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Resumen Objetivos La métrica Sigma es una forma útil y económica de verificar la calidad de las pruebas en los laboratorios clínicos. Alinity ci es un analizador (Abbott Diagnostics) lanzado recientemente, cuyo rendimiento aún no ha sido suficientemente estudiado. Calculamos el valor Sigma de 39 magnitudes químicas y de inmunoensayo de dos sistemas Alinity ci. Métodos Las métricas Sigma se derivaron de los estudios de validación del método. El coeficiente de variación (CV) se estimó siguiendo la guía CLSP EP 15. Se emplearon tres métodos para comprobar desviaciones: material de evaluación de rendimiento, comparación de métodos alternativos y prueba de linealidad. Se emplearon límites de error total permitido similares o inferiores a los de los estudios de referencia. Resultados Todas las magnitudes químicas, excepto el nitrógeno ureico en sangre (BUN), mostraron un valor Sigma > 6 en uno o más niveles y métodos. Ninguna de las magnitudes estudiadas obtuvo 4 Sigma en los otros dos métodos. Los niveles Sigma obtenidos fueron similares a los de estudios anteriores. Conclusiones Los valores de Sigma fueron aceptables en todas las magnitudes químicas, de inmunoensayo y electrolitos analizados con Alinity ci. La métrica Sigma es una herramienta objetiva, económica y extendida de control interno de la calidad. Calculamos la métrica Sigma de numerosas pruebas de alto rendimiento. Es necesario evaluar el rendimiento de estas pruebas a largo plazo.

Objectives Sigma metrics in an invaluable and inexpensive tool used in laboratories to monitor analytical quality of the assays. Alinity ci platform is a relatively recent analytical system launched by Abbott Diagnostics, and as such performance studies on it are few. We have calculated sigma metrics of 39 clinical chemistry and immunoassay analytes on two Alinity ci systems. Methods Sigma metrics were calculated using results of method validation studies. Coefficient of variation (CV) was calculated according to CLSI EP 15 guidelines. Bias was calculated using three different methods i.e., proficiency testing material, alternate method comparison with existent analyzers and linearity experiment. Total allowable error limits were kept similar to or less than the ones used in reference studies. Results All analytes except blood urea nitrogen (BUN) demonstrated greater than six sigma value across one or more levels and methods. No analyte amongst clinical chemistry and immunoassays was at below three sigma class. Amongst electrolytes, sodium was below three sigma class at two levels by proficiency testing method, although it was above four sigma class by other two methods. Sigma levels obtained were comparable to those reported in previously published studies. Conclusions Acceptable sigma metrics were achieved for all clinical chemistry, immunoassays and electrolytes on Alinity ci. Sigma metrics is an objective and well established cost effective tool to tailor internal quality control practices. This study determines sigma metrics for a wide range of high throughput assays. Long term assay performance needs to be monitored.

Background: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a common malignant disorder in paediatric and adolescent age group. There is a need of large-scale studies to understand the disease pattern in Pakistan as no official registry exist in most of the developing countries. This study comprised a large cohort of 223 patients, spanned over a decade from January 2008-December 2019 and aimed to report the prevalence of subtypes, demographics and immunohistochemical profile from this region. Methods: Retrospective study, conducted at Indus hospital and health network and Ziauddin university hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Sequential data analysis was carried out on all consecutive samples including both needle and excisional biopsies of patients below 18 years of age. Morphological examination of H&E stained sections along with immunohistochemistry is performed in order to identify subtypes and immunophenotypic patterns using an extensive panel of markers. Results: Our results demonstrate 66% B-cell lymphomas while 34% T-cell lymphomas. Overall male to female ratio was 3.3:1 with median age 8 years (1.1–17 years). Among B-cell lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma is most common while in T-cell, T-lymphoblastic lymphoma is the most common subtype. In anaplastic large cell lymphoma category, null cell phenotype was predominant, i.e., 65%. T-NHL frequency is found to be higher in our population. However, results of immunohistochemistry are similar to published literature. Conclusion: The study will help to identify disease patterns in terms of subtypes of NHL and its immunohistochemical profile that plays a vital role in diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic implications.

