1.The Immunocompromised Patient with Perianal Lesions
Angelina Siing Ngi Tang ; Kar Keong NEOH ; Joshua Mohanraj DANIEL ; Pubalan MUNIANDY
Malaysian Journal of Dermatology 2017;39(Dec):59-64
Genital Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) is a major global public health issue where the number of patientsincreases every year. It has a variety of clinical presentations, and a tendency to recur when the immunesystem is compromised. Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have a higher chance ofbeing infected with HSV possibly due to their high risk attributes. We reported a case of a 19-yearoldhomosexual male who was recently diagnosed with HIV and presented with perianal lesions for aduration of three months. This case is presented with the aim to highlight the differential diagnosis ofrash in immunocompromised patients and how to approach them.
2.Clinical outcomes of acute stroke thrombolysis in neurologist and non-neurologist centres – A comparative study in Malaysia
Sin Hong Chew ; Irene Looi ; Kar Keong Neoh ; Joshua Ooi ; Wee-Kooi Cheah ; Zariah Binti Abdul Aziz
The Medical Journal of Malaysia 2021;76(1):12-16
Acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) is a devastating disease and one
of the leading causes of disabilities worldwide. From 2010 to
2014, the incidence of stroke in Malaysia had increased from
65 to 187 per 100,000 population.1 Thrombolytic therapy
with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
(rtPA) within 4.5 hours of symptom onset has been shown to
be an effective treatment for AIS. Patients who receive
thrombolysis are 30 percent more likely to achieve excellent
functional outcome (modified Rankin scale of 0 to 1) at 3
months compared to placebo.2
Unfortunately, the delivery of stroke thrombolysis service in
Malaysia is often limited by the availability of neurologists.
To date, the ratio of neurologists capable of performing
thrombolysis serving in public hospitals to the Malaysian
population is 1:1.4 million.3 To counteract this disparity
and to cope with the increasing stroke burden in Malaysia,
there has been an advocacy for greater involvement of
non-neurologists, i.e., general and emergency physicians
in performing of stroke thrombolysis.4 Emerging data based
on short term outcomes appear to support this notion.
Based on a 2015 single center study on 49 AIS patients in
Australia, A. Lee et al., reported that there was no significant
difference in door to needle time, rates of symptomatic
intracranial bleeding (SICH), and mortality between patients
thrombolysed by neurologists versus stroke physicians.5
In
2016, a larger multicentre study in Thailand reported that
patients thrombolysed in hospitals without neurologists had
lower National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores
at discharge and lower inpatient mortality rate compared to
patients treated in neurologist hospitals.6 Based on these
short term outcomes, both studies suggest that nonneurologists are able to thrombolyse AIS patients safely and
effectively. Data comparing long term functional outcomes
in thrombolysis prescribed by neurologists and nonneurologists are still very limited.
The primary objective of this study was to evaluate and
compare the 3-month functional outcomes of thrombolytic
therapy between hospitals with and without on-site
neurologists. The secondary objective was to assess the doorto-needle time and complication rates of thrombolysis service
in both hospitals