A case of osteosarcoma in a 14 month old girl is reported. The child presented with a history of difficulty in standing for 2 months and x-rays revealed an osteolytic lesion in the upper third of the femur associated with widening of bone and periosteal reaction. Osteosarcoma was diagnosed by biopsy. Treatment was refused and the child died 13 weeks later. Only one other case of osteosarcoma in a child as young as 14 months has been reported. A review of literature showed 22 cases of osteosarcoma in children aged 5 years or younger.
Age Factors ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Femoral Neoplasms ; pathology ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Osteosarcoma ; pathology

Analysis of count event data such as mortality cases, were often modelled using Poisson regression model. Maximum likelihood procedures were used by using SAS software to estimate the model parameters of a Poisson regression model. However, the Negative Binomial distribution has been widely suggested as the alternative to the Poisson when there is proof of overdispersion phenomenon. We modelled the mortality cases as the dependent variable using Poisson and Negative Binomial regression and compare both of the models. The procedures were done in SAS by using the function PROC GENMOD. The results showed that the mortality data in Poisson regression exhibit large ratio values between deviance to degree of freedom which indicate model misspecification or overdispersion. This large ratio was found to be reduced in Negative Binomial regression. The Normal probability plot of Pearson residual confirmed that the Negative Binomial regression is a better model than Poisson regression in modelling the mortality data. The objective of this study is to compare the goodness of fit of Poisson regression model and Negative Binomial regression model in the application of air pollution epidemiologic time series study by using SAS software.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Deglutition Disorders ; therapy ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Electrocardiography ; Fatal Outcome ; Humans ; Intubation, Gastrointestinal ; adverse effects ; instrumentation ; Male ; Myocardial Infarction ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Stress, Physiological

Female ; Gynecologic Surgical Procedures ; methods ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; diagnostic imaging ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Pregnancy, Tubal ; surgery ; Radiography ; Treatment Outcome ; Uterus ; abnormalities ; Young Adult

Congenital leukemia is an extremely rare disease but frequently fatal. We report a case of intrauterine death (IUD) secondary to congenital erythroid leukaemia associated with maternal Parvovirus B19 infection. Further research is needed to ascertain the association between maternal Parvovirus B19 infection and congenital leukemia.

A 5-month-old Malay boy presented with purpuric papules and plaques on the face and extremities accompanied by fever, coryzal symptoms and bilateral lower limb oedema. There were also bullous linear purpuric lesions on the right upper limb. Blood and culture tests were normal. Histopathological tests showed leucocytoclastic vasculitis, confirming the diagnosis of acute haemorrhagic oedema of infancy. The patient achieved complete recovery after 2 weeks with no recurrence.
Blister ; Purpura ; Infant ; Erythema elevatum diutinum

This study was undertaken to investigate the outcome of traumatic intracapsular neck of femur fractures treated with total hip arthroplasty (THA). Patients aged ? 60 years who underwent THA for traumatic intracapsular neck of femur fractures from January 2005 to March 2009 were included in the study. Telephone or personal interviews were conducted. There were 49 patients identified within the study period. The mean age was 74.12 years. Most patients were females (81.6%), with a male: female ratio of 1: 4.4. In total, 29 patients were available for outcome scoring. The one-month mortality rate was 4.1%, and the one-year mortality rate was 20.5%. Of the 29 patients 82.8% obtained a Zukerman Functional Outcome Score of good (80 ?100) and 13.8% obtained a score of fair (60 ?80). THA for the treatment of traumatic neck of femur fractures in elderly is a good option with 96.6% of patients obtaining a satisfactory functional outcome, with acceptable morbidity and mortality statistics.