To determine the association between seroconversion status and outcome in admitted COVID-19 patients and compare inflammatory markers amongst them.Single cohort observational study.Indus Hospital and Health Network between 10th May and 10th July 2020.All admitted patients were tested serially for anti-COVID-IgM and IgG until their sera showed positive results. This was continued until their expiry or discharge. Those patients who remained negative for both anti-COVID-19-IgG and IgM were labeled as non-seroconverts. Demographics, comorbidities, inflammatory marker levels and outcome (alive/expired) were compared between seroconverts and non-seroconverts.In 224 admitted patients, the median seroconversion time of IgM and IgG was six and seven days in survivors and non-survivors respectively. Expired patients displayed higher levels of procalcitonin (maximum), C-reactive protein, and Interleukin-6 (baseline and maximum). Of 34 non-seroconverts, 17 (50%) expired. Non-seroconverts significantly failed to develop fever and had lower levels of ferritin, CRP, and LDH.Non-seroconversion in hospitalised COVID-19 infected patients indicated muted immune and acute phase response and was associated with poor outcomes. Hence these patients need to be carefully evaluated and managed.Antibody response, Corticosteroids, Immunosuppression, SARS-Cov-2, Seroconversion.

Background & Objectives: Retinoblastoma is a malignant intraocular tumor and its treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach. Chemotherapy is an important modality in treatment of retinoblastoma. The purpose of this study was to assess the histopathological changes in retinoblastomas treated with chemotherapy along with correlation of comorbid conditions with high risk histopathological factors (HRF). Methods: All post-chemotherapy enucleated eye specimens received in the pathology department between 2017 to 2021 were included in the study. Slides were retrieved and reviewed for chemotherapeutic effects, tumor regression, and for assessment of HRF. Patient demographic data, information regarding chemotherapy and co-morbid conditions were retrieved through the hospital database. Chi-square was used to analyze the relation between comorbid conditions and HRF. Results: Chemotherapeutic effects were seen in all eyes with varying degrees of responses. Necrosis, calcification, and gliosis were the most common findings. The majority of eyes showed tumor occupying less than 50% of the eye whereas complete regression was noted in one eye only. Retinal detachment, glaucoma, and buphthalmos were the most common comorbid conditions at the time of diagnosis. Patients with glaucoma were more likely to have ciliary body invasion. Kaplan Meier analysis showed that patients with more than two HRF had decreased survival rates in comparison to those with one or no HRF. Conclusion: Histopathological evaluation of chemotherapy-treated eyes shows varying degrees of response to chemotherapy. Post enucleation histopathological evaluation of the globe plays an important role in assessing disease activity and guiding further treatment to prevent metastasis. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.ICON-2022.5786 How to cite this:Yaqoob N, Mansoor S, Zia N, Aftab K, Kaleem B, Jamal S. Chemotherapy induced histopathological changes in retinoblastoma, assessment of high risk predictive factors & its correlation with comorbid conditions. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(2):362-368. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.ICON-2022.5786 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background & Objectives: The assessment of histopathological risk factors (HRFs) in retinoblastoma in upfront enucleated eyes is important in deciding treatment protocols. Limited data is available from the developing countries as very few studies were conducted on retinoblastoma. The study aims to report this data from Pakistan. Methods: This cross-sectional study included treatment naïve retinoblastoma patients who underwent upfront enucleation between 2017 to 2021. Various tumor characteristics i.e. laterality, size, histologic grade, anaplasia grade, growth pattern, extent and length of optic nerve invasion, pathologic staging, tumor involvement of ocular structures were assessed. High-risk factors such as involvement of anterior chamber, choroidal, scleral, extrascleral, and optic nerve were also noted. Results: A total number of 54 patients were enrolled, out of which 53.7% were females while remaining were males. Median age at presentation was 24 months. Unilateral tumor was seen in 92.6% cases. Most frequent histologic grade was G2 (64.7%) and moderate anaplasia was observed in 59.2% cases. Vitreous involvement was seen in (86.5%). Pathologic staging of most of the tumors was pT1 (39.2%). Assessment of high-risk factors revealed that optic nerve involvement (35.1%) was the most common finding with retrolaminar tumor invasion seen in 75% cases. Choroidal invasion (≤3mm) was seen in 55.6% of patients. Limited involvement of anterior chamber (3.8%), sclera (7.4%), and extrascleral (3.8%) tissue was also observed. Conclusion: The presence of high risk histopathological factors in enucleated eyes diagnosed with retinoblastoma are known to have a profound impact on the risk stratification as well as decision of future treatment plan. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.ICON-2022.5787 How to cite this:Yaqoob N, Mansoor S, Aftab K, Kaleem B, Hamid A, Jamal S. High risk histopathological factors in retinoblastoma in upfront enucleated eyes: An experience from a tertiary care centre of Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(2):369-374. