Prevalence and Spectrum of Pain in Parkinson’s Disease

BACKGROUND: Pain is one of the recognised non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. However, not much research has been done into definitively defining pain and its management in Parkinson’s disease. AIM OF THE STUDY: To study the prevalence, type and severity of pain in patients with Parkinson’s disease. METHODS: This was an observational study that included 51 patients with Parkinson’s disease from the Movement disorder clinic in the Institute of Neurology, MMC, Chennai. A structured interview which included questions about the presence, type, severity of pain was administered. The disease characteristics like duration and stage of PD was also noted. The severity of pain was graded using the visual analog score. RESULTS: Out of the 51 patients included in the study, 33 (64.7%) had complaints of somatic pain. The most common localization of pain was to the lower back (33.33%) followed by the lower limbs (21.21%). Musculoskeletal cramping pain (57.6%) was the most common type followed by central, dull aching type of pain (24.24%). In the visual analog score, 63.64% of patients had a score between 5 and 8 indicating moderate severity. Duration since onset of motor symptoms and stage of Parkinson’s disease did not significantly correlate with the presence of pain. CONCLUSION: Pain is a common symptom in patients with Parkinson’s disease but has varying characteristics with subjective differences between patients and poor correlation with disease characteristics

A comparative study of intelligence in urban and rural children with mild mental retardation and dyslexia

Objectives: To assess and compare the level of intelligence in rural and urban male children with mild mental retardation and dyslexia. 120 rural and urban male children in the age group of 10 to 12 years with MMR and dyslexia were assessed and compared by using standard Binet-Kamat intelligence test. The difference in intelligence between urban and rural male MMR and dyslexic children showed a 't' value of 4.33. There was a significant difference in intelligence among urban and rural MMR, urban and rural dyslexic children with a 'p' value of < 0.01

Transvaginal sonographic cervical length assessment in predicting the outcome of induction of labor

Background: The aim of the study was to assess Bishop Score in women undergoing induction of labor followed by cervical length measurement by transvaginal sonography and to study the role of transvaginal sonographic cervical assessment in predicting outcome of induction of labor.Methods: This was a prospective observational study carried out in 300 pregnancy women undergoing induction of labor. In all the women, Bishop score was calculated by per vaginal examination and cervical length assessed by transvaginal ultrasound, both prior to induction of laborResults: This study has demonstrated that in singleton pregnancies undergoing induction of labor at 37-41 weeks of gestation, successful vaginal delivery within 24hrs of induction occurred in 66.8%. The study has also demonstrated that induction to delivery interval is significantly associated with both the preinduction Bishop score and sonographically measured cervical length, higher the Bishop score and lesser the cervical length, better the likelihood of vaginal delivery within 24 hrs of induction. The best cutoff point for successful induction was ≥3 for Bishop score and ≤2.5 cm for cervical length, which was obtained from the ROC curve.Conclusions: Cervical length assessment by transvaginal ultrasound was a better predictor of successful induction of labor.

Genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (Mol. Standl.) germplasm

The present investigation was conducted to determine the variability, heritability, genetic advance and correlation of fruit yield and ten different yield contributing characters in bottle&nbsp;gourd. Wide range of variation was observed for most of the characters like fruit yield/vine,&nbsp;fruit number/vine, fruit weight, fruit yield/ha and node number for first female flower&nbsp;appearance. Phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation&nbsp;for all the traits studied, indicating environmental influence on expression of these characters.&nbsp;However, high heritability (broad sense) along with high genetic advance was recorded by vinelength, branch number, fruit length, fruit width, fruit yield/vine and yield/ha indicating the presence of additive gene effects, hence selection can be employed for the improvement of these parameters. Fruit yield/ ha was significantly and positively associated with fruit number/vine and fruit yield/vine both at genotypic as well as phenotypic levels. Fruit number had maximum direct effect (0.812) on fruit yield/ha followed by fruit weight (0.407), fruit length (0.339), fruit width (0.310), fruit yield/vine (0.249), days taken for first female flower appearance (0.224) and vine length (0.173). Therefore for the yield improvement in bottle gourd, emphasismay be given for indirect selection through fruit parameters like fruit weight, fruit length,&nbsp;fruit number and fruit yield/vine

Efficacy and safety of racecadotril as an adjunct to oral rehydration therapy for acute watery diarrhea in children

