Isolated Amoebic Abscess of Spleen

Amoebic liver abscess is the most common extraintestinal manifestation of amoebiasis. Extrahepatic amoebic abscesses have occasionally been described in the lung, brain, and skin and presumably result from hematogenous spread. Isolated amoebic abscess of spleen has been reported scarcely in literature. We report here a case of isolated amoebic abscess of spleen

COMBINED EFFECTS OF SO 2 AND NO 2 GAS ON BLOOD FEATURES OF ALBINO RAT

Abstract: The objective of present investigation was to evaluate combined effects of SO 2 and No 2 gas on blood features of albino rat. The haematological parameters {total erythrocyte count, haemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume ( PCV), red cell indices-mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, total leucocyte count and differential leucocyte count (DLC)} of albino rat, Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout) were evaluated after combined exposure to 40 ppm NO 2 + 40ppm SO 2 for 15 and 30 days for one hour per day. A highly significant decrease in the total erythrocyte count (TEC), haemoglobin concentration (Hb. Conc.) and packed cell volume (PCV) and total leucocyte count (TLC), red cell indices, neutrophil count, monocyte count have been observed. A non-significant decrease in the eosinophil count and basophil count and very highly significant increase in the lymphocyte count have observed after combined exposure to these gases

Prevalence of diaphragmatic muscle weakness and dyspnoea in Graves' disease and their reversibility with carbimazole therapy

Objectives: Dyspnoea is a common complaint among patients with thyrotoxicosis. However, its causative mechanisms have not been identified. We assessed the role of thoracic diaphragmatic muscle weakness in dyspnoea among patients with active Graves' disease. Methods: Twenty-seven patients (19 female, 8 male) with active Graves' disease were assessed for the clinical severity of dyspnoea, functional (pressure generating capacity) and anatomical aspects (thickness and excursion) of the diaphragm at presentation. The severity of dyspnoea was assessed using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the 6 min walk test. Lung function tests, diaphragmatic strength (sniff oesophageal pressure, SniffPoeso), maximum inspiratory and expiratory pressures, diaphragmatic thickness and movements on real time ultrasonography were evaluated during normal and deep respiration. Twenty of the 27 patients were reassessed after achieving euthyroidism with carbimazole therapy at a mean interval of 5±2 months. Results: Reevaluation after carbimazole therapy revealed a significant reduction in dyspnoea on the VAS (59±26 to 23±13%). Patients covered a similar distance during the 6 min walk before and after euthyroidism. Significant improvement was observed in the vital capacity (2.57±0.62 to 2.94±0.60 l), forced expiratory volume in the first second (2.21±0.49 to 2.45±0.47 l), total lung capacity (3.57±1.19 to 4.1±1.12 l), diaphragmatic movement during deep respiration (5.5±1.0 to 6.6±1.1 cm) and SniffPoeso (68.7±23 to 93.1±25.2 cmH2O). There was no significant change in the distance walked in 6 min, tidal volume, lung diffusion capacity and diaphragmatic thickness. There was no significant correlation between the net change in dyspnoea score and net change in lung function tests, diaphragmatic movement and SniffPoeso. Conclusions: Significant functional weakness of diaphragm muscle is present in patients with active Graves' disease. This weakness is more marked during a maximal respiratory manoeuvre, indicating a diminished diaphragmatic reserve which could be the cause of dyspnoea observed on exertion among patients with thyrotoxicosis

Domestic cooking fuel and lung functions in healthy non-smoking women

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the pulmonary functions in healthy non-smoking women who used either biomass or liquified petroleum gas (LPG) as their sole cooking fuel. The effects of passive smoking, ventilation, over crowding and cooking index were also taken into account. Methodology: The study was conducted over a period of two years from January 1994. One hundred healthy non-smoking women were included 50 cooked solely with biomass and 50 cooked with LPG. A standardised respiratory symptoms questionnaire was administered to all the subjects and spirometry was carried out. Results: Passive smoking showed no significant difference between the two groups. No statistically significant differences was found in lung functions in the two groups except for the PEFR, which was significantly lower (P < 0.01) in women using biomass. No correlation was observed between different variables and pulmonary functions. The step-wise multivariate linear regression analysis showed no correlation between cooking fuel and the pulmonary functions. Conclusion: The absence of the expected adverse effects of biomass on pulmonary functions was possibly due to better ventilation in the kitchens of subjects in the biomass group compared to previous studies