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.ICON-2022.5787 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Febrile neutropenia is a medical emergency that complicates the clinical course and treatment of haematological malignancies, significantly enhancing the financial burden and worsening the overall outcome. This study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of institution’s current first-line antibiotic regimen for febrile neutropenia in view of recent spectrum of institution’s local flora and its susceptibility pattern. 163 episodes of microbiologically documented infections in 110 adult patients were studied over a period of 1 year. Of 110 patients, 61 patients were male. The mean age of the patient population, mean absolute neutrophil count and temperature as documented were 30.1 years (SD ± 16.8), 450 cells/ul, and 101.9 °C respectively. Gram-negative and gram-positive organisms accounted for 79% and 21% of the febrile neutropenic infections respectively. E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus were the most common gram positive and gram negative pathogens respectively. A susceptibility pattern of > 60% was documented for all the gram negative pathogen’s associated febrile neutropenic infections for the current first-line antibiotic combination of Piperacillin/Tazobactum and Amikacin. Comparative analysis of results with the institutional data of 2015 study revealed no statistically significant difference in the resistance pattern of the organisms hence, validating the persistent use of Piperacillin/Tazobacum and Amikacin combination as a potent and efficacious therapy for febrile neutropenia patients with haematological malignancies. However, continuous surveillance remains prudent for the emerging changes in the spectrum and resistance pattern of local flora so that timely revision of empirical antibiotic regimens can save the added financial burdens and associated high morbidity and mortality. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s12088-019-00789-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Accurate and rapid diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is critical for proper care and identification of affected individuals. This led to early availability of many serological assays in the market, but with limited validation. In this study, we aimed to validate the serological assays based on different techniques. We evaluated 15 different assays based on four immunoassay techniques in 235 patients. The most sensitive kits employed were as follows: immunochromatography (Zybio severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2] IgM/IgG Antibody Assay Kit - 83%), ELISA (Aeskulisa SARS-CoV-2 NP IgG -88.1%), chemiluminescence (Alinity SARS-CoV-2 IgG - 82.2%), and immunofluorescence (Lifotronic FA160 (Shenzhen SARS-CoV-2 Assay Kit [IgG]) - 88.9%). The kits by Uniper (Singuway Biotec COVID-19 IgM/IgG Presumptive Kit), Genrui 2019-nCoV IgM/IgG Test Kit, Wondfu SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test, and Aeskulisa SARS-CoV-2 NP IgG exhibited 100% specificity, whereas IgG assay using Lifotronic FA160 (Shenzhen SARS-CoV-2 Assay Kit) exhibited the lowest specificity at 58%. Maximum agreement was observed between Aeskulisa SARS-CoV-2 NP IgG and Alinity SARS-CoV-2 IgG at 94%. Serological tests are practical alternatives, but their reliability depends on critical validation. The COVID-19 pandemic warranted investment in healthcare research at both the national and international levels.

BACKGROUND: The cure rate of children with central nervous system (CNS) tumors in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is lower than high-income countries due to under diagnosis, treatment abandonment, lack of appropriate radiological, histopathologic, neurosurgical, radiotherapeutic, and pediatric oncologic services. The present study aimed to evaluate the treatment challenges observed in a tertiary center in Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients younger than 17 years-of-age with CNS tumors either diagnosed at or referred to Indus Hospital from January 2015 to December 2021 were included. RESULTS: A total of 235 patients were included with a median age of 10.0 years and male preponderance (60.8%). The three most frequent CNS malignancies observed were glioma (105; 44.3%), medulloblastoma (63;26.6%), and ependymoma (34;14.3%). Of 235 patients, 45(19%) received palliative treatment upfront, 37(15.6%) were referred to other institutions for care, and 33 (13.9%) abandoned prior to treatment initiation. Of the 120 (51.0%) patients who started curative treatment, 74(61.6%) completed treatment, 22(18.3%) continue on treatment, 19(15.8%) abandoned treatment, and 5(4.2%) died during treatment . Overall survival in patients on curative treatment at the time of analysis was close to 80%. CONCLUSION: This study describes the outlook of care for children with CNS tumors in a tertiary center of Pakistan.It is observed that high rate of patients with upfront palliation and abandonment lead to poor outcomes. Stigma cancer, financial toxicity, delayed referral and burden of neurosurgeries in government sectors could be contributing to these outcomes. Further work must be done to clarify the barriers to quality care. Futhermore, a conscious effort to increase integrated care for these patients is of utmost importance.

