Is diagnosing patients with Organic Acidurias and Aminoacidopathies enough? Conundrums of a low middle-income country

Objective: This study was done to determine the factors responsible for non-treatment of inherited metabolic disorders (IMDs) requiring food for special medical purposes (FSMPs) in Pakistan. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted by Departments of Pediatrics & Child Health and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Aga Khan University. Patients diagnosed with IMDs from January 2013 to December 2016 requiring FSMPs were surveyed after a year of initial diagnosis to collect the details of treatment advised, mortality status, and reasons of non-treatment, including not prescribed by physician, non-acceptance by family, non-availability or non-affordability. Results: Over four years period, 311 patients were identified with IMDs; Median age of patients was 1.0 yrs (0.0.2-3.65) with 54% (n=168) being male. Of the total 38.2% (n=119) required FSMPs, 9% (n=28) patients were excluded due to unavailability of diagnostics information. Parents of 58 patients requiring FSMPs out of 119 participated in survey. The leading causes of non-treatment were, FSMPs not prescribed by physicians (n= 30, 51.7%) followed by non-affordability (n=23, 39.6%), families’ unacceptance in (n=9, 18%) patients, non-availability of FSMPs (n=2, 3.4%) and early death of patient (n=1, 1.7%). Conclusion: The main factors responsible for non-treatment of FSMPs requiring IMDs were non-prescription by physician and non-affordability. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.3887 How to cite this:Majid H, Jafri L, Ali ZZ, Afroze B. Is diagnosing patients with Organic Acidurias and Aminoacidopathies enough? Conundrums of a low middle-income country. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(7):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.3887 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.

Arm movements and dynamic postural stability : accelerometer-based balance tests

Background: Epidemiological studies show a high incidence of falls and demonstrate that they cause serious consequences to individual health and quality of life, as well as significant social and healthcare impacts. The literature shows that poor balance is a major cause of falls, and emphasizes the need for valid and effective balance diagnostics and risk assessment of falls and balance impairments. The literature review also indicates that arm movements have a potentially significant effect on balance. Conclusions: This study shows that the proposed accelerometer-based tests provide useful diagnostic information for postural balance and arm movements evaluation. These devices provide valuable diagnostics information, data for progress monitoring during balance training, and consequently enhance risk assessment and falls prevention. Finally, the study shows the important impact of arm movements on dynamic balance and provides an insight into dynamics of the arm movements and balance maintenance.

Arm movements and dynamic postural stability : accelerometer-based balance tests

Background: Epidemiological studies show a high incidence of falls and demonstrate that they cause serious consequences to individual health and quality of life, as well as significant social and healthcare impacts. The literature shows that poor balance is a major cause of falls, and emphasizes the need for valid and effective balance diagnostics and risk assessment of falls and balance impairments. The literature review also indicates that arm movements have a potentially significant effect on balance. Conclusions: This study shows that the proposed accelerometer-based tests provide useful diagnostic information for postural balance and arm movements evaluation. These devices provide valuable diagnostics information, data for progress monitoring during balance training, and consequently enhance risk assessment and falls prevention. Finally, the study shows the important impact of arm movements on dynamic balance and provides an insight into dynamics of the arm movements and balance maintenance.

Method of importing operational data of railway traffic control devices into the database

Railway control devices are responsible for the safe and efficient operation of railway traffic. Despite the continuous development of these devices, like other technical solutions, they are being damaged. However, since railway control devices are safety-related, they are not only required to be reliable, but also to be free from unacceptable risks. The very large number of control devices, the variety of their types, the variety of technical solutions, as well as the specific failure rate make it very difficult to ensure the efficiency of these equipment. Therefore, their operation must be supported by technical diagnostics. Information obtained as a result of technical diagnostics about changes in the technical condition of devices is stored in specific data sets. However, in the case of individual railway lines plants of PKP PLK S.A. these are most often Excel spreadsheets of Microsoft Office. The authors of the article proposed to transfer these data to the MS SQL relational database with the use of proprietary software developed for this purpose.