1.A panoramic view on phytochemical, nutritional, ethanobotanical uses and pharmacological values of Trachyspermum ammi Linn
Asif Muhammad Hafiz ; Sultana Sabira ; Akhtar Naveed
Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine 2014;(z2):545-553
Trachyspermum ammi Linn. (T. ammi) is an aromatic, grassy, annual plant belonging to Umbelliferae family which grows in the east of India, Pakistan, Iran, and Egypt. T. ammi has been used traditionally to treat arthritis, colic, diarrhea and gastrointestinal problems. In addition to these medicinal uses, T. ammi continues to be valued around the world as an important cooking spice and is believed to relief the common cold, flu-like symptoms, headaches, and even painful menstrual periods. These multiple uses can be explained by its several active compounds. The phytochemical studies on T. ammi seeds have revealed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, fixed oils, glycosides, tannins, saponin and flavonoids, cumene, thymene, amino acids and dietary fiber essential oils like thymol, c-terpinene, p-cymene. Several pharmacological studies on anti-tussive effect, inhibitory effect on histamine (H1) receptors, antihypertensive, antispasmodic, bronchodilator, hepato-protective, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti mutagenic activities of T. ammi seed extracts have been reported in the literature. The present review is therefore, an effort to give a detailed survey of the literature on traditional, phytochemical and pharmacological properties of T. ammi.
2.Epidemiological survey of helminths of goats in southern Punjab, Pakistan
Muhammad Mazhar Ayaz ; Muhammad Asif Raza ; Saeed Murtaza ; ; Saleem Akhtar
Tropical Biomedicine 2013;30(1):62-71
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of helminths of goats such as Fasciola hepatica, Haemonchus contortus, Paramphistomum cervi,
Oesophagostomum columbian, Cotylophoron cotylophorum, Monezia expansa, Oestertagia oestertagi and Oestertagia circumcincta. The overall prevalence of all species of helminthes was 52% in goat. The study was designed to investigate the factors of helminths prevalence
on the basis of sex and age of goat with the help of Chi-square. All the results obtained were
non-significant due to some factors which directly affects the prevalence of helminths.
3.Mid-upper-arm circumference as a screening measure for identifying children with elevated body mass index: a study for Pakistan
Muhammad ASIF ; Muhammad ASLAM ; Saima ALTAF
Korean Journal of Pediatrics 2018;61(1):6-11
PURPOSE: Mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) is considered an alternative screening method for obesity. The aims of this investigation were to examine the ability of MUAC to correctly identify children with elevated body mass index (BMI) and to determine the best MUAC cutoff point for identification of children with high BMI. METHODS: Anthropometric measurements (height, weight, and MUAC) from a cross-sectional sample of 7,921 Pakistani children aged 5–14 years were analyzed. Pearson correlation coefficients between MUAC and other anthropometric measurements were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the optimal MUAC cutoff point for identifying children with high BMI. RESULTS: Among 7,921 children, the mean (±standard deviation) age, BMI, and MUAC were 10.00 (±2.86 years), 16.16 (±2.66 kg/m2), and 17.73 (±2.59 cm), respectively. The MUAC had a strong positive correlation with BMI. The optimal MUAC cutoff points indicating elevated BMI in boys ranged from 16.76 to 22.73, while the corresponding values in girls ranged from 16.38 to 20.57. CONCLUSION: MUAC may be used as a simple indicator of overweight/obesity in children, with reasonable accuracy in clinical settings.
Body Mass Index
;
Body Weight
;
Child
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Mass Screening
;
Methods
;
Obesity
;
Pakistan
;
Public Health
;
ROC Curve
4.Prevalence of Ascaridia galli in white leghorn layers and Fayoumi-Rhode Island red crossbred flock at government poultry farm Dina, Punjab, Pakistan
Hafiz Allah Bachaya ; Muhammad Asif Raza ; Muhammad Ashraf Anjum ; Imran Ahmad Khan ; Abdul Aziz ; Zahid Manzoor ; Shaukat Hussain Munawar
Tropical Biomedicine 2015;32(1):11-16
Poultry farming not only provides high nutritious food but also creates employment
opportunity for rural masses. Documented evidences elaborates that helminth parasitism is
most deciduous problem of chickens especially in developing world. Ascaridia (A.) galli, a
nematode of small intestine, has been considered as the most common and important parasite
of chicken. The present study was carried out to investigate prevalence and severity of A.
