131 research outputs found

    Study - Mucosal and peri-orificial involvement in Post-Kala-Azar dermal leishmaniasis

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    BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Lesions of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) usually affect the skin. Uncommonly, the involvement of oral and genital mucosae has been reported. METHODS: Twenty five patients clinically diagnosed as post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis were studied for periorificial and mucosal lesions. Clinical examination, skin smears and biopsy were done for the patients with periorificial or mucosal lesions. RESULTS: Out of 25 patients of PKDL, seven patients had lesions on the oral and/or genital mucosa. Three cases had oral lesions; two had only genital lesions and three patients had both sites involved. All the patients were having skin lesions elsewhere too either as nodules and/or plaque or macules. Conclusion: While examining a case of PKDL, mucosal involvement must also be examined carefully

    Therapeutic trial of sodium antimony gluconate alone and in combination with ketoconazole in post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis

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    BACKGROUND: Drugs used in PKDL include parenteral sodium antimony gluconate (SAG), amphotericin-B, pentamidine, and ketoconazole (KTZ). SAG is the most effective one. Given alone, SAG has to be given for a long duration, leading to poor patient compliance and treatment failure. This study was carried out to compare the effectiness of SAG alone and a combination of SAG and KTZ for sixty days. METHODS: Ten patients of PKDL were included in the study. Five patients (Group A) were given SAG intravenously, in the dose of 20 mg/kg per day and five (Group B) were given SAG (intravenously 20 mg/kg per day) and KTZ (200 mg twice daily orally). Both treatment regimens were given for sixty days. RESULTS: In Group A, the nodules and/or plaques showed approximate 80-85% clinical improvement, and macules showed 25-30% improvement. In group B (SAG + KTZ), there was 90-95% clinical improvement in the nodules and/or plaques and 25-30% in macules. CONCLUSION: This study suggests the therapeutic superiority of the combination treatment regimen in a shorter duration but is not conclusive as the number of patients was low. Further trials are recommended

    Randomized double-blind study comparing the efficacy and safety of lamotrigine and amitriptyline in painful diabetic neuropathy

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    WSTĘP. Celem niniejszej pracy było porównanie skuteczności oraz bezpieczeństwa stosowania lamotryginy i amitryptyliny w opanowywaniu przewlekłego bólu spowodowanego obwodową neuropatią u chorych na cukrzycę. MATERIAŁ I METODY. Badanie kliniczne z randomizacją przeprowadzono w układzie naprzemiennym metodą podwójnie ślepej próby, z grupą kontrolną otrzymującą terapię standardową. W badaniu wzięły udział 53 osoby. Zastosowano różne dawki leków. Amitryptylinę stosowano w 3 dawkach doustnie: 10, 25 lub 50 mg, jednorazowo na noc przez 2 tygodnie, a lamotryginę - doustnie, 2 × na dobę, w 3 dawkach: 25, 50 lub 100 mg; każdą z dawek stosowano przez 2 tygodnie. Między zamianą leków zastosowano 2-tygodniową przerwę, podczas której chorzy otrzymywali placebo. Oceniano wpływ terapii na zmniejszenie bólu, ogólne polepszenie stanu zdrowia oraz wystąpienie działań niepożądanych. WYNIKI. W ogólnej ocenie pacjentów zniesienie bólu w dużym, umiarkowanym i małym stopniu zanotowano odpowiednio u 19 (41%), 6 (13%) i 7 (15%) osób przyjmujących lamotryginę oraz u 13 (28%), 5 (11%) i 15 (33%) osób stosujących amitryptylinę. Ogólna ocena przeprowadzona przez pacjentów i lekarzy, kwestionariusz McGilla i skala bólu Likerta nie wykazały różnic istotnych statystycznie. Poprawę obserwowano już po 2 tygodniach stosowania obu leków. Odnotowano 44 przypadki działań niepożądanych, 33 (75%) dotyczyły amitryptyliny, z czego najczęściej stwierdzano działanie nasenne (19 pacjentów, 43%); 11 przypadków (25%) dotyczyło lamotryginy, najczęściej była to wysypka (3 chorych, 7%) i podwyższenie stężenia kreatyniny (4 osoby, 9%). Preferowana dawka lamotryginy to 25 mg 2 × na dobę. WNIOSKI. Mimo że wykazano niewiele różnic w skuteczności obu leków, wybór lamotryginy w dawce 25 mg 2 × na dobę wydaje się lepszy, ze względu na mniejszą liczbę działań niepożądanych wywołanych w badanej populacji.AIMS. To compare the efficacy and safety of lamotrigine and amitriptyline in controlling chronic painful peripheral neuropathy in diabetic patients. METHODS. A randomized, double-blind, crossover, active-control, clinical trial with variable dose titration was carried out (n = 53). Amitriptyline orally, at doses of 10, 25 and 50 mg at night-time, each dose for 2 weeks, and lamotrigine orally, at doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg twice daily, each dose for 2 weeks, by optional titration were used. There was a placebo washout period for 2 weeks between the two drugs. Assessment for pain relief, overall improvement and adverse events were carried out. RESULTS. Good, moderate and mild pain relief were noted in 19 (41%), six (13%) and seven (15%) patients on lamotrigine and 13 (28%), five (11%) and 15 (33%) patients on amitriptyline, respectively, by patient’s global assessment of efficacy and safety. Patient and physicians global assessment, McGill pain questionnaire and Likert pain scale showed no significant difference between the treatments, although improvement with both treatments was seen from 2 weeks. Of the 44 adverse events reported, 33 (75%) were with amitriptyline, sedation being the commonest [in 19 (43%) patients]. Lamotrigine caused adverse events in 11 (25%), of which rash in three (7%) and elevations of creatinine in four (9%) were the most common. The preferred lamotrigine dose was 25 mg twice daily. CONCLUSIONS. As there are few differences between the two treatments in efficacy, lamotrigine 25 mg twice daily might be the first choice as it is associated with fewer adverse effects in our population

