Prevalence of congenital anomalies in a tertiary care centre in North Kerala, India

Background: Congenital anomalies have emerged as an important cause for neonatal morbidity and mortality. The prevalence as well as pattern of anomaly varies from place to place. Literature search reveals that India has the highest number of children with birth defects.Methods: This is a cohort study conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology during the period 2009-2015. All mothers admitted with congenital structural defects to the fetus diagnosed by imaging and those who delivered anomalous babies were included in this study. The anomalies were classified based on ICD-10 system.Results: There were a total of 911 anomalous babies born during the study period of which 554 were males and 338 were females.19 babies had ambiguous genitalia. Anomalies were more common in multigravidae and in mothers of age group 20-29 years. Maximum number of babies were born between 37-40weeks. Maternal diabetes was associated with increased incidence of anomalies. Most common system involved was urinary system followed by musculoskeletal system.Conclusions: The prevalence of structural anomalies in the present study is 0.84%. Patients with risk factors for anomalies should undergo pre-pregnancy counselling. Routine antenatal anomaly screening with ultrasound before viability should be done for all patients so that early termination of lethal anomalies can be done

Health problems in geriatric population of age group ≥70 years in rural Kerala, India: a cross sectional study

Background: The proportion of elderly population is increasing considerably world over. The health and socio-economic issues of this section is to be considered separately and in depth insights about them is needed for formulating elderly friendly health policy. This study intends toidentify the important health concerns of elderly population above the age group of 70 years in a rural area in North Kerala, India.Methods: It is a community based cross-sectional descriptive study involving all individuals above the age group of 70 years in a randomly selected panchayath ward from rural North Kerala. The data regarding demography, socioeconomic aspects, medical history, access to health care and treatment of chronic illnesses were collected through interview of study participants by a trained health care volunteer using a pre-validated questionnaire.Results: A total of 93 individuals above the age group of 70 years were included in the study out of which 63% were females and 37% males. In the study population 55.9% of the elderly were widowed and 87.1 % were staying along with their children. Almost 75% of the elderly received social welfare pension from government agencies and 14.3% received service pensions. 67.74% of the study population were hypertensive and 35.56% were diabetic. Other health issues included arthritis, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, genito urinary symptoms and cerebrovascular accident.Conclusion:  The study provide valuable insights into the health and social issues of elderly in Kerala and points to the importance of formulating an elderly friendly health policy in the state

Quantifying steepness – a reflection

S ometimes as teachers we tend to expect students to use a particular definition, notation, or representation, though what students come up with on their own may be a legitimate way of working as well. Some of the reasons why we do this could be that a) having seen ahead of the students in the subject, we anticipate that the definition or representation suggested by the student will lead to problems on the path ahead or b) we see specific advantages for our particular definition/representation, that the student suggested one may not have or c) simply because we are used to one particular representation, and the student suggested one happens to be different from what we are used to. In the following article I reflect on one such instance where I steered towards a ‘preferred representation’ and my reasons for doing so. I wonder whether the ‘push’ was justified

High frequency Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation in rubber tree via. vacuum infiltration

In a tree species like Hevea brasiliensis, genetic transformation offers a viable approach for crop improvement within a short period. Hevea being highly recalcitrant to in vitro culture, an efficient transformation protocol is necessary for generating large number of transgenic plants with stable foreign gene expression. After several modifications in the initial transformation protocol, the transformation frequency was increased to 14 per cent using proliferated anther callus. Therefore, vacuum infiltration was attempted for enhancing the transformation frequency. In the present work the conditions for vacuum infiltration viz. vacuum pressure and period of infiltration were standardized. Vacuum infiltration at 30 psi pressure for 10 minutes was found to be ideal for getting high frequency transformation in H. brasiliensis. Irrespective of the gene constructs experimented, transformation frequency was significantly improved by adopting vacuum infiltration. Employing this technique, the transformation efficiency of MnSOD gene construct with FMV34S promoter could be enhanced from 14 to 50 percent

Highly active water-soluble palladium catalyst for the regioselective carbonylation of vinyl aromatics to 2-arylpropionic acids