galli in White Leghorn layers (housing type: battery cage and deep litter, 50 each) and
Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red crossbred (male and female: 50 each) flock rearing at Government
Poultry Farm, Dina, Punjab, Pakistan. Two hundred faecal samples were examined by using
standard parasitological and McMaster egg counting technique. The overall prevalence was
24.5% at farm, 13% in White leghorn layer (battery cage=2%, deep litter=24%) and 36% in
Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red (male=34%, female=38%). It was also observed that White leghorn
layer rearing in deep litter had more severe infection (EPG=1920) of A. galli compare with
battery cages birds (EPG=500). Parasite prevalence was significantly related with sex (P<0.05)
in Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red and male birds had less number of average parasites (0.34±0.47)
as compared to females (0.38±0.490). Additionally, female birds were under serious threat of
infection (EPG=2270) compared with its counterpart (EPG=1250). Given the high infection
rates, particular attention should be paid to management and provision of feed supplement to
White leghorn layer housing in deep litter and female bird of Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red
crossbred.
5.Outcomes of Primary Unilateral Cheiloplasty in Same-Day Surgical Settings.
Mansoor KHAN ; Hidayat ULLAH ; Asif AZIZ ; Muhammad TAHIR
Archives of Plastic Surgery 2016;43(3):248-253
BACKGROUND: Financial, clinical, and psychological considerations have made same-day surgery an attractive option for a variety of procedures. This article aimed to analyse the postoperative results of same-day primary unilateral cleft nasolabial repair. METHODS: This study was performed from 2011 to 2014. Unilateral cleft lip patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were preoperatively classified as mild, moderate, and severe. All patients underwent same-day surgery and were discharged after satisfying the appropriate clinical criteria, receiving thorough counselling, and the establishment of a means of communication by phone. Postoperative outcomes were assessed and stratified according to preoperative severity and the type of repair. RESULTS: A total of 423 primary unilateral cleft lip patients were included. Fisher's anatomical subunit approximation technique was the most common procedure, followed by Noordhoff's technique. The postoperative outcome was good in 89.8% of cases, fair in 9.9% of cases, and poor in 0.2% of cases. The complication rate was 1.18% (n=5), and no instances of mortality were observed. The average hospital stay was 7.5 hours, leading to a cost reduction of 19% in comparison with patients who stayed overnight for observation. CONCLUSIONS: Mild unilateral cleft lip was the most common deformity for which Fisher's anatomical subunit approximation technique was performed in most of the cases, with satisfactory postoperative outcomes. Refinements in the cleft rhinoplasty techniques over the course of the study improved the results regarding cleft nasal symmetry. Single-day primary unilateral cleft cheiloplasty was found to be a cost-effective procedure that did not pose an additional risk of complications.
Cleft Lip
;
Congenital Abnormalities
;
Day Care, Medical
;
Humans
;
Length of Stay
;
Mortality
;
Rhinoplasty
6.Prevalence of PALB2 Germline Mutations in Early-onset and Familial Breast/Ovarian Cancer Patients from Pakistan
Muhammad Usman RASHID ; Faiz Ali KHAN ; Noor MUHAMMAD ; Asif LOYA ; Ute HAMANN
Cancer Research and Treatment 2019;51(3):992-1000
PURPOSE: Partner and localizer of BRCA2 (PALB2) is a breast cancer susceptibility gene that plays an important role in DNA repair. This is the first study assessing the prevalence of PALB2 mutations in early-onset and familial breast/ovarian cancer patients from Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PALB2 mutation screening was performed in 370 Pakistani patients with early-onset and familial breast/ovarian cancer, who were negative for BRCA1, BRCA2, TP53, CHEK2, and RAD51C mutations, using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. Mutations were confirmed by DNA sequencing. Novel PALB2 alterations were analyzed for their potential effect on protein function or splicing using various in silico prediction tools. Three-hundred and seventy-two healthy controls were screened for the presence of the identified (potentially) functional mutations. RESULTS: A novel nonsense mutation, p.Y743*, was identified in one familial breast cancer patient (1/127, 0.8%). Besides, four in silico-predicted potentially functional mutations including three missense mutations and one 5' untranslated region mutation were identified: p.D498Y, novel p.G644R, novel p.E744K, and novel c.-134_-133delTCinsGGGT. The mutations p.Y743* and p.D498Y were identified in two familial patients diagnosed with unilateral or synchronous bilateral breast cancer at the ages of 29 and 39, respectively. The other mutations were identified in an early-onset (≤ 30 years of age) breast cancer patient each. All five mutations were absent in 372 healthy controls suggesting that they are disease associated. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that PALB2 mutations account for a small proportion of early-onset and hereditary breast/ovarian cancer cases in Pakistan.
