A prospective comparative study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of mifepristone with misoprostol over misoprostol alone in induction of labour

Background: The clinical requirement for induction of labour arises from circumstances in which it is predicted that the outcome of the pregnancy will be better if it is artificially interrupted rather than being left to follow its natural course. The combination of Mifepristone and Misoprostol is now an established and highly effective and safe method for second and third trimester termination of pregnancy and also significantly reduces the induction delivery interval, has fewer side effects and complications and also reduces the dose of Misoprostol. Hence, an attempt is made in the present study to assess the efficacy of combination of Mifepristone and Misoprostol versus single drug Misoprostol alone for induction of labor.Methods: A prospective comparative study of 50 cases in each study group, one under Misoprostol induction (group 1) and one under Mifepristone plus Misoprostol induction (group 2) were done and observations made in terms of improvement in Bishop’s score, induction-delivery interval and requirement of subsequent doses of Misoprostol.Results: 64% of the patients were observed with improved Bishop’s score. Induction delivery interval was shorter in the group 2 and noteworthy feature is 46% patients did not require even a single dose of Misoprostol after cervical ripening with Mifepristone suggesting that only Mifepristone may be only drug required in future for induction.Conclusions: Mifepristone with Misoprostol is efficient combination for induction of labour as compared to Misoprostol alone

Outcome of expectant line of management in early onset (24-32weeks) pregnancy induced hypertension

Background: Preeclampsia is a disease of multiple organ systems that is unique to pregnancy and is often associated with increased risk of maternal-perinatal adverse outcome, especially when it is severe and occurs well before term.The objective of the study was to study expectant line of management in early onset pregnancy induced hypertension (24-32 weeks) and its maternal and perinatal outcome in relation to preterm delivery, IUD/ Still birth, and early neonatal deaths.Methods: Total 100 patients presented with early onset pregnancy induced hypertension admitted in Pravara Medical College and Hospital. 50 patient’s pregnancy terminated (Aggressive Group) depending on patients clinical profile and other 50 patients given expectant line of management and pregnancy was prolonged (Expectant Group). Maternal and perinatal outcome was compared between the two groups.Results: No maternal mortality was seen in both groups.Perinatal mortality in aggressive line of management was 54% while in expectant line of management perinatal mortality was 30%. Neonatal deaths account for 24% in aggressive group and 10% in expectant group. Fetal survival rate in expectant group was 70% and in aggressive group it was 46%.Conclusions: Expectant management of severe preeclampsia at 24 to 32 weeks in a tertiary care center is associated with good perinatal outcome with a minimal risk for the mother.The early use of antihypertensive drugs, optimum timing of delivery and strict fluid balance will help to achieve successful outcome

Environmental life cycle assessment of emerging solid-state batteries: A review

Energy storage systems are main drivers in various fields, especially in the context of energy and mobility transition. Battery technologies are one of those options offering good technical performance in multiple stationary and mobile applications. New batteries having potentially high energy density and higher safety with lower cost are in particular ideal candidates for mobility applications. At present especially, lithium-ion batteries are used, but they are facing challenges regarding sustainability and safety issues, which can be quantitatively analyzed with Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). New developments regarding various solid-state batteries (SSBs) are very promising to tackle these challenges, but only very few studies are available on the environmental assessment of SSBs. Prospective LCA methodology is used here to analyze the environmental hotspots over the different life cycle phases for emerging SSBs. This also helps in decisions making at an early stage of development. This review critically analyzes available LCA studies on SSBs focusing on the inventory data, scope of the assessment as well as the life cycle impact assessment results. An effort has been made to compare the different LCA studies considering global warming potential indicator. As a results, the analysis highlights difficulties in comparability due to inconsistencies associated with the data sources, goal and scope, system boundaries and the method of impact assessment etc. To facilitate a consistent comparison, a unification methodology has been proposed to compare different LCAs of SSBs. Overall, the proposed methodology will help to fill the knowledge gap between different existing LCA studies on emerging solid-state battery technologies and provides recommendations for future assessments

Pharmacological effects of aqueous–ethanolic extract of Hibiscus rosasinensis on volume and acidity of stimulated gastric secretion

