Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been described as a significant causative agent of chronic hepatitis since its characterization in 1989. HCV may remain latent or become activated, leading to persistent infections and, in some cases, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma HCV is most commonly transmitted through direct contact with infected blood. Other, less common routes of transmission of HCV include sexual intercourse with infected individuals and mother to child transfer. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive type study which was carried out in the Department of Transfusion Medicine of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for six months from January to June 2014 to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus in the apparently healthy blood donors. All apparently healthy blood donors fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion were included in this study. The blood donors who were positive for anti-HCV antibodies were seropositive. Anti HCV antibody screened by ICT and confirmed by ELISA method. Results: Among 1712 apparently healthy blood donors, 36 (2.1%) donors were anti-HCV positive, and 1676 (97.9%) donors were negative. The mean age of the study patients was 34.05 years (SD = ± 8.79). 66.7% of the study patients were male, whereas 33.3 % of donors were female among the 36 blood donors. Conclusion: It is absolutely necessary to avoid the transmission of infection from repeat donors who are asymptomatic HCV positive. Policymakers and public health stakeholders need to introduce and implement further preventive measures targeting the routes of HCV transmission. TAJ 2021; 34: No-2: 24-31

Liver abscess due to accidentally ingested fish bone is extremely rare; only 30 cases have been described in the literature. We are reporting a 46-year-old female presenting with liver abscess due to enterohepatic migration of accidentally ingested fish bone. TAJ 2020; 33(1): 48-50

Background: Among non-communicable diseases, acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a common killer of people in the world. The management of AMI patients is one of the major challenges in the field of cardiology. Uric acid has several effects of potential interest in cardiovascular disease. There are some markers indicating an unfavorable prognosis in AMI patients. Uric acid is one of the markers that have been evaluated in research. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the association between serum uric acid level and in-hospital outcomes of AMI patients. Patients and methods: This longitudinal descriptive study was conducted over 115 AMI patients in the Cardiology Unit of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital during the period of January 2015 to December 2016. Baseline characteristics such as age, sex, BMI, BP, RBS, risk factors (hypertension, DM, smoking, family history of IHD, dyslipidemia), and outcomes of AMI patients (acute LVF, arrhythmia, conduction block, cardiogenic shock, death) were recorded. We measured the serum uric acid of this patient at admission.  Results: The mean age of patients was 52.83±10.71 years. Out of 115 patients, 83.5% were male, and 16.5% were female. Among the risk factors, 65.2% of patients had HTN, 20.9% DM, 64.3% smoking, 16.5% family history of IHD, and 47.8% dyslipidemia. Out of 115, 35.7% of patients demonstrated high serum uric acid. In outcomes of AMI patients, acute LVF 24.4% (p=0.031) and death 12.2% (p=0.041) were significantly higher in patients with high serum uric acid levels. Conclusion: Significant association was found between high serum uric acid level and in-hospital outcomes of AMI patients. So, estimation of serum uric acid may offer an inexpensive, quick, and non-invasive method for identifying such high-risk patients. TAJ 2021; 34: No-1: 26-32