the questions to the objectives of the study, to identify weaknesses of the questions particularly in terms of the wording in order to make them as clear as possible to the respondents and to minimize ambiguity and thus the problems of getting the questions across to the respondents. Based on the review a new set of questionnaire would be proposed. The review thus focuses on two major aspects namely the structure and the content of the questionnaire. From the structural aspects each question was reviewed in terms of the language, wording, sequencing and continuity between one another. Basically, not much problems have been identified except in certain cases of ambiguity largely due to language and words used and some cases lack of continuity due to improper sequencing of the questions In terms of the content, for each questions, the purpose of asking, and what is expected of the questions was thoroughly examined and then the relevance assessed. Based on the analysis, three group of questions were identified i.e., the irrelevant questions, the partially relevant and most inlportant non-existence of many relevant questions. It is recommended that the irrelevant questions be omitted, those partially relevant to be modified and new questions added.
Malignant hypertension affects less than 1% of people with high blood pressure, and is a hypertensive emergency. It is rare for patients to present initially with this form of elevated blood pressure, which is almost always associated with acute target organ damage, which can manifest in many forms including ocular, neurological, cardiac and renal. This treatable condition is associated with a high rate of morbidity and mortality therefore, early detection and immediate management is of paramount importance.
Intrapulmonary bronchogenic cyst is a rare congenital lesion originating from abnormal budding of the embryonic foregut. It is less common than mediastinal bronchogenic cyst. We describe a case of intrapulmonary bronchogenic cyst and discuss the treatment of this condition.
The treatment of large ulcers is a problem. Closure with flaps and even skin grafts in compromised patients is often fraught with risks. Dressing these large wounds is also a problem, as they are often heavily exudative. We report our experience using the vacuum-assisted closure technique in managing difficult ulcers in four patients. A modification of the technique using cheap, easily available materials is described. The vacuum-assisted suction is an effective treatment for large ulcers in compromised patients. It facilitates considerable contraction of the wound, and in smaller wounds; the vacuum-assisted closure allows sufficient contracture to enable delayed primary closure. We recommend the use of this method of wound dressing and closure in large wounds particularly, in high-risk patients where extensive flap coverage or even split skin graft would incur considerable risk.
Malaria is a major cause of mortality and morbidity globally. Great efforts have been made in the prevention and the elimination of malaria, especially in controlling the malaria vector, the mosquito. Another promising approach would be the development of malaria vaccines. Malaria vaccine studies can be focused on the pre-erythrocytic-stage antigens and the blood-stage antigens, and on the transmission blocking agents targeting the malaria gametocytes. The blood-stage antigens are the leading candidates in malaria vaccine development, as the blood-stage parasites are responsible for causing symptomatic malaria. Human acquired immunity largely targets on blood-stage antigens. This review focuses on one of the most extensively studied blood-stage antigen, the merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1), specifically on its evaluation and immunogenicity in rodents and primate models, and its safety and immunogenicity in human clinical trials.
This was a cross-sectional study which attempts to assess the effectiveness of the 18-hour lactation management course organised by Klang District Health Office for its health staff. The course was conducted for three days from 19 to 21 September, 2006 with a total of 18 hours, comprising 15 hours of lectures and three hours of supervised clinical experience. There were a total of 46 participants for the course. The pre- and post-test scores of the participants from the course were used for analysis. This study showed that the mean pre-test versus mean post-test scores were 12.63 and 19.87. The difference in the mean score was statistically significant (p < 0.001, 95%CI -8.285, -6.193). The difference was significant for the staff nurse, community nurse and assistant nurse but not for doctors. In conclusion, the 18-hour duration lactation management course was effective at improving the knowledge and skills on breastfeeding management for the health staff.
To determine the impact of the haze on asthma symptomatology in children with chronic asthma on inhaled prophylaxis. The study was prospective and collected information on asthma symptoms from children attending the asthma clinic. A comparison of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) measurements before and during the haze was performed for children above 7 years. A total of 97 children were included into the study. Forty (41%) children complained of an increase in nocturnal cough (55%) followed by nasal symptoms (40%), daytime cough (40%), nocturnal wheeze (25%) and daytime wheeze (18%). About half of the children who had increased symptomatology during the haze had to limit outdoor activities. In the 43 children in whom PEFR studies were available, 29 (67%) of them had a fall in the PEFR. However, children with no increase in asthma symptomatology showed a similar fall in PEFR measurement when compared to children with increased asthma symptomatology. The haze appeared to be detrimental to the well being of some children with chronic asthma despite being on inhaled prophylaxis.
Study site: Asthma clinic, University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We describe a rare encounte.r with a 6-year old Indian boy admitted with acute epiglottitis due to Haemophilus influenzae. Acute epiglottitis is an uncommon cause of lifethreatening upper airway obstruction and a rare presentation of invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) disease in this region, compared to Ihe more developed West. The cause for this observation is often attributed to differences in the genetic predisposition and socio-economk parameters. The organism subtype and the host response have been shown to determine the type of invasive Hib disease. However, the evidence to explain this difference is poorly understood and remains an intriguing enigma. KEYWORDS: Epiglottitis, Haemophilus influenzae
Salivary gland swelling is a rare complication of upper endoscopy with less than twelve cases reported in the literature. The swelling is usually transient in nature, with complete resolution in a few hours .While all the major paired salivary glands have been implicated, the exact aetiology remains obscure. In this case report, a sixty one year old female presents with unilateral swelling of the right parotid gland immediately following an upper endoscopy. There was complete resolution of the pneumoparotid with no neurological sequelae.
A review of all colonic biopsies received by the Department of Pathology during a 8-year period revealed 41 cases of ulcerative colitis (UC). The diagnosis was based on histological and clinical features. The age range of patients was between 14 - 76 years with a median age of 35.4 years. The disease was more prevalent among Indians. The common presenting sysmptoms were diarrhoea (100%) and haematochezia (83%). The extent of colonic involvement varied. Twelve patients (29.2%) had pancolitis and 8 (19.5%) had proctitis.Extraintestinal manifestations were rare and only one patient had pyoderma gangrenosum. One patient developed multifocal colorectal cancer 10 years after the inial diagnosis of UC and died 2 years later due to metastases. Histology plays an important role in the diagnosis and management of patients with UC. We noted a good correlation between clinical and pathological features. The most recent colonic biopsy showed features of chronic UC with activity in 34 cases and features of remission in 4 cases.