TINOSPORA CORDIFOLIA AQUEOUS EXTRACT AMELIORATES THE SYSTEMIC INFECTION OF ASPERGILLUS FUMIGATUS IN BALB/C MICE

Objective: The present study was aimed to assess the antifungal activity of Tinospora cordifolia aqueous extract (TCAE) against Aspergillus fumigatus infection. Methods: TCAE was tested for in vitro antifungal activity against the isolates of A. fumigatus, Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus niger. To evaluate in vivo activity, various doses (10, 25, and 50 mg/kg) of TCAE were orally administered in A. fumigatus-infected mice for 7 days. The combination of prophylactic and therapeutic effect of TCAE was assessed by pre-treating the mice with 10 mg/kg of TCAE for 3 consecutive days before exposing them to A. fumigatus. Mice were treated with 10, 25, and 50 mg/kg doses of TCAE for 7 consecutive days’ post-A. fumigatus infection. The effectiveness of TCAE was evaluated by monitoring the survival rate and assessing the fungal burden in the kidney of the treated mice. Results: A. fumigatus-infected mice treated with TCAE at the doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg exhibited 50% and 20% survival rate, respectively, observed on day 40 post-treatment. Like to the survival data, the fungal burden was also found to be the lowest in the kidney of mice treated with TCAE at a dose of 50 mg/kg. The results showed that pre-treatment with TCAE (10 mg/kg) followed by post-infection treatment with 10, 25, and 50 mg/kg of TCAE for 7 days resulted in 40%, 50%, and 70% survival rate, respectively. Conclusions: These results suggest that TCAE may potentially be considered for its possible use in the treatment of the systemic infection of A. fumigatus

Asymptomatic urinary tract infection: Cause of postoperative wound infection

bstract OBJECTIVE: To determine the rate of urinary tract infection in patients given incomplete treatment before undergoing hip fracture surgery. METHODS: The descriptive case series was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, From October 25, 2012 to April 24, 2013. 84 postmenopausal women having hip fracture along with asymptomatic urinary tract infection. The infection was treated incompletely and postoperatively wound infection rate was determined. The SPSS version 17 was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The overall mean age of the 84 patients in the study was 63.57+10.34 years. Overall, 14(16.7%) patients had wound infection after orthopaedic implant surgery for hip fracture. CONCLUSIONS: There was a high occurrence of wound infection after hip implant surgery in patients having preoperative asymptomaticurinary tract infection who were treated incompletely

Patterns of abnormal glucose metabolism in acromegaly and impact of treatment modalities on glucose metabolism

Background: Chronic exposure to high levels of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) leads to metabolic complications, most importantly dysglycemia in the form of diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes. Dysglycemia if diagnosed early in the course of the disease can decrease complications. Treatment modalities in the form of surgery and medical therapy have varied impacts on glucose metabolism.Objective: To determine the frequency of diabetes mellitus, impaired glucose tolerance, and impaired fasting glucose in Pakistani patients with acromegaly and to establish the impact of the intervention (surgery/medical) on glucose metabolism.Methods: This study was a retrospective review of patient records. Eighty-nine patients fulfilling the Endocrine Society criteria for acromegaly diagnosis were included. A data of baseline, GH, IGF-1 level, hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), fasting blood glucose (FBG), and random blood glucose (RBS) levels were reviewed before and after the intervention (surgery/medical therapy). Normal glucose tolerance (NGT), impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and diabetes mellitus (DM) were defined based on the American Diabetes Association (ADA) criteria. Patients were grouped into normoglycemic (NGT) and dysglycemic (IFG, IGT, and DM) based on FBG, RBS, and HbA1C.Results: Major risk factors for dysglycemia included age (15-45 years), male sex (33.70%), obesity (45.7%), and macroadenoma (77.52%). Both mean GH levels (58.29 vs. 54.36 ng/dl) and IGF-1 levels (862.98 vs. 824.32 ng/dl) were higher among the normoglycemic than dysglycemia. Pre-surgery NGT, IFG, IGT, IFG, and IGT/DM combined were found in 48.31%, 5.61%, 1.1%, 5.61%, and 39.32% of the subjects respectively. Post-surgery, HbA1C improved in 79.5%, deteriorated in 6.8%, and remained the same in 13.6%. Similarly, it improved in 67% post-medical therapy. Both FBG and RBS improved post-surgery and medical therapy. Further, the number of anti-diabetic drugs used also decreased post-surgery.Conclusion: Dysglycemia is more common among patients with acromegaly as compared to the general population and tends to be poorly controlled in untreated acromegaly. Glycemic control improves significantly after surgery and medical therapy