    Faraday rotation measures of northern-hemisphere pulsars using CHIME/Pulsar

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    Using commissioning data from the first year of operation of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment's (CHIME) Pulsar backend system, we conduct a systematic analysis of the Faraday Rotation Measure (RM) of the northern hemisphere pulsars detected by CHIME. We present 55 new RMs as well as obtain improved RM uncertainties for 25 further pulsars. CHIME's low observing frequency and wide bandwidth between 400-800 MHz contribute to the precision of our measurements, whereas the high cadence observation provide extremely high signal-to-noise co-added data. Our results represent a significant increase of the pulsar RM census, particularly regarding the northern hemisphere. These new RMs are for sources that are located in the Galactic plane out to 10 kpc, as well as off the plane to a scale height of ~16 kpc. This improved knowledge of the Faraday sky will contribute to future Galactic large-scale magnetic structure and ionosphere modelling.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted by MNRA

    Alignment of dense molecular core morphology and velocity gradients with ambient magnetic fields

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    Studies of dense core morphologies and their orientations with respect to gas flows and the local magnetic field have been limited to only a small sample of cores with spectroscopic data. Leveraging the Green Bank Ammonia Survey alongside existing sub-millimeter continuum observations and Planck dust polarization, we produce a cross-matched catalogue of 399 dense cores with estimates of core morphology, size, mass, specific angular momentum, and magnetic field orientation. Of the 399 cores, 329 exhibit 2D vLSR\mathrm{v}_\mathrm{LSR} maps that are well fit with a linear gradient, consistent with rotation projected on the sky. We find a best-fit specific angular momentum and core size relationship of J/MR1.82±0.10J/M \propto R^{1.82 \pm 0.10}, suggesting that core velocity gradients originate from a combination of solid body rotation and turbulent motions. Most cores have no preferred orientation between the axis of core elongation, velocity gradient direction, and the ambient magnetic field orientation, favouring a triaxial and weakly magnetized origin. We find, however, strong evidence for a preferred anti-alignment between the core elongation axis and magnetic field for protostellar cores, revealing a change in orientation from starless and prestellar populations that may result from gravitational contraction in a magnetically-regulated (but not dominant) environment. We also find marginal evidence for anti-alignment between the core velocity gradient and magnetic field orientation in the L1228 and L1251 regions of Cepheus, suggesting a preferred orientation with respect to magnetic fields may be more prevalent in regions with locally ordered fields.Comment: 33 pages, 28 figures, accepted to MNRA

    A CHIME/FRB Study of Burst Rate and Morphological Evolution of the Periodically Repeating FRB 20180916B

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    FRB 20180916B is a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) with a 16.3 day periodicity in its activity. In this study, we present morphological properties of 60 FRB 20180916B bursts detected by CHIME/FRB between 2018 August and 2021 December. We recorded raw voltage data for 45 of these bursts, enabling microseconds time resolution in some cases. We studied variation of spectro-temporal properties with time and activity phase. We find that the variation in dispersion measure (DM) is ≲1 pc cm−3 and that there is burst-to-burst variation in scattering time estimates ranging from ∼0.16 to over 2 ms, with no discernible trend with activity phase for either property. Furthermore, we find no DM and scattering variability corresponding to the recent change in rotation measure from the source, which has implications for the immediate environment of the source. We find that FRB 20180916B has thus far shown no epochs of heightened activity as have been seen in other active repeaters by CHIME/FRB, with its burst count consistent with originating from a Poissonian process. We also observe no change in the value of the activity period over the duration of our observations and set a 1σ upper limit of 1.5 × 10−4 day day−1 on the absolute period derivative. Finally, we discuss constraints on progenitor models yielded by our results, noting that our upper limits on changes in scattering and DM as a function of phase do not support models invoking a massive binary companion star as the origin of the 16.3 day periodicity.</p

