Giant thalamic hydatid cyst: a rare clinical presentation

Hydatid disease is a parasitic infestation caused by tapeworm Echinococcus. Cystic hydatidosis commonly involves liver and lungs and rarely the brain. A young female patient presented with progressive weakness of left upper and lower limb of one and half year duration at the time of admission. On evaluation, computed tomography (CT) scan of the brain showed a giant thalamic cystic lesion in the right cerebral hemisphere. Patient underwent right frontal craniotomy and excision of the cyst immediately. Histopathology was suggestive of hydatid cyst. Patient’s neurological condition improved and was subsequently treated with oral anti-helminthics. Surgical excision is the standard care of treatment

Efficacy of colposcopy technique with Pap smear and histology in screening of cervical lesions

Background: In India the most common genital cancer among women is carcinoma of the cervix (80%). The objective of the study is analysis of efficacy of colposcopy technique with Pap smear and histology in screening of cervical lesions.Methods: Patients above 18 years of age with varied parity and socioeconomic status attending out-patient clinics were studied for correlation between cytology, colposcopy and colposcopically directed biopsy for a one year period.Results: In cytology and colposcopic directed biopsy sensitivity is 81%, specificity is 95%, false positive is 4.9%, false negative is 18% and accuracy is 92%. In colposcopy and directed biopsy sensitivity is 94%, specificity is 91%, false positive is 7.4%, false negative is 5.8% and accuracy is 92.85%. Colposcopy helps to reduce false negative cases seen in cytology.Conclusions: In our study overall incidence of CIN was 19, among them CIN1 in 9%, CIN2 in 4%, CIN3 in 4% and malignancy in 2% cases. Higher sensitivity in colposcopy and directed biopsy 94%, higher specificity 95% in cytology as compared to colposcopy. This emphasizes the use of all 3 methods Papincolaou cytology, colposcopy and histology is complementary to each other and helps to reduce false negative cases

Development of Zn-SiC composite coatings: Electrochemical corrosion studies

The Zn-SiC composite coatings were fabricated by using sulphate plating bath dispersed with 1, 2 and 3 g L-1 of 64.28 nm SiC nanoparticles. Appreciable influence on morphology and microstructure was observed in scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and texture co-efficient calculations for SiC incorporated zinc coatings. The electrochemical corrosion behavior of zinc and Zn-SiC composite coatings was studied by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance analysis. Significant reduction in corrosion current and corrosion rate with increased charge transfer resistance was noticed for composite coatings. The SiC incorporated zinc coatings shown improved micro-hardness property to pure zinc coating. The properties of Zn-SiC composite coatings were compared with that of pure zinc coating

Contraceptive awareness in post-natal patients in KIMS, Bangalore

Background: Family planning can avert more than 30% of maternal deaths and 10% of child mortality if couples spaced their pregnancies more than two years apart. India was the first country in the world to launch the family planning programme in 1951. There exists a KAP gap i.e.  a gap between knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding contraception. Healthcare workers have an important role to play to acknowledge the importance and right concept of contraception among married couples. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, awareness, and perception of contraception among postnatal women.Methods: A questionnaire-based study was conducted among postnatal inpatients and outpatients from September 2021 to November 2021. All postnatal patients in this hospital, willing to participate in the study, after a thorough written informed consent, patients were given pre decided questions for answering. Answers were noted, counselling was done.Results:  Out of 200 women, 97% of the women were aware of at least 1 contraceptive method, the highest being of female sterilization (91%). The 22% of women have used contraception before. The 78% of women had never used contraception before, main reason was that they wanted to conceive (46%) followed by fear of side effects (29%). Regarding willingness to use the contraception after counselling, female sterilization (32%) was the preferred method followed by copper-T (22%). The most common source of information was by relatives was 33%.Conclusions: There is a large gap between the awareness and practice of contraception. Proper education of both partners, increasing female literacy, socio economic upliftment, effective health care system is needed. After delivery, during immediate postpartum period, maximum women wish for contraception Hence these women can be served by family planning services before discharge from hospital to ensure the acceptance of contraceptive practices among them. This would curb unwanted pregnancies and its future consequences

Modelling on-demand preprocessing framework towards practical approach in clinical analysis of diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) refers to a complication of diabetes and a prime cause of vision loss in middle-aged people. A timely screening and diagnosis process can reduce the risk of blindness. Fundus imaging is mainly preferred in the clinical analysis of DR. However; the raw fundus images are usually subjected to artifacts, noise, low and varied contrast, which is very hard to process by human visual systems and automated systems. In the existing literature, many solutions are given to enhance the fundus image. However, such approaches are particular and limited to a specific objective that cannot address multiple fundus images. This paper has presented an on-demand preprocessing frame work that integrates different techniques to address geometrical issues, random noises, and comprehensive contrast enhancement solutions. The performance of each preprocessing process is evaluated against peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and brightness is quantified in the enhanced image. The motive of this paper is to offer a flexible approach of preprocessing mechanism that can meet image enhancement needs based on different preprocessing requirements to improve the quality of fundus imaging towards early-stage diabetic retinopathy identification

Clinical, echocardiographic and angiographic correlation of acute coronary syndrome in women at a tertiary care centre

