Assessment of blood culture and tube agglutination serology test for the diagnosis of typhoid fever amongst malaria-negative patients: a one-year hospital-based study

Salmonella serotypes, including Salmonella Typhi, S. Paratyphi A, S. Paratyphi B, and S. Paratyphi C, are responsible for the systemic, protracted febrile sickness known as typhoid fever. Various antibody-based tests are being used for diagnosing typhoid fever. This study was carried out to assess the performance of the widal test and blood culture for the diagnosis of typhoid fever among malaria-negative patients in a tertiary care hospital in east Delhi, India. The study was conducted from July 2021 to June 2022 in the Department of Microbiology of a tertiary care hospital in Delhi. Patients, including the adult and pediatric population, were evaluated for typhoid fever and participated in an observational, prospective study on febrile patients that was malaria-negative. Venous blood samples were obtained under strict aseptic conditions and further processed for widal serology and blood culture tests for typhoid fever. In our study, the prevalence of blood culture-positive Salmonella species was 0.3% (30/10,000 = 0.3%) Among antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, S. Typhi revealed the highest resistance rates for Ciprofloxacin (43.33%), Azithromycin (36.66%), and third-generation cephalosporins. Out of 30 blood culture-positive Salmonella Typhi of typhoid fever patients, 5 (17%) samples were negative for the Widal test. Among 30 samples, all were blood culture positive, but only 25 samples show Widal titer above the baseline i.e. >1:64. Although blood culture is the gold standard for the diagnosis of typhoid fever, the Widal test does play a role in the diagnosis and management of typhoid fever, especially in suspected cases when blood culture is negative, especially in government tertiary care hospitals

Co-Infection of HSV in Gonococcal Urethritis Patients

Co-infection with two different pathogens may alter the classical clinical course that manifests infection as single pathogen. In STIs, such co-infection may trigger the reactivation of a latent infection, and syndromic approach may not be insufficient to free the host of the entire gamut of infectivity agents. Present study analyzed appropriate samples for Neisseria gonorrheae and HSV from 200 patients presented to STI clinic. Gonorrhea was detected in 4% and HSV in 5% of patients. 25% of gonorrhea patients had HSV-2 co-infection with an overall 4.5% yield of subclinical HSV cases which would have been missed leading to inappropriate treatment, risk of recurrence and transmission to contacts. Awareness regarding encounter with multiple infections is necessary for effective management

A survey on the use of various gingival displacement techniques in fixed partial denture by the prosthodontists in vadodara city

Aims: To evaluate the use of various gingival displacement techniques prior to impression making in fixed partial dentures by the Prosthodontists in Vadodara. Settings and Design: Questionnaire based survey among prosthodontists in Vadodara city. Methods and Material: All the prosthodontists practitioners and those prosthodontists in academic institutes in Vadodara City, Gujarat, were surveyed through a questionnaire regarding their usage of gingival displacement technique and their reasons and methods of using gingival displacement technique for fixed partial denture. The results were analysed through discriminant statistical analysis. Results: Among all the Prosthodontists in Vadodara city, 62% prefer the use of gingival displacement technique for successful clinical practice while 38 % of them do not follow the procedure believing it does not make major difference in clinical practice. Conclusions: Those Prosthodontists who preferred the use of gingival displacement technique were able to detect many advantages of using it in their daily fixed partial denture practice and the percentage of prosthodontists not following gingival displacement technique blamed it as a time consuming affair and was not feasible on economic grounds for the class of patient they treated

Studies on plant species used by tribal communities of Saputara and Purna forests, Dangs district, Gujarat

368-374The paper deals with the ethno-medico-botany of plant species of Saputara and Purna forests, extreme northern part of western Ghats, South Gujarat. About 50 plant species belonging to 40 genera and 28 families used by the tribals for their economic as well as medicinal uses in curing various diseases have been enumerated. Information on economic and medicinal utilization of plant species including their family, vernacular name and parts used for the treatment has been presented

Three-dimensional finite element analysis of the stress distribution in the endodontically treated maxillary central incisor by glass fiber post and dentin post

Introduction: From the point of dental practice, the restoration of endodontically treated teeth has become an important aspect as it involves a range of treatment options of variable complexity. Restoring teeth with insufficient coronal tooth structure, it is always indicated to use the post to retain a core for definitive restoration. Fiber post has a modulus of elasticity in analogs to dentin structure, thus reducing the stress areas at the dowel dentin interface. However, the only material that can substantiate all these properties can be none other than dentin itself. Materials and Methodology: Three-dimensional (3D) models of the maxillary central incisor were developed incorporating all the nonlinearities. Continuum 3D elements were used in three dimensions. Maxillary central incisor was laser scanned, duplicated with the help of reverse engineering into STL format, and it was converted into 3D model for finite element analysis (FEA). For the model, fixed boundary conditions were applied at the outer bone, while 100 N static vertical occlusal loads were prescribed at 135° on the loading component of the simulated tooth. The stress distribution was evaluated using dentin and fiber post with prescribed materials, loading and boundary conditions in endontically treated teeth by 3D FEA. Results: The analysis for von Misses stress for dentin post showed that the stress in the dentin post at the cervical area was 127 MPa. The displacement in the dentin post was <0.025 mm. Von Misses stress for the fiber post at the cervical area was approximately 182 MPa and the displacement was <0.035 mm. Conclusion: The FEA results showed that the stress in the cervical area of the dentin was more for fiber post when compared to dentin post, and maximum displacement values were less for dentin post in comparison to fiber post

Scion/Rootstock Interaction Studies for Quality Traits in Mango (<i>Mangifera indica</i> L.) Varieties

To explore the quality rootstocks which impart better quality fruits in mango varieties, we studied the interactive effect of the scion and rootstock using five mango varieties (Mallika, Amrapali, Dashehari, Pusa Arunima, and Pusa Surya) grafted on three rootstocks (Olour, Kurukkan, and K-5). A total of 25 physico-chemical parameters were studied in the five grafted varieties viz., fruit weight, yield efficiency, fruit per plant, pulp percent, total soluble solids (TSS), acidity, physiological loss in weight (PLW), peel thickness, respiration rate, etc., and were found to be altered through scion–rootstock interaction. Among the five mango varieties, Olour rootstock proved best to improve the fruit quality and shelf life using the grafting approach. Physico-chemical-traits-based clustering was unable to precisely group scion varieties according to their grafting rootstock. A total of 35 shelf-life specific markers were designed from ripening genes, such as expansin, polygalactouranase, ethylene insensitive, ethylene sensitive, etc. Of these specific primers, 24 showed polymorphism among the studied genotypes. The gene diversity (GD), allele per locus (An), polymorphism information content (PIC), and major allele frequency (MAF) observed were 0.43, 2.00, 0.34, and 0.63, respectively. Cluster analysis clearly showed that scion grafted on Kurukkan and Olour rootstock, and scion varieties grafted on K-5 rootstock grouped together have more similarity. A total of eight simple sequence repeats loci (SSRs) markers were associated with eight physiological traits. Strong association of SSR loci NMSLC-12 and NMSLC-14 with yield efficiency and fruit weight were observed with a phenotypic variance of 85% and 70%, respectively