A prospective study of fetomaternal outcome in cases of placenta previa

Background: The incidence of placenta previa ranges from 0.5-1% amongst hospital deliveries. Placenta previa is major cause of antepartum haemorrhage and is potentially devastating complication. Obstetric haemorrhage is most common cause for maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality in India. This study aimed to determine frequency, type of placenta previa, risk factors and adverse fetomaternal outcomes of placenta previa.Methods: This was a prospective study carried out in Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Government Medical College and Sir-T hospital, Bhavnagar from July 2007 to July 2009 to analyze fetomaternal outcome in cases of placenta previa. All patients of placenta previa with gestational age > 28 weeks up to full term were included in the study. All cases were confirmed by Ultrasound examination. All cases were carefully analyzed to find out the incidence, type of placenta previa, its clinical presentation and its outcome in relation to mode of delivery, birth weight, maternal and perinatal morbidity.Results: There was total 50 cases of placenta previa out of 5636 deliveries. The prevalence of placenta previa was 0.88% and was more commonly present among multiparous women (82%). Most common type was type IV placenta previa in 23 (46%) cases followed by type III in 11 (22%) cases. Out of 50 cases, 06 (12%) cases had atonic PPH and 02 (04%) cases underwent peripartum hysterectomy. Most common predisposing factors were age >35 years (04%), multiparity (50%), previous cesarean section (16%) and previous history of abortion (12%). All cases of perinatal mortality were between 28 to 30 weeks weighing between 1-1.5 kg. There was no maternal mortality in this study.Conclusions: Managing a case of placenta previa during pregnancy poses a great challenge to every obstetrician in present day obstetrics due to its increased risk of maternal and perinatal complications

Polyherbal Formulation used in the Treatment of Jaundice

Plants have traditionally served as man\u27s most important weapon against pathogens. Herbal medicines are widely used by all sections of the community, either as folk remedies or as medicaments in the indigenous as well as modern system of medicine. The present work was performed to enumerate the medicinal herbs that tribes and rural people uses for the treatment of jaundice. Data were collected by interviewing local traditional therapists and tribes of the region. Details of 10 herbs and 03 formulations were gathered along with their doses, duration and formulations during the course of present investigation in the study area. Our study revealed that all above herbs and their formulations have been used since quite a long time by the tribes and rural people and no side/ adverse effects were reported

Constraints on compact dark matter from gravitational wave microlensing

If a significant fraction of dark matter is in the form of compact objects, they will cause microlensing effects in the gravitational wave (GW) signals observable by LIGO and Virgo. From the non-observation of microlensing signatures in the binary black hole events from the first two observing runs and the first half of the third observing run, we constrain the fraction of compact dark matter in the mass range $10^2-10^5~{M_\odot}$ to be less than $\simeq 50-80\%$ (details depend on the assumed source population properties and the Bayesian priors). These modest constraints will be significantly improved in the next few years with the expected detection of thousands of binary black hole events, providing a new avenue to probe the nature of dark matter

Waltzing binaries: Probing line-of-sight acceleration of merging compact objects with gravitational waves

Line-of-sight acceleration of a compact binary coalescence (CBC) event would modulate the shape of the gravitational waves (GWs) it produces with respect to the corresponding non-accelerated CBC. Such modulations could be indicative of its astrophysical environment. We investigate the prospects of detecting this acceleration in future observing runs of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network, as well as in next-generation (XG) detectors and the proposed DECIGO. We place the first observational constraints on this acceleration, for putative binary neutron star mergers GW170817 and GW190425. We find no evidence of line-of-sight acceleration in these events at $90\%$ confidence. Prospective constraints for the fifth observing run of the LIGO at A+ sensitivity suggest that accelerations for typical BNSs could be constrained with a precision of $a/c \sim 10^{-7}~[\mathrm{s}^{-1}]$, assuming a signal-to-noise ratio of $10$. These improve to $a/c \sim 10^{-9}~[\mathrm{s}^{-1}]$ in XG detectors, and $a/c \sim 10^{-16}~[\mathrm{s}^{-1}]$ in DECIGO. We also interpret these constraints in the context of mergers around supermassive black holes.Comment: Accepted to Ap

Women’s and Providers’ Experiences with Injectable Contraceptives (Depo-Provera): A View from Vadodara, India

Objective: To compare users’ and providers’ perspectives on injectable contraceptives (IC). Methods: This qualitative study employed semi-structured in-depth interview technique. Sixty women with experience of using IC and 10 doctors involved in providing IC were selected. Telephonic interviews of doctors were also conducted. Results: Over 50% of the women had side effects and had discontinued use within 1 year. The most common ‘likes’ according to women included ease of use, being tension free for 3 months and being effective and those of the providers were that it reduced anemia, privacy could be maintained, noncontraceptive benefits, good substitute, not to be taken daily like pills, safe and effective. The most common ‘dislikes’ reported by providers and clients were excessive bleeding, amenorrhea, irregular periods, spotting, weight gain and frequent pregnancy tests. Conclusion: Although certain distinct advantages of IC have been expressed, the associated problems are equally significant and therefore IC should not be an over-the-counter contraceptive

A pedagogic appraisal of the Priority Heuristic

We have explored how science and mathematics teachers made decisions when confronted with a dilemma in which a fictitious young woman, Deborah, may choose to have an operation that might address a painful spinal condition. We sought to explore the extent to which psychological heuristic models, in particular the Priority Heuristic, might successfully describe the decision-making process of these teachers and how an analysis of the role of personal and emotional factors in shaping the decision-making process might inform pedagogical design. A novel aspect of this study is that the setting in which the decision-making process is examined contrasts sharply with those used in psychological experiments. We found that to some extent, even in this contrasting setting, the Priority Heuristic could describe these teachers' decision-making. Further analysis of the transcripts yielded some insights into limitations on scope as well the richness and complexity in how personal factors were brought to bear. We see these limitations as design opportunities for educational intervention