Novel use of balloon tamponade saves a patient with uterine inversion in severe shock

A patient with G1P0 status 38 weeks pregnancy with pain with no high risk delivered at PHC, Hatod, Madhya Pradesh (India). She delivered a male baby by spontaneous vaginal delivery of 3.1 kg. All of sudden after 2nd stage of labour, her 3rd stage of labour was eventful. Placenta did not come out spontaneously so controlled cord traction was given by the ANM over the PHC. She was given intramuscular oxytocin 5 IU. She did the traction with proper care but inspite of that while doing so placenta got separated but there was complete uterine inversion. ANM herself tried to reposit the uterus but could not do so. So ANM immediately referred her from PHC to MYH, Indore, Madhya Pradesh (India).

A prospective randomized comparative study of Misoprostol and balloon tamponade using condom catheter to prevent postpartum hemorrhage at M. Y. H., Indore, India in vaginal delivered patients

Background: PPH is responsible for quarter of maternal deaths occurring worldwide and its incidence is increasing in developed world. According to Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) report obstetric hemorrhage occurs in around3.7 per 1000 births. The objective of the study is that it was a prospective randomized comparative study of misoprostol and balloon tamponade via condom catheter to prevent postpartum hemorrhage in normal delivered patients at MYH.Methods: A sample size of 200 normal delivered patients between age group 18 and 45 years is chosen with excessive bleeding after third stage of labour and after administration of oxytocics. These 200 patients are divided into two groups: First group receiving Misoprostol and applying condom catheter in other group. Both groups are evaluated for PPH.Results: It was found that CG balloon condom catheter was a much better and more effective alternative in controlling PPH than Misoprostol as the failure rate with CG balloon condom catheter were  much less than that  with misoprostol. Due to its cost effectiveness and being easily available at primary health center and due to absence of any drug reactions and easy technique of formation makes it a better modality in controlling PPH even at PHC.Conclusions: Patients with condom catheter in situ must show better result than patients receiving misoprostol

Perinatal outcome in cases of severe oligohydramnios

Background: Oligohydramnios is defined as when on ultrasonography the single largest pocket in horizontal and vertical diameter is less than 2cm or amniotic fluid index is less than 5cm. Normal amniotic fluid index is 5-25cm. The overall incidence is 0.5 to more than 5%. However, the incidence increases in post dated pregnancies as many as 11%. It is increasing these days because of changes in lifestyle and also reduced maternal fluid intake.Methods: A prospective randomized study was done in Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, MGMMC and MYH, Indore during the period of 6 months from 1st July 2017 to 31st December 2017. It included 200 cases from all the antenatal patients attending Antenatal OPD in routine and emergency and who are admitted in MYH beyond 28 weeks of pregnancy.Results: Most of the perinatal cases nearly 64% of babies were handover, 26% were IUDs (intra uterine devices) and rest 10% requiring neonatal care in nursery. The color Doppler changes showed normal flow in 54% in cases with 26% showing early fetal hypoxia and 14% showing uteroplacental insufficiency. Rest of the 6% cases were IUD. Incidence of IUGR was 50% in babies most commonly being constitutionally small. About 8% cases were found to be associated with abruption and 24% cases were found to be associated with pregnancy induced hypertension. Most common mode of delivery was vaginal delivery in 68% cases. However, 32% cases underwent LSCS.Conclusions: There has been reported cases of sudden IUD in severe oligohydramnios presenting with loss of fetal movements

