Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Leishmania Donovani Bodies In Bone Marrow, Natasha Ali, Shabneez Hussain

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

We report a case of a 5-year-old female, resident of Afghanistan, who presented with fever and massive splenomegaly. Bone marrow revealed Leishmania donovani bodies (LD bodies) in macrophages characterized by a kinetoplast and characteristic double dot appearance. She was diagnosed as visceral leishmaniasis which is transmitted by sandflies (Phlebotomus).

Chromosomal Abnormalities In Primary Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Anila Rashid, Mohammad Khurshid, Usman Shaikh, Salman Adil

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Objective: To determine the frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in patients diagnosed as primary myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) using conventional karyotyping. Study Design: Case series. Place and Duration of Study: The Clinical Laboratory, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, between January 2006 - June 2012. Methodology: Patients of all ages and either gender who fulfilled WHO criteria for MDS were included. Cytogenetic analysis was conducted at the time of diagnosis. Patients who had secondary MDS were excluded from analysis. Chromosome identification and karyotype description was done according to the International System for Chromosome Nomenclature (ISCN, 1995) and described as frequency percentage. Results: …

Shifting Of Vitamin D Deficiency To Hypervitaminosis And Toxicity, Aysha Habib, Hafsa Majid, Romaina Iqbal

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

No abstract provided.

Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors In Cancer Therapeutics: Great Expectations From Small Molecules, Zeeshan A Ansar, Tariq Moatter

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

No abstract provided.

Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Central Asian Strain (Cas) Lineage Strains In Pakistan Reveal Lower Diversity Of Miru Loci Than Other Strains, Asho Ali, Zahra Hasan, Sana Jafri, Raunaq Inayat, Rumina Hasan

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) Central Asian Strain (CAS) lineage strains are predominant in South Asia. Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units-variable number of tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR) typing is an effective way of determining genetic diversity of strains. A maximum of 24 loci-based MIRU-VNTR typing can be used, however, it is important to investigate the relevance of specific MIRU loci for regional strains for more cost-effective MIRU typing. MIRU-VNTR typing was performed on MTB strains from Pakistan. Strains were comprised of CAS (n=113) and non-CAS lineages (n=87) - both multi-drug resistant (MDR) and drug susceptible. Hunter Gaston Discriminatory Index (HGDI) for each MIRU loci …

Drug Resistant Tuberculosis: Challenges Of Urbanization, Rumina Hasan

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

No abstract provided.

Response To Imatinib Mesylate In Patients With Early Chronic Phase Chronic Myeloid Leukemia And Derivative Chromosome 9 Deletion Or Clonal Evolution, Mohammad Usman Shaikh, Tariq Moatter, Naveen Naz Syed, Natasha Bahadur Ali, Salman Adil

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Objectives: The significance of clonal evolution and derivative chromosome 9 in Philadelphia-positive CML is not fully characterized and studies have yielded conflicting results. After working on emergence of clonal evolution from our region, we continued to find out the response of Imatinib Mesylate on such cases of CML treated in our center.
Materials and methods: We conducted a cross sectional, prospective analysis on response of Imatinib Mesylate on patients with Philadelphia positive chronic myeloid leukemia with clonal evolution treated from period of September 2007 till 2010. Patients were grouped on basis of cytogenetic analysis performed by conventional cytogenetic and fluorescence …

Promoter Hypermethylation Of Tumor Suppressor Genes Correlates With Tumor Grade And Invasiveness In Patients With Urothelial Bladder Cancer, Bilgrami S. M, Qureshi S. A, Shahid Pervez, Abbas F

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Purpose: To investigate the promoter methylation status at selected loci which encode for key proteins involved in apoptosis, DNA repair, cell cycle control and progression in urothelial cell carcinoma of bladder and compare the findings from tissue samples with that of plasma.

Methods: Total genomic DNA was isolated from 43 non-muscle invasive (low grade) and 33 muscle invasive (high grade) urothelial bladder cancer samples along with 10 control cases of normal bladder mucosa. Promoter methylation status was investigated for RASSF1A, APC, MGMT, CDKN2A and CDKN2B genes using real-time methylation-specific PCR with SYBR® green. Plasma samples from 16 patients with muscle …

Expression Of The Androgen Receptor, Pakt, And Ppten In Breast Cancer And Their Potential In Prognostication, Aisha Sultana, Romana Idress, Zulfiqar Ali Naqvi, Iqbal Azam, Shaista Khan, Anwar Ali Siddiqui, El Nasir Lalani

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

BACKGROUND: Importance of androgen receptor (AR) as an independent prognostic marker in Pakistani women with breast cancer (BCa) remains unexplored. Our aim was to identify the expression and potential prognostic value of AR, its upstream regulator (pAkt) and target gene (pPTEN) in invasive BCa.
METHODS: This study used a cohort of 200 Pakistani women with invasive BCa diagnosed during 2002-2011. Expression of AR, pAkt and pPTEN was determined on formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue sections by immunohistochemistry. The association of AR, pAkt and pPTEN with clinicopathological parameters was determined. Survival analyses were undertaken on patients with ≥ 5 years of …

Ovarian Sex Cord Stromal Tumours In Children And Young Girls - A More Than Two Decade Clinicopathological Experience In A Developing Country, Pakistan, Saroona Haroon, Romana Idrees, Aleena Zia, Aisha Memon, Saira Fatima, Naila Kayani

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background: Ovarian sex-cord stromal tumours (SCST) are rare, and relatively infrequent in children. These have to be distinguished from more common germ cell tumors in children and also from benign epithelial neoplasms.
Objectives: The purpose of our study was to report the clinical and pathological findings in young patients with these tumours in our population.
Material and Methods: The present observational cross-sectional study included all subjects SCST, in Aga Khan University Hospital Histopathology Laboratory, Karachi, Pakistan, from January 1992 till July 2013.
Results: Of the total of 513 SCSTs presented during the study period, 39 fulfilled inclusion criteria and were …

Pleomorphic Lobular Carcinoma Of The Male Breast With Axillary Lymph Node Involvement: A Case Report And Review Of Literature, Muhammad Nauman Zahir, Khurram Minhas, Munira Shabbir-Moosajee

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background: Carcinoma of the male breast is responsible for less than 1% of all malignancies in men but the incidence is rising. Invasive ductal carcinoma is the most common histological subtype while invasive lobular carcinoma is responsible for only 1.5% of the total cases of which pleomorpic lobular carcinoma is an extremely rare variant. We report the case of a gentleman with node positive, pleomorphic lobular carcinoma of the breast.
Case Presentation: An elderly gentleman with a past history of type 2 diabetes and long term ethanol use presented to us with a self-discovered palpable lump in the left breast. …

Β-Lactamase Production And Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern Of Moraxella Catarrhalis Isolates: Report From Pakistan, Sadia Omer Sheikh, Naima Fasih, Seema Irfan, Afia Zafar

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Objective: To assess the frequency of β-lactamase production and antimicrobial resistance in Moraxella catarrhalis isolated from clinical specimens in Pakistan. Methods: This cross sectional study (January to December 2010) was conducted in clinical microbiology laboratory of Aga Khan University Hospital. A total of 97 clinical respiratory specimens growing Moraxella catarrhalis were included. Frequency of β-lactamase production and antimicrobial resistance rates against ampicillin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and tetracycline were noted by performing minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). MICs were calculated as MIC50 and MIC90.
Results: β-Lactamase production was detected in 84% of isolates, which correlated well with high MIC of …