MR imaging evaluation for the assessment of pelvic organ prolapse: a newer technique

Background: MRI is the newest technique used to evaluate patients with pelvic floor disorders. It allows relatively non-invasive, dynamic evaluation of all pelvic organs in multiple planes and can directly visualize the muscular and ligamentous pelvic floor support structures. Using MRI to evaluate pelvic floor disorders may be most helpful in patients with multicompartment findings or symptoms, posterior compartment abnormalities, severe prolapse, or recurrent pelvic floor symptoms after prior surgical repair. MRI is often able to reveal more extensive organ prolapse than physical examination alone.Methods: The present study was carried out in the Department of Radiodiagnosis and Obstetrics and Gynecology of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and M.Y. Hospital, Indore, Madhya Pradesh from November 2014 to October 2015. A total of 43 patients who had symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction like uterine prolapse, urinary or rectal dysfunction were evaluated by high resolution USG. Patients with low lying uterus on USG were subjected to MRI. Before MRI, these patients were assessed by a Gynecologist, and a clinical diagnosis in form of the organ/organs prolapsed and the grade of individual prolapse was assigned and tabled in the prefixed format.Results: Prolapse is more common in patients with greater than 50 years age (63% patients). MRI picked up more lesions compared to clinical examination, 90% as compared to 82.5% on clinical examination. MRI has good correlation with surgery in diagnosing prolapse. Concomitant prolapse of the Anterior and Middle compartment is the most common clinical entity diagnosed on 52.5% patients in our set up. MRI has poor sensitivity in identifying posterior compartment prolapse. There is good agreement between the clinical grading and MRI grading (81.8% correlation).Conclusions: T MRI offers a novel approach of simultaneous imaging of all compartments of the female pelvis at a single setting. With lesser intraobserver variation and better visualization of the pelvic anatomy MRI would help in accurate staging and hence better outcomes in patients in terms of symptom relief

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE PROFILING OF DAIRY WASTEWATER DEGRADING NATIVE EFFICIENT MICROBIAL ISOLATES

Objective: The objective of this study is to make sure biotreatment process used for treatment of dairy wastewater (DWW) is safe for human and its surrounding environment; microbes were evaluated for their antibiotic resistance profile against commonly prescribed antibiotics. Methods: Microbes were isolated using spread plating and streaking method and used to treat DWW. Reduction in organic load in DWW was determined by comparing physicochemical parameters (PCP) of DWW before and after treatment process. After selection of efficient microbial isolates, they were evaluated for their antibiotic resistance profile using antibiotic disc diffusion method. Results: In this work, 53 microbes were isolated from DWW, and these microbial isolates were screened for DWW degradation capacity by analyzing PCP. Four microbial isolates E3, E5, E11 (bacterial isolates) and F5 (fungal isolate) showed highest reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), and dissolved oxygen (DO) were selected for profound degradation of DWW under optimized conditions. Efficient four microbial isolates individually performed better under anaerobic conditions by showing maximum reduction 84%, 75%, and 77% in COD, BOD, and DO, respectively. After 72 hrs of antibiotic susceptibility testing, E3 strain had shown 100%, E5 90%, E11 70%, and F5 80% susceptibility to antibiotics. Conclusion: The present study concluded that four microbial isolates had the potential of reducing the organic load of DWW along with lessor or negligible adverse effect on human or its surrounding environment and they appear to be most promising strains for treatment of DWW.Â

Effects of Food Pollution on Human Health and Its management through Panchakarma

Air, water and food are the basic necessities of life. If one pillar is disturbed then we can’t expect the other two works positively for our health. In Ayurveda there is description of Triya Upstambh where food (aahar) placed in first place, which shows the importance of food.  We can define food pollution as, the presence of toxic chemical and biological contaminants which are not naturally part of our food. Examples are preservatives, taste enhancer, coloring agents. In present time our food is also contaminated by fertilizers, pesticides and heavy metals. This put very deleterious effect upon our body.  It is a silent killer, because these harmful effects come after a long time of consuming this polluted food. Adulteration in edible products is also a common cause of food pollution. Food pollution is causing so many diseases related to different system of our body, like digestive system related, nervous system related etc. some serious health problems are developing day by day such as hormonal problems and various types of cancer. Water pollution and soil pollution are trigger factor or we could say enhancer for food pollution. Growing crops in polluted soil with polluted water is also responsible for polluting the food. Not only polluted soil or water, there are so many sources of food pollution.  Panchakarma is the ayurvedic approach to get rid of these toxins and restores good health through detoxification of the human body. This article is related to polluted food, food adulteration, their adverse effects upon human body and its management through Panchakarma therapy