Role of serum progesterone in threatened miscarriage

Background: Miscarriage is the inadvertent loss of a pregnancy before the fetus is viable. The World Health Organization defines this un-survivable state as an embryo or fetus weighing 500 grams or less, which typically corresponds to a fetal age (gestational age) of 20 to 22 weeks or less.Methods: The present study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, M. G. M. Medical College and M.Y. Hospital, Indore from October 2013 to October 2014 on 100 patients.Results: The incidence of first trimester threatened miscarriage, in the Gynaec O.P.D. of M.Y. Hospital, Indore, was 8.8%. The most common risk factor was a history of previous miscarriages in 38% of cases while 9% had advanced maternal age and 35% had advanced paternal age. History of preterm labour was positive in 25% cases and that of congenital anomaly in previous pregnancy in 7% cases. UTI and vaginitis were diagnosed in 10% and 11% cases respectively. Systemic illness was in 24% cases while 6% cases had endocrine disorders. On USG missed miscarriage was found in 8% inconclusive ultrasound was found in 34% cases, rest were normal. Of the 38 cases giving history of previous 1, 2, 3 and more than or equal to 4 miscarriages were 22%, 6%, 8% and 2 % respectively. 36% of the patients presented with bleeding per vaginum. only while 30% had bleeding with pain and 33% cases had only pain in abdomen. On USG 58% had normal scans. USG scan was inconclusive in 34% and only 35% continued with viable pregnancy, rest aborted. 7 of the 100 cases had preterm labour and 51 cases continued to term. Rest 42 aborted. H/o contact, travel, trauma, heavy work did not have any statistically proven effect on outcome of pregnancy.Conclusions: Progesterone assays are currently available in most immunoassay platforms and have shown excellent performance in terms of assay sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and precision with rapid turnaround times. Furthermore, the cost per test for progesterone assay is affordable. Several studies have shown that progesterone is the most specific biomarker for distinguishing viable from nonviable pregnancies. The downfall of progesterone as a biomarker is due to the different cut-off values used by researchers. The cut-off values were also determined on different study populations

Rational truncation of aptamer for cross-species application to detect krait envenomation

Abstract In majority of snakebite cases, the snake responsible for the bite remains unidentified. The traditional snakebite diagnostics method relies upon clinical symptoms and blood coagulation assays that do not provide accurate diagnosis which is important for epidemiological as well as diagnostics point of view. On the other hand, high batch-to-batch variations in antibody performance limit its application for diagnostic assays. In recent years, nucleic acid aptamers have emerged as a strong chemical rival of antibodies due to several obvious advantages, including but not limited to in vitro generation, synthetic nature, ease of functionalization, high stability and adaptability to various diagnostic formats. In the current study, we have rationally truncated an aptamer developed for α-Toxin of Bungarus multicinctus and demonstrated its utility for the detection of venom of Bungarus caeruleus. The truncated aptamer α-Tox-T2 (26mer) is found to have greater affinity than its 40-mer parent counterpart α-Tox-FL. The truncated aptamers are characterized and compared with parent aptamer for their binding, selectivity, affinity, alteration in secondary structure and limit of detection. Altogether, our findings establish the cross-species application of a DNA aptamer generated for α-Toxin of Bungarus multicinctus (a snake found in Taiwan and China) for the reliable detection of venom of Bungarus caeruleus (a snake found in the Indian subcontinent)

Open Access Extracts from Acacia catechu suppress HIV-1 replication by inhibiting the activities of the viral

Background: Acacia catechu (Mimosa family) stem bark extracts have been used traditionally as a dietary supplement as well as a folk medicine given its reported anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-microbial and anti-tumor activities. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the anti-HIV-1 activity of the extracts from stem bark of A. catechu. Methods: The aqueous and 50 % ethanolic extracts of A. catechu stem bark were prepared and 50 % ethanolic extract was further fractioned by successively partitioning with petroleum ether, chloroform and n-butanol. All the extracts and fractions were evaluated for cytotoxicity and anti-HIV-1 activity using different in vitro assays. The active n-butanol fraction was evaluated for its inhibition against HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, integrase, protease, pro-viral genome integration and viral Tat protein mediated transactivation. The effect of n-butanol fraction on the induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion in Vk2/E6E7 cells and transepithelial resistance in Caco-2 and HEC-1A cells was investigated. Results: The aqueous and 50 % ethanolic extracts of A. catechu showed IC50 values of 1.8 ± 0.18 μg/ml and 3.6 ± 0.31 μg/ml, respectively in cell-free virus based assay using TZM-bl cells and HIV-1NL4.3 (X-4 tropic). In the above assay, n-butanol fraction exhibited anti-HIV-1 activity with an IC50 of 1.7 ± 0.12 μg/ml. The n-butanol fractio

Effects of Mavacamten on Measures of Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Beyond Peak Oxygen Consumption: A Secondary Analysis of the EXPLORER-HCM Randomized Trial

