Hydralazine versus Labetalol for acute control of blood pressure in patients with severe pre-eclampsia: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Authors sought to compare the effectively of intravenous hydralazine and intravenous labetalol in controlling acute rise in blood pressure in patients with severe preeclampsia.Methods: In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, all pregnant women with sustained increase in blood pressure (BP) of 160 mmHg systolic or 110 mmHg diastolic or higher were randomized to receive intravenous (IV) hydralazine 5 mg (max. 4 doses) or IV labetalol in escalating doses of 20mg, 40mg, 80mg, 80mg to achieve target blood pressure of 150 mmHg systolic and 100 mmHg diastolic or lower. The primary objective of the study was to assess the time taken to control blood pressure. Secondary agendas were the number of repeat doses required and other side effect profile.Results: In the study duration of September 2015 to September 2017, authors enrolled 60 participants for our trial. The median time taken to achieve the target blood pressure was 22.4 minutes in both the groups. Close to half of the participants did not require repeat doses (46.66% with labetalol and 50% with hydralazine). No serious maternal or foetal side effects were noted during the study. Statistical tests were performed using SPSS for Windows version 22.Conclusions: As operated in the study, the efficacy of hydralazine and labetalol to control the acute rise in blood pressure is similar

Scattered Dropping Attack on TCP-Based Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Scattered Dropping Attack (SDA) is a simple yet very powerful denial of service (DoS) attack that is effective on both TCP and UDP based MANETs. The simulation results clearly show the impact of proposed attack on the network throughput, bandwidth wastage and received data quality. It has also been observed that even though the TCP congestion control is adaptable to the packet losses but in case of the dropping attack it is fully unable to detect whether the packet drop is the result of the attacker misbehaving or it is due to the congestion or other wireless environmental problem

A case series on successful pregnancy outcomes in patients with Apla syndrome

The antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) is defined by the persistent presence of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with recurrent venous or arterial thromboembolism or pregnancy morbidity. Obstetric complications such as recurrent pregnancy loss, oligohydramnios, preterm delivery, fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia, HELLP syndrome and fetal distress are frequently associated with antiphospholipid syndrome. Successful management of pregnancies with APLA syndrome is a huge challenge for treating obstetrician. Obstetric care is based on combined medical and obstetric high risk management and treatment with the association between aspirin and heparin. Here, we present 3 cases of pregnancy with APLA syndrome who were successfully managed and they had uneventful pregnancies with successful outcomes without any complication

Fetal foot length for assessment of gestational age: a cross sectional study

Background: Fetal age actually begins at conception and an equivalent term is conceptional age. Uncertain gestational age (GA) has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes independent of maternal characteristics. The objective was to evaluate the accuracy of fetal foot length (FFL) in estimation of gestational age.Methods: It was a cross sectional study. Trans abdominal ultrasound on 150 pregnant women with normal singleton pregnancies between 16 to 40 weeks was done to measure FFL. The relationship between GA and FFL was analysed by simple linear regression.Results: A linear relationship was demonstrated between FFL and GA. (GA (in weeks)=7.490+0.393×FFL (in mm)) with significant correlation (r=0.985, p<0.001).Conclusions: Ultrasonographic measurement of FFL is a reliable indicator of gestational age and can be a useful alternative to estimate GA when other routine biometric parameters are not conclusive

Isolation, Production, and Characterization of Thermotolerant Xylanase from Solvent Tolerant Bacillus vallismortis

Sixty bacterial strains isolated from the soils sample in the presence of organic solvent were screened for xylanase production. Among them, strain RSPP-15 showed the highest xylanase activity which was identified as Bacillus vallismortis. The isolate showed maximum xylanase production (3768 U/mL) in the presence of birch wood xylan and beef extract at 55°C pH 7.0 within 48 h of incubation. The enzyme activity and stability were increased 181.5, 153.7, 147.2, 133.6, and 127.9% and 138.2, 119.3, 113.9, 109, and 104.5% in the presence of Co2+, Ca2+, Mg+2, Zn+2, and Fe+3 ions (10 mM). Xylanase activity and stability were strongly inhibited in the presence of Hg and Cu ions. The enzyme was also stable in the presence of 30% of n-dodecane, isooctane, n-decane, xylene, toluene, n-hexane, n-butanol, and cyclohexane, respectively. The presence of benzene, methanol, and ethanol marginally reduced the xylanase stability, respectively. This isolate may be useful in several industrial applications owing to its thermotolerant and organic solvent resistance characteristics

A cross sectional study to evaluate serum calcium levels among pregnant women and it's association with preeclampsia and delivery outcomes at tertiary care Hospital Bikaner, Rajasthan

Background: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia complicates about 10% of pregnancies worldwide. Preeclampsia is one of the major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. According to the National Health Portal of India, the incidence of preeclampsia is reported to be about 8-10% among pregnant women. The present study was aimed to compare mean serum calcium levels in preeclamptic and normotensive pregnant women at third trimester of gestation and assess relationship between maternal serum calcium levels, severity of disease and overall maternal and perinatal outcome.Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted on 200 females divided into two groups (i.e. Study and Control Group) from 1st November 2019 to 31st October 2020. Informed consent was obtained for subjecting. Detailed history and clinical examination were performed. Serum calcium level was measured in both groups by spectrophotometric method.Results: Mean serum calcium level in study group (preeclamptic) was 7.84±0.74 mg/dl while in control group (normotensive) mean serum calcium level was 9.68±0.97 mg/dl. Serum calcium level was significantly lower in preeclamptic women than normotensive pregnant women (p<0.001).Serum calcium showed significant negative correlation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure.Conclusions: This study concludes that hypocalcaemia may have a role in aetiology of preeclampsia and adverse maternal and perinatal outcome. Thus intake of calcium supplements may help in reduction of incidence of preeclampsia especially in a population of a developing country

