The transformation of an animal into pieces fit for human consumption is a very important operation. Rather than argue about halal slaughter without stunning being inhumane or stunning being controversial from the Islamic point of view, we discuss slaughter, stunning and animal welfare considering both Islamic and animal welfare legislation requirements. With the world Muslim population close to two billion, the provision of halal meat for the Muslim community is important both ethically and economically. However, from the animal welfare standard point of view, a number of issues have been raised about halal slaughter without stunning, particularly, about stressful methods of restraint and the latency of the onset of unconsciousness. This paper sets out to, discuss the methods of stunning that are acceptable by Islamic authorities, highlight the requirements for stunning to be acceptable in Islam and suggest practical ways to improve the humanness of slaughter.
A healthy parturient under spinal anaesthesia for Caesarean section lost consciousness for an hour, 20 min after the intrathecal injection of 2 ml of 0.5% heavy bupivacaine. The patient was haemodynamically stable before losing consciousness. The differential diagnosis is discussed.
This article explores the issues of hybridity and its impacts and bearing to identity crisis in relation to kinship practices among the Euro-Asian families in Malaysia. To demonstrate the empirical and scientific nature of this study, qualitative methods were used whereby respondents were interviewed either face to face interview or through audio interviews. Furthermore, focus Group Discussion and empirical observation were fully utilized to obtain and analyzed for both quality and logical conclusion. Indeed, the data from the field demonstrate that the offspring of mixed marriages had either conscious identity crisis, unconscious or denied identity crisis or no identity crisis due to factors such as religion, socializing, education, and exposure by parents. Thus, the majority of the research respondents identified themselves based on “Others” but there are complexities to this when it comes to formal and informal identification.
We report a 35 year-old Iranian female who presented with a sudden onset of left sided hemiparesis associated with temporary loss of consciousness of about 3 minutes. Neurological examination revealed a power of 0/5 over the left upper/lower limbs but reflexes were normal and plantar reflex was downgoing and equivocal. A computed tomography scan was done and it revealed mild bilateral frontal atrophy and a temporal arachnoid cyst which was decidedly an incidental finding and it did not have any relation to the clinical presentation. Electroencephalogram and other laboratory findings were all normal. When the psychiatric team interviewed her, it was revealed that the patient had recently experienced a major stressful event just prior to the hemiparesis. On further interview, the patient had complained of delusions of persecution, delusions of reference and also auditory hallucinations for approximately a year prior to admission. There have been only a spatter of reports of conversion symptoms seen in patients with schizophrenia and this is such a case.
The study objective was to determine the diagnostic value of physical examinations for positive computer tomography (CT) scans in children with mild head injuries. Retrospective data of patients evaluated for mild head injuries with loss of consciousness (LOC) or amnesia were reviewed. Estimations of prevalence, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated. Agreement between the physical examinations and CT brain scans was calculated using the Kappa test. 225 patients were included in the study. Of this group, 19.56% of patients had positive CT scans and 7.56% had normal physical examinations. 15 underwent neurosurgical intervention. For positive CT scans, sensitivity and specificity were 61.36% and 60.22%, respectively. Agreement between physical examinations and CT scans was Kappa = 0.147 (P < 0.05), 95% CI (0.035, 0.259). The present study demonstrated that physical examinations were significantly associated with positive CT scans (P = 0.01). However, the calculated Kappa value showed only slight agreement between these 2 variables and the low sensitivity and specificity of the physical examinations suggest that intracranial pathology in children with mild head injuries and LOC or amnesia cannot be excluded based on physical examinations alone.
Headache is a very common patient complaint but secondary causes for headache are unusual. Neuroimaging is both expensive and has a low yield in this group. Most patients with intracranial pathology have clinical features that would raise a "red flag". Appropriate selection of patients with headache for neuroimaging to look for secondary causes is very important. Red flags act as screening tools to help in identifying those patients presenting with headache who would benefit from prompt neuroimaging, and may increase the yield. The aim of this study is to evaluate clinical features in patients with headache using neuroimaging as a screening tool for intracranial pathology. 20 red flags were defined. A retrospective study of 111 patients was performed and the outcomes were divided into positive and negative. Abnormal neuroimaging was present in 39 patients. Results were analysed using the Logistic Regression model. Sensitivity and specificity of red flags were analysed to establish the cut-off point to predict abnormal neuroimaging and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve plotted to show the sensitivity of the diagnostic test. Three red flag features proved to be statistically significant with the p-value of less than 0.05 on both univariate and multivariate analysis. These were: paralysis; papilloedema; and "drowsiness, confusion, memory impairment and loss of consciousness". In addition, if three or more red flags from the list were present, this showed strong indication of abnormal neuroimaging, from cut-off point of ROC curve (area under the curve =0.76).