    Comprehensive Bayesian analysis of FRB-like bursts from SGR 1935+2154 observed by CHIME/FRB

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    The bright millisecond-duration radio burst from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 in 2020 April was a landmark event, demonstrating that at least some fast radio burst (FRB) sources could be magnetars. The two-component burst was temporally coincident with peaks observed within a contemporaneous short X-ray burst envelope, marking the first instance where FRB-like bursts were observed to coincide with X-ray counterparts. In this study, we detail five new radio burst detections from SGR 1935+2154, observed by the CHIME/FRB instrument between October 2020 and December 2022. We develop a fast and efficient Bayesian inference pipeline that incorporates state-of-the-art Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques and use it to model the intensity data of these bursts under a flexible burst model. We revisit the 2020 April burst and corroborate that both the radio sub-components lead the corresponding peaks in their high-energy counterparts. For a burst observed in 2022 October, we find that our estimated radio pulse arrival time is contemporaneous with a short X-ray burst detected by GECAM and HEBS, and Konus-Wind and is consistent with the arrival time of a radio burst detected by GBT. We present flux and fluence estimates for all five bursts, employing an improved estimator for bursts detected in the side-lobes. We also present upper limits on radio emission for X-ray emission sources which were within CHIME/FRB's field-of-view at trigger time. Finally, we present our exposure and sensitivity analysis and estimate the Poisson rate for FRB-like events from SGR 1935+2154 to be 0.0050.004+0.0820.005^{+0.082}_{-0.004} events/day above a fluence of 10 kJy ms10~\mathrm{kJy~ms} during the interval from 28 August 2018 to 1 December 2022, although we note this was measured during a time of great X-ray activity from the source.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. To be submitted to Ap

    International Experience of Mechanical Thrombectomy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from STAR and ENRG

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    Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many centers altered stroke triage protocols for the protection of their providers. However, the effect of workflow changes on stroke patients receiving mechanical thrombectomy (MT) has not been systematically studied. Methods: A prospective international study was launched at the initiation of the COVID-19 pandemic. All included centers participated in the Stroke Thrombectomy and Aneurysm Registry (STAR) and Endovascular Neurosurgery Research Group (ENRG). Data was collected during the peak months of the COVID-19 surge at each site. Collected data included patient and disease characteristics. A generalized linear model with logit link function was used to estimate the effect of general anesthesia (GA) on in-hospital mortality and discharge outcome controlling for confounders. Results: 458 patients and 28 centers were included from North America, South America, and Europe. Five centers were in high-COVID burden counties (HCC) in which 9/104 (8.7%) of patients were positive for COVID-19 compared with 4/354 (1.1%) in low-COVID burden counties (LCC) (P<0.001). 241 patients underwent pre-procedure GA. Compared with patients treated awake, GA patients had longer door to reperfusion time (138 vs 100 min, P=<0.001). On multivariate analysis, GA was associated with higher probability of in-hospital mortality (RR 1.871, P=0.029) and lower probability of functional independence at discharge (RR 0.53, P=0.015). Conclusion: We observed a low rate of COVID-19 infection among stroke patients undergoing MT in LCC. Overall, more than half of the patients underwent intubation prior to MT, leading to prolonged door to reperfusion time, higher in-hospital mortality, and lower likelihood of functional independence at discharge.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Patient-provider interaction from the perspectives of type 2 diabetes patients in Muscat, Oman: a qualitative study

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients' expectations and perceptions of the medical encounter and interactions are important tools in diabetes management. Some problems regarding the interaction during encounters may be related to a lack of communication skills on the part of either the physician or the patient.</p> <p>This study aimed at exploring the perceptions of type 2 diabetes patients regarding the medical encounters and quality of interactions with their primary health-care providers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Four focus group discussions (two women and two men groups) were conducted among 27 purposively selected patients (13 men and 14 women) from six primary health-care centres in Muscat, Oman. Qualitative content analysis was applied.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The patients identified some weaknesses regarding the patient-provider communication like: unfriendly welcoming; interrupted consultation privacy; poor attention and eye contact; lack of encouraging the patients to ask questions on the providers' side; and inability to participate in medical dialogue or express concerns on the patients' side. Other barriers and difficulties related to issues of patient-centeredness, organization of diabetes clinics, health education and professional competency regarding diabetes care were also identified.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The diabetes patients' experiences with the primary health-care providers showed dissatisfaction with the services. We suggest appropriate training for health-care providers with regard to diabetes care and developing of communication skills with emphasis on a patient-centred approach. An efficient use of available resources in diabetes clinics and distributing responsibilities between team members in close collaboration with patients and their families seems necessary. Further exploration of the providers' work situation and barriers to good interaction is needed. Our findings can help the policy makers in Oman, and countries with similar health systems, to improve the quality and organizational efficiency of diabetes care services.</p
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