Predictors of clinical outcomes in patients with sepsis: A retrospective study from a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To assess associations between various clinic-demographic factors and clinical outcomes among patients treated for sepsis. METHODS: The retrospective study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised data of all patients aged >18 years diagnosed with sepsis from January to December 2019. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate independent associations between predictors and outcomes. Data was analysed using R packages. RESULTS: Of the 1,136 patients, 621(54.6%) were male and 515(45.3%) were female. The overall mean age was 59.05±16.91 years. Female gender (odds ratio: 1.029; 95% confidence interval: 1.03-1.64) was found to be an independent predictor of septic shock, while hypertension (odds ratio0.75; 95% confidence interval: 0.59-0.95) emerged as a protective factor. Chronic kidney disease (odds ratio: 1.539; 95% confidence interval: 1.14-2.07) was an independent predictor of prolonged length of stay, while older age appeared to be protective (odds ratio: 0.98; 95% confidence interval: 0.98-0.99). Mortality was associated with a significantly lower odds of Escherichia coli on culture (odds ratio: 0.26; 95% confidence interval: 0.12-0.54). CONCLUSIONS: Independent associations were found between specific patient characteristics and adverse clinical outcomes.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Awareness and Acceptability for Primary Prevention of Cervical Cancer in Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is the most effective option for primary prevention HPV, a well-known cause of cervical cancer.  The objective of the study was to assess awareness of HPV, the acceptability of its vaccine and factors associated with the acceptability among the adult population in Pakistan. MATERIALS & METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adult population of Pakistan from January 2022 and March 2022. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, instead of face-to-face interviews, a self-administered questionnaire was developed and distributed through Google Forms. The questionnaire was available in both English and Urdu languages to cater to a diverse population. RESULTS: Overall, 313 (65.2 %) study participants had heard about HPV infection, while 297 (61.9%) knew HPV as the cause of genital warts and 256 (53.3 %) knew that HPV can cause any type of cancer, with a higher percentage of awareness among those who were in any health care setting compared to those who were in a non-healthcare setting. Regarding the acceptability to get HPV vaccine, 320 (66.7%) of the study participants were willing to get vaccinated, while only 15(3.1%) of the study population had previously received HPV vaccine. The most important factors associated with HPV vaccine acceptability were younger age of 18-25 years (Prevalence Ratio (PR) =1.60, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) =1.11, 2.32), and 26-35 years (PR= 1.65, 95% CI=1.09, 2.50). HPV vaccine acceptability was also associated with working in a healthcare setting due to better awareness of HPV vaccine (PR= 1.29, 95% CI=1.03, 1.62). CONCLUSION: It is important to address the knowledge gaps existing in the community about HPV vaccine acceptability and barriers against it for the successful rollout of the HPV vaccination program in Pakistan. Mass awareness campaigns about HPV, HPV vaccine, and cervical cancer are needed to increase the acceptability of HPV vaccine among public at the time of reintroducing HPV vaccine.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the career choice of medicine: A cross-sectional study amongst pre-medical students in Pakistan.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the lives of healthcare workers due to the frontline nature of their work. Their hard work and sacrifice have forged new perceptions of healthcare workers. These changes may potentially influence students' interest in medicine. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected premedical students' decisions to pursue medicine as a career. Methods: A cross-sectional study using a self-designed online questionnaire was carried out amongst pre-medical students across Pakistan. Results: A total of 1695 students from 93 public and private schools filled in the survey. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly more pre-medical students want to pursue medicine (60.7%-62.9%) and less are unsure (20.2%-17%). Students are significantly more likely to be motivated to pursue medicine due to altruistic benefits to society (57% vs. 62.7%) and be deterred by the risk of contracting infections on duty (10%-14.6%). There is a minor but significant increase in the popularity of internal medicine (17.1%-18.9%), public health (4.1% vs. 5.7%), emergency medicine (3.8% vs. 5.7%), pediatrics (3.8% vs. 4.7%), and radiology (2.1% vs. 2.9%). Most pre-medical students felt that doctors routinely undergo physical and emotional turmoil (84%). Conclusions: Although awareness of hardships faced by medical professionals has increased, motivation to pursue medicine has grown. Through understanding trends in the motivations of students to pursue medicine, medical schools can accommodate the expectations of incoming students and reach out to potential applicants.

Factors Influencing the Intention to Pursue Surgery among Female Pre-Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: While gender disparities in surgery are documented worldwide, it is unclear to what extent women consider surgery as a career before embarking on their medical school journey. This study aimed to report the percentage of pre-medical women in Pakistan who intend to eventually specialize in surgery and assess the factors motivating and deterring this decision. METHODS: An online survey was conducted among female pre-medical (high school) students across Pakistan. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine motivating and deterring factors associated with the intention to pursue surgery. RESULTS: Out of 1219 female high-school students, 764 (62.7) intended to join medical school. Among these 764, only 9.8% reported an exclusive intent to pursue surgery, while just 20.3% reported considering other specialties in addition to surgery. Significant motivators to pursue surgery exclusively were the intellectual satisfaction of pursuing surgery (adjusted odds ratio: 2.302), having opportunities to travel internationally for work (2.300) and use cutting-edge technology (2.203), interest in the specialty of surgery (2.031), the social prestige of becoming a surgeon (1.910), and considering one's personality well-suited to surgery (1.888). Major deterrents included the lack of interest in surgery (adjusted odds ratio: 3.812), surgical education and training being too difficult (2.440) and lengthy (1.404), and the risk of aggressive behavior from patients (2.239). CONCLUSION: Even before entering medical school, most female pre-medical students have already decided against considering a future surgical career. Deterrents likely stem from women being pressured to conform to deep-seated societal expectations to dedicate their time and energy to domestic responsibilities.