How does literacy affect speech processing? Not by enhancing cortical responses to speech, but by promoting connectivity of acoustic-phonetic and graphomotor cortices

Previous research suggests that literacy, specifically learning alphabetic letter-to-phoneme mappings, modifies online speech processing, and enhances brain responses, as indexed by the blood-oxygenation level dependent signal (BOLD), to speech in auditory areas associated with phonological processing (Dehaene et al., 2010). However, alphabets are not the only orthographic systems in use in the world, and hundreds of millions of individuals speak languages that are not written using alphabets. In order to make claims that literacy per se has broad and general consequences for brain responses to speech, one must seek confirmatory evidence from non-alphabetic literacy. To this end, we conducted a longitudinal fMRI study in India probing the effect of literacy in Devanagari, an abugida, on functional connectivity and cerebral responses to speech in 91 variously literate Hindi-speaking male and female human participants. Twenty-two completely illiterate participants underwent six months of reading and writing training. Devanagari literacy increases functional connectivity between acoustic-phonetic and graphomotor brain areas, but we find no evidence that literacy changes brain responses to speech, either in cross-sectional or longitudinal analyses. These findings shows that a dramatic reconfiguration of the neurofunctional substrates of online speech processing may not be a universal result of learning to read, and suggest that the influence of writing on speech processing should also be investigated

Simultaneous presentation of pulmonary tuberculosis and lung cancer: experience from a regional cancer centre

Background: Prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis is very high in India. Lung cancer is the most common cancer in males in Delhi and because of close similarity in clinical and radiological features of lung cancer and tuberculosis many of lung cancer patients have had received empirical anti tubercular treatment (ATT) before a diagnosis of lung cancer was established. True incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in lung cancer is not known. Tuberculosis in lung cancer may get reactivated following chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Simultaneous presentation of tuberculosis and lung cancer independent of treatment with immunosuppresants, however, is rare. Material and Methods: At our center we evaluated records of 580 lung cancer patients seen over a period of 5 years to see incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in lung cancer. Patients who had been worked up for pulmonary tuberculosis like sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) for AFB smear or culture were identified. Results: Two hundred and ninety eight of these patients were worked up for pulmonary tuberculosis. Twelve patients in the present study had documented evidence of simultaneous existence of pulmonary tuberculosis (acid fast bacilli positive sputum and or culture positivity) and lung cancer. Radiologically, no separate active tubercular lesion was identified except in one patient who had left upper zone fibro parenchymal lesion. Fibrosis and calcification on chest X-rays (CXR) suggestive of old tuberculosis were evident in 7 patients. Eight patients died of progressive lung cancer within 3 months of diagnosis, 4 patients became acid fast bacilli (AFB) negative after 2 months of anti tubercular therapy. Diagnosis of lung cancer was delayed in 4 patients as they were receiving anti tubercular therapy after detection of AFB in sputum. Conclusion: Recognition of tuberculosis is important not only because it is curable but also due to the fact that its presence interferes with radiological assessment to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Sputum acid fast smear may be done more frequently in patients of lung cancer in countries where tuberculosis has high prevalence. The true incidence may be still higher and newer techniques e.g. PCR based and others may help in knowing true incidence of co existence of lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis

Learning to read alters cortico-subcortical crosstalk in the visual system of illiterates

Learning to read is known to result in a reorganization of the developing cerebral cortex. In this longitudinal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study in illiterate adults we show that only 6 months of literacy training can lead to neuroplastic changes in the mature brain. We observed that literacy-induced neuroplasticity is not confined to the cortex but increases the functional connectivity between the occipital lobe and subcortical areas in the midbrain and the thalamus. Individual rates of connectivity increase were significantly related to the individualdecoding skill gains. These findings crucially complement current neurobiological concepts ofnormal and impaired literacy acquisition