Role of uterine artery Doppler in prediction of FGR in high risk pregnancies in 20-24 weeks

Background: Accurate prediction of fetal growth retardation (FGR) is a long-sought goal of perinatology as it contributes significantly to perinatal mortality and morbidity. It generally manifest later in pregnancy, their underlying pathophysiology is largely established early in pregnancy. Early detection will help in decreasing the associated morbidity.Methods: The study was carried out on 100 pregnant women of 20-24 weeks gestation in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, MGM Medical College and MY Hospital, Indore from March 2015 to February 2016.Presence of diastolic notch in uterine artery waveform was taken as screen positive.Results: Total Diastolic notch positive cases 20/100 out of which 60% developed FGR and 80/100 Diastolic notch negative cases out of which only 4 cases (5%) will developed FGR. The sensitivity of the test was 75% while the specificity was 90.47%. The positive predictive value was 60% while the negative predictive value was 89.74%. 50% of screen positive belonged to 30-39 year age group and 68.75% FGR was seen in primiparous.Conclusions: Study of uterine artery flow velocity waveform seems to be a modern technique which can be used for ruling out the probability of FGR. Presences of diastolic notch in uterine vessels in 2nd trimester are of prognostic value for maternal complications and fetal jeopardy and therefore need of further critical assessment and management

Open Access Initiatives: A Boon to Academic Libraries

Abstract: The article gives the meaning and definition of open access. It throws light on emergence and development of open access initiatives and various declarations in the world. The types of open access and their characters are given. The gradual increase of journals in DOAJ is shown. The impacts of OA are various facts of the academic community and the challenges for OA are dealt. The OA initiatives in India are listed

Cardio-respiratory Fitness in Medical Students by Queen’s College Step Test: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Cardio-respiratory fitness indicates the ability of circulatory system to supply oxygen toworking muscles during continuous physical activity. Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) is a single bestmeasure of cardio-respiratory fitness and is considered gold standard to quantify aerobic capacity. Methods:Eighty students of age group 18-25 years were taken by simple random sampling. VO2max was estimatedindirectly by following the protocol of Queen’s College Step Test (QCST) method. Results: Mean value ofVO2max for male (51.61±6.26 ml/Kg/min) and female (36.02±3.71 ml/Kg/min) was compared, which wasfound significantly higher in males than in females (p<0.001). There was negative correlation of gender(r = -0.838), body mass index (BMI) (r = -0.339), obesity category (r = -0.275), obese vs non-obese (r =-0.264) and basal pulse rate (r = -0.456) with VO2max and positive correlation of height (r = 0.592) and hoursof study(r = 0.309) with VO2max. Conclusion: This study showed that increased BMI is associated withdecreased level of VO2max in young adults. One can improve VO2max by maintaining BMI within normallimits

Hemispheric Brain Preference and Academic Parameters in Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Hemispheric brain preference means using one side of the brain over the other to learn. Hemispheric brain preference may influence one’s learning style. This study aimed to investigate hemispheric brain preference and its relation with academic parameters in medical students. Methods: Four hundred participants were included in the study by cluster random sampling. Using self-administered questionnaires, data on personal profile (name, age, sex, handedness, academic score, study method, study hours per day and study pattern) and hemispheric brain dominance was collected. Open Hemispheric Brain Dominance Scale 1.0 (2015) was used to determine the hemispheric brain dominance. Result: Participants having no clear hemispheric brain preference (46.75%) were in majority followed by those with left hemispheric brain preference (29.25%) and then those with right hemispheric brain preference (24%). There was a statistically significant difference in academic score of students with different hemispheric brain preference (p=0.021). Students with left brain preference had the highest academic score (63.85±11.78) and those with no clear preference had the lowest (59.96±11.64). Also, students with left hemispheric brain preference would study more regularly and would spend more time in study per day. Conclusion: In our sample, participants with left hemispheric brain preference were found to have the highest mean academic score but they also spent more time in study and also studied regularly throughout the semester. As this study shows diversity in brain preference among medical students, we recommend a good mix of various teaching learning methods for better learning of the entire class

Open Access Initiatives: A Boon to Academic Libraries

Abstract: The article gives the meaning and definition of open access. It throws light on emergence and development of open access initiatives and various declarations in the world. The types of open access and their characters are given. The gradual increase of journals in DOAJ is shown. The impacts of OA are various facts of the academic community and the challenges for OA are dealt. The OA initiatives in India are listed