5' Untranslated Regions
;
Breast Neoplasms
;
Chromatography, Liquid
;
Codon, Nonsense
;
Computer Simulation
;
DNA Repair
;
Germ-Line Mutation
;
Humans
;
Mass Screening
;
Mutation, Missense
;
Pakistan
;
Prevalence
;
Sequence Analysis, DNA
7.Assessment of biochemical and antioxidative status in patients suffering from dengue fever.
Mahmood RASOOL ; Arif MALIK ; Khalid Mahmud KHAN ; Muhammad Saeed QURESHI ; Beenish SHABBIR ; Sara ZAHID ; Muhammad ASIF ; Abdul MANAN ; Sana RASHID ; Saima Rubab KHAN ; Hafiz Muhammad ARSALAN ; Rabail ALAM ; Mahwish AROOJ ; Mahmood Husain QAZI ; Adeel Gulzar Ahmed CHAUDHARY ; Adel Mohammed ABUZENADAH ; Mohammed Hussain AL-QAHTANI ; Sajjad KARIM
Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Medical Sciences) 2015;35(3):411-418
A multi-centred study was designed to collect dengue epidemiologic data from government and registered private hospitals/clinics and maintained archive of frozen specimens in bio-bank to be used for future dengue epidemic control program, and assess the epidemiology of dengue fever (DF) by evaluating biochemical and oxidative status of patients. ELISA IgM antibodies test was done to confirm DF. From August 2010 to December 2011, 101 confirmed blood samples of DF patients referred to pathology lab of Jinnah Hospital Lahore were subjected to the epidemiologic assessment by evaluating the biochemical and physiological indices and alterations of circulating antioxidants. Clinical features of DF patients and effect of fever on blood components and serum proteins of liver were recorded. The hospital stay in DF, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) showed significant difference. Significant increases in serum alanine amino transferase (ALT) (P=0.000), aspartate amino transferase (AST) (P=0.000), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (P=0.000), malondialdehyde (MDA) along with significant decreases in total protein (TP) (P=0.000), reduced glutathione (GSH) (P=0.000), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) (P=0.000), and sialic acid contents (P=0.016) were observed. A positive correlation existed between bound sialic acid levels, liver enzymes and circulating antioxidants (r=0.656, P=0.016). In the present study, alterations of circulating antioxidants in DF suggest that DF might be a metabolic response to an acute, self-limiting tropical viral infection, and a consequence of the viral inflammatory process.
Adult
;
Antioxidants
;
metabolism
;
Biomarkers
;
blood
;
China
;
Dengue
;
classification
;
diagnosis
;
metabolism
;
Diagnosis, Differential
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Immunoglobulin M
;
metabolism
;
Male
;
Middle Aged
;
Young Adult
8.Evaluation of type 2 diabetes risk variants (alleles) in the Pashtun ethnic population of Pakistan
Asif Jan ; Muhammad Saeed ; Zakiullah ; Rani Akbar ; Hamayun Khan
Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies 2023;38(S1):48-54
Objective:
To evaluate the Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) risk variants in the Pashtun ethnic population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa using nascent whole-exome sequencing (WES) to better understand the pathogenesis of this complex polygenic disorder.
Methodology:
A total of 100 confirmed patients with T2D of Pashtun ethnicity were included in the study, DNA was extracted from whole blood samples, and paired-end libraries were prepared using the Illumina Nextera XT DNA library kit carefully following the manufacturer’s instructions. Illumina HiSeq 2000 was used to obtain sequences of the prepared libraries followed by bioinformatics data analysis.