Pakistan is among the countries with a high prevalence of β-thalassemia, with a β-thalassemia gene frequency of 5% to 8% and ∼5000 new cases diagnosed each year. In Pakistan, the mean annual expenditure for managing disease in a child with thalassemia is US$4500, which is much more than the per

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a stem cell disorder characterized by unrestricted proliferation of the myeloid series that occurs due to the BCR-ABL fusion oncogene as a result of reciprocal translocation t(9;22) (q34;q11). This discovery has made this particular domain a target for future efforts to cure CML. Imatinib revolutionized the treatment options for CML and gave encouraging results both in case of safety as well as tolerability profile as compared to agents such as hydroxyurea or busulfan given before Imatinib. However, about 2-4% of patients show resistance and mutations have been found to be one of the reasons for its development. European Leukemianet gives recommendations for BCR-ABL mutational analysis along with other tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that should be administered according to the mutations harbored in a patient. The following overview gives recommendations for monitoring patients on the basis of their mutational status.

Background Differentiation between thalassemia major and thalassemia intermedia at presentation is not uniformly characterized, for which an absolute criteria needs to be developed. This study investigated the primary and secondary genetic modifiers to develop a laboratory finding by forming different genetic mutational combinations seen among thalassemia intermedia patients and comparing them with thalassemia major. Methods This cross-sectional study analyzed 315 thalassemia intermedia patients. One hundred and five thalassemia major patients were recruited on the basis of documented evidence of diagnosis and were receiving blood transfusion therapy regularly. Various mutational combinations were identified, and comparison was performed between thalassemia intermedia and major using statistical software STATA 11.1. Results The mean age of the total population was 5.9 ± 5.32 years of which 165 (52%) were males. Of the two groups (thalassemia intermedia and thalassemia major), IVSI-5, IVSI-1, and Fr 8-9 were more prevalent among the thalassemia intermedia cohort. When comparison was performed between the thalassemia intermedia and thalassemia major patients, it showed significant results for the presence of Xmn-1 polymorphism. Conclusion The presence of IVSI-5 homozygous with Xmn-1, IVSI-5 heterozygous with Xmn-1, Cd 30 homozygous with or without Xmn-1 and IVSI-1 homozygous or heterozygous either with or without Xmn-1 prove to be strong indicators towards diagnosis of thalassemia intermedia.

Plasma cell leukemia is a variant form of multiple myeloma with its own unique form of presentation. It may have a presentation resembling a lymphoproliferative disorder which if not investigated in detail can lead to misdiagnosis and thus completely different line of investigation. Our patient presented to us with disturbed dietary regimen, significant weight loss and was a known case of hypothyroidism since 2009 for which he was on medications. At the other centre, complete blood picture showed bicytopenia with hyperleucocytosis while bone marrow biopsy performed showed a diagnosis of lymphoproliferative disorder with a morphological diagnosis of Hairy cell leukemia. At our center, his complete blood count showed bicytopenia with leucocytosis as before but the morphological examination of his peripheral smear showed the presence of 80% plasma cells. The immunophenotyping showed CD23(+) and CD56(+) while the immunohistochemistry showed CD23(+), CD56(+) and CD138(+). Cytogenetics showed the presence of t(4;14) in 5% of the cells examined. Based on the above mentioned investigations, a diagnosis of Plasma cell leukemia was reached and the patient was placed on a treatment regimen including Lenalidomide, Bortezumib and Dexamenthasone. His blood counts came within the normal range within a week of starting the treatment. Bone marrow biopsy accounts for one of the many steps that should be taken to reach a correct diagnosis. Keeping in mind the variable presentation a disease can show, as many investigative tools should be undertaken as is clinically and economically possible for reaching at a correct diagnosis and thus the decision of the eventual treatment plan for the patient.