Detection of viral antigen, IgM and IgG antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid of Chikungunya patients with neurological complications

BACKGROUND: During Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) epidemic in Nagpur, India, we identified some suspected Chikungunya patients with neurological complications. Early and cost-effective diagnosis of these patients remains problematic despite many new advanced diagnostic methods. A reliable diagnostic test, which could be performed in any standard pathology laboratory, would help to obtain definitive early diagnosis of CHIKV patients with neurological complications. In our laboratory, in-house ELISA protocol for viral antigen, immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG detection has been developed and assessed for the diagnosis of CHIKV patients with neurological complications. METHOD: Cerebrospinal fluid samples of forty-six patients who developed neurological symptoms within two months of CHIKV infections along with control subjects were included in the study and were analyzed for the presence of antigens and of IgM and IgG using an ELISA protocol. RESULTS: The ELISA method for antigen detection yielded 80% sensitivity and 87% specificity for the diagnosis of CHIKV patients with neurological complications. The sensitivity for detection of IgM 48% or IgG 63% was significantly lower than the antigen assay (80%). CONCLUSION: The detection of viral antigen in CSF of CHIKV patients with neurological complications by ELISA method gave a more reliable diagnosis than antibodies detection that can be used to develop an immunodiagnostic assay with increased sensitivity and specificity

Comparison of Intubating Conditions of Two Doses of Rocuronium Bromide with Succinylcholine in Children undergoing Elective Surgeries under General Anaesthesia- A Randomised Control Trial

Introduction: Succinylcholine is a muscle relaxant of choice for paediatric intubation due to its fast onset and ultrashort duration of action but it is associated with unwanted side-effects. Rocuronium bromide can be used alternatively to avoid those unwanted side-effects because of its fast onset and intermediate duration of action. Aim: To compare two doses of rocuronium bromide with succinylcholine in terms of intubating conditions, duration of action, haemodynamic variations, and complications to get a better alternative dose of rocuronium bromide in children undergoing elective surgeries. Materials and Methods: The present randomised, double-blinded clinical trial study was conducted in the Department of Anaesthesiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), Sawangi, Wardha, Maharashtra, India from January 2021 to October 2022. Ninety American Society of Anaesthesiology (ASA) Grade-I-II children of both sexes of 1-10 years age, undergoing elective surgery were equally divided into three groups. Group-R9 (n=30) and Group-R12 (n=30) received rocuronium bromide 0.9 mg/kg and 1.2 mg/kg, respectively while Group-S (n=30) received succinylcholine 1.5 mg/kg. Comparative evaluation of intubating conditions was done around 60 seconds in all three groups and duration of action, haemodynamic variations, and complications were noted. All data were entered in a microsoft excel sheet and results were expressed as percentages, mean Standard Deviation (SD), chi-square test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test where the difference was considered statistically significant if the p-value <0.05 by using the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 11.0 (SPSS version 11.0). Results: Rocuronium bromide 1.2 mg/kg and succinylcholine 1.5 mg/kg provided excellent intubating conditions in 96.7% children and good intubating conditions in 3.3% children in both groups while rocuronium bromide 0.9 mg/kg provided excellent intubation conditions in 83.3% of children and good intubating conditions in 16.7% of children There was a significant difference present in intubation scores between three groups (p=0.01). The duration of action was longer with rocuronium bromide 1.2 mg/kg (38.93±4.323 min) as compared to rocuronium bromide 0.9 mg/kg (26.07±2.791 min) while it was shortest with succinylcholine 1.5 mg/kg (6.00±1.74 min). Adverse effects like fasciculations were only found in children (n=30) receiving succinylcholine (p=0.01) but not in rocuronium bromide groups. Conclusion: Rocuronium bromide 1.2 mg/kg gives the same intubating conditions as succinylcholine 1.5 mg/kg with good haemodynamic stability and no side-effects but the duration of action was longer with rocuronium bromide 1.2 mg/kg as compared to rocuronium bromide 0.9 mg/kg. So, to avoid unwanted side-effects of succinylcholine in children, rocuronium bromide 1.2 mg/kg can be used as an alternative to succinylcholine 1.5 mg/kg in children undergoing elective surgeries where early return of spontaneous recovery is not needed

