Objective: To evaluate the knowledge and practice of gynecologists with regard to oral and dental health during pregnancy. Design of the Study: It was a cross-sectional study. Study Settings: This study was carried out at Outpatient Department of Dentistry Combined Military Hospital, Lahore from January 2019 to July 2019. Methods & Materials: The questionnaire was distributed among 450 gynaecologists. The evaluation tool was questionnaire. It was consisted on 23 items in which 18 questions were about the knowledge and five questions about the practice. The response of the respondents was received as yes or no. All the collected data entered in software and statistical analysis of data was done using the SPSS version 22.0. For quantitative variables mean and standard deviation were calculated. Qualitative variables were presented in the form of frequency and percentage. Results: In our study response rate was found to be 84.4%. During pregnancy related to the oral healthcare average of gynaecologist’s knowledge was 12.31±2.73 which showed that they have appropriate knowledge level. During pregnancy related to the oral healthcare measures average of gynaecologist’s knowledge was 3.31 ± 1.256 which exhibited that they have appropriate knowledge level of practices measures. A significant relationship between year of graduation and gynaecologist’s knowledge was observed (P = 0.31), whereas insignificant relationship between graduation year and practice was observed (P = 0.763). During pregnancy related to the need of oral and dental care before & during pregnancy gynaecologist’s knowledge was 3.67 ± 1.035. Conclusion: Gynecologist’s knowledge about oral and dental hygiene measure during the pregnancy was appropriate. Women who are planning their pregnancy must get knowledge from dentist, obstetricians and gynecologists to reduce the rate of complications. Effect of pregnancy on oral and dental hygiene is on the one hand and inhibition from its side effects is on the other hand. Keywords: Gynecologist, Oral Health, Pregnant women

Introduction: The childhood obesity epidemic has caused the global prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in children to increase from 2% to 4%. However, there is limited data regarding this issue in Pakistan. Hence this cross-sectional study aims to document the prevalence of HTN and its risk factors among children visiting the out patient department (OPD) of a government hospital in Karachi, which is one of the largest cities in Pakistan. Methods: One thousand children aged between 4 and 12 years who visited the OPD in October 2019 were included. Blood pressures (BPs) for each child were measured manually and recorded. Their guardians were then interviewed to assess the risk factors present in each child. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Results: Among all the children, those between 4 and 7 years of age had a higher prevalence of HTN (19.2%; 9.2% stage 1 and 10.0% stage 2) than children aged between 8 and 12 years (14.5%; 8.0% stage 1 and 6.5% stage 2). Obese children between the age of 4 and 7 years (OR = 3.11) were more likely to develop HTN. Moreover, children with a positive family history of HTN were 1.43 times more likely to have HTN and 1.32 times more likely to have pre-HTN. There was no significant association of gender, artificial feeding, low birth weight, and maternal smoking with HTN. Conclusion: The prevalence is particularly higher in children aged between 4 and 7 years (19.2%) and there is a strong association between high BMI (body mass index), family history of HTN, and high-fat diet intake with HTN in children. There was no significant variation of prevalence between both genders.

Bilal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0., which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction Kawasaki disease (KD) is an idiopathic, acute systemic vasculitis typically affecting medium-sized blood vessels with an inclination towards the coronary arteries. There is no specific diagnostic test established for it yet. Hence, our study aims to evaluate serum N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels as potential diagnostic tools in children with KD and determine its relationship with the development of coronary artery lesions (CAL) in the pediatric population visiting a tertiary care hospital in Karachi. Methods A prospective observational study was performed on a sample of 500 children at a tertiary care hospital over a period of two years from June 2017 to June 2019. Blood samples were collected from two groups labeled CAL and non-coronary artery lesion (NCAL), and different biomarkers including NT-proBNP, IL-6, and H 2 S were compared between them to predict the diagnostic properties of each marker. Results Among the 500 children, 50% were between the age of one to five years. All presented with fever and varying degrees of associated symptoms. On lab investigations, levels of NT-proBNP and IL-6 during the acute phase of the disease were found to be higher in the CAL group than the NCAL and control groups (p<0.001). However, H 2 S levels during the acute attack were significantly lower in the CAL group when compared to the NCAL or control groups (p<0.001). Conclusion Elevated levels of NT-proBNP and IL-6 can be utilized as potential clinical markers for identifying children at risk of developing CAL as a complication of KD. Reduced H 2 S levels are also proposed as an indicator of progress towards CAL and should be considered in reaching a diagnosis.

No abstract