Background: The evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD) in women presents a unique and difficult challenge for clinicians, owing to the differences in symptoms, clinical features and mortality as compared to men. This study is to analyze the risk factors, clinical presentation, complications and outcome in women who presented with myocardial infarction.Methods: The study was conducted among women admitted with acute myocardial infarction in coronary care unit of KIMS Hospital, Hubli from January 2013 to December 2013. After inclusion and exclusion criteria 100 women underwent detailed history, clinical examination and investigations.Results: The mean age of the study group was 57.98 years. 49% of patients presented with atypical symptoms with majority being postmenopausal (87%). HDL cholesterol was the commonest risk factor followed by HsCRP, increased waist circumference and diabetes mellitus, with the least common risk factor being elevated homocysteine. Pump failure was the commonest complication. Double vessel disease was more common in diabetic population whereas single disease was common in non-diabetic population.Conclusions: Women clinically present with atypical symptoms that resulted in significant delay to reach hospital. Novel risk factors like HsCRP and homocysteine may improve risk detection in women with CAD. Identifying and targetting lifestyle risk factors. Diabetes mellitus in particular is the key to reduction in CAD in women.

Study of the serum uric acid level as a prognostic indicator in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Background: Abnormal uric acid levels in patients with preeclampsia and eclampsia affect both maternal and fetal outcome negatively. This study was done to know the alterations in these serum levels in comparison to normal pregnancy and also among various hypertensive disorders of pregnancies.Methods: Maternal serum uric acid levels were compared among cases and controls in relation to disease severity, mode of delivery, maternal outcome.Results: In group A (cases), 10 patients had raised uric acid levels, of which 5 were severe preeclampsia, 3 were eclampsia and 2 cases of chronic hypertension superimposed preeclampsia. P value is 0.001 (highly significant). Also serum uric acid is significantly elevated in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy compared with controls with a P value of 0.001.Conclusions: Significant correlation was observed between maternal serum uric acid, disease severity and maternal outcome. Our study concludes that uric acid can be considered as a sensitive prognostic indicator of severity in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Prospective study of association of uterine atonicity and serum calcium levels

Background: Uterine atony is one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. Uterine atony and PPH is a life threatening condition. The oxytocic drugs increase uterine tone by increasing intracellular calcium. Optimum levels of calcium are very important for the effective uterine contraction. Objective of this study was to correlate the serum calcium levels and uterine atonicity and PPH in women admitted in 1st and 2nd stage of labor in tertiary care hospital like Sri Chamarajendra hospital Hassan institute of medical sciences, Karnataka, India.Methods: Study design is case control study in department of OBG Sri Chamarajendra hospital Hassan. Duration of study is from July 2014 to 2015. Number of subjects studied 200 groups A with serum calcium less than 8 mg% and uterine atony. Group B with serum calcium between 8-10.4 mg% and uterine atony, after vaginal delivery or caesarian delivery. Features of atonicity: soft distended uterus with lack of muscle tone.Results: Total 200 clients were studied. 100 clients with serum calcium >8 mg% and 100 clients with serum calcium 8 mg% only one client developed uterine atonicity.Conclusions: Our result revealed that low calcium level is strongly associated with uterine atony, hence is a risk factor for uterine atony

Optimal coding unit decision for early termination in high efficiency video coding using enhanced whale optimization algorithm

Video compression is an emerging research topic in the field of block based video encoders. Due to the growth of video coding technologies, high efficiency video coding (HEVC) delivers superior coding performance. With the increased encoding complexity, the HEVC enhances the rate-distortion (RD) performance. In the video compression, the out-sized coding units (CUs) have higher encoding complexity. Therefore, the computational encoding cost and complexity remain vital concerns, which need to be considered as an optimization task. In this manuscript, an enhanced whale optimization algorithm (EWOA) is implemented to reduce the computational time and complexity of the HEVC. In the EWOA, a cosine function is incorporated with the controlling parameter A and two correlation factors are included in the WOA for controlling the position of whales and regulating the movement of search mechanism during the optimization and search processes. The bit streams in the Luma-coding tree block are selected using EWOA that defines the CU neighbors and is used in the HEVC. The results indicate that the EWOA achieves best bit rate (BR), time saving, and peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR). The EWOA showed 0.006-0.012 dB higher PSNR than the existing models in the real-time videos

Inter-linkages between the stock exchanges of emerging economies: Evidence from BRICS

The economic liberalization took place in the year 1991, opened up wide range of opportunities to the industries, service providers as well as to the investors. Investors overcome the geographical boundaries to diversify their portfolio to foreign markets. So, it is highly important to understand the inter-linkages among the nations. The present study chosen the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) consortium’s stock market indices to analyze the connectedness among them, by taking the daily closing price levels, from 1st of Feb 2015 to 31st of March 2021, applied descriptive statistics, Unit root test, Granger Causality Test and Johansen Co-integration tests are performed. The results unveil that, the data sample is stationary; there exists the inter-linkages among the BRICS nations stock markets. India’s stock market has major impacts on Brazil, China, South Africa as well as Russia, where as India will not receive major impacts from China, Russia and South Africa. Study concludes that diversifying the portfolio to foreign countries stock markets benefit the investors with increased returns and reduced risk. The study results helps the investors to diversify their portfolios into foreign stock exchanges to get stabilized returns understanding the relationship among emerging countries stock exchanges