Dear Editor, Vestibular hypofunction (VH) is the clinical condition where there is partial or complete loss of the vestibular organs and/or vestibular nerves. Symptoms of VH include vertigo, postural unsteadiness, and oscillopsia with head movements.1,2 These symptoms, if untreated, can affect an individual’s daily activities, occupational performance and mobility,...

Mr Koh Yong Guan, guest-of-honour; Dr Tan Ser Kiat, Master, Academy of Medicine; Dr K C Tan, Chairman, Chapter of Surgeons; Dr Robert Jalleh from Malaysia; Dr Idral Darwis from Indonesia; Dr P B Chacha, my esteemed partner; Dr John Isaac, Master of Ceremonies; fellow academicians, practitioners and friends,...

The pandemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a global healthcare problem and HIV infection is the most common cause of death worldwide. There are now 60 million deaths recorded from the infection worldwide by the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) organisation, most of them in sub-Saharan...

Septic ovarian venous thrombosis is an uncommon entity. Classically, it occurs as a postpartum complication with reported frequency of 1 in 600 to 2000 deliveries. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

Positron emission tomography (PET) has become a powerful scientific and clinical tool for probing biochemical processes in the human body. This is due, in large part, to advances in instrumentation and synthetic chemistry. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view...

The past few years have seen the transition of positron emission tomography (PET) from the research domain into mainstream clinical applications for oncology. The emergence of PET as the functional imaging modality of choice for diagnosis, staging, therapy monitoring and assessment of recurrence in cancer has led to an...

A record of Diagnostic Radiology would be incomplete without reference to Wilheim Roentgen, who discovered the rays that he could not comprehend; hence, X-rays. The day was Friday, 8 November 1895, as he worked on cathode ray tubes at the University of Wurzburg, Germany. These rays penetrated opaque substances,...

I am deeply honoured by the invitation to deliver the 16th Tun Dr Ismail Oration and I wish to thank the Master and Council of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia for this rare privilege of addressing a distinguished gathering such as this, as previous illustrious orators had done...

Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy with characteristic optic nerve damage and visual field loss. With the introduction of the ophthalmoscope by Helmholtz in 1851, ophthalmologists were able to visualise changes of optic nerve head associated with glaucoma. Von Graefe described glaucomatous optic nerve damage as “amaurosis with excavation of...

Headache is a common presenting complaint in the Emergency Department (ED), accounting for 1% to 4% of all visits.1-3 A significant proportion of these visits would result in hospital admissions and the associated socioeconomic burden. Most of these patients seek pain relief and assurance that their persistent headache is...

In young infants, different types of hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury can occur.1-6 Brain injury can be localised or diffused.2-6 In localised brain injury, arterial or venous periventricular infarctions are encountered. Causes of arterial infarction in the paediatric population are coagulopathies, vasculopathies, polycythaemia, and emboli from cyanotic congenital heart disease.7 In...

Enteric fever is a potentially fatal multi-systemic febrile disease caused by Salmonella.  Salmonella are gram-negative, rod-shaped facultative intracellular anaerobic bacteria with more than 2500 serotypes that cause a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations. Clinically, Salmonella can be divided into 2 distinct categories. The first group being the non-typhoidal species...

A 55-year-old Chinese woman presented to the ear, nose and throat clinic with a 6-month history of left-sided blood-stained mucus. It was dark brown with no epistaxis. There was no mucopus, nasal obstruction, facial pain or fever. She denies any history of hypertension, trauma, head and neck cancer, anticoagulation...

Hospital admissions places high resource demands on the health system, and is a major cost-driver in Singapore and globally.1-3 Admissions have and will continue to increase given Singapore’s ageing population and growing chronic disease and multimorbidity burden, impacting care quality and patient/provider experience.2,4 While majority of admissions are clinically...