OBJECTIVE To assess the feasibility of using Geographical Information System for mapping of road traffic injuries with an existing data source in a developing country. METHODS The study was a retrospectives case series of road traffic injury cases registered with the medico-legal office located in the three major trauma centers in Karachi for the period of January 1, 2004 till December 31st, ...

BACKGROUND National legislation in Pakistan regulating blood banks has been introduced several times, but has never been passed. To support provincial-level efforts to develop legislation we conducted a study to evaluate blood-banking practices in Karachi, Pakistan, to identify areas that could be improved. METHODS Thirty-seven blood banks were randomly selected from a list of 87 Karachi bloo...

OBJECTIVE To determine the clinical and laboratory features, bacterial profile and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis (SBP) in Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) patients presenting at a tertiary care hospital of Karachi. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY PMRC Centre for Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical C...

OBJECTIVE Cause-specific death rates are rarely available to guide health interventions for adults in South Asia. We report mortality patterns among Karachi's urban poor. METHODS We conducted verbal autopsies for adult deaths under active surveillance during 1990-1993 in five urban slums of Karachi. Two physicians assigned underlying cause of death by consensus. Analysis included cause- and c...

OBJECTIVE This study reports clinical manifestations and spectrum of severity of dengue fever (DF), dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) in adult patients admitted during 2006 outbreak in Karachi. A rough estimation of cost of care was also calculated. METHODS A cross-sectional study was done at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi from January to December 2006. Pati...

The present cross-sectional study was undertaken with the aim of establishing norms for birth weight, crown heel length, and head circumference of the newborns in the population of Karachi. It was conducted in four public and private hospitals of Karachi, covering middle to low-income areas during a period of 2 years. There were 404 mothers and their babies included in this study that fulfilled...

OBJECTIVE To assess the causes and manner of custodial deaths in Karachi, and to determine the factor of negligence on the part of the custodians behind such deaths. METHODS The cross-sectional study involved the deaths in custody undergoing autopsy at Civil Hospital, Karachi, from January 2005 to December 2010. Autopsy was followed by histological examination, X-ray or CT scan wherever requi...

OBJECTIVE Parasitic diseases are a major public health problem in the tropical and sub tropical countries including the subcontinent region. We aimed to assess methods of Parasitology education in medical schools of Karachi Pakistan. METHODS Ten medical schools in Karachi, Pakistan were sent a structured questionnaire collecting information on different aspects of Parasitology education. The ...

Background: The incidence of oral squamous cell carcinoma remains high in Indo-Pak region. Worldwide oral and oropharyngeal carcinomas are the sixth most common cancers. A number of clinic-pathological parameters have been implicated in prognosis, recurrence and survival for this tumor. As a very high frequency reported in major hospitals of Karachi, this study documented some of the well known...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of microalbuminuria and its associations in type-2 diabetic subjects attending diabetes centers/clinics across Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS Two thousand one hundred subjects with type-2 diabetes were screened for microalbuminuria using Micral test strip II. A single screening test was performed in 25 diabetes centers/units in different districts of Karachi f...