STUDY DESIGN: Lumbar disc degeneration and segmental instability of the lumbar spine are causes of low back pain. Disc degeneration causes specific changes of the intervertebral disc, and could affect anatomic variations of end plate and vetebral body. However, the exact relationship between degenerative changes of the intervertebral disc and segmental motion characteristics is not known. It is known that radial tears of the annulus fibrosus initiate or accompany degenerative process of nucleus pulposus and the motion segment. It is hypothesis of this study that the existence of radial tear in the annulus fibrosis affects 3 dimension motion characteristics of motion segment. For the purpose, the degree of intervertebral disc degeneration is newly classified by existence of radial tear. Then, the resulting biomechanical motions are investigated. OBJECTIVES: To investigate effects of disc degeneration by the classification on kinematic motions of the motion segment from human lumbar spine and to suggest a quantified method to determine spinal instability in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 60 spinal motion segments from human lumbar spine was used for this study. To measure 3 dimensioal motion of the motion segments, Vicon system(Oxford, England) with 3 cameras reflective markers and VAX station was used. 6 kinds of pure moments(flexion, extension, right and left axial rotation, and right and left lateral bending) were applied to the motion segments using dead weight for each loading step. At the end of test(maximum loading), motion segments were frozen for anatomical study. For making clear the degree of the degeneration of the disc, a new classification based on MRI results was used: Grade 1 is a normal young disc without tear; Grade 2 is a normal aging disc without radial tear; Grade 3 is a degenerative disc with radial tear; and Grade 4 is a severely degenerative disc with radial tear and other degeneration such as showing decreased disc height. RESULTS: The upper lumbar specimens with radial tears has increased flexion motions as compared to the normal group. Also, the right and left axial rotation in radial tear group increased as compared to the normal group. However, there were no statistical differences in other motions. For the lower lumbar specimens, there were no significant differences in measured motions in all directions between the normal and radial tear groups CONCLUSIONS: These results suggests that the segmental motions are affected by radial tear in the intervertebral disc. Thus, the radial tear in the annulus fibrosus of lumbar intervertebral disc could cause the instability of lumbar spine. Further research is required to determine the relationship between other structural changes and biomechanical characteristics, and future studies should include in vivo investigations to correlate these findings to patients'symptoms.
Aging ; Classification ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration ; Low Back Pain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Spine

Introduction: The aims of this randomised study were to compare the induction characteristics of sevoflurane using vital capacity breath technique to that of tidal breathingtechnique in adults undergoing day-care surgery., and to compare patients' acceptance of these two techniques. Methods: Sixty ASA I and II adult patients undergoing day-care surgery were randomly allocated to receive either the vital capacity breath or tidal breathing technique for induction of anaesthesia with 7.5% sevoflurane in nitrous oxide and oxygen. Haemodynamic changes, induction characteristics and patients' acceptance were compared. Results: The mean time for induction was significantly faster with the vital capacity breath technique. There were no significant differences in haemodynamic changes and oxygenation during induction between these two groups. There was a significant increase in incidence of exictatory movement in patients receiving the tidal breathing technique. Either technique was found to be acceptable by most of the patients studied. Conclusion: The vital capacity breath technique appears to be better tolerated with shorter onset time and less movement during induction of anaesthesia. As it is well accepted by the patients and has a stable haemodynamic profile, its use should be encouraged.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals have greater susceptibility to infections by a myriad of microorganisms which can cause significant morbidity and mortality compared to immunocompetent individuals. Of these microbial infections, intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) however are receiving less attention than bacterial and viral infections, hence, the lack of information of parasitic infections in HIV individuals. Prevalence of IPIs among 346 HIV-infected individuals in Malaysia was determined in this study. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) was 37.9% (131 of 346) with protozoa infections (18.8%) being more common compared to helminth infections (7.5%). Observed protozoa include Entamoeba histolytica/dispar (16.8%), Cryptosporidium parvum (12.4%), Isospora belli (10.1%), Cyclospora cayetanensis (4.9%) and Giardia duodenalis (intestinalis) (3.2%) whilst helminthes which were detected comprised of Ascaris lumbricoides (13.9%), Trichuris trichiura (6.4%) and hookworms (0.6%). Among those 131 infected, 50.4% had multiple infections and 48.9% had single parasitic infection. The CD4 counts were significantly lower (i.e., 200 cells/mm3) in patients harbouring IPIs. Of those individuals infected with intestinal parasites, 49% were intravenous drug users and 58% were not on any antiretroviral therapy. Most were asymptomatic and had concurrent opportunistic infections (OIs) mainly with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. These results confirmed that IPIs are ubiquitous among HIV-infected individuals, especially those presenting with low CD4 T cells counts, and provide useful insights into the epidemiology of these infections among HIVinfected patients in Malaysia. It is therefore recommended, that diagnosis of these intestinal parasitic pathogens should be conducted on a routine basis for better management of gastrointestinal illnesses among HIV individuals.