This is the published version. Copyright © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2000A novel water-soluble Pd complex containing pyridine carboxylate and TPPTS as ligands is a highly active catalyst for the carbonylation of vinyl aromatics under biphasic conditions and provides high regioselectivity to 2-arylpropionic acids

Highly active supported palladium catalyst for the regioselective synthesis of 2-arylpropionic acids by carbonylation

This is the published version. Copyright © Royal Society of Chemistry 1999A catalyst system consisting of supported palladium in the presence of phosphine ligands, TsOH and LiCl catalyses the carbonylation of 1-arylethanols to 2-arylpropionic acids with significantly improved activity and regioselectivity; the catalyst can be recycled with no loss in activity and selecivity

A study on association of preoperative anaemia and obesity with causes and postoperative outcome in women undergoing hysterectomy for abnormal uterine bleeding

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding is most commonly encountered in 10-20% of women in reproductive age.  The objectives of the study are to assess the proportion and association with causes and postoperative outcome of preoperative anaemia and obesity in women with abnormal uterine bleeding who underwent hysterectomy.Methods: This was a retrospective observational record-based study conducted in the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital(SMVMCH), Pondicherry. The study population consisted of 169 patients who were admitted for abnormal uterine bleeding and underwent hysterectomy from January 2016 to December 2016 for a period of one year.Results: The mean age was 43years.The mean value of haemoglobin on admission was 9.89g/dl. The distribution frequencies of patients by WHO BMI classification as underweight, normal, overweight and obesity are 8, 59, 78 and 24 respectively. The distribution frequencies of patients by WHO anaemia classification as no anaemia, mild, moderate are 34, 37 and 98 respectively. Seventy-six patients had blood transfusion. Six patients had urinary tract infection and all of them were anaemic and obese. Two patients had developed respiratory tract infection and none of the patients had developed deep vein thrombosis.  Conclusions: Preoperative anaemia was more common in patients with fibroid and associated with increased morbidity in immediate postoperative period. There is more prevalence of SSI among overweight and obese women

ANTI-HISTAMINIC ACTIVITY OF UTHAMANI CHOORANAM (PERGULARIA DAEMIA) AGAINST HISTAMINE INDUCED PAW OEDEMA IN RATS

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic relapsing, pruritic, inflammatory skin disease in children associated with personal or family history of other atopic disease like asthma, allergic rhinitis. Clinically characterized by itching, dryness, erythema, vesiculation, exudation and lichenification etc. The present treatment for AD in modern science is steroids or calcinueurin inhibitors. But repeated course of steroids can cause immuno suppression and growth retardation. The drugs in Siddha system of medicine is well known for their effectiveness and less toxicity. One such medicine is Uthamani Chooranam (UC) indicated for AD. The activity of UC was studied by using histamine induced paw oedema in rats by phenylbutazone. Exposure of rats hind paw to histamine resulted in marked increase of paw tissue weight and skin thickness. After oral administration of UC at various dose levels of 200mg/kg and 400mg/ kg reduce the paw volume when compared to control group. The present studies shown the Siddha drug UC is significantly reduce the paw oedema and this study supports the anti-histamine effect of UC

EFFECTIVENESS OF LIFE SKILL INTERVENTIONAL PROGRAMME IN ENHANCING LIFE SKILLS OF B.ED NORMAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENT TEACHERS

The aim of this study was to enhance the life skill among B.Ed. special education student teachers through life skills interventional programme with particular focus to decision making skill. Decision making helps us to deal constructively with decisions in our lives. Making a decision involves making a commitment; however small, rationally and emotionally.The study was conducted on a sample of 60 B.Ed.special education student teachers to assess the effectiveness of interventional programme on decision making skills. Life skill questionnaire with decision making skill was constructed and standardized.Module on decision making skill was prepared with objectives, activities, story and importance of decision making skill.The study reveals that (1) there is no significant difference between the pretest scores of the control group and experimental group with respect to their decision making skills among B.Ed. special education student teachers; (2) There is significant difference between the posttest scores of the control group and experimental group with respect to their decision making skills among B.Ed. special education student teachers; (3) There is no significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of control group with respect to their decision making skills among B.Ed. special education student teachers; (4) There is significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of experimental group with respect to their decision making skills among B.Ed. special education student teachers