Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 1 Issue 4 i Aster Medical Journal (AMJ)

In the latest data leak related to users in India, over a million medical records and 121 Mn medical images of Indian patients, including X-rays and scans, have been leaked online to be freely accessible by anyone. According to German cybersecurity company Greenbone Networks, the patient records and scans and images from India also include details such as the name of the patient, their date of birth, the national ID, name of the medical institution, their medical history, physician names and other details that are meant to be classified. Among the leaked data are medical records belonging to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital as well as Utkarsh Scans, a medical imaging provider. The leak is a result of bad password practices at these hospitals and medical service providers.…

• Align research protocols to enable discovery across larger datasets, as well as compare outcome measures such as diagnostic and clinical utility, cost effectiveness, and patient- and family-reported outcomes (Genomics England, Australian Genomics, NHGRI Newborn Sequencing in Genomic Medicine and Public Health)• Evaluate new sequencing and computational methods for clinical use (Genomics England and French Genomic Medicine Plan)• Harmonize collection of clinical and phenotypic data: define the minimum clinical dataset required for interpreting genomic tests and the health informatics infrastructure required for data capture and exchange (Australian Genomics and Genomics England)• Improve understanding of variant- and gene-disease associations by sharing the curation effort, developing common data models to capture evidence, and contributing to public knowledge repositories (NHGRI ClinGen, Genomics England, and Australian Genomics)• Develop an evaluation framework for assessing existing…

The 2019 novel coronavirus has caused a public-health emergency in China, a global economic superpower. Like many in my field, I worry that if and when the emergent virus takes root in poorer countries that are already tackling outbreaks of other pathogens, it could wreak havoc of an even larger magnitude. I am a physician who concentrates on outbreak preparedness against new infectious diseases, both in the United States and in countries with far fewer resources. I worked as a clinician in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak, and in New York City hospitals during the H1N1. My work—currently in western and equatorial Africa and previously in Asia and Latin America—has convinced me that global defenses against new infectious diseases are only as strong as the health systems in the…

Ultrasound Elastography is perhaps the most important breakthrough in the evolution of ultrasonography in the last 15 years. Elastography is an advanced imaging technology which uses a surface ultrasound for non-invasively assessing the elasticity and stiffness of various tissues in the body. Elasticity of the tissues actually describes the resistance to deformation of a tissue to an applied stress. In quantitative ultrasound elastography the stress is applied via shear wave propagation generated by ultrasound transducer. The underlying concept in the shear wave speed is related to tissue stiffness and travels faster in stiff tissues and slower in soft tissues. Liver Elastography is by far the best tool for assessing and evaluating Liver Fibrosis non-invasively. It can evaluate the stiffness of the liver tissue and thus finds out the extension of…

Badriya Mohammed Hassan & Hashim Al-Awadhi Dubai Hospital, United Arab Emirates Medical Imaging Team INTRODUCTION Anatomical and physiological differences between pediatric and adults require special attention when imaging pediatric patients. Before performing a pediatric CT examination, it is essential to fully evaluate the risks of the radiation dose and benefits of the requested examination. Systematic efforts can be used to drive process and quality improvement in terms of optimizing CT radiation dose while maintaining image utility. The other challenge was the imaging without sedation and breath hold. Image quality is a key factor because of these images are routinely used for clinical evaluation as well as preoperative surgical planning. Technologies has developed and will continue to develop innovations that follow the ALARA “As Low as Reasonably Achievable" principle. PROSPECTIVE Technologies…

*Dr Anjaly K.C, Dr Jacob Baby 1, Dr Praveen Valsalan 2, Dr Elizabeth Sunila C.X3, Dr Mitchelle Lolly4, Dr Nabil Ahamed5 Department of Pulmonology, Aster Medcity, Kochi, Kerala Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to the subject matter or materials discussed in this article. * Corresponding Authors 1Dr Jacob Baby, HOD and Lead Consultant, Department of Pulmonary Medicine 2Dr Praveen Valsalan, Consultant Pulmonologist 3Dr Elizabeth Sunila C.X, Consultant Pulmonologist 4 Dr Michelle Lolly, Senior Specialist, Department of Pulmonology 5 Dr Nabil Ahamed, Specialist, Department of pulmonology Keywords: Penicillium marneffei, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, immunocompromised host * 2nd year DNB-PG registrar ABSTRACT: A case report of coinfection with Penicillium marneffei and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a 29-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura…

