Jinnah Hospital Lahore

To determine the efficacy of oral Tofacitinib in the treatment of moderate to severe alopecia areata, totalis and universalis at tertiary care hospital of Karachi, Pakistan. Efficacy of treatment in patients presenting with alopecia areata will be assessed using SALT Score on follow up at 6,12 and 24 weeks where four categories of treatment response were defined: 0 (re-growth ≤10%), 1 (11-25%), 2 (26-50%), 3 (51-75%) and 4 (re-growth >75%). Efficacy will be considered if re-growth ≥ 2.

Severe traumatic brain injury (STBI) is a leading cause of disability, mortality, and economic burden worldwide. The impact of severe traumatic brain injury (STBI) on the economy of developing countries like Pakistan is distressing. Pakistan has a large proportion of the young adult population in the World. Motorbike is the most common locomotive vehicle. These young ones are in the economically productive part of their lives. Their loss is an economical set back not only for their families but also for the Nation. Patients with STBI need standardized management in Neuro-critical care unit (NCCU). Although the setup and maintenance cost of an effective NCCU is one of the major burden on the budget of any public sector hospital, but the young survivor in turn can be productive for the Nation.
During mechanical ventilation, severe traumatic brain injury patients frequently develop ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Ventilator-associated pneumonia can be evaluated using Clinical pulmonary infection score (CPIS). CPIS is considered as an important clinical indicator of pneumonia in NCCU.
Bronchoalveolar Lavage (BAL) is a minimally invasive procedure done with instillation of normal saline into subsegments of the lung followed by suction and collection of the instilled fluid for analysis with flexible bronchoscope. Patients with moderate and severe traumatic brain injury usually present with altered conscious level, and most of them already have aspiration of vomitus, debris and secretions which increase the risk of VAP in them. Bronchoalveolar lavage can be helpful in preventing this dreadful VAP by clearing the airways.
The aim of this study is to find out the effect of early Bronchoalveolar Lavage on severity of development of VAP assessed through clinical pulmonary infection score (CPIS) in TBI patients.

Stem cell therapy has emerged as a revolutionary treatment for diseases that were considered untreatable only a few years ago. Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) have been shown to repair damaged liver, kidney, heart, pancreas, skin, cartilage, and cornea in animal models and several human trials. In addition to cellular replacement through regeneration, UCMSCs mediate through paracrine signaling pathways resulting in immune modulation. Clinical manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), are believed to arise from septic shock and cytokine storm that cause acute respiratory dysfunction and acute cardiac injury. There is presently no cure for the COVID-19 viral disease; however, multi-treatment strategies are being examined. During the past two months, four reports were published that suggest, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), owing to their powerful immunomodulatory ability, may prevent the cytokine storm and thus reduce the COVID-19 related morbidity. All studies reported that COVID-19 patients responded favorably to MSCs therapy. These reports, taken together with the previous successes of stem cell therapy in animal models, the investigators, a seven-institution consortium, propose to explore the efficacy of UCMSC treatment in COVID-19 patients at Jinnah hospital, Lahore. The investigators propose to administer UCMSCs in patients with acute pulmonary inflammation due to COVID-19 infection with moderate to severe symptoms. In the first cohort of 15 patients, UCMSCs will be administered with three intravenous infusions of 500,000 UCMSCs per Kg body weight each on days 1, 3, and 5. The second group of five patients serving as control will only receive standard treatment. During the 30-day post-infusion period, a battery of tests will be performed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the UCMSCs treatment. In parallel, the investigators propose a comparative study to determine COVID-19 viral count by quantitative real-time PCR and through viral coat protein ELISA, developed in the investigator advisor lab (Dr. Tauseef Butt, Progenra Inc. Philadelphia, USA) with the ultimate objective to locally developing a rapid diagnostic assay.