Surgical management of pertrochanteric fractures with proximal lateral femur locking compression plate

Background: Pertrochanteric femoral fractures are of intense interest globally. Pertrochanteric fracture is a one of the most serious cause of mortality and morbidity in elderly people. The number of such admissions is on a raise because of increasing life span, sedentary habits and increased road traffic accidents. Pertrochanteric region is a high stress area. Hence delayed union, implant failures, varus collapse and non-union are common complications. Choice of implant was also a tough decision for surgeons in this area. Hence this study was intended to evaluate the functional outcome of proximal femur fractures treated with proximal femur locking compression plate (PFLCP) in terms of union of fracture, patient compliance and complications.Methods: This prospective study was conducted at the department of orthopaedics, Narayana Medical College and Hospital, Nellore from December 2014 to June 2016. The complete data was collected from all the patients by taking history of illness and by doing detailed clinical examination and relevant investigations. Finally after the diagnosis, the patients were selected for the study depending on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Postoperatively all the cases were followed for the minimum period of 6 months to maximum period of 1 year.Results: In this study 22 patients were involved. There were 14 males and 8 females, with a mean age of 46 years. 19 cases were admitted due to slip and fall and with slight predominance of right side. Mean duration of hospital stay was 20 days and mean time of full weight bearing is 10 weeks. Out of 22 cases 2 cases lost follow up before first follow up time of 6 weeks. Out of 20, remaining cases 8 were type 3 and 12 were type 4. Functional results were graded by Harris hip scoring system. Good to excellent results were seen in 87% cases of type 3 fractures and 83% cases in type 4 fractures.Conclusions: Treatment with a PFLCP can provide good-to-excellent healing for proximal femur fractures, with a limited occurrence of complications especially for severe comminuted fracture and osteoporosis

DEVELOPMENT AND IN VITRO–IN VIVO EVALUATION OF GASTRORETENTIVE FLOATING TABLETS OF AN ANTIRETROVIRAL AGENT RITONAVIR

Objective: The present research work concerns the development of the extended release of Ritonavir floating matrix tablets, designed to prolong the gastric residence time, increase the drug bioavailability, and diminish the side effects of irritating drugs. Methods: The floating tablets of Ritonavir were prepared by direct compression method using different grades of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), crospovidone, Polyox WSR 303, and sodium bicarbonate, as gas generating agent. Evaluation parameters and in vivo radiographic studies were conducted in suitable model. Results: Among all formulations, F21 was chosen as optimized formulation based on evaluation parameters such as floating lag time (33 s), total floating time (>24 h), and in vitro dissolution studies. From in vitro dissolution studies, the optimized formulation F21 and marketed product were shown 98.67% and 91.46±5.02% of drug release, respectively. The main appliance of medication discharge follows zero-order kinetics and non- Fickian transport by coupled diffusion and erosion. In vivo experiments maintained the potentials in extending the gastric residence time in the fasted state in beagle dogs. The mean gastric residence time of the optimized formulation found to be 330 min±40 in the stomach, where longer gastric residence time is an important condition for prolonged or controlled drug release and also for enhanced bioavailability. Conclusion: From in vitro and in vivo radiographic studies, Ritonavir floating tablets estimated to provide novel choice for harmless, inexpensive, and extended release for the effective management of AIDS

Annotation and BAC/PAC localization of nonredundant ESTs from drought-stressed seedlings of anindica rice

To decipher the genes associated with drought stress response and to identify novel genes in rice, we utilized 1540 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for functional annotation and mapping to rice genomic sequences. These ESTs were generated earlier by 3'-end single-pass sequencing of 2000 cDNA clones from normalized cDNA libraries constructed from drought-stressed seedlings of anindica rice. A rice UniGene set of 1025 transcripts was constructed from this collection through the BLASTN algorithm. Putative functions of 559 nonredundant ESTs were identified by BLAST similarity search against public databases. Putative functions were assigned at a stringency E value of 10-6 in BLASTN and BLASTX algorithms. To understand the gene structure and function further, we have utilized the publicly available finished and unfinished rice BAC/PAC (BAC, bacterial artificial chromosome; PAC, P1 artificial chromosome) sequences for similarity search using the BLASTN algorithm. Further, 603 nonredundant ESTs have been mapped to BAC/PAC clones. BAC clones were assigned by a homology of above 95% identity along 90% of EST sequence length in the aligned region. In all, 700 ESTs showed rice EST hits in GenBank. Of the 325 novel ESTs, 128 were localized to BAC clones. In addition, 127 ESTs with identified putative functions but with no homology in IRGSP (International Rice Genome Sequencing Program) BAC/PAC sequences were mapped to the Chinese WGS (whole genome shotgun contigs) draft sequence of the rice genome. Functional annotation uncovered about a hundred candidate ESTs associated with abiotic stress in rice andArabidopsis that were previously reported based on microarray analysis and other studies. This study is a major effort in identifying genes associated with drought stress response and will serve as a resource to rice geneticists and molecular biologists