Results:
A total of n=11 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants were reported in the CAP10, PAX4, IRS-2, NEUROD1, CDKL1 and WFS1. Among the reported variants CAP10/rs55878652 (c.1990-7T>C; p.Leu446Pro) and CAP10/rs2975766 (c.1996A>G; p.Ile666Val) identified were novel, and have not yet been reported for any disease in the database. The variants CAP10/rs7607759 (c.1510A>G, p.Thr504Ala), PAX4/rs712701 (c.962A>C; p.His321Pro), PAX4/ rs772936097 (c.748-3delT; p.Arg325Trp), IRS-2/rs1805097 (c.3170G>A; p.Gly1057Asp), NEUROD1/rs1801262 (c.133A>G; p.Thr45Ala), CDKL1/rs77152992 (c.1226C>T; p.Pro409Leu), WFS1/rs1801212 (c.997G>A; p.Val333Ile), WFS1/rs1801208 (c.1367G>A; p.Arg456His), and WFS1/rs734312 (c.1832G>A; p.Arg611His) are previously identified in other ethnic populations. Our study reconfirms the associations of these variants with T2D in the Pakistani Pashtun population.
Conclusion
In-silico analysis of exome sequencing data suggests a statistically substantial association of all (n=11)
identified variants with T2D in the Pashtun ethnic population. This study may serve as a foundation for performing
future molecular studies aimed at unraveling T2D associated genes.
type 2 diabetes
;
bioinformatics
;
whole exome sequencing
9.Misconceptions, Hesitancy and Efficacy of COVID19 Vaccination in Dental Surgeons Working in A Teaching Dental Hospital, Peshawar
Aalia Zaib ; Syed Imran Gilani ; Muhammad Asif ; Ubaid Zaib
Annals of Dentistry 2022;29(2022):21-26
The objective of this study was to assess misconceptions, hesitancy and efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccine among
Faculty, House Officers (HO) and Postgraduates (PG) dental trainees towards the novel COVID-19 vaccine and
to assess the association between COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and conspiracy beliefs. A cross sectional study
was conducted on 150 participants from Sardar Begum Dental hospital, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A
self-administered questionnaire was developed with questions related to perception of participants regarding
misconceptions, safety, hesitancy and efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccination. The questionnaire comprised of 26
closed-ended questions. Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical package 26.0. More than half of the
participants (87.3%) reported to be tested positive for COVID-19 at some point. Majority of participants (87.3%)
reported that they were vaccinated and 86.7% reported that they had post-vaccination reactions such as pain
in arm, fever and body aches. A notable number of participants that were part of the study believed in the
misconceptions related to the COVID-19 vaccine. This study concluded that despite widespread vaccination
awareness campaigns, significant number of dental surgeons believed in misconceptions regarding COVID-19
vaccination that may pose a significant challenge to Pakistan's COVID-19 immunization program.
10.A Longitudinal Survey for Genome-based Identification of SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage Water in Selected Lockdown Areas of Lahore City, Pakistan: A Potential Approach for Future Smart Lockdown Strategy.
Yaqub TAHIR ; Nawaz MUHAMMAD ; Z Shabbir MUHAMMAD ; A Ali MUHAMMAD ; Altaf IMRAN ; Raza SOHAIL ; A B Shabbir MUHAMMAD ; A Ashraf MUHAMMAD ; Z Aziz SYED ; Q Cheema SOHAIL ; B Shah MUHAMMAD ; Rafique SAIRA ; Hassan SOHAIL ; Sardar NAGEEN ; Mehmood ADNAN ; W Aziz MUHAMMAD ; Fazal SEHAR ; Hussain NADIR ; T Khan MUHAMMAD ; M Atique MUHAMMAD ; Asif ALI ; Anwar MUHAMMAD ; A Awan NABEEL ; U Younis MUHAMMAD ; A Bhattee MUHAMMAD ; Tahir ZARFISHAN ; Mukhtar NADIA ; Sarwar HUDA ; S Rana MAAZ ; Farooq OMAIR
Biomedical and Environmental Sciences 2021;34(9):729-733