Assessment of malnutrition in patients with liver cirrhosis using protein calorie malnutrition (PCM) score verses bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA)

Objective: Malnutrition is a common problem in patients with liver cirrhosis and tools for nutritional assessment are under debate. We conducted this study to assess prevalence of malnutrition in cirrhotic patients using PCM score and BIA. Additionally we compared BIA to PCM score for detecting malnutrition in this patient population. Results: This was a cross sectional study conducted in two tertiary care hospitals of Karachi Pakistan on adults with liver cirrhosis. Malnutrition was assessed by PCM score using anthropometric measurements and biological specimens and (ii) Body cell mass was assessed using BIA. Malnutrition as estimated by the PCM score was present in 122 (73%) of patients in which most patients had mild malnutrition (n = 72 (45%)), followed by 34 (21%) with moderate malnutrition and 3 (1.9%) with severe malnutrition. Malnutrition according to BIA estimated through body cell mass could detect it in 98 (61%) of patients. There was optimal correlation of PCM score with body call mass (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.3 (p value 0.001)). We conclude that majority of the patients with liver cirrhosis had malnutrition as determined by PCM score. BIA underscored the malnutrition in this patient population

Post-partum right ovarian vein thrombosis mimicking acute appendicitis: a rare entity

Postpartum ovarian vein thrombosis (OVT) is a rare condition that must be distinguished from other causes of acute abdominal pain because it presents with non-specific, predominantly lower abdominal pain. If the right ovarian vein is involved, pain would be predominantly right-sided and may be missed for acute appendicitis. OVT has been reported to occur in 0.05% to 0.18% in the postpartum period following normal vaginal deliveries, and in up to 2% following caesarean sections. Untreated, postpartum OVT can lead to serious consequences such as sepsis, pulmonary embolism, and even death. We share a case that was admitted to our hospital with symptoms of acute appendicitis that proved later to be due to postpartum ovarian thrombosis. A 28-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital on her 4th postpartum day, following a spontaneous vaginal delivery of a live born full term female baby, complaining of anorexia, nausea, and abdominal pain in her right lower quadrant accompanied by low grade fever. On examination, she appeared ill and had a significant tenderness in her right lower quadrant. An ultrasonography did not reveal any abnormality and did not visualize her appendix. Patient was referred to a consultant gynecologist and was discharged as having no obstetric nor gynaecological cause of her complaint. Patient was admitted to general surgery department where a venography CT of her abdomen confirmed a thrombus in the right ovarian vein with a normal appendix. Blood tests were positive for anticardiolipin. Patient was treated conservatively and responded well to treatment with low molecular weight heparin and antibiotics. OVT is a rare disease, occurring mostly in the postpartum period. Rapid diagnosis is needed to prevent serious consequences and unnecessary surgical procedures, especially when mimicking an acute abdomen

An immunohistochemical analysis of stathmin 1 expression in uterine smooth muscle tumors: differential expression in leiomyosarcomas and leiomyomas

The oncogenic phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-AKT-mammlian target of rapamycin pathway (PI3K-AKT-mTOR) pathway is known to be activated in uterine smooth muscle tumors, and Stathmin 1 (STMN1) expression has been identified as a marker of PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway activation. We hypothesized that STMN1 may have some diagnostic utility and explored how well STMN1 expression correlated with histologic classifications of uterine smooth muscle tumors into benign and malignant groupings. 84 smooth muscle tumors were assessed for STMN1 expression by immunohistochemistry. These included spindle cell leiomyosarcoma (n=32), conventional spindle cell leiomyomas (n=30), atypical (symplastic) leiomyoma (n=5), cellular leiomyoma (n=7), smooth muscle tumor of uncertain malignant potential (n=4), mitotically active leiomyomas (n=2), benign metastasizing leiomyoma (n=3), and cotyledonoid dissecting leiomyoma (n=1). All spindle cell leiomyosarcomas were positive (32/32 positive; 100%) as compared with conventional leiomyomata (11/30; 37%) (

HI galaxies with little star formation: an abundance of LIERs

We present a sample of 91 HI galaxies with little or no star formation and discuss the analysis of the integral field unit (IFU) spectra of 28 of these galaxies. We identified HI galaxies from the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey Catalog (HICAT) with Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) colours consistent with low specific star formation (< 10$^{-10.4}$ yr$^{-1}$), and obtained optical IFU spectra with the Wide-Field Spectrograph (WiFeS). Visual inspection of the PanSTARRS, Dark Energy Survey, and Carnegie-Irvine imaging of 62 galaxies reveals that at least 32 galaxies in the sample have low levels of star formation, primarily in arms/rings. New IFU spectra of 28 of these galaxies reveal 3 galaxies with central star formation, 1 galaxy with low-ionisation nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs), 20 with extended low-ionisation emission-line regions (LIERs) and 4 with high excitation Seyfert (Sy) emission. From the spectroscopic analysis of HI-selected galaxies with little star formation, we conclude that 75% of this population are LINERs/LIERs

Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa

To ensure global food security under the changing climate, there is a strong need for developing ‘climate resilient crops’ that can thrive and produce better yields under extreme environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, and high temperature. To enhance plant productivity under the adverse conditions, we constitutively overexpressed a bifunctional wax synthase/acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WSD1) gene, which plays a critical role in wax ester synthesis in Arabidopsis stem and leaf tissues. The qRT-PCR analysis showed a strong upregulation of WSD1 transcripts by mannitol, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments, particularly in Arabidopsis thaliana shoots. Gas chromatography and electron microscopy analyses of Arabidopsis seedlings overexpressing WSD1 showed higher deposition of epicuticular wax crystals and increased leaf and stem wax loading in WSD1 transgenics compared to wildtype (WT) plants. WSD1 transgenics exhibited enhanced tolerance to ABA, mannitol, drought and salinity, which suggested new physiological roles for WSD1 in stress response aside from its wax synthase activity. Transgenic plants were able to recover from drought and salinity better than the WT plants. Furthermore, transgenics showed reduced cuticular transpirational rates and cuticle permeability, as well as less chlorophyll leaching than the WT. The knowledge from Arabidopsis was translated to the oilseed crop Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz. Similar to Arabidopsis, transgenic Camelina lines overexpressing WSD1 also showed enhanced tolerance to drought stress. Our results clearly show that the manipulation of cuticular waxes will be advantageous for enhancing plant productivity under a changing climate

Synthesis, characterization of 2-substituted benzimidazole derivatives and evaluation of antimicrobial activity

Benzimidazole has attracted a great deal of importance due to their interesting chemistry and wide utility. Benzimidazole has wide range of uses and applications and is produced in great quantities throughout the world. The current research work was aim to evaluate the in vitro antifungal activity of series of benzimidazole derivatives. A series of benzimidazole derivatives were synthesized by reacting the various amine derivatives of o phenylene diame with carbon disulphide in presence of Potassium hydroxide. All the bis derivatives were characterized by IR, 1H NMR and chromatography method (TLC). The antibacterial activity was evaluated by their MIC and zone of inhibition of synthesized compounds by taking ciprofloxacin as reference standard. The microbiological assay revealed that the compounds show promising antibacterial activity. Keywords: Ciprofloxacin, Benzimidazole, antibacterial activity

Isolation of 3β-hydroxyolean-12-ene and related triterpenoids from the leaves of Terminalia arjuna

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