Bacterial pathogens in conjunctivitis and corneal ulcers with special reference to Streptococcus pneumoniae, in early 2008, in the National Eye Hospital, Sri Lanka

Introduction: The most important and frequently occurring eye infections are conjunctivitis and corneal ulcers. Though the significance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in eye infections is well-known, identification of causative serotypes is important for comparison with serotypes causing invasive diseases. Objectives: To describe the spectrum and characteristics of bacterial pathogens associated with conjunctivitis and corneal ulcers with special reference to S. pneumoniae.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from January to April 2008 in which samples were collected from patients above one month old with suspected conjunctivitis or corneal ulcers seen in the out-patients department and wards of the National Eye Hospital, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Both eye swabs (n=322) and corneal buttons (n=31) were cultured. Isolated bacteriawere identified as far as possible and antibiotic sensitivity testing done. S. pneumoniae isolates were stored in sheep blood agar slants at -70 ºC and serotyped. Results: There were 296 conjunctival swabs and 26 corneal swabs. From 296 conjunctival swabs 118 (39.8%) samples yielded no bacterial growth. There were 185 bacterial isolates from 159 significant positive samples. The most frequently isolated bacteria were coagulase negative Staphylococcus sp. (n=58: 31.4%), and second commonest was S. pneumoniae (n=33: 17.84%). From 57 samples from patients with corneal ulcers, 47 (82%) did not yield any bacterial growth. Sensitivity to chloramphenicol was high among Staphylococcus sp., S. pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella sp and coliforms. Among pneumococcal isolates serotyped, 19F was predominant. Conclusion: Coagulase negative staphylococci were predominantly isolated from eye swabs and corneal buttons, but the most significant frequent isolate was S. pneumoniae. Except Pseudomonas, &gt;90% isolates were sensitive to chloramphenicol. The predominant pneumococcal serotype was 19F.</p

A Comparative Study of Demand for Medical Care on Non Communicable Diseases: Western vs. Alternative

Medical care is an input to the production of health. People get treatment for their health issues under western medicine , complementary and alternative medicine. Western medicine can be identified as the most famous and modern medical care system in the world. Complementary and alternative medicine refers to avariety of health practices as ayurveda, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbs, yoga, etc . Considering Sri Lankan context, with the rapid increase of ageing population, there is a growing trend in non communicable diseases. Most of people tend to use these two systems to recover from non communicable diseases asasthma, cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, etc. The main objective of this study was to distinguish between the demand for alternative medicine and western medicine related to non communicable diseases. It was considered socio demographic and economic factors for demand in medical care for both sectors. Primary data was based on Arogya private hospital and Siddhayurvedini private ayurvedic care institution in Gampaha. It was selected 100 non communicable disease patients using systematic sampling method. Logistic regression model was mainly used to distinguish between the alternative and western medical care. According to the findings of this study, females are more likely to demand for both medical cares. Middle age, unemployed, arthritis patient and duration of disease 2-5 years cause to raise demand for alternative medical care. Diabetic patient, employed, believing health status as serious and having employer provided insurance cause to raise demand for western medical care. Relative to the demand for alternative medical care, living in rural area and lower educated people are negatively associated with demand for western medical care.KEYWORDS: Demand, Western, alternative, non communicable disease

Ultrasound morphology of carotid plaque and its link with lipid: protein content and 3d microstructure of the plaque.

the 22nd Meeting of the European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (ESNCH), 19-21 May 2017. Berlin, Germany, and published in the International Journal of Stroke 12(1S): 57 (Poster 101), May 2017. ISSN: 1747-4930, eISSN: 1747-4949

Volumetric quantitative optical coherence elastography with an iterative inversion method

It is widely accepted that accurate mechanical properties of three-dimensional soft tissues and cellular samples are not available on the microscale. Current methods based on optical coherence elastography can measure displacements at the necessary resolution, and over the volumes required for this task. However, in converting this data to maps of elastic properties, they often impose assumptions regarding homogeneity in stress or elastic properties that are violated in most realistic scenarios. Here, we introduce novel, rigorous, and computationally efficient inverse problem techniques that do not make these assumptions, to realize quantitative volumetric elasticity imaging on the microscale. Specifically, we iteratively solve the threedimensional elasticity inverse problem using displacement maps obtained from compression optical coherence elastography. This is made computationally feasible with adaptive mesh refinement and domain decomposition methods. By employing a transparent, compliant surface layer with known shear modulus as a reference for the measurement, absolute shear modulus values are produced within a millimeter-scale sample volume. We demonstrate the method on phantoms, on an ex vivo breast cancer sample, and in vivo on human skin. Quantitative elastography on this length scale will find wide application in cell biology, tissue engineering and medicine

Investigation of optical coherence micro-elastography as a method to visualize micro-architecture in human axillary lymph nodes