A new validated stability-indicating gradient RP-HPLC method for the determination of pemetrexed disodium and its process related substances

Pemetrexed disodium is used for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. In the present study a simple stability indicating RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of Pemetrexed disodium. The process related substances such as Dimer-1 impurity, Dimer-2 impurity, N-Methyl Pemetrexed, Pemetrexed diethyl ester, Alanine derivative of Pemetrexed, DMF derivative of Pemetrexed, Acid intermediate, Oxidation impurity and D-isomer were separated on gradient mode and quantified. Forced degradation studies were performed to prove the specificity. Hypersil BDS C18 100 x 4.6mm, 3µm was used for the separation (at 27°C) with mobile phase mixture consisting of (0.02M sodium dihydrogen phosphate with 0.1% HCOOH and pH 3.8 with dilute sodium hydroxide): Acetonitrile (40:60 v/v) (pH 3.8) with a flow rate of 1.2 mL/min. Methanol: water (1:1) was used as diluent and the eluted compounds were monitored at 240 nm. 0.5-1500 µg/mL with linear regression equation y = 20588x - 9294.1 (R2=0.9999). The degradation products observed during the forced degradation studies were well resolved from the drug peak and proving that the method is a stability-indicating method. The method was validated as per ICH guidelines. Keywords: Pemetrexed disodium, RP-HPLC, gradient mode, Related substances, Stability indicating, Validation

Enantioselective Synthesis of Antiepileptic Drug: (-)-Levetiracetam-Synthetic Applications of the Versatile New Chiral N-Sul�nimine

We report an asymmetric synthesis of (-)-Levetiracetam (1) in six steps starting from versatile new chiral N-sul�nimine (3). e key step, stereoselective 1,2-addition of ethylmagnesium bromide (EtMgBr) to chiral N-sul�nimine derived from (R)-glyceraldehyde acetonide and (S)-t-BSA, gave the corresponding sulfonamide (2) in high diastereoselectivity. Simultaneous deprotection and deacetylation followed by NaIO 4 cleavage and reduction gave -amino alcohol (6). Subsequent reactions yielded the targeted compound levetiracetam (1)

High-K dielectric sulfur-selenium alloys.

Upcoming advancements in flexible technology require mechanically compliant dielectric materials. Current dielectrics have either high dielectric constant, K (e.g., metal oxides) or good flexibility (e.g., polymers). Here, we achieve a golden mean of these properties and obtain a lightweight, viscoelastic, high-K dielectric material by combining two nonpolar, brittle constituents, namely, sulfur (S) and selenium (Se). This S-Se alloy retains polymer-like mechanical flexibility along with a dielectric strength (40 kV/mm) and a high dielectric constant (K = 74 at 1 MHz) similar to those of established metal oxides. Our theoretical model suggests that the principal reason is the strong dipole moment generated due to the unique structural orientation between S and Se atoms. The S-Se alloys can bridge the chasm between mechanically soft and high-K dielectric materials toward several flexible device applications

Bio-hardening of in-vitro raised plants of Bhagwa pomegranate (Punica granatum)

A pot culture experiment on bio-hardening of the in-vitro raised plants of Bhagwa pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) was conducted to find out the effect of two commercially available bio-formulations containing Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and Aspergillus niger strain AN-27. Observations on root colonization, population dynamics of microbes in rhizospheric soil, growth, physiological and biochemical parameters of biohardened plants were recorded at 180 days after inoculation. Results revealed that AMF colonization in roots of in-vitro raised pomegranate plants was found at par in plants inoculated with AMF (71.12%) and AMF + Asp (65.00%) the root colonization in these two treatments was significantly higher than Contral (10.00%). Population of Aspergillus niger in the rhizospheric soil was found significantly higher in soil inoculated with Aspergillus niger strain AN-27 (6 × 104 cfu/g of soil) as compared to non-inoculated control (2 × 104 cfu/g of soil). Significant improvement in plant height (27.0% increase), shoot fresh weight (24.8% increase), root fresh (23.3% increase) and dry weight (15.7% increase) was observed in bio-hardened plants than untreated ones. Physiological processes were also significantly improved by bio-hardening as AMF and AMF + Asp treated plants registered significantly better RWC (92.34 and 91.74 %, respectively) and photosynthesis (12.69 and 12.78 µmol CO2m-2s-1, respectively) as compared to control (87.76 % and 9.07 µmol CO2m-2s-1, respectively) and only Asp treated plants (89.99% and 9.70 µmol CO2m-2s-1, respectively). AMF inoculated and AMF + Asp treated plants registered significantly higher total leaf chlorophyll (2.97 and 3.14 mg/g fresh weight, respectively) and total phenolic content (53.00 and 52.50 mg catechol equivalent/ 100 g fresh wt., respectively) than the control and only Asp treated plants