GRADE-ADOLOPMENT of clinical practice guideline for postmenopausal osteoporosis management-a Pakistani context.

Due to its high prevalence, we aimed to create postmenopausal osteoporosis clinical practice guideline via GRADE-ADOLOPMENT for Pakistan. We recommend a higher dose (2000-4000 IU) of vitamin D for osteoporotic patients who are old, have malabsorption, or are obese. The guideline will help standardize care provision and improve health care outcomes for osteoporosis. PURPOSE: Postmenopausal osteoporosis affects one in every five postmenopausal women in Pakistan. An evidence-based clinical practice guideline (CPG) is needed to standardize care provision to optimize health outcomes. Hence, we aimed to develop CPG for the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis in Pakistan. METHODS: The GRADE-ADOLOPMENT process was used to adopt (as is or with minor changes), exclude (omit), or adapt (modify based on local context) recommendations to the source guideline (SG)-clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis-2020 update from American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE). RESULTS: The SG was "adoloped" to cater to the local context. The SG consisted of 51 recommendations. Forty-five recommendations were adopted as is. Due to unavailability of drugs, 4 recommendations were adopted with minor changes, and one was excluded, while one recommendation was adopted with the inclusion of use of a surrogate FRAX tool specific for Pakistan. One recommendation regarding vitamin D dosage was adapted to recommend a dose of 2000-4000 IU of vitamin D in patients with obesity, malabsorption, and old age. CONCLUSION: The developed Pakistani postmenopausal osteoporosis guideline consists of 50 recommendations. The guideline created recommends a higher dose (2000-4000 IU) of vitamin D for patients who are old, have malabsorption, or are obese, which is an adaptation from the SG by the AACE. This higher dose is justified as lower doses prove to be suboptimal in these groups and should be complemented with baseline vitamin D and calcium levels.

GRADE-ADOLOPMENT of clinical practice guideline for postmenopausal osteoporosis management-a Pakistani context

Due to its high prevalence, we aimed to create postmenopausal osteoporosis clinical practice guideline via GRADE-ADOLOPMENT for Pakistan. We recommend a higher dose (2000-4000 IU) of vitamin D for osteoporotic patients who are old, have malabsorption, or are obese. The guideline will help standardize care provision and improve health care outcomes for osteoporosis.Postmenopausal osteoporosis affects one in every five postmenopausal women in Pakistan. An evidence-based clinical practice guideline (CPG) is needed to standardize care provision to optimize health outcomes. Hence, we aimed to develop CPG for the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis in Pakistan.The GRADE-ADOLOPMENT process was used to adopt (as is or with minor changes), exclude (omit), or adapt (modify based on local context) recommendations to the source guideline (SG)-clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis-2020 update from American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE). The SG was "adoloped" to cater to the local context. The SG consisted of 51 recommendations. Forty-five recommendations were adopted as is. Due to unavailability of drugs, 4 recommendations were adopted with minor changes, and one was excluded, while one recommendation was adopted with the inclusion of use of a surrogate FRAX tool specific for Pakistan. One recommendation regarding vitamin D dosage was adapted to recommend a dose of 2000-4000 IU of vitamin D in patients with obesity, malabsorption, and old age. The developed Pakistani postmenopausal osteoporosis guideline consists of 50 recommendations. The guideline created recommends a higher dose (2000-4000 IU) of vitamin D for patients who are old, have malabsorption, or are obese, which is an adaptation from the SG by the AACE. This higher dose is justified as lower doses prove to be suboptimal in these groups and should be complemented with baseline vitamin D and calcium levels.

COVID-19 related fears and adherence to infection control protocol amongst immunocompromised transplant recipients: A case study.

Background & Objective: Transplant recipients are at a high risk of critical COVID-19 illness due to chronic immunosuppression and their underlying medical condition. Our objective was to study the COVID-19 related fears and adherence to infection control measures in solid organ transplant recipients during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic (April- August 2020) in Punjab, Pakistan, as a part of province wide COVID-19 awareness drive 754 recipients registered at Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority (P-HOTA) for solid organ transplant were contacted telephonically and administered a self-constructed questionnaire. The participants' response was linked to demographic, anthropometric and disease characteristics available in organizational data base. Results: Seven hundred fifty four patients who had undergone transplant or were on list during the time period 2018-2020 were identified from data base of PHOTA. 648 patients were contacted while 80 were found to have expired post- transplant and 26 recipients were still on the waiting list. The median age was 31-40 years, with male predominance (5:1). A majority of patients (93%) were found to be well informed about corona infection and its impact on their illness (89%) but (59%) of the recipients had a fear score 25-34(severe) of acquiring infection with female predominance (61%). All the recipients adhered to measures like wearing masks, frequent hand washing and maintaining safe distance .65.9% patient's preferred online consultation while (77.9%) patients left their shoes outside their house. Conclusion: During the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic Solid Organ Transplant patients seemed well informed of COVID-19 infection and adhered to precautionary measures against the infections. About 78% of recipients reported that their health and quality of health care (61.1%) during this period remained the same while 3.4% reported of being infected or a contact history with COVID-19 patients.

Association of metabolic factors with dengue viral infection on admission triage which predict its clinical course during Lahore dengue epidemic.

OBJECTIVE: The study was done to identify metabolic factors which were associated with an increased risk of dengue haemorrhagic fever in clinically diagnosed patients of dengue viral infection. METHODS: 563 patients with dengue viral infection that presented to 3 tertiary care hospitals of Lahore were included in this study, out of which approximately half of the patients were diagnosed as dengue haemorrhagic fever. RESULTS: A total of 563 patients with 263(46.7%) dengue fever and 300(53.3%) dengue haemorrhagic fever patients were studied. The mean age of patients was 48.48 ± 20.07 years. In patients younger than 60 (n=355), 171 patients had DF and 184 had DHF, while 116 patients above 60 years had DHF and 92 had DF (n=208). The presence of metabolic risk factors such as diabetes (OR = 2.146), hypertension (OR =1.65), diabetes and hypertension (OR =3.56), abnormal liver function tests (OR = 2.27), abnormal renal function tests (OR = 2.282) all increased the risk of DHF relative to DF. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that metabolic factors especially diabetes with and without hypertension are important risk factors for the development of DHF.

Diabetes and pancreatic cancer.

Research suggests a possible link between type 2 diabetes and several malignancies. Animal models have shown that hyperinsulinemic state underlying diabetes promotes tumor formation through stimulation of insulin-IGF-1 pathway; a possible role of inflammation is also proposed. One such link which has been under considerable study for years is that between diabetes and pancreatic cancer. Although epidemiological evidence points towards a reciprocal link between the two, the cause-effect relationship still remains unclear. This link was the subject of a large German epidemiological study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting 2014 (Abstract #1604), which underscored the link between diabetes and some cancers. Schmidt et al. performed a retrospective database analysis over a 12 year period and reported an increased risk of certain types of cancer in diabetic patients. The most significant association (HR 2.17) was found for pancreatic cancer. Given the high mortality of pancreatic cancer, prevention through timely screening could play an important role in improving prognosis. Older subjects with recent-onset diabetes represent a high-risk group and hence are potential targets for pancreatic cancer screening thereby enabling its early diagnosis at a curable stage.