Evaluation of outcome of pregnancy in threatened abortion by serum progesterone levels

Background: Early pregnancy maintenance depends on the progesterone production by the developing trophoblasts of the placenta and the corpus luteum of ovary. Threatened abortion has a psychological impact on patients so we need to have a tool that could predict the outcome of threatened abortion in advance. Serum progesterone level has shown to be a reliable marker of pregnancy outcome. The aim of the study was to assess the correlation between maternal serum progesterone level and pregnancy outcome in threatened abortion and to assess the role of maternal serum progesterone levels in the immediate diagnosis of pregnancy failure.Methods: This observational study was conducted in the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Lalla Ded Hospital, Government Medical College, Srinagar over a period of 1 year in 100 women presenting with threatened abortion of less than 12 weeks of gestation, having spotting but without cervical dilatation.  Results: Mean maternal serum progesterone level in patients of threatened abortion who aborted was 21.5 ± 10.4 nanograms per millilitre and patients of threatened abortion who progressed normally to the period of viability had mean maternal serum progesterone level of 41.6 ± 10.8 nanograms per millilitre. Considering 24 nanograms per millilitre as cut off  limit, 19% of patients of threatened abortion were having serum progesterone level of lesser than or equal to 24 nanograms per millilitre and 81% of patients of threatened abortion were having serum progesterone level of greater than 24 nanograms per millilitre.  Conclusions: Serum progesterone level is easy and reliable assay for determination of pregnancy outcome

Intraoperative squash cytology and histopathological correlation of primary temporal lobe lesions: a 6 year study at tertiary care centre of Kashmir, India

Background: Central nervous system (CNS) tumors constitute about 1-2% of all the tumors. They are the 6th most common tumors in adults and 2nd most common among childhood tumors. Gliomas are the most common CNS neoplasms. In addition to gliomas temporal lobe has predilection for some peculiar tumor subtypes having good prognosis, including pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA), low grade astrocytic tumors and dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNET) in children.Methods: Study was conducted in the department of pathology Sher-e-Kashmir institute of medical sciences (SKIMS) Soura, Srinagar Kashmir India. This was six-year study.Results: Temporal lobe tumors were commonly seen in 3rd to 4th decade of life accounting for 37.9% of the cases followed by 4th to 5th decade (27.5%). The mean age of presentation being 40±10 yrs. Males outnumbered females with a male: female ratio of 1.7:1. Intraoperative squash smears were mostly reported as High grade gliomas (WHO Grade III-IV) accounting to a total of 42 cases (36.2%). On histopathology frequent temporal lobe tumor seen was Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) 17.4%, followed by pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma and oligodendroglioma accounting for 14.6% of cases each. On comparing the diagnostic accuracy of intraoperative squash smears to that of Histopathological diagnosis an overall accuracy of 86.2% was observed.Conclusions: Intra operative squash technique in CNS tumors is universally accepted method. In temporal lobe lesions, on adequate sampling and careful examination, squash cytology has fairly good diagnostic accuracy rate of 86.2% when compared to histopathology

Evidence of apoptosis in some cell types due to pentachlorophenol (PCP) in Heteropneustes fossilis

AbstractThe study aimed to clarify the role of apoptosis in pentachlorophenol (PCP) induced testicular, ovarian and renal cell genotoxicity of Heteropneustes fossilis. It was further intended to find the target germ cell type and assess the cellular and nuclear damage. Treatment of PCP was used for multiduration on the germinal tissues and they were processed to detect structural changes by light and electron microscopic evaluation and kidney cells for subsequent detection of DNA fragmentation by agarose gel electrophoresis. Findings suggest functional and morphological changes in the tissues are due to apoptosis, as evidenced by some biochemical and cytological signs. Histological observation on germinal epithelium reveals cell suicidal symptoms such as vacuolization, liquefied regions in the cytoplasm of oocytes, margination of nuclei, clumping of chromatin, and compaction of cytoplasmic organelle. Biochemical manifestation concurrent to this, is; cleavage of kidney cell DNA into low molecular weight fragments confirming apoptosis. Subsequently, it is further cleaved into nucleosome size fragments or its multiples. Ultra-structural histopathology and DNA studies conclusively lead to the PCP induced apoptosis in the exposed cell types. Results further support the usefulness of this assay in the related studies and its feasibility in generating a base line data

Life style patterns and adherence to pharmacotherapy after acute coronary syndrome: one year follow up study from a tertiary care center in Kashmir, India

Background: Acute coronary syndrome is the leading cause of cardiac mortality and morbidity world over. Modification of life style pattern and adherence to pharmacotherapy plays a vital role in primary and secondary prevention of coronary events. This study was aimed at assessing the penetration of life style modifications and adherence to pharmacotherapy after acute coronary event in our population.Methods: Acute coronary syndrome patients enrolled in the study were examined, interviewed and all the demographic and clinical data was recorded at index event and at 3, 6 and 12 month intervals.Results: A total of 260 patients were enrolled in the study and followed for 12 months. Mean age of patients was 55.6±8.27 years. Males 78.6% and females 21.5%. Hypertension was risk factor in 67.7%, diabetes in 26.2%, smoking in 63.8%, BMI ≥25 in 67.3% and family history of coronary artery disease in 8.8% of the cases at index event. Uncontrolled hypertension was observed in 30.11%, 38.63% and 44.88% patients at 3, 6 and 12 months follow up. Uncontrolled diabetes at 3, 6 and 12 months was found in 58.82%, 66.17% and 73.52% patients. 5.42%, 15.06% and 21.08% cases continued to smoke at 3, 6 and 12 months respectively. Drug non-compliance overall was noted in 9.61%, 17.69% and 23.84% cases at 3, 6 and 12 month follow up.Conclusions: This study highlights the under prevalence of modifiable risk factor change in practice and drug non-compliance after an acute coronary event