ObjectiveTo explore the effects of extract of Hibiscus rosasinensis (H. rosasinensis) on the volume, free and total acidity of gastric secretion induced by carbachol.MethodsAnimals were kept on fasting for 48 h, then the pylorus of each animal was ligated. They were randomly divided into 5 groups and treated by carbachol at 600 μg/kg. Then animals in group II – V were treated by H. rosasinensis extract at 250 and 500 mg/kg body weight, cimetidine at 2.5 mg/kg and verapamil at 10 mg/kg body weight intraperitoneally, respectively. The volume, free and total acidity of gastric secretion were observed and compared.ResultsIt was found that the extract significantly reduced the volume, free and total acidity of gastric secretion (P<0.01). These reductions were comparable to cimetidine and verapamil. And the reduction in the volume and free acidity were more significant in cimetidine and verapamil treated group indicating that cimetidine and verapamil were more effective.ConclusionsThe extract of H. rosasinensis can reduced the volume, free and total acidity of gastric secretion, and can be used effectively in the treatment of peptic ulcer

Suicidal attempt by woman in labor

Suicidal ideation during delivery is extremely rare. Very few cases have been reported in the literature. Unwanted pregnancies, pre-existent mental disorders, substance abuse or addictions, marital dis-harmony, fetal demise or stillbirths have been documented as associated factors in reported cases of suicidal attempts by women in labour. Women tried taking overdose of sedative pills or have attempted hanging, drowning or jumping from hospital terrace. Lack of prenatal education, suboptimum use of labour analgesia, ill-treatment by health professional and relatives have been the contributory factors for suicidal ideation during pregnancy and labour. We report a rare case of attempted suicide by woman in active labour. She tried to cut the forearm and wrists with the help of razor blade used for preparation of part in preparation room attached to the labour room. The situation was recognized early by vigilant nurse on duty. The woman was resuscitated, treated, and counselled by psychiatrist before discharge from the hospital.

Investigation of Cyperus Rotundus Root Extract on Diabetic Complications in Rats with Alloxan-Induced Diabetes

Background and Introduction: The prevalence of hyperglycemic diseases known collectively as diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the current century. Diabetics are particularly vulnerable to infections, which can have devastating health consequences. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of an aqueous extract of Cyperus rotundus roots on diabetic complications in rats with diabetes caused by Alloxan. Martial and Methods: Specifically: Alloxan monohydrate, Borosilicate, and a diagnostic kit. Specifically: a diagnostic kit, a phrase, or a paraphrase. Centrifuge Micropippet, Glucose check monitoring device, electronic digital scales, EDDY's Hot plate analgesometer MK-11, and the Biofuse pico. All chemicals employed were of the AR grade variety, including the alloxan monohydrate, metformin, chloroform, diethyl ether, and ethyl ether.Results: No deaths or toxicity symptoms were observed in the AECR acute toxicity test in mice, indicating that the extract was well tolerated and the test doses were safe in the animals. The effect of AECR on fasting blood glucose level in alloxan-induced diabetic rats was measured using an auto analyzer glucose kit to determine the compound's antidiabetic activity. The plasma or blood glucose level is measured after an individual has fasted as part of a carbohydrate metabolic test. The hormone glucagon is secreted into the bloodstream during fasting to facilitate the catabolic release of glucose. Conclusion: The results show that in alloxan-induced diabetic rats, the oral administration of an aqueous extract of Cyperus rotundus exhibited neuroprotective, nephroprotective, and hepatoprotective activities by increasing insulin production and decreasing glucogan production and an SGOT snd SGPT level

Ethanol from Indian agro-industrial lignocellulosic biomass—a life cycle evaluation of energy, greenhouse gases, land and water

