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Raw material (limestone and clay) of Darukhula Nizampur North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan has been used in the raw mix design and manufacturing of sulphate-resisting cements (SRC). The resulting cements were found to contain all physical and chemical parameters in good agreement with the British and Pakistan standard specifications. The studied parameters of the resulting SRC include compressive strength, consistency, setting time, Le Chatelier expansion and insoluble residue. It was found that the raw material available at the study area meets the standard specifications and the area is feasible for the cement plant installation. The area can provide raw material that is quite sufficient for the operation of a cement plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To check incidence of Asymptomatic Leishmania donovani reporting to Armed Forces Institute of Transfusion Rawalpindi., Material and Methods: Two thousand (n = 2000) consecutive healthy voluntary blood donors were tested for 18 s rRNA by Real time Polymerase chain reaction. One thousand (n = 1000) subject's permanent resident of Azad Kashmir along with a thousand (n = 1000) healthy voluntary blood donors from rest of Pakistan were included. The study was carried out over a period of three months Jun - Aug 2020., Results: Total of 2000 blood donors were enrolled in the study, all were males with age ranging from 16 to 60 years. Stratification based on residence, 1000 (50 %) resided in the Azad kashmir, 349 (17.45 %) were from Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 541 (27.05 %) from Punjab mainly residing in Lahore and Multan, 110 (5.5 %) were from other cities of Pakistan. Grouping on the basis of age, 55.25 % (n = 1105) of the donors were 16-25 years old, 19.45 % (n = 389) were in age range of 26-40 years old, 15.55 % (n = 311) were 41-50 years old and 9.75 % (n = 195) 51-60 years old. No donor was diagnosed as an asymptomatic carrier., Conclusion: Screening of blood donors for Leishmania donovani is not recommended., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

Background: The discovery of circulating cell-free fetal DNA (cff-DNA) in maternal plasma has inspired the noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) approaches for various genetic fetal screening including rhesus D typing, sex determination, aneuploidies, and single-gene disorders., Objective: Noninvasive determination of paternally inherited beta-thalassemia mutations in maternal total cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) by using allele-specific amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) real-time PCR (RT-PCR) in concordance with the conventional invasive method., Methods: An observational study was conducted at the Armed Forces Institute of Blood Transfusion in collaboration with the genetics resource center from March 2021 to August 2021. A total number of 26 couples were selected having a history of previously affected children with beta-thalassemia. A routine chorionic villus sampling (CVS) invasive procedure was carried out, and the mutation analysis was done using conventional PCR. To assess NIPT, a total cf-DNA was also extracted from maternal plasma and analyzed using allele-specific ARMS RT-PCR., Results: Based on conventional PCR testing, 13 of 26 couples were found having beta-thalassemia carriers with homozygous mutation, and 13 couples were carriers with heterozygous mutations. Further to assess NIPT, the cf-DNA of 13 pregnant females among the couples with different mutational patterns was analyzed by allele-specific ARMS RT-PCR to detect paternally inherited mutations. In comparison with conventional PCR, 11 cases (84.6%) were matched successfully, while two cases (15.4%) had no concordance with conventional invasive prenatal testing (IPT)., Conclusion: NIPT using maternal cf-DNA by allele-specific ARMS RT-PCR can be feasible to screen paternal inherited mutant alleles to rule out pregnant women from invasive procedures where the test would be negative for paternal inheritance. However, a low amount of fetal DNA in maternal plasma is a limiting factor and required further improvement to enrich fetal cf-DNA for complete concordance with conventional IPT.

The aim of this note is to assess the common clinical features of paediatric multiple sclerosis (PMS) in Pakistan. For this purpose, 150 MS patients with the age range of (1-72) years and mean age (34.2±11.09) years were studied during the period 2010 to 2015 from MRI centers of Pakistan. We found 15 paediatric MS cases which had clinical course relapsing-remitting MS (11), secondary-progressive MS (3) and primary-progressive MS (1). Revised McDonald criteria 2010 of MRI was used to disseminate lesions in space and time. Sensory symptoms were found 27% in PMS patients and contributed brain area of corpus callosum, brain stem, periventricle, basal ganglia, white matter and cerebellum. Optic neuritis was the second clinical feature and its prevalence was reported 20% in paediatric patients. In conclusion, Paediatric multiple sclerosis is predicted 10 % with mean age 11.2 years in Pakistan. Sensory and optic neuritis are suggested the common clinical features of paediatric multiple sclerosis in Pakistan.