Background: Racecadotril, an enkephalinase inhibitor with antisecretory action is a safe and effective treatment for acute diarrheafor children and adults. As an adjunct to oral rehydration therapy (ORT) in Indian children, its efficacy and safety data are scarce.Methods: A total of 117 children with acute watery diarrhea for not more than 7 days were randomized into two groups. Group A(control group) received ORT and zinc only while Group B (study group) received a combination of racecadotril (1.5 mg/kg q8 h),zinc and ORT. Primary end point was the number of loose stools during first 48 h of treatment. Time to cure as well as total volumeof oral rehydration solution (ORS) consumed was also measured. Results: Baseline characteristics were not significantly differentbetween the groups. Mean 48 h stool frequency in the study group was 10.47±3.2 episodes and that in control group was 15.87±4.6episodes indicating a significant reduction of 34.1% with racecadotril (p=0.00016). The mean time for recovery in the study groupwas 37.98±6.1 h and 51.02±9.4 h in control group indicating a significant reduction of 25.6% with racecadotril (p=0.002). Themean volume of ORS consumed before recovery in the study group was 162.72 ml as compared to 232.68 ml in control grouppointing to a significant reduction of 30.1% in the study group. Conclusions: Racecadotril is effective as an adjunct to ORT andearly continued feeding in infants and children with acute watery diarrhea

Prevalence and Correlates of Tobacco Use Among School-Going Adolescents in Madagascar

Approximately 90% of adults start smoking during adolescence, with limited studies conducted in low-and-middle-income countries where over 80% of global tobacco users reside. The study aims to estimate prevalence and identify predictors associated with adolescents\u27 tobacco use in Madagascar. We utilized tobacco-related information of 1184 school-going adolescents aged 13-15 years, representing a total of 296,111 youth from the 2008 Madagascar Global Youth Tobacco Survey to determine the prevalence of tobacco use. Gender-wise multivariable logistic regression models were conducted to identify key predictors.Approximately 19% (30.7% males; 10.2% females) of adolescents currently smoke cigarettes, and 7% (8.5% males and 5.8% females) currently use non-cigarette tobacco products. Regardless of sex, peer smoking behavior was significantly associated with increased tobacco use among adolescents. In addition, exposures to tobacco industry promotions, secondhand smoke (SHS) and anti-smoking media messages were associated with tobacco use. The strong gender gap in the use of non-cigarette tobacco products, and the role of peer smoking and industry promotions in adolescent females\u27 tobacco use should be of major advocacy and policy concern. A comprehensive tobacco control program integrating parental and peer education, creating social norms, and ban on promotions is necessary to reduce adolescents\u27 tobacco use

Porting Decision Tree Algorithms to Multicore using FastFlow

The whole computer hardware industry embraced multicores. For these machines, the extreme optimisation of sequential algorithms is no longer sufficient to squeeze the real machine power, which can be only exploited via thread-level parallelism. Decision tree algorithms exhibit natural concurrency that makes them suitable to be parallelised. This paper presents an approach for easy-yet-efficient porting of an implementation of the C4.5 algorithm on multicores. The parallel porting requires minimal changes to the original sequential code, and it is able to exploit up to 7X speedup on an Intel dual-quad core machine.Comment: 18 pages + cove

Microperforate hymen and labial fusion: an unusual case

Genital tract abnormalities are uncommon, occurring in approximately 7% of female population. Among these cases, hymenal abnormalities are the most frequent, with imperforate hymen occurring in 1 in 2000 girls. Imperforate and microperforate hymen is a congenital disorder of hymenal configuration which does not permit normal menstrual flow. We report a case of 26 year old primigravida at 28 weeks gestation with threatened preterm labor and was incidentally found to have fused labia minor and microperforate hymen. Scope examination through the hymen revealed a normal looking vagina and cervix. Urethral meatus was not made out. She was taken up for elective caesarean section at 37 weeks of gestation with hymenectomy. Intraoperatively, urethral orifice was identified after incising the fused labia minora. A uterine angle fibroid was found, myomectomy done. No uterine anomalies were noted

Study of biochemical and nutritional indicators in severe acute malnutrition: A prospective observational study

Background: Malnutrition in children is widely prevalent in developing countries including India. More than 33% of thedeaths in 0-5 years are associated with malnutrition. Children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) are in danger of death fromhypoglycemia, hypothermia, fluid overload, electrolyte mismanagement, and undetected infections. Hence, biochemical andnutritional indicators in these children are important for management. Objectives: To study the biochemical and nutritional indicatorsin children with SAM. Methods: This hospital based prospective study was conducted on children aged 6-59 months admitted atNutrition Rehabilitation Center attached to a tertiary care teaching institution. 100 consecutive SAM children admitted during2013-2015 were studied. Children were tested for biochemical and nutritional status like complete blood picture with peripheralsmear, liver function tests, renal function tests, serum electrolytes, calcium, phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase. Results: A totalof 100 cases were included, of these 57 were male and female were 43. Mean age of presentation was 18.45±2.37 months. A lack ofexclusive breastfeeding was seen in 67% of these children and in 78% children complimentary feeds were initiated either early orlater than 6 months. Hypoglycemia was seen in 15% cases, hypokalemia in 22%, and hypocalcemia in 35% of cases. Hyponatremiawas seen in 14% and hypernatremia in 19% of the children. The most common type of anemia was microcytic hypochromictype (55%). Conclusion: The observations in this study confirm a significant association between SAM and faulty feeding andearly introduction of complementary feeds. It was observed that these children have significant alterations in nutritional indicatorsat admission