Case Study of Pediatric Cerebral Sinus Venous Thrombosis Center of a Low Middle-Income Country.

Pediatric cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is rare but a potentially fatal disease requiring its understanding in local setting. In this study, we observed the clinical course, management, and outcome of pediatric patients with sinus thrombosis in a tertiary care center at Pakistan. Patients between age 0 to 18 years of both genders diagnosed with sinus thrombosis during 2011 to 2020 were included. Data was collected through in-house computerized system and SPSS version 19 was used for analysis. Of 143492 pediatric admissions, 32 (21 males and 11 females) patients with a median (IQR) age of 4.5 years (0-16) had CVST. This is equivalent to 18.5 CVST events per million pediatric admissions. Adolescents were mostly affected, and the overall mortality was 7%. Primary underlying disorders were infections (59%), hematological neoplasms (12.5%), thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (3%) and antiphospholipid syndrome (3%). Activated protein C resistance (44%) was the most common inherited thrombophilia. Twenty-one (66%) patients were anemic with a mean (±SD) hemoglobin of 9.0 g/dL (±2.3). Regression analysis showed a positive association of anemia with multiple sinus involvement (P-value 0.009) but not with duration of symptoms (P-value 0.344), hospital stay (P-value 0.466), age (P-value 0.863) or gender (P-value 0.542) of the patients. SARS-COV2 was negative in patients during 2020. Adolescents were primarily affected by sinus thrombosis and infections was the predominant risk factor for all age groups, with a low all-cause mortality. A high index of clinical suspicion is required for prompt diagnosis and intervention.

Risk Assessment and Outcome of Venous Thromboembolism in Pediatric Population in an Academic Care Center of a Low-Middle Income Country.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a recognized complication of hospital stay in young patients in many developed countries, but such an information is largely unavailable from a low middle-income country (LMIC). This study aimed at identifying the frequency, risk factors, treatment options and outcome of deep venous thrombosis/pulmonary embolism (DVT/PE) in pediatric population in a tertiary care center from a LMIC. International classification of disease, ninth revision (ICD-9) was used to identify VTE in patients aged 0-18 years during January 2011 to September 2019. In-house computerized system was used to collect data for demographics, clinical and laboratory details. SPSS version 19 was used to analyzed data. The study was approved by Institutional ethical review committee (3872-Pat-ERC-15). During the study period, 134617 pediatric patients were hospitalized, DVT/PE was observed in 77 unique patients (47 males and 30 females) with a median (IQR) age of 14 (5-16) years equivalent to 5.9 VTE events /10,000 hospital admissions. Malignancy, community acquired infections and autoimmune diseases were the predominant risk factors (75%) in adolescent age-group while surgery for congenital heart anomalies was the primary reason (71%) in infants. Overall, lower extremity thrombosis was the most frequent (51%) followed by pulmonary embolism (25%). and upper extremity thrombosis (24%). Enoxaparin and unfractionated heparin were mainly used to treat VTE and all-cause mortality was 13% in the cohort studied. We observed substantial VTE events in pediatric patients during their hospital stay in a tertiary care center of a low-middle income country.

Progression of Acute Kidney Injury to Chronic Kidney Disease in Sepsis Survivors: 1-Year Follow-Up Study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that septic acute kidney injury (AKI) is considered to be reversible, it can result in permanent kidney damage. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of long-term follow-up studies highlighting progression to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in sepsis survivors. To address this issue, we conducted this study to assess the development of CKD in sepsis patients with AKI, and to identify risk factors associated with its development. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study evaluated medical records of patients admitted at the Aga Khan University Hospital between January-December 2017 with the diagnosis of sepsis and subsequent development of acute kidney injury (AKI). One-year follow-up data was then analyzed to determine whether the AKI resolved or progressed to chronic kidney disease. RESULTS: 1636 sepsis patients were admitted during the study period, out of which 996 (61%) met the inclusion criteria. 612 (61%) developed AKI during the admission. Mortality rate in the AKI group was 44% (n = 272). After 1 year, 47 (19%) patients eventually went on to develop CKD and 81% (n = 195) recovered fully. Risk factors for development of CKD were age ≥ 60 years (p = <0.001), diabetes (p = <0.001), hypertension (p = 0.001) and history of ischemic heart disease (p = <0.001). CONCLUSION: Mortality rates in sepsis are alarmingly high and even those patients who manage to survive are at risk of developing permanent organ dysfunction. Our study revealed that almost one fifth of all septic AKI survivors went on to develop chronic kidney disease within 1 year, even when AKI was not severe. We recommend that clinicians focus on early recovery of renal function, irrespective of AKI severity, and ensure robust follow-up monitoring to reduce long term morbidity and mortality associated with this devastating illness.