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of lymph node involvement is an important factor in detecting metastasis and deciding whether to perform axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in breast cancer surgery. As ALND is associated with potentially severe long term morbidity, the accuracy of lymph node assessment is imperative in avoiding unnecessary ALND. The mechanical properties of malignant lymph nodes are often distinct from those of normal nodes. A method to image the micro-scale mechanical properties of lymph nodes could, thus, provide diagnostic information to aid in the assessment of lymph node involvement in metastatic cancer. In this study, we scan axillary lymph nodes, freshly excised from breast cancer patients, with optical coherence micro-elastography (OCME), a method of imaging micro-scale mechanical strain, to assess its potential for the intraoperative assessment of lymph node involvement. METHODS: Twenty-six fresh, unstained lymph nodes were imaged from 15 patients undergoing mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery with axillary clearance. Lymph node specimens were bisected to allow imaging of the internal face of each node. Co-located OCME and optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans were taken of each sample, and the results compared to standard post-operative hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained histology. RESULTS: The optical backscattering signal provided by OCT alone may not provide reliable differentiation by inspection between benign and malignant lymphoid tissue. Alternatively, OCME highlights local changes in tissue strain that correspond to malignancy and are distinct from strain patterns in benign lymphoid tissue. The mechanical contrast provided by OCME complements the optical contrast provided by OCT and aids in the differentiation of malignant tumor from uninvolved lymphoid tissue. CONCLUSION: The combination of OCME and OCT images represents a promising method for the identification of malignant lymphoid tissue. This method shows potential to provide intraoperative assessment of lymph node involvement, thus, preventing unnecessary removal of uninvolved tissues and improving patient outcomes.Kelsey M. Kennedy, Lixin Chin, Philip Wijesinghe, Robert A. McLaughlin, Bruce Latham, David D. Sampson, Christobel M. Saunders, and Brendan F. Kenned

Wide-field optical coherence microelastography for intraoperative assessment of human breast cancer margins

Published 19 Sep 2016Incomplete excision of malignant tissue is a major issue in breast-conserving surgery, with typically 20 - 30% of cases requiring a second surgical procedure arising from postoperative detection of an involved margin. We report advances in the development of a new intraoperative tool, optical coherence micro-elastography, for the assessment of tumor margins on the micro-scale. We demonstrate an important step by conducting whole specimen imaging in intraoperative time frames with a wide-field scanning system acquiring mosaicked elastograms with overall dimensions of ~50 × 50 mm, large enough to image an entire face of most lumpectomy specimens. This capability is enabled by a wide-aperture annular actuator with an internal diameter of 65 mm. We demonstrate feasibility by presenting elastograms recorded from freshly excised human breast tissue, including from a mastectomy, lumpectomies and a cavity shaving.Wes M. Allen, Lixin Chin, Philip Wijesinghe, Rodney W. Kirk, Bruce Latham, David D. Sampson, Christobel M. Saunders, and Brendan F. Kenned

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the 0.013 < z < 0.1 cosmic spectral energy distribution from 0.1 m to 1 mm

We use the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey (GAMA) I data set combined with GALEX, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) imaging to construct the low-redshift (z < 0.1) galaxy luminosity functions in FUV, NUV, ugriz and YJHK bands from within a single well-constrained volume of 3.4 × 105 (Mpc h−1)3. The derived luminosity distributions are normalized to the SDSS data release 7 (DR7) main survey to reduce the estimated cosmic variance to the 5 per cent level. The data are used to construct the cosmic spectral energy distribution (CSED) from 0.1 to 2.1 μm free from any wavelength-dependent cosmic variance for both the elliptical and non-elliptical populations. The two populations exhibit dramatically different CSEDs as expected for a predominantly old and young population, respectively. Using the Driver et al. prescription for the azimuthally averaged photon escape fraction, the non-ellipticals are corrected for the impact of dust attenuation and the combined CSED constructed. The final results show that the Universe is currently generating (1.8 ± 0.3) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 of which (1.2 ± 0.1) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 is directly released into the inter-galactic medium and (0.6 ± 0.1) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 is reprocessed and reradiated by dust in the far-IR. Using the GAMA data and our dust model we predict the mid- and far-IR emission which agrees remarkably well with available data. We therefore provide a robust description of the pre- and post-dust attenuated energy output of the nearby Universe from 0.1 μm to 0.6 mm. The largest uncertainty in this measurement lies in the mid- and far-IR bands stemming from the dust attenuation correction and its currently poorly constrained dependence on environment, stellar mass and morphology

The SOS Pilot Study: a RCT of routine oxygen supplementation early after acute stroke—effect on recovery of neurological function at one week

Mild hypoxia is common after stroke and associated with poor long-term outcome. Oxygen supplementation could prevent hypoxia and improve recovery. A previous study of routine oxygen supplementation showed no significant benefit at 7 and 12 months. This pilot study reports the effects of routine oxygen supplementation for 72 hours on oxygen saturation and neurological outcomes at 1 week after a stroke

Impact of routine laboratory culture media on in-vitro biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis

Objectives: This study was aimed to determine the efficacy of four routine laboratory culture media onbiofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus feacalis.Methods: A sterile flat bottom 96 well plate was inoculated using 0.5 McFarland equivalent standardcell suspension of P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and E. feacalis and the growth rate of planktonic cells wasquantified by measuring the optical density (OD492) at two hour intervals. Influence of culture mediumon adhesion of bacteria as an initial step of biofilm formation in the presence of four culture media(Nutrient broth (NB), Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) broth, Luria-Bertani (LB) broth and RPMI 1640) wasquantified using MTT (3-[4, 5- dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2, 5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay after90 minutes adhesion. Biofilms of P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, E. feacalis and their 1:1 mixed biofilmswere developed and the growth was quantified using MTT metabolic activity at 24 hour time intervals.Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed to assess the ultrastructure.Results: On comparing the relative growth of the bacteria in different culture media, the maximumgrowth of all three planktonic cultures was achieved using BHI broth. All mono species and mixedspecies cultures exhibited their maximum adhesion in the presence of RPMI 1640. All biofilm exhibitedthe maximum growth in BHI broth. SEM imaging had shown the enhanced growth of ultrastructure ofthe biofilm with the presence of BHI broth.Conclusions: The maximum planktonic and biofilm growth was achieved with BHI broth. However,bacterial adhesion was enhanced in the presence of RPMI 1640