657 research outputs found
Effect of Viscum album 30 CH on pre-diagnosed vis-a-vis diagnosed hypertensive individuals
The World Health Organization considers hypertension the most common health problem in today's growing population. Studies show that the rate of primary hypertension is about 85-95% and the rate of secondary hypertension is only 5%. However, homoeopathy is used as an alternative in such cases (i.e., HTN) but it has good clinical results in cases of HTN. Viscum album is a circulatory remedy and has been observed to lower blood pressure by acting on the circulation in many cases, but very little research has been done to prove this. This study aimed to determine whether the homoeopathic medicine Viscum album is effective in reducing blood pressure in participants with essential hypertension. Methods: This was a monocentric, Phase 2 clinical trial, single arm, single blind, and randomized, interventional study conducted in the outpatient department of Homoeopathic Hospital & Post-graduate Research Centre of Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), Pune. A total of 40 participants (male and female) between the ages of 20 and 75 were enrolled in this study. Blood pressure was measured in the sitting position using a sphygmomanometer according to standard procedures. Result: The result was a decrease in blood pressure after 10-12 weeks of outpatient care. Significant reduction in blood pressure levels of hypertensive participants before and after treatment and in participants in remission. Of the 40 cases, Mean sBP before treatment is 150, in the same vein systolic blood pressure after treatment is 124.4; and Mean dBP before treatment is 94.9, where as in after treatment diastolic blood pressure is reduced with 79.2. The P-value is <0.0001. Conclusion: The homoeopathic medicine Viscum album produced a significant effect on lowering blood pressure levels in participants with essential hypertension. Further studies with control groups may provide a larger source of information to demonstrate that Viscum album is effective in the treatment of essential hypertensio
Targeted rescue of cancer-associated IDH1 mutant activity using an engineered synthetic antibody
We have utilized a high-diversity phage display library to engineer antibody fragments (Fabs) that can modulate the activity of the enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1). We show that a conformation-specific Fab can reactivate an IDH1 mutant associated with brain tumors. The results show that this strategy is a first step towards developing "activator drugs" for a large number of genetic disorders where mutations have disrupted protein function
A comprehensive work up of various ventricular tachy-arrhythmias in relation to the underling cardiac disorder / status
Background: Main objective of the study is details work up of the patients of ventricular tachy-arrhythmias and to find out its association with any structural heart disease.Methods: This institution based observational study was conducted in patients of documented sustained VT (ventricular tachycardia) with consecutive 102 patients.Results: The mean age of the VT patients was 56.7 years and the number of male patients were 70 (69%). In our study, among 102 patients 45 patients were diabetic, 64 patients were hypertensive, 30 patients were current smoker, family history of heart disease was present in 25 patients and family history of SCD (sudden cardiac death) was present in 5 patients. Among the patients who presented with symptoms of ventricular tachy arrhythmia, 25 patients had EF (ejection fraction) above 40%, 36 had EF between 31 to 40% and only 2 had EF below 30%. CAG (coronary angiography) done in 98 patients and 16 had normal coronaries. 20, 16 and 46 patients had single, double and triple vessel disease respectively. 80 patients had coronary heart disease (78%), 20 patients among them had acute ischemic events and 60 had chronic ischemic disease. 12 patients didn’t have any structural heart disease.Conclusions: Ischemic heart disease, acute or chronic, is the most common causes of ventricular tachyarrhythmia. male sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking, family history of heart diseases or sudden cardiac death being the risk factors of coronary artery disease are also predisposing factors of ventricular tachyarrhythmia
Role of nutritional status and intervention in oesophageal cancer treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy: outcomes from SCOPE1
ackground: Malnutrition is common in oesophageal cancer. We aimed to identify nutritional prognostic factors and survival outcomes associated with nutritional intervention in the SCOPE1 (Study of Chemoradiotherapy in OesoPhageal Cancer with or without Erbitux) trial.
methods: Two hundred and fifty eight patients were randomly allocated to definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) +/− cetuximab. Nutritional Risk Index (NRI) scores were calculated; NRI<100 identified patients at risk of malnutrition. Nutritional intervention included dietary advice, oral supplementation or major intervention (enteral feeding/tube placement). Univariable and multivariable analyses using Cox proportional hazard modelling were conducted.
results: At baseline NRI<100 strongly predicted for reduced overall survival (hazard ratio (HR) 12.45, 95% CI 5.24–29.57; P<0.001). Nutritional intervention improved survival if provided at baseline (dietary advice (HR 0.12, P=0.004), oral supplementation (HR 0.13, P<0.001) or major intervention (HR 0.13, P=0.003)), but not if provided later in the treatment course. Cetuximab patients receiving major nutritional intervention had worse outcomes compared with controls (13 vs 28 months, P=0.003).
