Occurrence of Urinary Tract Infection in Adolescent and Adult Women of Shanty Town in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is commonly experienced by women of various age groups especially elderly ones. We planned to find out the prevalent microbial strains causing UTI in slum inhabitant adolescent and adult women in Dhaka City, Bangladesh.Methods amd Materials: Urine sample was collected from 462 UTI suspected female subjects. Pathogenic bacteria were identified using standard microbiological tests, and antimicrobial sensitivity profiles of the pathogens were determined.Results: Bacteriuria was present in 9% of the subjects. A higher incidence (16.8%) of UTI was noted among adult women aged above 19 years. Escherichia coli (69%), Streptococcus spp. (15%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7%) were more frequently isolated from the urine samples compared to Enterococcus faecalis (3%), Staphylococcus aureus (2%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (2%) and Hafnia alvei (2%). The E. coli isolates showed complete resistance to commonly used drugs, and 58% of these isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR). Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values for ciprofloxacin ranged between 64μg/ml and 512μg/ml, and the Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) values against the isolates were 128μg/ml or above. Isolated strains of E. coli exhibited equal extent of ciprofloxacin resistance irrespective of the presence or absence of plasmid in them.Conclusion: The extent of drug resistance among the uropathogens if ignored may render them uncontrollable. This study suggests regular monitoring of drug resistance phenotype of the UTI pathogens to reduce the morbidity of female UTI patients and offer better treatment strategy in the healthcare sectors of Bangladesh.Keywords: Urinary tract infection (UTI), Multidrug resistance (MDR), Adolescent wome

DTPA Captopril Renogram: Still an Invaluable Tool for Probability Assessment in Suspected Cases of Renovascular Hypertension

Background: Renovascular hypertension is a secondary form of hypertension which occurs due to renal artery stenosis and is potentially curable. The gold standard for diagnosis of this condition is renal angiography which is rather invasive. Captopril renography on the other hand is an established technique used for more than three decades for accurate and non-invasive diagnosis of significant renovascular hypertension. At NINMAS captopril renography is also used to screen renovascular hypertension and has been a routine procedure since the mid- nineties. Aim: The aim of the present study is to reassess the value of captopril renography test after two decades of its use at NINMAS.Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients who underwent DTPA Captopril renography for evaluation of renovascular hypertension at the National Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (NINMAS). Divisional archive was searched and patient's clinical record files were screened from January 2014- September 2015. In total thirty patients who had both baseline and post Captopril renography test during this period were selected and analyzed for the study.Results: Total 30 patients (male 21 and female 09, mean age 24± 5.5 years); were analyzed who completed both post Captopril and base line studies in two different days. The records showed that a baseline renal scintigraphy was performed with 370-444 MBq Tc-99m diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (Tc-99m DTPA renogram). Scintigraphy was repeated within a week with 25-50 mg of oral Captopril given 60 min prior to the test. Among the 30 patients studied, normal post-captopril renogram was revealed in 08(26%) cases, abnormal findings in 12(40%) , the study was not sensitive in 06 (20%) due to gross parenchyma impairment (GPI) and no change was found in 04(14%) cases. On the basis of diagnostic criteria for gradation for renal arterial stenosis in 12 abnormal finding of Captopril study, the findings were, grade-1 in 06(20%), grade-2 in 05(17%) and grade -3 in 01(3%) cases. After assessing time activity curve, glomerular filtration and renal split function the probability assessment of renal arterial stenosis (RAS) among the abnormal Captopril studies (n=12) were determined and the high probability for RAS was found in 05 (42%), indeterminate in 03(25%) and low probability in 04(33%) cases.Conclusion: Captopril renography is a sensitive test for detection of RVH in patients in whom the renal function is as yet unimpaired. Even though our study is severely limited by the lack of confirmatory renal angiogram data, yet we can conclude that captopril renogram by itself is of considerable value since it can predict the functional significance of the stenosis. Therefore we conclude that captopril renography can add value to the diagnosis of RVH and should remain a method of choice even in this era of Doppler Ultrasound.Bangladesh J. Nuclear Med. 18(2): 131-134, July 201

Semantically Aware Text Categorisation for Metadata Annotation

In this paper we illustrate a system aimed at solving a longstanding and challenging problem: acquiring a classifier to automatically annotate bibliographic records by starting from a huge set of unbalanced and unlabelled data. We illustrate the main features of the dataset, the learning algorithm adopted, and how it was used to discriminate philosophical documents from documents of other disciplines. One strength of our approach lies in the novel combination of a standard learning approach with a semantic one: the results of the acquired classifier are improved by accessing a semantic network containing conceptual information. We illustrate the experimentation by describing the construction rationale of training and test set, we report and discuss the obtained results and conclude by drawing future work.</p

Subclonal TP53 copy number is associated with prognosis in multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a genetically heterogeneous cancer of bone marrow plasma cells with variable outcome. To assess the prognostic relevance of clonal heterogeneity of TP53 copy number, we profiled tumors from 1777 newly diagnosed Myeloma XI trial patients with multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). Subclonal TP53 deletions were independently associated with shorter overall survival, with a hazard ratio of 1.8 (95% confidence interval, 1.2-2.8; P = .01). Clonal, but not subclonal, TP53 deletions were associated with clinical markers of advanced disease, specifically lower platelet counts (P < .001) and increased lactate dehydrogenase (P < .001), as well as a higher frequency of features indicative of genomic instability, del(13q) (P = .002) or del(1p) (P = .006). Biallelic TP53 loss-of-function by mutation and deletion was rare (2.4%) and associated with advanced disease. We present a framework for identifying subclonal TP53 deletions by MLPA, to improve patient stratification in MM and tailor therapy, enabling management strategies