Modelling of cerebral tuberculosis in BALB/c mice using clinical strain from patients with CNS tuberculosis infection

Background & objectives: Central nervous system (CNS) infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is the most severe form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) due to a high level of mortality and morbidity. Limited studies are available on CNS-TB animal model development. The present study describes the development of a murine model of CNS-TB using a clinical strain (C3) isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of CNS-TB patients. Methods: Groups of mice were infected by the intravenous route with MTB C3 strain isolated from the CSF of CNS-TB patients. Brain and lung tissue were evaluated for bacterial burden, histopathology and surrogate markers of TB infection at 30 and 50 days post-infection. Results: Mice infected intravenously with MTB C3 strains showed progressive development of CNS disease with high bacillary burden in lungs at the initial stage (30 days), which eventually disseminated to the brain at a later stage (50 days). Similarly, high mortality (60%) was associated in mice infected with C3 strain compared to control. Interpretation & conclusions: The study showed development of a novel murine model of CNS-TB using the C3 strain of MTB that replicated events of extrapulmonary dissemination. The developed model would be helpful in understanding the pathogenesis of CNS-TB infection for the development of improved therapeutic interventions in future

Mycobacterial Dormancy Regulon Protein Rv2623 as a Novel Biomarker for the Diagnosis of Latent and Active Tuberculous Meningitis

The present study was designed to investigate Rv2623 antigen, a major dormancy regulon protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in CSF of suspected latent and active tuberculous meningitis (TBM) patients. A total of 100 CSF samples from TBM (n=31), suspected latent TBM (n=22), and suitable noninfectious control subjects (n=47) were collected and evaluated for Rv2623 antigen level using ELISA protocol. A significantly high (P<0.05) mean absorbance was observed in samples of suspected latent TBM and active TBM patients as compared to non-TBM control patients. However, no significant difference in Rv2623 level was observed between suspected latent TBM and TBM patients. Our preliminary findings suggest that Rv2623 may be useful as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of the latent as well as active TBM infection. Futher evaluation of this biomarker in large number of samples is therefore needed to confirm the result

A review on nanomedicines in treatment of thyroid and their applications in management of thyroid disorders

Thyroid disease is a major issue all over the world. Thyroid illness is also very common in India. Numerous thyroid disease studies have revealed that 42 million Indians are affected by the disease. Thyroid ailments are classified into five types in India: hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, goitre and iodine deficiency disorders, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and thyroid cancer. The epidemiology of these five diseases will be the subject of this review. Thyroid hormone replacement therapy has been used to treat hypothyroidism for over a century. For the majority of the twentieth century, the first pharmacological treatments were natural thyroid preparations (thyroid extract, desiccated thyroid, or thyroglobulin), which contained both thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) (T3). This article discusses briefly the current treatment options for common thyroid issues

Rapid Diagnosis and Simultaneous Identification of Tuberculous and Bacterial Meningitis by a Newly Developed Duplex Polymerase Chain Reaction

The present study describes the development and evaluation of a duplex polymerase chain reaction (DPCR) for diagnosis and simultaneous identification of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and bacterial meningitis (BM) in a single reaction. A D-PCR with primers amplifying portions of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis IS6110 and the eubacteria 16SrDNA sequence in a same reaction mix was developed and tested on DNA extracted from 150 clinical CSF samples from different categories (TBM = 39, BM = 26, control infectious and non-infectious category = 85). The results indicate a clear differentiation between bands for eubacteria and M. tuberculosis with an analytical sensitivity of 103 cfu/ml for eubacteria and 102 cfu/ml for M. tuberculosis. When evaluated in clinical samples, D-PCR overall diagnosed 100 % confirmed TBM and 100 % confirmed BM cases with overall specificity of 96.5 %. D-PCR can be an effective tool for diagnosis and simultaneous identification of TBM or BM in a single PCR reaction. It saves time, cost, labour and sample amount and help in administration of appropriate antimicrobial therapy