Association of inflammatory biomarkers with lung cancer in North Indian population

Background: Lung cancer is characterized by uncontrolled cell growth of the lung tissues. It is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.Objectives: The study aimed to determine the circulating CRP, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 levels in lung cancer and healthy control and also established association between these biomarkers with the smoking status as well as the stages of the disease.Methodology: 51 lung cancer patients and 51 healthy controls were enrolled in this case-control study. The serum levels of CRP, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 were measured in lung cancer patients and healthy control groups.Results: The levels of serum CRP, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly higher in lung cancer patients when compared with controls(P&lt;0.0001). The levels of these biomarkers were also significantly higher in stage iii/iv as compared to stage i/ii(P&lt;0.001). Significant difference in the levels of these biomarkers were also found in smoker and non-smoker lung cancer patients as compared to controls(P&lt;0.001).Conclusion: CRP, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 are the promising biomarkers in the identification of lung cancer patients. The study also supports the association of inflammatory markers to lung cancer risk. Hence these findings suggest the levels of these biomarkerscould be a useful tool for guiding the diagnosis of lung cancer.Keywords: Lung cancer, biomarker, inflammation, stage, smoking

Association of inflammatory biomarkers with lung cancer in North Indian population

Background: Lung cancer is characterized by uncontrolled cell growth of the lung tissues. It is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Objectives: The study aimed to determine the circulating CRP, TNF-\u3b1, IL-6 and IL-8 levels in lung cancer and healthy control and also established association between these biomarkers with the smoking status as well as the stages of the disease. Methodology: 51 lung cancer patients and 51 healthy controls were enrolled in this case-control study. The serum levels of CRP, TNF-\u3b1, IL-6 and IL-8 were measured in lung cancer patients and healthy control groups. Results: The levels of serum CRP, TNF-\u3b1, IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly higher in lung cancer patients when compared with controls(P&lt;0.0001). The levels of these biomarkers were also significantly higher in stage iii/iv as compared to stage i/ii(P&lt;0.001). Significant difference in the levels of these biomarkers were also found in smoker and non-smoker lung cancer patients as compared to controls(P&lt;0.001). Conclusion: CRP, TNF-\u3b1, IL-6 and IL-8 are the promising biomarkers in the identification of lung cancer patients. The study also supports the association of inflammatory markers to lung cancer risk. Hence these findings suggest the levels of these biomarkers could be a useful tool for guiding the diagnosis of lung cancer. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i2.39 Cite as: Gaur P, Bhattacharya S, Kant S, Kushwaha RAS, Garg R, Singh G, Pandey S, Sharma S. Association of inflammatory biomarkers with lung cancer in North Indian population. Afri Health Sci.2019;19(2): 2147-2155. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i2.3

Inheritance and relationships of flowering time and seed size in kabuli chickpea

Flowering time and seed size are the important traits for adaptation in chickpea. Early phenology (time of flowering, podding and maturity) enhance chickpea adaptation to short season environments. Along with a trait of consumer preference, seed size has also been considered as an important factor for subsequent plant growth parameters including germination, seedling vigour and seedling mass. Small seeded kabuli genotype ICC 16644 was crossed with four genotypes (JGK 2, KAK 2, KRIPA and ICC 17109) to study inheritance of flowering time and seed size. The relationships of phenology with seed size, grain yield and its component traits were studied. The study included parents, F1, F2 and F3 of four crosses. The segregation data of F2 indicated flowering time in chickpea was governed by two genes with duplicate recessive epistasis and lateness was dominant to earliness. Two genes were controlling 100-seed weight where small seed size was dominant over large seed size. Early phenology had significant negative or no association (ICC 16644 × ICC 17109) with 100-seed weight. Yield per plant had significant positive association with number of seeds per plant, number of pods per plant, biological yield per plant, 100-seed weight, harvest index and plant height and hence could be considered as factors for seed yield improvement. Phenology had no correlation with yield per se (seed yield per plant) in any of the crosses studied. Thus, present study shows that in certain genetic background it might be possible to breed early flowering genotypes with large seed size in chickpea and selection of early flowering genotypes may not essentially have a yield penalty

Modulation of the Arginase Pathway in the Context of Microbial Pathogenesis: A Metabolic Enzyme Moonlighting as an Immune Modulator

Arginine is a crucial amino acid that serves to modulate the cellular immune response during infection. Arginine is also a common substrate for both inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and arginase. The generation of nitric oxide from arginine is responsible for efficient immune response and cytotoxicity of host cells to kill the invading pathogens. On the other hand, the conversion of arginine to ornithine and urea via the arginase pathway can support the growth of bacterial and parasitic pathogens. The competition between iNOS and arginase for arginine can thus contribute to the outcome of several parasitic and bacterial infections. There are two isoforms of vertebrate arginase, both of which catalyze the conversion of arginine to ornithine and urea, but they differ with regard to tissue distribution and subcellular localization. In the case of infection with Mycobacterium, Leishmania, Trypanosoma, Helicobacter, Schistosoma, and Salmonella spp., arginase isoforms have been shown to modulate the pathology of infection by various means. Despite the existence of a considerable body of evidence about mammalian arginine metabolism and its role in immunology, the critical choice to divert the host arginine pool by pathogenic organisms as a survival strategy is still a mystery in infection biology