Outcome of transforaminal nerve root block using posterolateral approach in patients with low back ache due to PIVD in a tertiary care centre of North India

Background: Back ache has become a common phenomenon in our society, reason being our sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle. Transforaminal administration of steroid and analgesia is an important modality in the conservative management of prolapsed lumbar disc. The aim of this study is to assess functional outcome of transforaminal epidural analgesic injection in cases of chronic back pain due to prolapsed intervertebral disc.Methods: 152 patients who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criterias were given the block and were compared pre and post injection using ODI score.Results: Most patients in study were in fourth or fifth decade and had complained of pain for more than a year. L4-L5 was found to be the most common level involved. Post injection 129 patients out of 152 reported minimal pain and most of the patients reported improvement in pain post block.Conclusions: We concluded that tranforaminal block is an effective method of achieving pain relief in most patients for some duration and can help in delaying and in some cases avoiding the need for surgery

Probiotic functional attributes of lactic acid bacteria from indigenously fermented milk product kalarei

546-557Immense variations among probiotics for health promoting effects have motivated the research impetus on bioprospecting of new/novel probiotic strains from exotic sources. In the current study, we isolated 20 lactic acid bacterial (LAB) strains from indigenous fermented milk food (kalarei) and evaluated their survival in simulated gastrointestinal juice (GIJ) and functional properties. Six LAB isolates showed high viability (94-99%; log cfu/mL 9.01-11.10). The phenol tolerance assay showed that isolates BK1 and BK2 had high viability of 91.15% and 90.32%, respectively. However, other isolates have shown moderate phenol tolerance (viability 53-82%). The selected LAB isolates were screened for probiotic functional attributes viz. hydrophobicity, autoaggregation and coaggregation. Results revealed that the selected LAB isolates had efficient adhesion ability, autoaggregation and coaggregation ability. Additionally, LAB isolates were investigated for antibiotic susceptibility and antioxidant potential. For ABTS radical scavenging assay, the highest antioxidant activity was shown by isolate BK2 (90.60%), while for DPPH radical scavenging assay, the highest antioxidant activity was shown by BK1 (89.32%). The isolates BK1 and BK2 which have shown promising probiotic functional attributes were identified based on 16S rDNA sequencing as the strains of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and designated as L. plantarum BK1 OQ927190 and L. plantarum BK2 OQ927187, respectively

Lymphocytic thyroiditis: A correlation between cytological grading and thyroid function tests

Sixty five cases of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis were included in the study. Most of the study subjects were females [61 cases (94%)] and male to female ratio was 1:15. The most common age group was ? 40 years (52 cases, 80%). Grade I lymphocytic thyroiditis was observed in seventeen (17 cases, 26%) cases, Grade II in twenty eight cases (28 cases, 43.07%) and Grade III thyroiditis was seen in twenty (20 cases, 31%) cases. Anti-TPO and TSH values were increased in 95% (19/20) of cases with grade 3 lymphoid infiltrate, 92.8% (26/28) of cases with grade 2, and 94.1% (16/17) of cases with grade 1. The diagnosis of Hashimoto Thyroiditis should be based on a multidisciplinary approach wherein clinical, radiological, biochemical, cytological, and radionuclide parameters are taken into consideration. However, in spite of the availability of different diagnostic modalities, demonstration of lymphocytic infiltration on cytologic smears still remains the gold standard

Bioprocess development for the production of xylooligosaccharide prebiotics from agro-industrial lignocellulosic waste

The development of sustainable biorefineries and bioeconomy has been the mandate of most of the governments with major focus on restricting the climate change concerns and finding new strategies to maintain the global food supply chain. Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) are short-chain oligomers which due to their excellent prebiotic potential in the nutraceutical sector has attracted intense research focus in the recent years. The agro-industrial crop and food waste can be utilized for the production of XOS which are derived from hemicellulose fraction (xylan) of the lignocellulosic materials. The extraction of xylan, is traditionally achieved by acidic and alkaline pretreatments which, however, have limited industrial applications. The inclusion of cutting-edge and environmentally beneficial pretreatment methods and technologies such as deep eutectic solvents and green catalysts are preferred. Moreover, the extraction of xylans from biomass using combinatorial pretreatment approaches may help in economizing the whole bioprocess. The current review outlines the factors involved in the xylan extraction and depolymerization processes from different lignocellulosic biomass and the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis for XOS production. The different types of oligosaccharides and their prebiotic potential for the growth of healthy gut bacteria have also been explained. The introduction of modern molecular technologies has also made it possible to identify enzymes and microorganisms with the desired characteristics for usage in XOS industrial production processes