IMPORTANCE: Mavacamten, a cardiac myosin inhibitor, improved peak oxygen uptake (pVO2) in patients with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in the EXPLORER-HCM study. However, the full extent of mavacamten's effects on exercise performance remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of mavacamten on exercise physiology using cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Exploratory analyses of the data from the EXPLORER-HCM study, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial that was conducted in 68 cardiovascular centers in 13 countries. In total, 251 patients with symptomatic obstructive HCM were enrolled. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to mavacamten or placebo. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The following prespecified exploratory cardiovascular and performance parameters were assessed with a standardized treadmill or bicycle ergometer test protocol at baseline and week 30: carbon dioxide output (VCO2), minute ventilation (VE), peak VE/VCO2 ratio, ventilatory efficiency (VE/VCO2 slope), peak respiratory exchange ratio (RER), peak circulatory power, ventilatory power, ventilatory threshold, peak metabolic equivalents (METs), peak exercise time, partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide (PETCO2), and VO2/workload slope. RESULTS: Two hundred fifty-one patients were enrolled. The mean (SD) age was 58.5 (11.9) years and 59% of patients were male. There were significant improvements with mavacamten vs placebo in the following peak-exercise CPET parameters: peak VE/VCO2 ratio (least squares [LS] mean difference, -2.2; 95% CI, -3.05 to -1.26; P < .001), peak METs (LS mean difference, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.17-0.60; P < .001), peak circulatory power (LS mean difference, 372.9 mL/kg/min × mm Hg; 95% CI, 153.12-592.61; P = .001), and peak PETCO2 (LS mean difference, 2.0 mm Hg; 95% CI, 1.12-2.79; P < .001). Mavacamten also improved peak exercise time compared with placebo (LS mean difference, 0.7 minutes; 95% CI, 0.13-1.24; P = .02). There was a significant improvement in nonpeak-exercise CPET parameters, such as VE/VCO2 slope (LS mean difference, -2.6; 95% CI, -3.58 to -1.52; P < .001) and ventilatory power (LS mean difference, 0.6 mm Hg; 95% CI, 0.29-0.90; P < .001) favoring mavacamten vs placebo. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Mavacamten improved a range of CPET parameters beyond pVO2, indicating consistent and broad benefits on maximal exercise capacity. Although improvements in peak-exercise CPET parameters are clinically meaningful, the favorable effects of mavacamten on submaximal exertional tolerance provide further insights into the beneficial impact of mavacamten in patients with obstructive HCM. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03470545

Persistencia de malezas gramíneas en cultivos de trigo del sudeste bonaerense

En la presente tesis se estudió la persistencia de especies poáceas en cultivos de trigo del sudeste de Buenos Aires. En dicha región, Avena fatua L. y Lolium multiflorum Lam. son las malezas poáceas más importantes, tanto por la dificultad de control como por sus efectos competitivos sobre el cultivo. A los efectos de cuantificar la persistencia de dichas especies, se estudió la composición de la comunidad de malezas en dos momentos del ciclo: preaplicación de herbicidas y precosecha. Individuos de ambas malezas fueron registrados en ambos momentos como consecuencia de “escapes” al control realizado con herbicidas, siendo A. fatua más constante que L. mutiflorum. Posteriormente, se estudiaron los procesos que definen la persistencia de ambas malezas. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el ajuste del momento de emergencia es jerárquicamente el factor más importante para explicar la persistencia de A. fatua. Se demostró que los modelos de germinación son diferentes según las semillas provengan de un lote agrícola o de una condición de no cultivo, siendo estas diferencias de naturaleza genética. Por otro lado, la variabilidad en la supervivencia a los herbicidas es el factor que mejor explica la persistencia de L. multiflorum, habiéndose documentado resistencia cruzada a los herbicidas inhibidores de la ALS, pyroxsulam, imazamox y flucarbazone, sin antecedentes previos en la región. Los índices de resistencia encontrados presentan variación con la temperatura ambiente en post-aplicación del herbicida, habiéndose registrado mayor resistencia con mayor temperatura. Además, se comprobó que los individuos resistentes presentan menor tiempo a floración que los susceptibles. Tal atributo puede significar una ventaja demográfica para dichas poblaciones. Queda así demostrada la persistencia de A. fatua y L. multiflorum durante el ciclo del cultivo más allá de las prácticas de control realizadas y la participación de dos procesos demográficos distintos (establecimiento y supervivencia) en dicha persistencia

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation