CLINICAL PROFILE AND ETIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF NON-TRAUMATIC MYELOPATHIES USING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

Objective: The present study was conducted with an objective to identify the etiology of non-traumatic myelopathies of both compressive and non-compressive types with the aid of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: This retrospective observational cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 patients with a clinical diagnosis of non-traumatic myelopathy belonging to the age group of 15–75 years from August 2018 to July 2020 in the Departments of General Medicine and Radiodiagnosis of MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur, Odisha. Detailed history, clinical evaluation, laboratory investigations, and findings of MRI spine and brain were compiled. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Among 100 patients of non-traumatic myelopathy, 65 patients presented with compressive myelopathy and 35 patients with non-compressive myelopathy where 56 patients presented with paraparesis and 44 with quadriparesis. Pott’s spine (n=25, 38.46%) and acute transverse myelitis (ATM) (n=24, 68.57%) were the most common etiologies found in compressive and non-compressive groups, respectively. Conclusion: Pott’s Spine, spondylotic myelopathy, and ATM were the most common etiologies of non-traumatic myelopathy. MRI has proven to be the ultimate imaging modality for their etiological evaluation

ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT OF HYPERTENSIVE CHANGES IN ELDERLY PATIENTS OF ISOLATED SYSTOLIC HYPERTENSION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CARDIOVASCULAR COMPLICATIONS

Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the echocardiographic changes and cardiovascular complications in patients with isolated systolic hypertension (ISH). Methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study done in the Departments of General Medicine, Cardiology, and Radiodiagnosis of MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur, Odisha, India. Seventy patients above the age of 65 years with systolic blood pressure (BP) ≥140 mm Hg and diastolic BP <90 mm Hg, without any secondary causes of hypertension and antihypertensive drug therapy were selected for this study. Echocardiography and electrocardiography studies were implemented for demonstrating the development of cardiovascular complications. Results: Of 70 cases (41 males and 29 females), 64.3% were asymptomatic and 35.7% were symptomatic, with palpitation being the major symptom, 40% (28 cases) developed retinopathy, 45.71% developed increased left ventricular mass index (p=0.04), 18.57% had increased in LV volume (>90 ml/m2), 30% cases had regional wall motion abnormalities, 27.1% had reduced ejection fraction (<56%), and 52.66% showed LA enlargement in this study (p=0.048). Doppler measurements of diastolic filling were significant in patients with ISH with higher peak atrial velocity (A wave) of 79.71±11.79 cm/s and a lower ratio of peak early to atrial velocity of 0.82±0.29. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that elderly patients with ISH had a prevalence of concentric left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) which was found to be more in female patients than in male patients followed by left atrial enlargement

EVALUATION OF RENAL CHANGES IN SICKLE CELL DISEASE IN A REFERRAL GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE OF SOUTHERN ODISHA

Objective: The objective of the study was to study various renal manifestations in sickle cell disease (SCD) and to establish a cause and effect relationship with the evaluation of risk factors. Methods: This prospective observational cross-sectional study was conducted on 82 SCD patients belonging to the age group of 15–50 years of both the genders over a period of 2 years from January 2019 to December 2020 in MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur, Odisha, India. Eighty-two patients, 32 (39.02%) having sickle cell anemia (SCA) and 50 (60.98%) having sickle cell trait (SCT), admitted to medicine and nephrology wards of the hospital were included in this study. SCD patients with other hemolytic anemia and with renal congenital/structural abnormality and patients with systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, systemic hypertension, and systemic lupus erythematosus were excluded from the study. Various laboratory investigations such as complete blood count, hemoglobin (Hb), serum sodium, serum potassium, serum urea, serum creatinine, fasting blood sugar, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, liver function test, urine routine, and microscopic test were carried out. Diagnosis of SCD patients was based on sickling test and high-performance liquid chromatography testing. Radiologic imaging (Sonography for renal changes) was done at radiodiagnosis department of the hospital. Results: Glomerular and tubular dysfunction was more in SCA (Hb SS) patients than SCT (Hb AS) patients and the abnormality was more in patients in crisis. Albuminuria in 78.12%, hematuria in 46.87%, cast and crystal in 28.12%, epithelial cell in 31.25%, and hyposthenuria in 56.25% were found in SCA patients. In SCT patients, albuminuria in 38%, hematuria in 16%, cast and crystal in 22%, epithelial cell in 12%, and hyposthenuria in 24% were found. All the above findings were more in percentages in crisis patients of both the groups. In SCA, 37.5% and in SCT, 2% were found to have chronic kidney disease. Conclusion: Renal involvement in the form of glomerular and tubular dysfunction occur in SCD and more in crisis patients, leading to renal complications, and end-stage renal disease

Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in epitaxial W/Co/Pt multilayers

Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) manifesting in asymmetric layered ferromagnetic films gives rise to non-colinear spin structures stabilizing magnetization configurations with nontrivial topology. In this work magnetization reversal, domain structure, and strength of DMI are related with the structure of W/Co/Pt multilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Applied growth method enables fabrication of layered systems with higher crystalline quality than commonly applied sputtering techniques. As a result, a high value of D coefficient was determined from the aligned magnetic domain stripe structure, substantially exceeding 2 mJ/m2. The highest value of DMI value D$_{eff}$ = 2.64mj/m2 and strength of surface DMI parameter DS = 1.83pJ/m for N=10 has been observed. Experimental results coincide precisely with those obtained from structure based micromagnetic modelling and density functional theory calculations performed for well-defined layered stacks. This high value of DMI strength originates from dominating contributions of the interfacial atomic Co layers and additive character from both interface types

Crystallization and magnetic hardening behaviour of Fe-rich FeSiBNb(Cu) melt-spun alloys

The sequential, multi-stage crystallization and magnetic hardening behaviour of Fe82B14Si2Nb2, Fe83B13Si2Nb2, Fe83B12Si2Nb2Cu1 and Fe85B13Nb2 melt-spun alloys have been investigated. The microstructure-crystallization-magnetic property relationship was established using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), magnetometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy (MOKE) techniques. The increase of Fe content (> 82 at%) of as-quenched ribbons imparts microstructural heterogeneity across the ribbon cross-section; i.e., textured alpha-Fe crystals at the free surface to heteroamorphous microstructure in the bulk matrix. The isochronal annealing of hetero-amorphous alloys depicts simultaneous surface and bulk crystallization process occurring before and after the crystallization onset temperature (T-x1) temperature. The annealing temperature range (T-a < T-x1) coinciding with the paramagnetic region of the thermo-magnetic plot, induces irreversible magnetic hardening due to simultaneous coarsening of pre-existing crystal nuclei and exchange de-coupling between nanocrystal and intergranular matrix. The onset of primary crystallization in the pre-crystallized ribbons results in bimodal nanocrystallite distribution having an average crystallite size exceeding the ferromagnetic exchange length of Fe-based alloys. The minor Cu addition alters the growth morphology of pre-existing nuclei from dendrite-like to equiaxed, assisting heterogeneous nucleation and improving intergranular amorphous stability by delaying boride precipitation. The soft-magnetic property deterioration of partially crystallized ribbons is discussed within the framework of Extended-Random Anisotropy models

Phenotypic and genotypic assessment of elite rice varieties for brown plant hopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stål.) resistance

Popular rice varieties from India which exhibited field resistance against Brown Plant Hopper attack were selected to validate their resistance reaction. Genotyping using twenty-four gene-specific markers for BPH resistance was carried out. Besides this, phenotyping of morpho-economic traits along with resistance reaction was performed. Stepwise regression of phenotypic data showed that the traits viz. trichome number, leaf area and leaf number per tiller were significantly correlated to BPH damage score, while the traits, grains per panicle, tiller number, plant height and leaf number per plant contributed significantly towards seed yield. It was observed that there was a positive association between leaf area and BPH damage while trichome number was negatively associated, causing decreasing value in damage score. In the case of yield, except leaf number per plant, others traits showed a positive association. Further, PCA biplot analysis results confirmed the findings. Phenotypically, the rice variety Hasanta exhibited the highest BPH resistance followed by Jyotirmayee, Mahanadi, Konark and Pratap. Out of the twenty-four gene-specific markers, six markers exhibited polymorphism and RM247 showed the highest polymorphic information content (PIC) value. Cluster analysis of the varieties based on the marker data placed the variety Hasanta in a separate cluster, confirming its distinctness. Genotyping confirmed the genetic nature of BPH resistance in Hasanta variety. The cluster 2.2a included the highest number of varieties based on genetic similarity although it comprised of resistant, moderately resistant and susceptible types. This finding indicated that phenotypic variation within genotypic similar groups might be due to environment or different sources of origin. Hence, this phenotypic and genotypic variation among the genotypes would be useful for selecting elite and potential BPH-resistant donors in a crop improvement program

Domain architectures of zNOD1 (A) and zNOD2 (B).

<p>The NACHT domain is characterized by five different functional motifs. Multiple sequence alignment of zebrafish, human and mouse NACHT domains is constructed using MAFFT and the conserved functional motifs are highlighted. The highlighted residues represent the potential ATP binding sites and the conserved residues are shown as ‘*’. The ATP-binding residues conserved in all three species are labeled.</p

ATP binding poses in zNOD-NACHT domains in simulated models zNOD1-NACHT-ATP complex (A), zNOD2-NACHT-ATP complex (B) and mNLRC4-NACHT-ATP complex (C).

<p>The protein is shown as cartoon; interacting amino acids are shown as lines and ATP as stick.9D) Multiple sequence alignment of NACHT domains of NOD1 and NOD2 (from human, mouse and zebrafish)with mouse NLRC4 sequences. The key functional motifs are underlined and labeled. The potential ATP binding residues are pointed by different colored triangles.</p