Background: Acute stroke patients are usually transported to the nearest hospital regardless of their required level of care. This can lead to increased pressure on emergency departments and treatment delay. Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the benefit of a mobile stroke unit (MSU) in the UK National Health Service (NHS) for reduction of hospital admissions. Methods: Prospective cohort audit observation with dispatch of the MSU in the East of England Ambulance Service area in Southend-on-Sea was conducted. Emergency patients categorized as code stroke and headache were included from June 5, 2018, to December 18, 2018. Rate of avoided admission to the accident and emergency (A&E) department, rate of admission directly to target ward, and stroke management metrics were assessed. Results: In 116 MSU-treated patients, the following diagnoses were made: acute stroke, n = 33 (28.4%); transient ischaemic attacks, n = 13 (11.2%); stroke mimics, n = 32 (27.6%); and other conditions, n = 38 (32.8%). Pre-hospital thrombolysis was administered to 8 of 28 (28.6%) ischaemic stroke patients. Pre-hospital diagnosis avoided hospital admission for 29 (25.0%) patients. As hospital treatment was indicated, 35 (30.2%) patients were directly triaged to the stroke unit, 1 patient (0.9%) even directly to the catheter laboratory. Thus, only 50 (43.1%) patients required transfer to the A&E department. Moreover, the MSU enabled thrombolysis with a median dispatch-to-needle time of 42 min (interquartile range, 40–60). Conclusion: This first deployment of an MSU in the UK NHS demonstrated improved triage decision-making for or against hospital admission and admission to the appropriate target ward, thereby reducing pressure on strained A&E departments.

Background:Failure to maintain a patent airway is one of the commonest causes of anesthesia-related morbidity and mortality. Many protocols, algorithms, and different combinations of tested methods for airway assessment have been developed to predict difficult laryngoscopy and intubation. The reported incidence of a difficult intubation varies from 1.5% to 13%. The objective of this study was to compare Mallampati test (MT) with lower jaw protrusion (LJP) maneuver in predicting difficult laryngoscopy and intubation.Materials and Methods:Seven hundred and sixty patients were included in the study. All the patients underwent MT and LJP maneuver for their airway assessment. After a standardized technique of induction of anesthesia, primary anesthetist performed laryngoscopy and graded it according to the grades described by Cormack and Lehane. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for both these tests with 95% confidence interval (CI) using conventional laryngoscopy as gold standard. Area under curve was also calculated for both, MT and LJP maneuver. A P < 0.05 was taken as significant.Results:LJP maneuver had higher sensitivity (95.9% vs. 27.1%), NPV (98.7% vs. 82.0%), and accuracy (90.1% vs. 80.3%) when compared to MT in predicting difficult laryngoscopy and intubation. Both tests, however, had similar specificity and PPV. There was marked difference in the positive and negative likelihood ratio between LJP and MT. Similarly, the area under the curve favored LJP maneuver over MT.Conclusion:The results of this study show that LJP maneuver is a better test to predict difficult laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation. We recommend the addition of this maneuver to the routine preoperative evaluation of airway.

Background and Aims:Skill of a successful endotracheal intubation needs to be acquired by training and attaining several competencies simultaneously. It becomes more challenging when we have to deliver the key concepts in a limited period of time. The medium fidelity simulator is a valuable tool of training for such scenarios. For this purpose we aim to compare the efficacy of structured training in endotracheal intubation between real life simulation and the conventional teaching method.Materials and Methods:The year 4 medical students had their attachment in anaesthesia for a period of 6 months from Jun — Dec 2009 were randomly divided into Group (Gp) A who had conventional teaching and Group B who were taught by four simulated sessions of endotracheal intubation. Performance of both the groups was observed by a person blinded to the study against a checklist on a 7 point rating scale in anaesthetized patient.Results:Total 57 students, 29 in Gp A and 28 in Gp B were rotated in the anaesthesia during the study period. Evaluation of the individual component tasks revealed that simulated group achieved a significant difference in the scoring for laryngoscope and intubation technique. (P = 0.026, 0.012) The comparison of overall competence again showed that the 64.3% of student in Gp B achieved an excellent score in comparison to Gp A in which only 41.4% achieved excellent. (P = 0.049). Similarly the lesser number of students in Gp B (14.3%) require remediation as compared to the Gp A, in which the requirement was 40% (P=0.04).Conclusion:We conclude that all essential skills components of tracheal intubation in correct flow and sequence are acquired more efficiently by real life simulated training.

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Among grain legumes, peas (Pisum sativum L.) are highly sensitive to salt stress. Acclimatization of plants to such conditions is mandatory. We provide improved salt stress tolerance response of transgenic pea plants overexpressing the Na + /H + gene from Arabidopsis thaliana and a positive association with salt-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). In addition to salt stress tolerance and phosphate solubilization, the selected rhizobacterial isolates were identified for indole acetic acid and proline production ability. Seed germination percentage in transgenic pea plants was significantly higher under NaCl challenge. The wild-type (WT) pea plants inoculated with known numbers of viable cells of salt-tolerant PGPR and transgenic pea plants without any inoculation showed better growth performance under salt stress. However, the PGPR-inoculated transgenic plants showed significant increase in growth and biomass compared to the WT counterpart. An increase in antioxidant enzymes, i.e. superoxide dismutase and peroxidases, was observed in PGPR-inoculated transgenic plants under salt stress. We could not see any negative effect of the transgene in pea plants on the growth of associated PGPR. The overall impact of microbe-mediated elicitation responses in transgenic plants, whether at the biochemical or molecular level, may lead to protection against salt stress.

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Objectives: To evaluate basic knowledge of Health Care Professionals (HCPs) of Pakistan in managing COVID 19 patients. It includes information regarding infection control measures, administrative and professional support. This was followed by evaluation of psychological factor that can act as a barrier in effective management of these patients. Methods: The survey was conducted on line using Google Form. After approval from hospital ethical committee survey link was disseminated to HCPs using social media. Results: Four hundred fifteen HCPs were participated. Most of them were younger than 30 years and majority of them were postgraduate trainees. Results showed gaps in the knowledge about basic infection control measure like donning/doffing and understanding about high-risk procedures. On job training, professional and administrative support is compromising. Many of HCPs are anxious nowadays, having symptoms related to burn out with logical reasons behind. Even with all those hurdles they are committed and ready to volunteer themselves. Conclusion: The HCPs of Pakistan needs urgent attention for providing them Formal training regarding infection control measure. Administrative and professional support is required from institutions and scientific societies. Online teaching modules and webinar is a suitable option. The symptoms of burn out are significant and would increase with passage of time. This needs to be supported by occupational health committees. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2753 How to cite this:Irfan-Ul-Haq M, Shafiq F, Sheikh H. Potential Barriers amongst Health Care Professionals of Pakistan in managing COVID-19 patients. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(COVID19-S4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2753 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.

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