Imran Ahmed - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Imran Ahmed

British journal of sports medicine, Jan 22, 2016

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hip pain in professional golfers, comparing the l... more This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hip pain in professional golfers, comparing the lead (left hip in right-handed golfer) and trail hips, and to establish what player characteristics predicted hip symptoms. Male elite professional golf players were invited to complete questionnaires and undergo clinical and MR examinations while attending the Scottish Hydro Challenge 2015. Questionnaires determined player demographics, self-reported hip pain and an International Hip Outcome Tool 12 (iHOT12) score (hip-related quality of life). Clinical examinations determined hip range of motion and the presence of a positive impingement test. MR scans determined the presence of labral pathology and player hip morphology with measures of α angle (cam), acetabular depth (pincer) and femoral neck antetorsion. A total of 109 (70% of tournament field) of players completed questionnaires, 73 (47%) underwent clinical examination and 55 (35%) underwent MR examination. 19.3% of players reported...

ESSCIRC 2007 - 33rd European Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2007

Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, 2015

Juvenile rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) is common in the Indian subcontinent. Early recognition a... more Juvenile rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) is common in the Indian subcontinent. Early recognition and management is essential. Rarely rheumatic MS may occur in &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;5 years of age, wherein rapid hemodynamic progression and cardiac morbidity and mortality occurs. Severe/symptomatic MS in preschool age requires urgent and meticulous decision making. Condition of valve and wishes of parents may complicate management decisions. Percutaneous transmitral commissurotomy (PTMC) may, therefore, become the only life-saving intervention in these cases unless contraindicated, although the procedure entails considerable technical issues in this age group. Herein, we report a successful balloon mitral valvotomy in a 4-year-old child with severe rheumatic MS (documented since 2 years 6 months of age) presenting with repeated pulmonary edema. To the best of our knowledge, this child is the youngest documented case of established rheumatic heart disease and also one of the youngest PTMC procedure performed. This report supports the clinical usefulness of PTMC in childhood MS; however, pertinent technical issues are raised, which needs a proper consensus. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research, 2015

Bronchogenic cysts are rare congenital lesions of the bronchial tree which are mostly asymptomati... more Bronchogenic cysts are rare congenital lesions of the bronchial tree which are mostly asymptomatic. Rarely when the size is large it can compress on the adjacent structures in the mediastinum. We report a rare case of 10 month old baby presented with recurrent lower respiratory tract infection, was suspected to have a pericardial cyst on echocardiography. On further imaging it was confirmed to be a large bronchogenic cyst from the carina compressing on the left atrium and the left bronchus causing congenital lobar emphysema of the left lung. In view of compression of the adjacent structures patient was sent for surgery. Though congenital bronchogenic cysts involving pericardium and intracardiac tissues have been reported but mediastinal bronchogenic cysts compressing on left bronchus causing congenital lobar emphysema have rarely been reported.

Quality in primary care, 2014

Aims was undertaken to ensure concomitant usage of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) with Non-Steroid... more Aims was undertaken to ensure concomitant usage of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) with Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) in Elderly, in order to avoid upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and ulcers. Reviewing of 386 patients' prescription on the EMIS (Egton Medical Information Systems) Web, on April 2014. Checking who have not been prescribed PPIs with NSAIDs, offering them appointment for prescription and discussion about risks and benefits of PPIs. Re-audit of 390 patients' prescription on the EMIS Web, on July 2014. Exclusion criteria in the audit and re-audit were; NSAIDs usage for more than 3 years, contra-indications for PPIs, and patients who declined inclusion in the audit. In the first audit cycle, a total of 386 patients' prescription reviewed, 23 (6%) patients were not prescribed PPIs with NSAIDs and were eligible for PPIs prescription. Those patients were contacted by post, an appointment arranged for them and prescribed the PPIs. 12 weeks later ...

IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, 2013

In this paper, we present a novel bit flipping algorithm for high-throughput decoding of LDPC cod... more In this paper, we present a novel bit flipping algorithm for high-throughput decoding of LDPC codes. The algorithm exploits the turbo principle to reduce the average number of iterations and employs a bit-local thresholding operation to remove the need for a block-wise minimum operation — which is common to many conventional bit flipping decoders — that hinders decoder throughput. Through simulations the proposed decoder is shown to achieve comparable bit-error rate performance to state-of-the-art techniques while requiring approximately half the number of iterations on average thus facilitating high-throughput decoding.

Journal of Cardiovascular Echography, 2014

Proceedings Design Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition DATE-04, 2004

Annals of Pediatric Cardiology, 2015

2012 IEEE International Conference on Signal Processing, Communication and Computing (ICSPCC 2012), 2012

ABSTRACT Building speech recognition application for resource deficient languages is a challenge ... more ABSTRACT Building speech recognition application for resource deficient languages is a challenge because of the unavailability of a speech corpus. Speech corpus is a central element for training the acoustic models used in a speech recognition engine. Constructing a speech corpus for a language is an expensive, time consuming and laborious process. This paper addresses a mechanism to develop an inexpensive speech corpus, for resource deficient languages Indian English and Hindi, by exploiting existing collections of online speech data to build a frugal speech corpus. For the purpose of demonstration we use online audio news archives to build a frugal speech corpus. We then use this speech corpus to train acoustic models and evaluate the performance of speech recognition on Indian English and Hindi speech.

