Background: The journal in its many years of publication has seen changes in its cover design, themes, authorship, and major discussion points. A review can tell us about its focus, and many other factors which make it relevant and able to deliver the needs of its readers. Objective: To determine the contents of the Filipino Family Physician journal involving seven publication years and analyzed them on certain parameters which concern the editorial board and the writers/readers. Method: Content analysis using twenty issues, encompassing seven publication years of the journal was done based on the following parameters: authorship, number of authors, research design, statistics employed, total number of pages, number of references or citations, institutional affiliation, themes or issues addressed, tools and instruments used. Issues analyzed: 2005/2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2009-2011. But for 2005, 2006 and 2009, 2011; only 2 issues per publication year were analyzed. Results: No. of pages = 824 for 116 articles contained in 20 issues (4 issues/year), 7.1 pages per article with an average of 23.2 articles published per year or 5.8 articles per issue of the journal. There were 177 authors who wrote for the journal in 20 issues, averaging 35.4 authors who wrote per year's issues. Fifty percent of the authors were residents, 23% mixed, and 15% by consultants. Sixty percent by single authorship and 17% by 3 or more. Sixty percent used descriptive design (cross-sectional, case-control, cohort) and 10% each were case reports and randomized controlled studies. Eighty-six percent used foreign citations with 96% non-Asian sources and only 14% citied Philippine authors. Forty six percent of all the articles were written from university-based health institutions, and 21% by non-training institutions or local chapters. On themes - 15% were on non-communicable diseases of which 10% were on diabetes mellitus and hypertension, 13% each were on behavioral medicine & counseling, and medical education and bioethics. Least written were on nutrition, pharmacoadherence, medical informatics, and economics. Conclusion: Most of the articles published were of single authorship commonly written by a resident/fellow, sometimes with a consultant co-author, usually using the descriptive design, and standardized instruments with good statistical tools or packages commonly citing foreign authors. The articles written were as varied and wide as the fields of interest in Family and Community Medicine and general practice. Subject matter usually about non-communicable diseases like diabetes mellitus and hypertension and behavioral medicine. The authors usually come from training institutions or university-based health facilities.
RESEARCH DESIGN ; JOURNAL ARTICLE ;

This paper aims to highlight some of the common areas of concern in qualitative research proposals and manuscripts, gleaned from the authors’ first-hand experience as an external referee and peer-reviewer. The purpose is to provide broad guidance to researchers who are contemplating on writing a research proposal or journal manuscript using a qualitative approach. The three issues are (1) application of the generic label “qualitative” when proponents or authors describe the study design; (2) overreliance on, and even misuse of, interviews and focus groups for data collection; and (3) misconceptions on the process of qualitative data analysis. Practice points are offered on how researchers can avoid these missteps. Research has been characterized as a quest for knowledge, and it has been proposed that both qualitative and quantitative approaches uncover different dimensions of “truth”. The predominance of a positivist ontology in health research in the Philippines and elsewhere, coupled with intense methodological training in quantitative approaches, however, has relegated qualitative research to second-class status. Improving the quality of qualitative research work by addressing some of the issues outlined in this paper is one way of moving past this situation.
Qualitative Research ; Data Collection ; Data Analysis ; Research Report ; Journal Article

We report a 51-year-old Vietnam War veteran with an unusual variant of macular amyloidosis presenting as poikilodermatous skin lesions. The extensive mottled brown pigmentation was checkered with small hypopigmented or normal skin-colored spots and intermingled with telangiectasia. Skin biopsy revealed subepidermal amyloid deposits. There was no evidence of extracutaneous involvements. This case could be easily confused with other true poikiloderma lesions.
Amyloidosis/pathology* ; Journal Article ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; Skin Diseases/pathology*

Hypernatremia developing in nonhospitalized adults is predominantly a disease of the elderly and mentally handicapped patients, possibly revealing inadequate nursing care of these patients. It has long been claimed that the duration of hypernatremia and its rate of correction are correlated with improvement in patients' neurologic status. Since there are only a handful of cases with serum sodium levels greater than 200 mEq/L until recently, it is not clear at what rate plasma sodium concentration can be safely normalized in severe hypernatremic patients. We report a case of severe hypernatremia with survival. This patient underwent rapid correction of serum sodium concentration during the management of this metabolic derangement using isotonic solution.
Journal Article ; Female ; Human ; Hypernatremia/therapy* ; Hypernatremia/physiopathology ; Hypernatremia/blood ; Middle Age ; Sodium/blood* ; Treatment Outcome

This case presents a 34-year-old man who had a huge parasagittal meningioma. Initial treatment consisted of preoperative external carotid artery embolization and partial tumor resection. During the resection, we found that the tumor invaded the adjacent calvarium, and due to massive hemorrhage, total removal of the tumor was impossible. The patient was treated with intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) (25 Gy via 16 MeV) as an adjunctive therapy. Eight months after IORT, we were able to remove the tumor completely without surgical difficulties. IORT can be considered an useful adjunctive therapy for the superficially located, huge, and highly vascular meningioma.
Adult ; Journal Article ; Human ; Intraoperative Care* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Meningeal Neoplasms/surgery ; Meningeal Neoplasms/radiotherapy* ; Meningeal Neoplasms/pathology ; Meningioma/surgery ; Meningioma/radiotherapy* ; Meningioma/pathology ; Vascular Neoplasms/surgery ; Vascular Neoplasms/radiotherapy* ; Vascular Neoplasms/pathology

A patient with a fulminant amebic colitis coexisting with intestinal tuberculosis had a sudden onset of crampy abdominal pain, mucoid diarrhea, anorexia, fever and vomiting with signs of positive peritoneal irritation. Fulminant amebic colitis occurring together with intestinal tuberculosis is an uncommon event and may present an interesting patho-etiological relationship. The diagnosis was proven by histopathologic examination of resected specimen. Subtotal colectomy including segmental resection of ileum, about 80 cm in length, followed by exteriorization of both ends, was performed in an emergency basis. Despite all measures, the patient died on the sixth postoperative day. The exact relationship of fulminant amebic colitis and intestinal tuberculosis is speculative but the possibility of a cause and effect relationship exists. Fulminant amebic colitis may readily be confused with other types of inflammatory bowel disease, such as idiopathic ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, perforated diverticulitis and appendicitis with perforation. This report draws attention to the resurgence of tuberculosis and amebiasis in Korea, and the need for the high degree of caution required to detect it.
Journal Article ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Dysentery, Amebic/surgery ; Dysentery, Amebic/pathology* ; Dysentery, Amebic/diagnosis ; Dysentery, Amebic/complications ; Fatal Outcome ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; Tuberculosis, Gastrointestinal/surgery ; Tuberculosis, Gastrointestinal/pathology ; Tuberculosis, Gastrointestinal/complications*

The aim of our study was to describe the radiologic findings of extensive acute lung injury associated with limited thoracic irradiation. Limited thoracic irradiation occasionally results in acute lung injury. In this condition, chest radiograph shows diffuse ground-glass appearance in both lungs and thin-section CT scans show diffuse bilateral ground-glass attenuation with traction bronchiectasis, interlobular septal thickening and intralobular smooth linear opacities.
Acute Disease ; Adenocarcinoma/radiotherapy ; Adenocarcinoma/pathology ; Adenocarcinoma/drug therapy ; Adenocarcinoma/complications* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/radiotherapy ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/pathology ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/drug therapy ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/complications* ; Journal Article ; Human ; Lung/radiation effects* ; Lung/pathology ; Lung Neoplasms/radiotherapy ; Lung Neoplasms/pathology ; Lung Neoplasms/drug therapy ; Lung Neoplasms/complications* ; Male ; Middle Age ; Radiation Injuries/radiography ; Radiation Injuries/pathology ; Radiation Injuries/etiology* ; Thorax/radiation effects

We report a case of Aspergillus terreus discitis which developed in a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia following induction chemotherapy. A. terreus was isolated from sputum, one month earlier, but the physician did not consider it significant at the time. Magnetic resonance imaging study showed the involvement of L3-4, L4-5 and L5-S1 intervertebral discs. Etiology was established by means of histology and culturing a surgical specimen of disc materials. Our patient survived after a surgical debridement and amphotericin B administration with a total dose of 2.0 g. Discitis caused by Aspergillus terreus is a very rare event. A. terreus is one of the invasive Aspergillus species. The pathogenetic mechanism is discussed and the literature is reviewed.
Aspergillosis/surgery ; Aspergillosis/pathology ; Aspergillosis/microbiology* ; Aspergillosis/drug therapy ; Aspergillosis/complications ; Aspergillus/isolation & purification ; Aspergillus/classification ; Journal Article ; Discitis/surgery ; Discitis/pathology ; Discitis/microbiology* ; Discitis/drug therapy ; Human ; Intervertebral Disk/surgery ; Intervertebral Disk/pathology ; Intervertebral Disk/microbiology* ; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Acute/microbiology ; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Acute/drug therapy ; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Acute/complications* ; Lumbar Vertebrae/surgery ; Lumbar Vertebrae/pathology ; Lumbar Vertebrae/microbiology*