KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION AND DEFIBRILLATION AMONG GENERAL PRACTITIONERS IN MELAKA, MALAYSIA The study focuses on assessing the knowledge of and attitude towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation among general practitioners in Melaka. The aim is to understand the factors associated with their level of knowledge and attitude, as well as their preference for conventional CPR over chest compression-only resuscitation. The study utilised a cross-sectional design and employed a validated questionnaire for data collection. Convenience sampling was used to recruit general practitioners in Melaka, resulting in a total of 117 respondents. Among them, 77.8% had received training in Basic Life Support (BLS), while 58.1% had undergone Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) training. Interestingly, 84% of the respondents claimed to know how to handle an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED), but only 23.9% actually had an AED in their clinic. The study findings indicate that those who were trained in BLS and had more than 10 years’ experience exhibited better knowledge regarding CPR and defibrillation. The statistical analysis confirmed a significant association between BLS training (P = 0.019) and years of experience (P = 0.006) and level of knowledge. In conclusion, the majority of general practitioners in Melaka demonstrated a good knowledge of CPR and expressed a positive outlook on defibrillation. The findings suggest that BLS training and longer professional experience are associated with higher levels of knowledge in CPR and defibrillation.

PULMONARY AND SPINAL TUBERCULOSIS IN AN 8-YEAR-OLD BOY: A CASE REPORT Tuberculosis in children is difficult to diagnose. We report a case of an immunocompetent child with persistent back pain and kyphotic deformity, without respiratory symptoms, and no contact with tuberculosis patients. Imaging shows evidence of thoracic vertebral destruction and dense consolidation in the right upper lobe. Tuberculin skin test, Quantiferon TB Gold, and Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra yielded positive results for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The patient was started on and completed one year of antituberculosis therapy, with recovery shown in chest radiograph and a reduction in the static kyphosis angle.

This study aims to determine ambulance response time in KubangKerian district, Kelantan, Malaysia using Ambulance Vehicle Locator and Global Integrating System (AVL-GIS) device and the factors associated with delayed response time. This was a 6-months prospective, cross-sectional study conducted at Emergency and Trauma Department, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. The possible factors identified to have caused delayed ambulance response time from previous literature were included in this study. All prehospital cases from September 2017 until February 2018 attended to by AVL- GIS installed ambulances were included in this study. Data were obtained from the standardized prehospital Proforma forms and extracted from AVL-GIS using iGPS software. Simple and multiple logistic regression tests were used to determine the factors associated to delayed response time. From 505 cases, 75% found to be delayed case meanwhile 25% is non delayed case as defined in study protocol. Further analysis on delayed cases show that call duration, caller type, traffic condition, travelling time and team allocation time were associated with delayed ambulance response time. Evaluation of each component contributing to delayed ambulance response time is needed for intervention to improve prehospital care in the future.

Ambulance response time is one of the key performance of ambulances services. The objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with delayed ambulance response time in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). This was a cross sectional study conducted in Department of Emergency Medicine, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (EDHUSM) between January 2016 to January 2017. A total of 300 ambulance calls were included in our analysis. Data were collected by ambulance paramedic using validated ambulance form. All ambulance forms with missing data were excluded from this study. Of the 300 ambulance calls within the study periods, 254 cases (84.7%) were determined to have delayed ambulance response time. Current ambulance response time is 14 minutes with interquartile range of 5 minutes. Factors which showed significant association delayed ambulance response time include distance from hospital, location, type of emergency and ambulance mechanism. The odd of delayed ambulance response time by every increase in distance unit was 1.59 (95% CI, 1.37 to 1.85). For location type, the odd of delayed ambulance response time for public location as compared to road was 0.13 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.45). For ambulance mechanism, the odd of delayed ambulance response time for beacon type as compared to siren type was 0.22 (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.69). Further intervention should be initiated based on our findings to improve current ambulance response time.