The key roles of salicylic acid and sulfur in plant salinity stress tolerance

The salinization of agriculture soils over the globe has become one of the most devastating stresses and is significantly limiting cultivated land area, and crop productivity and quality. It is very imperative to explore both salinity tolerance in plants and insights into approaches (and underlying mechanisms) for effectively controlling salinity impacts. To this end, the role of phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) and plant nutrient sulfur (S) in promoting salinity tolerance has been researched in isolated studies, and SA–S interaction results have been little discussed. Given this, taking into account recent literature on SA, S and soil salinity, this paper aimed to (i) overview of the major impacts of soil salinity on plant health; (ii) highlight the significance of SA and S in improving plant salinity tolerance; (iii) discuss the role and underlying mechanism of SA, S and their interaction in the modulation of plant growth and development under salinity stress; and also to (iv) appraise the discussed literature and enlighten the major prospects

Isolated ligamentum flavum ossification in primary hypoparathyroidism

Basckground: The ligamenta flava can undergo ossification and calcification resulting in myelopathy. Only seven cases of ligamentumflavum ossification in association with hypoparathyroidism have been reported, most of which had concurrent osseous changes in other spinal ligaments. Here, we report a patient with hypoparathyroidism who presented ith ligamentum flavum ossification causing both cervical and thoracic myelopathy. Case description: A 43-year-old male presented with backache, urinary retention, and lower limb weakness for the last few days. Magnetic resonance imaging scan showed ossification of the ligamentum flavum in the cervical and thoracic regions, with severe spinal stenosis. Following spinal decompressive surgery, the patient made a complete recovery. Primary hypoparathyroidism was found to be the underlying cause for ligamentum flavum ossification. Conclusion: Ossification of ligamentum flavum secondary to hypoparathyroidism should be considered as a possible cause of myelopathy in all patients presenting with symptoms of spinal cord compression

A Study of Fuzzy Sequence Spaces

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce and study some new ideal convergence sequence spaces FSJθT, FS0JθT and FS∞JθT on a fuzzy real number F defined by a compact operator T. We investigate algebraic properties like linearity, solidness and monotinicity with some important examples. Further, we also analyze closedness of the subspace and inclusion relations on the said spaces

Heat budget studies of the north Arabian Sea during summer and winter seasons, 1992

In this study heat budget components and momentum flux for August and January 1992 over the north Arabian Sea are computed. The marine meteorological data measured on board during the cruises of PAK-US joint project (NASEER) are used for the computation. Significant differences were found in the heat budget components as well as in the momentum flux during different monsoon periods over the north Arabian Sea. The latent heat flux was always positive and attributed to the large vapour pressure gradient. The computed moisture and latent heat fluxes in January were higher than August The highest value of latent heat flux 309 W/m2 at station 8 was evaluated. These higher latent heat fluxes were due to the large vapour pressure gradient, air-sea temperature difference, the wind speed, and the prevailing wind direction (from north and northeast). Negative values of sensible heat fluxes in both seasons indicate that the heat transfer was from the atmosphere to the ocean. The negative values of net heat gain indicate that the sea surface field became an energy sink: or the sea surface supplied more energy to the atmosphere than it received from it. Large variation in the momentum flux mainly attributed to the variation in the wind speed. Aerial averages of heat and momentum fluxes were also computed