Purpose: India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Energy is a critical input for socio-economic development, and its strategy aims at efficiency and security. To provide access to environmentally friendly energy resources, the national biofuel policy targets cellulosic feedstocks which necessitates analysing feedstocks using holistic approaches. This paper studies the life cycle impact of ethanol production from cellulosic agricultural feedstocks. Methods: The difficulty of finding appropriate life cycle inventory data for the analysed biofuels in the Indian context is overcome by combining data from diverse sources such as journal articles, government reports and personal contact with farmers. Variation in these numbers across studies is captured by means of error bars. These data are used to calculate environmental sustainability metrics such as energy return on investment, life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and life cycle water use for each fuel. Biomass sources considered in this work include cellulose from wheat stalk, rice husk, sorghum stalk, sugarcane bagasse and cotton stalk. These results are compared with ethanol from molasses and sugarcane juice, which are the conventional approaches. Results and Discussion: Results of the analysis indicate that sorghum stalk is most attractive due to its high energy return on investment, low greenhouse gas emissions, and low water and land use. Ethanol from rice husk has relatively high water use and greenhouse gas emissions, but these are within the margin of variability of other fuels. Despite the attractiveness of sorghum stalk from the current analysis, it is not likely that this will become a major feedstock for cellulosic ethanol in India. This is because farmers value sorghum as an animal feed and may not be willing to convert it into ethanol. Conclusions: This is the first life cycle study of Indian cellulosic biofuel pathways. The inventory data collected in this work is a novel contribution that should be useful for other studies. Findings from the analysis can help guide the decision-making process in the biofuel sector for India

Conversion of vine shoots into bioethanol and chemicals: Prospective LCA of biorefinery concept

Vine shoots are the viticulture residues generated in high quantities after the grapevine pruning. They are lignocellulosic material poorly exploited as feedstock. These wastes are often dumped in the agriculture fields or burnt. Due to their availability and relatively low price, vine shoots are considered as potential feedstock for biochemical conversion into value-added products. In this work, two biorefinery scenarios using vine shoots as feedstock to co-produce chemicals are assessed from an environmental point of view: production of lactic acid, and co-production of lactic acid and furfural. A CHP area was considered to be annexed to the plants to produce heat and electricity for internal use. The Aspen Plus and SimaPro commercial software were used to perform the LCA of the selected scenarios. The assessed scenarios demonstrate significant reductions in climate change, fossil fuel depletion, freshwater ecotoxicity and eutrophication and human toxicity impacts compared to their counterfactual systems

Ethanol from Indian agro-industrial lignocellulosic biomass: an emergy evaluation

This study assesses the environmental performance of biomass feedstocks, rice husk, wheat stalk, cotton stalk, sorghum stalk, and sugarcane bagasse, for ethanol production in India. The analysis calculates emergy indicators and demonstrates the dilemma in selection of biomass feedstocks for meeting the ethanol blending target decided by the biofuel policy of the Government of India. It considers spatial variability, and computes the production potential of each lignocellulosic feedstock considered in the study. Achieving high return on energy invested, high renewability, and large production rates simultaneously seems difficult for the considered feedstocks. Among these cellulosic feedstocks, rice husk shows highest renewability and ethanol production potential. Although sorghum stalk has a high return on investment, it has lowest renewability among the feedstocks considered in the study. Rice husk and cotton stalk should be targeted first to fulfil the blending demand of gasoline as they show highest renewability and quality corrected emergy return on investment, along with a high production potential. Emergy analysis of cellulosic biofuels can provide a holistic platform for decision makers for designing the biofuel policy and selection of feedstock in the Indian context

Role of the Rosa canina L. leaf extract as an antidiarrheal drug in rodents

Objectives: The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of the leaf extract of Rosa canina L. against experimental diarrhea induced by castor oil in rodents. Materials and Methods: The methanol extract of Rosa canina L. (30 and 60 mg/kg body weight) was administered orally to two groups of mice (five animals per group) in order to evaluate the activity of the extract against the castor oil-induced diarrhea model in mice. Two other groups received normal saline and diphenoxylate (5 mg/kg) as positive control. The effect of the extract on intestinal transit and castor oil-induced intestinal fluid accumulation (enteropooling) was assessed. The effects of the extract on the isolated rabbit jejunum and on the isolated rat ileum were studied. Results: The preliminary phytochemical screening of the leaf extract of Rosa Canina L. revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, saponins, and volatile oil. Intraperitoneal LD50 of the extract was found to be 455.19 ± 23 mg/kg in mice. The antidiarrheal effect of the methanolic extract exhibited a concentration-dependent inhibition of the spontaneous pendular movement of the isolated rabbit jejunum and inhibited acetylcholine-induced contraction of the rat ileum. A dose-dependent decrease in gastrointestinal transit was observed with extracts (30 and 60 mg/kg), which also protected mice against castor oil-induced diarrhea and castor oil-induced fluid accumulation, respectively. Conclusions: The presence of some of the phytochemicals in the leaf extract may be responsible for the observed effects, and also the basis for its use in traditional medicine as an antidiarrheal drug