Dr Rakesh Babu, Senior Specialist, Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Aster MIMS, Kozhikode, Kerala, india Hepatitis E virus belonging to the family Hepeviridae, is an important cause of enterically transmitted hepatitis in the developing countries. Hepatitis E can lead to acute liver failure in pregnant patients and in patients with pre existing liver diseases. The mortality rates increase especially in the third trimester of pregnancy1. We describe a case of a 28-year-old female at 28 weeks of gestation who presented with acute liver failure due to hepatitis E virus. CASE REPORT A 28-year-old female at 28 weeks of gestation was referred from a peripheral centre with history of tiredness, jaundice of 6 days duration and altered sensorium for a day. She was investigated and found to be hepatitis E card test…

In the 1940s, in their quest to devise an objective pain scale, Cornell University researchers poked an increasingly hot metal rod into the hands of 13 women in the throes of childbirth. The volunteers were supposed to express how each level of heat compared with the others. But as labor progressed and the rod got hotter, they were in too much distress (and quite possibly distracted with other kinds of pain) to grapple with adjectives. Throbbing? Searing? A 7 on a scale of 10? And therein lies the conundrum. Few of us can express our aches and hurts accurately, particularly when we are in the thick of them. This quirky bit of medical history opens Abby Norman’s vivid memoir, “Ask Me About My Uterus.” But the focus of the book…

Dubai Hospital achieved a 88.5 percent cure rate on childhood cancers in 2019, which is on par with the world paediatric cancer cure rate of 85-90 percent, according to a statement issued by its paediatric oncology department. This reflects the UAE’s rapid journey towards its goal of an overall cancer reduction by 18 per cent by 2021 in keeping with its National Health Agenda, the statement said. The UAE National Health Agenda 2021 has included cancer as one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess the nation’s health-care goals being on track. According to the 2013 figures provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO), cancers in UAE claim 78 deaths per 100,000 of the total population. The target is to reduce the numbers to 64.2 deaths per 100,000 by…

AUSTRALIA Australian Genomics 2014-2021 Focus: Infrastructure and clinical cohorts: rare diseases, cancer, infectious disease. A collaborative partnership of over 80 institutions, with research driven through 4 programs: National diagnostic and research network; National approach to data federation and analysis; Evaluation, policy, ethics; and Workforce and education. Rare disease and cancer flagships serve as models for the implementation of genomic medicine in clinical practice. Leverages state-based initiatives Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, Sydney Genomics Collaborative, and Queensland Genomics Health Alliance. Government investment: AUD125M (USD95M). AUD500M (USD$353) announced in 2018 for Genomics Health Futures Mission. BRAZIL Brazilian Initiative on Precision Medicine 2015-2024 Focus: Infrastructure, population-based cohort, rare and common disease cohorts. Collaboration between five Research Innovation and Dissemination Centres to develop shared genomic databases compliant with GA4GH standards. Initial focus on creation of reference datasets, anticipated…

When I first met the immunology researcher James P. Allison in 2014, he was just becoming an icon. Columbia University had brought him to their campus to present him with the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for the new type of cancer therapy he had developed. Instead of trying to burn, poison or surgically remove malignant cells from the body, his treatment mobilized a patient’s immune system to destroy them. During his talk at the award ceremony, Allison explained that three years earlier, the Food and Drug Administration had approved the antibody drug he had developed, ipilimumab, for use against late-stage metastatic melanoma, which is among the deadliest of cancers. Some of the terminal patients who had participated in earlier trials, he reported, had gained a decade of life. As he…

Dr Aishani Shah Department of Dermatology, Aster Clinic, Al Nahda, Dubai. A 31-year-old male, presented to the out patient department with a 2 week history of a gradually enlarging painful boil on right arm. He gave a history of occasional serosanguinous discharge from the lesion. He was systemically well, and had no recollection of an insect bite. He had no history of any topical or systemic treatment. He gave history of recent travel to Africa. Examination revealed a 2.5cm furuncle (fig 1A & B) with a central pore. When the lesion was manipulated to extract the discharge/pus to send for further examination, a whitish soft tube like projection was seen extending through the central pore. On close examination it seemed like a breathing tube and body of an insect larva.…

Dr Rahashekher Garikapati, Neurologist, Aster Hospital, Mankhool Dr Mahendra Ramadas, Neurologist, Aster Clinic, Bur Dubai, Dubai Dr Amit Arora, Neurologist, Aster Clinic, Al Muteena, Deira, Dubai Dr Pawan Kumar Maniyar, Radiologist, Aster Hospital, Mankhool, Dubai Dr Naveen Bhardwaj, Radiologist, Aster Hospital, Mankhool, Dubai CASE REPORTS: CASE 1: A 56 - year old lady of Scottish extraction, living in Dubai for many years, working as director of company, presented with right upper and lower limb stiffness, paresthesia and difficulty walking of 6 weeks’ duration. (Clinically Isolated Syndrome). CASE 2: A 48 - year old Indian housewife presented with sudden onset of bilateral lower limb sensory symptoms, with dysesthesia, cutaneous allodynia, pain and sensory level at D4. (Clinically Isolated Syndrome). CASE 3: A 28 - year old Myanmarese lady working as restaurant…

The Indian government has set aside a viability gap funding (VGF) under its massive insurance scheme to finance building hospitals in small towns. Two years after announcing the ‘largest health insurance scheme’, the government has been able to get nearly 10,000 private hospitals to partner out of over 31,000 in India.Some Indian private hospitals are hopeful that viability gap funding (VGF) can help sustainably operate hospitals in underserved areas. The VGF, which is proposed to come out of proceeds from the tax on medical devices, is meant for building hospitals in India’s most disadvantaged 112 districts—primarily across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand—where there are no private hospitals or they’re not empaneled with the government’s scheme.…

A sudden spike in new coronavirus cases in China this week shocked researchers. But the huge bump in numbers isn’t a sign that the epidemic is worsening, say researchers, it is instead the result of authorities changing how cases are confirmed. On 12 February, Hubei province reported nearly 15,000 new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, representing a 33% jump in total infections worldwide in a single day. But most of the Hubei cases — about 13,000 — are the result of a new policy in the province that means physicians can diagnose suspected cases of COVID-19 on the basis of chest images, rather than having to wait for genetic tests to confirm the presence of the virus, which can take days. The new classification was listed…

1Australian Genomics Health Alliance, Melbourne VIC 3052, Australia; 2Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne VIC 3052, Australia; 3Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne VIC 3052, Australia; 4Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, 661 University Avenue, Suite 510, Toronto, ON M5G 0A3, Canada; 5Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, 661 University Avenue, Suite 510, Toronto, ON M5G 0A3, Canada; 6National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-2152, USA; 7All of Us Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-2152, USA; 8National Health Service England, Skipton House, 80 London Road, London SE1 6LH, UK; 9Genomics England, Queen Mary University of London, Dawson Hall, London EC1M 6BQ, UK; 10INSERM (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research), 75654 Paris Cedex 13, France; 11Verily Life Sciences, 269 East Grand Avenue,…

Dr Ashik Sainu Mohiyadeen – Sr Consultant Gastroenterologist. Dr Dilip Abdul Khadar – Specialist physician (Intensivist). Aster Al Raffah Hospital, Muscat, Oman. Mr. H, a 30 year old gentleman had complaints of severe abdominal pain and was admitted to Ministry Hospital, Nizwa. He was admitted at MOH there with Severe acute pancreatitis and was subsequently intubated and mechanically ventilated since the day of admission due to haemodynamic instability, MODS. He was managed there on ventilator for a whole week. He was found to have severe hypertriglyceridemia. He was also an alcoholic. His CT done there has features of severe necrotizing pancreatitis. Our Gastroenterology team was approached by his family to take over the case since he was deteriorating and after deciding to take over the case our Aster hospital team…

Dr Harsha Bhatia, Aster Medical Centre, Neurology, Doha, Qatar Dr Gireesh Kumar B, Aster Medical Centre, AH, Doha, Qatar INTRODUCTION Epicrania fugax (EF) is a primary headache whose main feature is the dynamic character of the pain. EF pain typically moves across different dermatomes in a linear or zigzag trajectory. Headache associated with sexual activity has been referred to as sexual headache, benign vascular sexual headache, coital cephalalgia, coital headache, intercourse headache, (pre)orgasmic cephalalgia, and (pre)orgasmic headache. Orgasmic headache presenting as epicrania fugax on left side is rare. CASE REPORT 48 years male presented with acute onset linear trajectory shaped headaches radiating anteriorly from back of head only when he reaches peak of his sexual activity, and this headache is persists 1-2 hours, partially relieved with analgesic, but soreness persisting…

A powerful antibiotic that kills some of the most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria in the world has been discovered using artificial intelligence. Although AI has been used to aid parts of the antibiotic-discovery process before, the researchers say that this is the first time it has identified completely new kinds of antibiotic from scratch, without using any previous human assumptions. The work, led by synthetic biologist Jim Collins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, is published in Cell. Tests showed that the drug wiped out a range of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, including Acinetobacter baumannii and Enterobacteriaceae, two of the three high-priority pathogens that the World Health Organization ranks as “critical” for new antibiotics to target. “In terms of antibiotic discovery, this is absolutely a first,” said Regina Barzilay,…