Investigating the Role of TP53 in Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma-GATA3 Subtype

Introduction: Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) accounts for 4.1% of all cancers in the United States. Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma (PTCL) consists of ~10-15% of all NHL in the Western world. 30-50% of these PTCLs are not classifiable/diagnosed and are instead designated as PTCL-Not Otherwise Specified (PTCL-NOS). The two major molecular subgroups within PTCL-NOS are PTCL-TBX21 and PTCL-GATA3, determined by their distinct T-helper (TH) transcriptional programs. GATA3 and TBX21 are the master-transcriptional regulators of TH2- and TH1-cell differentiation, respectively. The overall survival analysis of PTCL-NOS cases illustrates the clinical outcome of PTCL-GATA3 cases are significantly lower than PTCL-TBX21 cases over a broad timeframe. Thus, the need for understanding the underlying mechanism and finding therapeutic targets is at the utmost importance. Background: TP53 mutations and/or TP53 loss deletions are frequent in PTCL-GATA3 cases, compared to PTCL-TBX21. TP53 is a protein that is essential in cycle regulation but also acts as a tumor suppressor. It stops cells from dividing if they have mutated or damaged DNA. Due to the high mutation rates observed in this subtype, we believe TP53 could play a major role in this mechanism. Therefore, it was important to focus on the TP53-GATA3 interaction at the genomic level. Prior studies using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-qPCR on the intron 3 full GATA3 region suggested there was more TP53 binding in this intron region compared to other regions. Therefore, we designed a research strategy to determine the specific binding regions of TP53-GATA3 interaction and the function of the TP53 binding.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/surp2023/1003/thumbnail.jp

A Novel Way Of Repair Of Insulation Breaks During Pacemaker Generator Replacement

Minor abrasions can occur while mobilising old lead during pacemaker generator replacement necesittating placement of additional lead adding to the financial burden and junk in heart. We describe a novel way of repair of old pacemaker lead preventing additional lead placement

HAEMANGIOBLASTOMAS : AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF TWO YEARS IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE.

Background: Hemangioblastoma (HB) is a benign, slow-growing, highly vascular tumour of not well defined histological origin. These tumors make up about 1 to 2 percent of all intracranial neoplasms and occur primarily in the posterior fossa. Hemangioblastomas can occur sporadically but in about 20% to 30% cases, it is associated with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease. 9 cases of hemangioblastomas were examined with haematoxylin & eosin (H&E), reticulin stain and immunohistochemistry where ever needed. Their ages ranged from 12 years to 60 years. All of them were as presented as cystic nodules. The main histological differential diagnosis of Haemaniioblastoma is metastatic clear cell carcinoma. Additionally, because of the cystic mural features, pilocytic astrocytomas of the cerebellum must be separated from haemangioblastomas. Materials and Methods: The data for the present study was collected from the record section of the department of Pathology of our hospital. Histomorphological and immunohistochemical evaluation of all the cases of hemangioblastomas was done. Results: In the present study we had 9 cases with 2 of them being recurrent in nature. Age range was 12 to 60 yrs (median: 32 yrs) with Male to Female ratio of 2: 1 (M-6; F-3). Cerebellum was commonest location followed by brain stem. Conclusion: Hemangioblastomas can occur in throughout the neuroaxis. Cerebellum is the commonest site of occurrence for Haemangioblastoms

Blockchain Driven Access Control Mechanisms, Models and Frameworks: A Systematic Literature Review

Access control or authorization is referred to as the confinement of specific actions of an entity, thereby allowing them to be performed as per certain rules. Blockchain-driven access control mechanisms gained considerable attention directly after applications beyond the premise of cryptocurrency were found. However, there are no systematic efforts to analyze existing empirical evidence. To this end, we aim to synthesize litera- ture to understand the state-of-the-art blockchain driven access control mechanisms with respect to underlying platforms, utilized blockchain properties, nature of the mod- els and associated testbeds and tools. We conducted the review in a systematic way. Meta analysis and thematic synthesis were performed on the findings from relevant primary studies, in order to answer the framed research questions in perspective. We identified 76 relevant primary studies that passed the quality assessment.  The problems targeted by relevant studies were single point of failure, security, and privacy, etc. The meta-analysis of the primary studies suggests the use of different blockchain platforms along with several application domains where different blockchain proprieties were utilized. In this paper, we present a systematic literature review of blockchain driven access control systems. In hindsight, we present a taxonomy of blockchain-driven access control systems to better understand the immense implications of this field spanning various application domain