Skin color-specific and spectrally-selective naked-eye dosimetry of UVA, B and C radiations

Spectrally–selective monitoring of ultraviolet radiations (UVR) is of paramount importance across diverse fields, including effective monitoring of excessive solar exposure. Current UV sensors cannot differentiate between UVA, B, and C, each of which has a remarkably different impact on human health. Here we show spectrally selective colorimetric monitoring of UVR by developing a photoelectrochromic ink that consists of a multi-redox polyoxometalate and an e− donor. We combine this ink with simple components such as filter paper and transparency sheets to fabricate low-cost sensors that provide naked-eye monitoring of UVR, even at low doses typically encountered during solar exposure. Importantly, the diverse UV tolerance of different skin colors demands personalized sensors. In this spirit, we demonstrate the customized design of robust real-time solar UV dosimeters to meet the specific need of different skin phototypes. These spectrally–selective UV sensors offer remarkable potential in managing the impact of UVR in our day-to-day life

Comparison of Promoter Hypermethylation Pattern in Salivary Rinses Collected with and without an Exfoliating Brush from Patients with HNSCC

Background: Salivary rinses have been recently proposed as a valuable resource for the development of epigenetic biomarkers for detection and monitoring of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Both salivary rinses collected with and without an exfoliating brush from patients with HNSCC are used in detection of promoter hypermethylation, yet their correlation of promoter hypermethylation has not been evaluated. This study was to evaluate the concordance of promoter hypermethylation between salivary rinses collected with and without an exfoliating brush from patients with HNSCC. Methodolgy: 57 paired salivary rinses collected with or without an exfoliating brush from identical HNSCC patients were evaluated for promoter hypermethylation status using Quantitative Methylation-Specific PCR. Target tumor suppressor gene promoter regions were selected based on our previous studies describing a panel for HNSCC screening an

Low-dose retinoic acid enhances in vitro invasiveness of human oral squamous-cell-carcinoma cell lines

Retinoids inhibit the proliferation of several types of tumour cells, and are used for patients with several malignant tumours. In this study, we examined the effect of retinoic acids (RAs) on the invasive potentials of the oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cells, BHY and HNt. BHY cells expressed all of retinoid nuclear receptors (RARα, β, γ, and RXRα) and cytoplasmic retinoic acid binding proteins (CRABP1 and CRABP2). HNt cells lacked the expression of RARβ, but expressed other nuclear receptors and CRABPs. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and 13-cis retinoic acid (13-cisRA) (10−6and 10−7M) inhibited the growth of the cells, but low-dose ATRA and 13-cisRA (10−8M) marginally affected the growth of the cells. Surprisingly, low-dose RAs enhanced the activity of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), and activated pro-matrix metalloproteinases (proMMP2 and proMMP9). Activation of proMMP2 and proMMP9 was inhibited by aprotinin, a serine-proteinase, tPA inhibitor. Furthermore, low-dose RAs enhanced the in vitro invasiveness of BHY cells. These results indicate that low-dose RAs enhances the in vitro invasiveness of oral SCC cells via an activation of proMMP2 and proMMP9 probably mediated by the induction of tPA. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Clonal evolution in myeloma: the impact of maintenance lenalidomide and depth of response on the genetics and sub-clonal structure of relapsed disease in uniformly treated newly diagnosed patients

The emergence of treatment resistant sub-clones is a key feature of relapse in multiple myeloma. Therapeutic attempts to extend remission and prevent relapse include the maximisation of response and use of maintenance therapy. We used whole exome sequencing to study the genetics of paired presentation and relapse samples from 56 newly diagnosed patients, following induction therapy, randomised to receive either lenalidomide maintenance or observation as part of the Myeloma XI trial. Patients included were considered high risk, relapsing within 30 months of maintenance randomisation. Patients achieving a complete response had predominantly branching evolutionary patterns leading to relapse, characterised by a greater mutational burden, an altered mutational profile, bi-allelic inactivation of tumour suppressor genes, and acquired structural aberrations. Conversely, in patients achieving a partial response the evolutionary features were predominantly stable with a similar mutational and structural profile. There were no significant differences between patients relapsing after maintenance lenalidomide vs observation. This study shows that the depth of response is a key determinant of the evolutionary patterns seen at relapse

Bioaccumulation and ecotoxicity of carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have numerous industrial applications and may be released to the environment. In the aquatic environment, pristine or functionalized CNT have different dispersion behavior, potentially leading to different risks of exposure along the water column. Data included in this review indicate that CNT do not cross biological barriers readily. When internalized, only a minimal fraction of CNT translocate into organism body compartments. The reported CNT toxicity depends on exposure conditions, model organism, CNT-type, dispersion state and concentration. In the ecotoxicological tests, the aquatic organisms were generally found to be more sensitive than terrestrial organisms. Invertebrates were more sensitive than vertebrates. Single-walled CNT were found to be more toxic than double-/multi-walled CNT. Generally, the effect concentrations documented in literature were above current modeled average environmental concentrations. Measurement data are needed for estimation of environmental no-effect concentrations. Future studies with benchmark materials are needed to generate comparable results. Studies have to include better characterization of the starting materials, of the dispersions and of the biological fate, to obtain better knowledge of the exposure/effect relationships