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Objective: Assessment of the oral hygiene and addiction habits of postpartum mothers and its relationship with the gestational age at delivery. Method: It was a cross sectional study carried out as a survey of postpartum mothers after having delivered term and preterm newborns. It was conducted between January 2008 - January 2009, at Gynae Unit I of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Karachi Medical and Dental College. The total number of postpartum mothers were 189, of which 155 had term delivery and 34 had preterm delivery. The data was collected on a predesigned questionnaire after taking informed verbal consent. The questionnaire included demographics such as age, parity, oral hygiene status, brushing habits, addictions, and gestational age at delivery. All the participants were interviewed and findings were recorded on the questionnaire. Results: The data was entered in SPSS version 20. The mean age of women was 27:30 ± 4.75 years. Of the total 189 postpartum mothers, 106 (56.1%) mothers with term babies had good oral hygiene; 49 (26%) mothers with term babies had poor oral hygiene; 13 (6.9%) mothers with preterm babies had good oral hygiene; and 21(11%) mothers with preterm babies had poor oral hygiene (p<0.0001). In terms of addiction to smokeless tobacco, etc, 41 (21.7%) addict mothers had term babies while 9 (4.8%) addict mothers had preterm babies. Amongst the 139 mothers with no addiction, 114 (60.3%) mothers had term babies while 25 (13.2%) mothers had preterm babies. The p-value came out to be 0.9982 in this regard. Conclusion: This study suggests that poor oral hygiene of mothers is likely to result in preterm delivery of babies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viral myocarditis is an inflammatory disorder of the myocardium, which occurs following a viral infection. The most common agent of infection is Coxsackievirus B2 followed by adenovirus. Here, we present a case of a three and a half year old male child brought to the Emergency Room of Paediatric Unit II at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, with complaint of cough and fever since three days, associated with difficulty in breathing and irritability. The patient was managed with antibiotics initially; however, soon he had severe tachycardia, tachypnea, and hepatomegaly. His elevated cardiac enzymes and symptoms confirmed the diagnosis of viral myocarditis. He was managed with ACE inhibitor and ionotropic agent, and echocardiography done later revealing a clear report confirmed resolution of the infection and healed myocarditis. This case is notable as its complications are a threat to life, thus an emphasis on early and correct diagnostic tools is necessary to proper management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented which clarifies the critical issue faced by medical students regarding the delay in conducting professional examinations and in announcing their results, wherein she thinks is disheartening and demoralizing, and the practice needs to be changed.