Learning to read recycles visual cortical networks without destruction

Learning to read is associated with the appearance of an orthographically sensitive brain region known as the visual word form area. It has been claimed that development of this area proceeds by impinging upon territory otherwise available for the processing of culturally relevant stimuli such as faces and houses. In a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging study of a group of individuals of varying degrees of literacy (from completely illiterate to highly literate), we examined cortical responses to orthographic and nonorthographic visual stimuli. We found that literacy enhances responses to other visual input in early visual areas and enhances representational similarity between text and faces, without reducing the extent of response to nonorthographic input. Thus, acquisition of literacy in childhood recycles existing object representation mechanisms but without destructive competition

Genetic variability of kernel provitamin-A in sub-tropically adapted maize hybrids possessing rare allele of β-carotene hydroxylase

Vitamin-A deficiency is a major health concern. Traditional yellow maize possesses low provitamin-A (proA). Mutant crtRB1 gene significantly enhances proA. 24 experimental hybrids possessing crtRB1 allele were evaluated for β-carotene (BC), β-cryptoxanthin (BCX), lutein (LUT), zeaxanthin (ZEA), total carotenoids (TC) and grain yield at multi-locations. BC (0.64–17.24 µg/g), BCX (0.45–6.84 µg/g), proA (0.86–20.46 µg/g), LUT (9.60–31.03 µg/g), ZEA (1.24–12.73 µg/g) and TC (20.60–64.02 µg/g) showed wide variation. No significant genotype × location interaction was observed for carotenoids. The mean BC (8.61 µg/g), BCX (4.04 µg/g) and proA (10.63 µg/g) in crtRB1-based hybrids was significantly higher than normal hybrids lacking crtRB1-favourable allele (BC: 1.73 µg/g, BCX: 1.29 µg/g and proA: 2.37 µg/g). Selected crtRB1-based hybrids possessed 33% BC and 40% BCX compared to 6% BC and 5% BCX in normal hybrids. BC showed positive correlation with BCX (r = 0.90), proA (r = 0.99) and TC (r = 0.64) among crtRB1-based hybrids. Carotenoids didn't show association with grain yield. Average yield potential of proA rich hybrids (6794 kg/ha) was at par with normal hybrids (6961 kg/ha). PROAH-13, PROAH-21, PROAH-17, PROAH-11, PROAH-23, PROAH-24 and PROAH-3 were the most promising with >12 µg/g proA and >6000 kg/ha grain yield. The newly identified crtRB1-based hybrids assume significance in alleviating malnutrition

Genotype By Environment Interaction and Stability Analysis for Maize Hybrids in North Western Himalayas Ecology

Genotype (G) x Environment (E) interaction of 25 medium maturity maize hybrids tested at three environments inNorth-Western Himalayas was analyzed to identify stable high yielding hybrids for mid-hill conditions. The G x Einteraction was studied using different stability statistics viz; Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction(AMMI), AMMI stability value (ASV), rank-sum (RS), and yield stability index (YSI). Combined analysis of varianceshows that genotype, environment, and G x E interaction is highly significant. This indicated the possibility of selectionof stable genotypes across the environments. The results of the AMMI analysis showed that the first two principalcomponents (PC1-PC2) were highly significant (P<0.05). The partitioning of TSS (total sum of squares) exhibitedthat the environment effect was a predominant source of variation followed by genotypes and G×E interaction,suggesting the possible existence of different environmental groups. The first two interaction principal componentaxis (IPCA) cumulatively explained 82.87% of the total interaction effect. The study revealed that G11 and G7 werefound to be stable based on all stability statistics and GGE biplot assessment. Based on GGE biplots, it is concludedthat E3 is the best environment for testing the hybrids for more extensive adaptability and E2 and E1 locations can beused to identify location-specific hybrids. Grain yield is positively and significantly correlated with rank-sum (RS)And yield stability index (YSI). The above-mentioned stability statistics could be useful for identification of stablehigh yielding genotypes, whereas, GGE biplots facilitated visual comparisons of high yielding genotypes acrossthe multi-environments