Journal of Oral Hygiene & Health, 2013

Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology, 2013

Pipelined ADC Design and Enhancement Techniques, 2010

A 10-bit pipeline Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) is designed such that its average power is sc... more A 10-bit pipeline Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) is designed such that its average power is scaleable with sampling rate over a large variation of sampling rates. Fabricated in CMOS 0.18μm technology, while having an area of 1.21mm 2 , the ADC uses a novel fast Power Resettable Opamp (PROamp), to achieve power scalability between sampling rates as high as 50Msps (35mW), and as low as 1ksps (15μW), while having 54-56dB of SNDR (at Nyquist) for all sampling rates. A current modulation technique is used to avoid weakly inverted transistors for low bias currents, thus avoiding less accurate simulation, poorer matching, and increased bias sensitivity. The PROamp due to its short power on/off time also affords reduced power consumption in high speed pipeline ADCs, where opamps can be completely powered off when not required. Measured results show an ADC using PROamps has 20-30% less power than an ADC which does not use PROamps.

Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 2013

The Lancet, 2013

Background Powders containing iron and other micronutrients are recommended as a strategy to prev... more Background Powders containing iron and other micronutrients are recommended as a strategy to prevent nutritional anaemia and other micronutrient defi ciencies in children. We assessed the eff ects of provision of two micronutrient powder formulations, with or without zinc, to children in Pakistan. Methods We did a cluster randomised trial in urban and rural sites in Sindh, Pakistan. A baseline survey identifi ed 256 clusters, which were randomly assigned (within urban and rural strata, by computer-generated random numbers) to one of three groups: non-supplemented control (group A), micronutrient powder without zinc (group B), or micronutrient powder with 10 mg zinc (group C). Children in the clusters aged 6 months were eligible for inclusion in the study. Powders were to be given daily between 6 and 18 months of age; follow-up was to age 2 years. Micronutrient powder sachets for groups B and C were identical except for colour; investigators and fi eld and supervisory staff were masked to composition of the micronutrient powders until trial completion. Parents knew whether their child was receiving supplementation, but did not know whether the powder contained zinc. Primary outcomes were growth, episodes of diarrhoea, acute lower respiratory tract infection, fever, and incidence of admission to hospital. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00705445. Results The trial was done between Nov 1, 2008, and Dec 31, 2011. 947 children were enrolled in group A clusters, 910 in group B clusters, and 889 in group C clusters. Micronutrient powder administration was associated with lower risk of iron-defi ciency anaemia at 18 months compared with the control group (odds ratio [OR] for micronutrient powder without zinc=0•20, 95% CI 0•11-0•36; OR for micronutrient powder with zinc=0•25, 95% CI 0•14-0•44). Compared with the control group, children in the group receiving micronutrient powder without zinc gained an extra 0•31 cm (95% CI 0•03-0•59) between 6 and 18 months of age and children receiving micronutrient powder with zinc an extra 0•56 cm (0•29-0•84). We recorded strong evidence of an increased proportion of days with diarrhoea (p=0•001) and increased incidence of bloody diarrhoea (p=0•003) between 6 and 18 months in the two micronutrient powder groups, and reported chest indrawing (p=0•03). Incidence of febrile episodes or admission to hospital for diarrhoea, respiratory problems, or febrile episodes did not diff er between the three groups. Interpretation Use of micronutrient powders reduces iron-defi ciency anaemia in young children. However, the excess burden of diarrhoea and respiratory morbidities associated with micronutrient powder use and the very small eff ect on growth recorded suggest that a careful assessment of risks and benefi ts must be done in populations with malnourished children and high diarrhoea burdens. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Journal of Immunological Methods, 2009

The enzyme linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay is a fundamental tool in cellular immunology, provid... more The enzyme linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay is a fundamental tool in cellular immunology, providing both quantitative and qualitative information on cellular cytokine responses to defined antigens. It enables the comprehensive screening of patient derived peripheral blood mononuclear cells to reveal the antigenic restriction of T-cell responses and is an emerging technique in clinical laboratory investigation of certain infectious diseases. As with all cellular-based assays, the final results of the assay are dependent on a number of technical variables that may impact precision if not highly standardised between operators. When studies that are large scale or using multiple antigens are set up manually, these assays may be labour intensive, have many manual handling steps, are subject to data and sample integrity failure and may show large inter-operator variability. Here we describe the successful automated performance of the interferon (IFN)-ELISpot assay from cell counting through to electronic capture of cytokine quantitation and present the results of a comparison between automated and manual performance of the ELISpot assay. The mean number of spot forming units enumerated by both methods for limiting dilutions of CMV, EBV and influenza (CEF)-derived peptides in six healthy individuals were highly correlated (r >0.83, p<0.05). The precision results from the automated system compared favourably with the manual ELISpot and further ensured electronic tracking, increased throughput and reduced turnaround time.