conclusions: Pre-treatment assessment and correction of malnutrition may improve survival outcomes in oesophageal cancer patients treated with dCRT. Nutritional Risk Index is a simple and objective screening tool to identify patients at risk of malnutrition
Knowledge, attitudes and practice of adverse drug reaction monitoring among physicians in India
Background: Underreporting of ADRs still remains a major obstacle in the complete success of pharmacovigilance programs. In order to improve ADR monitoring, it is thus imperative to assess the current knowledge, attitude, and practices of doctors. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of the healthcare professionals about pharmacovigilance in various tertiary care government teaching hospital vis-a-vis private clinics in West Bengal.Methods: A cross sectional, questionnaire based survey was conducted among healthcare practitioners in several tertiary care government set-ups and private set-ups in the state of West Bengal (India). The study instrument was a pre-validated structured questionnaire designed to obtain information on the knowledge of the ADRs reporting, the attitudes towards the reporting, and the factors that in practice could hinder the reporting among the doctors.Results: About 89.62% public practitioners correctly spotted the WHO definition for pharmacovigilance, while 77.5% of the private practitioners did the same. Only 19.81% of the public practitioners documented a suspected ADR in any surveillance form, while there were only 3.75% private practitioners who documented it. About 59.43% of the physicians in government hospitals published an ADR case report in any medical journal, while 81.25% private practitioners did no.Conclusions: Study revealed lack of time, incentive less extra work load being major factors responsible for ADR underreporting. In order to improve ADR reporting, continuous medical education, training and proper sensitization of healthcare professionals can help combating the existing scenario and promising an improved tomorrow. The PvPI should be widely publicized in the visual and print media to make health professionals, as well as the general population at large aware of its presence and scope. Pharmacovigilance should be integrated in undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses
Antimagnetic rotation and sudden change of electric quadrupole transition strength in 143Eu
Lifetimes of the states in the quadrupole structure in 143Eu have been
measured using the Doppler shift attenuation method as well as parity of the
states in the sequence has been firmly identified from polarization measurement
using the Indian National Gamma Array. The decreasing trends of the deduced
quadrupole transition strength B(E2) with spin, along with increasing J (2)
/B(E2) values before band crossing, conclusively establish the origin of these
states as arising out of antimagnetic rotation. The abrupt increase in the
B(E2) values after the band crossing in the quadrupole band, a novel feature
observed in the present experiment, may indicates the crossing of different
shears configurations resulting in re-opening of shears structure. The results
are well reproduced by numerical calculation within the framework of
semi-classical geometric model.Comment: 6 pages, 4 postscript figure
Shape evolution in the rapidly rotating Gd nucleus
Ground state band of Gd has been investigated following their
population in the Sn(Cl,~p2n)Gd reaction at 195
MeV of beam energy using a large array of Compton suppressed HPGe clovers as
the detection setup. Apart from other spectroscopic measurements, level
lifetimes of the states have been extracted using the Doppler Shift Attenuation
Method. Extracted quadrupole moment along with the pairing independent cranked
Nilsson-Strutinsky model calculations for the quadrupole band reveal that the
nucleus preferably attains triaxiality with = -30. The
calculation though shows a slight possibility of rotation around the longest
possible principal axis at high spin 30 which is beyond the scope
of the present experiment
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Structure of human frizzled5 by fiducial-assisted cryo-em supports a heterodimeric mechanism of canonical wnt signaling
Frizzleds (Fzd) are the primary receptors for Wnt morphogens, which are essential regulators of stem cell biology, yet the structural basis of Wnt signaling through Fzd remains poorly understood. Here we report the structure of an unliganded human Fzd5 determined by single-particle cryo-EM at 3.7 Å resolution, with the aid of an antibody chaperone acting as a fiducial marker. We also analyzed the topology of low-resolution XWnt8/Fzd5 complex particles, which revealed extreme flexibility between the Wnt/Fzd-CRD and the Fzd-TM regions. Analysis of Wnt/b-catenin signaling in response to Wnt3a versus a ‘surrogate agonist’ that cross-links Fzd to LRP6, revealed identical structure-activity relationships. Thus, canonical Wnt/b-catenin signaling appears to be principally reliant on ligand-induced Fzd/LRP6 heterodimerization, versus the allosteric mechanisms seen in structurally analogous class A G protein-coupled receptors, and Smoothened. These findings deepen our mechanistic understanding of Wnt signal transduction, and have implications for harnessing Wnt agonism in regenerative medicine
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