MyMedR

Factors influencing Hepatitis C virus sero-prevalence among blood donors in north west Pakistan

Khattak MN, Akhtar S, Mahmud S, Roshan TM

J Public Health Policy, 2008 Jul;29(2):207-25.

PMID: 18523475 DOI: 10.1057/jphp.2008.7

Hepatitis C virus infection is a major health problem worldwide. The current study estimated seroprevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and evaluated associated factors among volunteer blood donors of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan. Of 1,131 volunteer blood donors enrolled, 46 (4.1%) were positive for anti-HCV antibodies. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that positive donors were more likely to be 27-32 years old or >32 years old, have had 1-2 injections or >2 injections in the past year, or 1-5 intravenous (IV) drips or >5 I/V drips in the past 5 years. Positive donors had a family history of jaundice and were more likely to have been shaved (facial and armpit) by barbers. There was high prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies among blood donors of the NWFP. Public awareness programs should target the identified risk factors to prevent HCV transmission. We highlight the weakness of the health care system for blood donation, as it does not offer any record management for donors.

Response rate of Malaysian blood donors with reactive screening test to transfusion medicine unit calls

Roshan TM, Rosline H, Ahmed SA, Rapiaah M, Khattak MN

Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health, 2009 Nov;40(6):1315-21.

PMID: 20578467

Blood donors with reactive screening test results are requested to come in for counseling by letter and telephone call. It has been noticed many donors responded to neither the letters nor the telephone calls. We evaluated 589 cases with reactive screening test results (208 positive for hepatitis C, 209 for hepatitis B, 85 for VDRL and 87 for HIV). In the hepatitis C positive group 61 donors (29.3%) did not respond and 4.7% missed their follow-up appointment. Similarly low response rates were noted with the HBV (58.9%) and VDRL (67.1%) positive groups. Among HIV positive donors 46.0% failed to respond to multiple calls. We conclude that blood donors in Malaysia have a poor response to calls from the blood transfusion unit. A review of the effectiveness of the current deferral system and an increased public knowledge of transmissible infectious diseases may encourage blood donors to have a better response rate.

Short-term estrogen replacement therapy reduces platelet marker levels in Malaysian postmenopausal women

Sheikh SA, Roshan TM, Khattak MN, Baig AA, Noor SJ, Hassan R, et al.

Menopause Int, 2011 Mar;17(1):6-10.

PMID: 21427417 DOI: 10.1258/mi.2011.011001

In healthy postmenopausal women (PMW) increased platelet activation has been associated with adverse cardiovascular events. There is much debate about the relationship between platelet function and serum estradiol level in PMW. This study assessed the effect of short-term oral estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) on platelet activation markers (CD62P and PAC-1) and its correlation with age and body mass index (BMI) among healthy PMW.

Fulltext Antiproliferative effect of Tualang honey on oral squamous cell carcinoma and osteosarcoma cell lines

Ghashm AA, Othman NH, Khattak MN, Ismail NM, Saini R

BMC Complement Altern Med, 2010;10:49.

PMID: 20840769 DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-10-49

The treatment of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) and human osteosarcoma (HOS) includes surgery and/or radiotherapy which often lead to reduced quality of life. This study was aimed to study the antiproliferative activity of local honey (Tualang) on OSCC and HOS cell lines.

Hematological reference values of healthy Malaysian population

Roshan TM, Rosline H, Ahmed SA, Rapiaah M, Wan Zaidah A, Khattak MN

Int J Lab Hematol, 2009 Oct;31(5):505-12.

PMID: 18498389 DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-553X.2008.01068.x

Health and disease can only be distinguished by accurate and reliable reference values of a particular laboratory test. It is now a proven fact that there is considerable variation in hematology reference intervals depending on the demographic and preanalytical variables. There are evidences that values provided by manufacturers do not have appropriate application for all populations. Moreover, reference ranges provided by different laboratory manuals and books also do not solve this problem. We are presenting here normal reference ranges of Malaysian population. These values were determined by using Sysmex XE-2100 and ACL 9000 hematology and coagulation analyzers. Results from this study showed that there were considerable differences in the reference values from manufacturers, western population or laboratory manuals compared with those from the local population.

Survey of Patients with Cervical Cancer in Hospital UniversitiSains Malaysia: Survival Data Analysis with Time-Dependent Covariate

Juhan N, Abd Razak N, Zubairi YZ, Khattak MN, Naing NN

Iran J Public Health, 2013 Sep;42(9):980-7.

PMID: 26175969

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among women in Malaysia. The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of explanatory variables on survival time of cervical cancer patients receiving treatment at a hospital in Malaysia.

METHODS: In this retrospective record review study, cervical cancer data obtained from Hospital UniversitiSains Malaysia (HUSM) was analysed. The data comprises of 120 patients who had been diagnosed as cervical cancer between 1(st) July 1995 and 30(th) June 2007, and obtained treatment from the hospital. The outcome variable was survival time (in months) from cervical cancer diagnosis to death. A stratified Weibull model was applied to study the effect of explanatory variable on survival time when there was time-dependent covariate in the model.

RESULTS: Stage of disease and metastases were important prognostic variables. However, metastasis had been stratified because this variable did not satisfy the proportional hazard assumption. In without metastasis stratum, patients who were diagnosed at stage III & IV are at 2.30 times the risk of death as those in stage I & II. Meanwhile, in with metastasis stratum, patients in stage III & IV group had 3.53 times the hazard faced by patients in stage I & II.

CONCLUSION: The prognosis of cervical cancer patients was dependent upon the stage at diagnosis, after the stratification of the metastasis variable. A poorer prognosis on survival was observed for patients in stage III & IV than those in stage I & II.

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