Knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception among nursing and para-medical staff in a tertiary care hospital of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India

Background: The objective of this study was to study the knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception among nursing and para-medical staff in a tertiary care hospital and also to identify factors that are associated with non-usage of contraception.Methods: The study was conducted on 100 nursing and paramedical staff working at K. D. Medical College and associated hospital at Mathura from November 2019 to January 2020. After obtaining consent, randomly selected married nursing and paramedical staff were given a pre-designed, structured questionnaire on socio-demographic variables, knowledge, attitude and practice towards contraception.Results: In the present study, out of 100 participants, 89 had awareness of contraception. Majority of them knew about condoms, followed by Copper-T/multiload and OCPs. The knowledge about contraception was mainly obtained through social media and health professionals.Conclusions: Health care providers should be equipped with recent information on all the available family planning methods through intensive in-service trainings, seminars/conferences, etc. This will get them informed and all misconceptions will be erased and in turn each health care provider will be able to make informed choice from the various options of family planning methods and practice the best suitable method.

The association of serum progesterone on day of hCG trigger and IVF outcome

Background: A large number of clinical studies have examined the effect of rise in serum progesterone levels on the day of hCG administration in GnRH agonist and antagonist cycle, on pregnancy rates. The mechanisms of this rise in progesterone levels on day of hCG trigger are controversial and also the results of these studies are variable.Methods: This prospectively observational cohort study was conducted from November 2020 to November 2021 at Sarvodaya IVF centre, Delhi. 279 patients completed an IVF/ICSI-ET cycle during the study period and were included in the final analysis. The standard GnRH antagonist (fixed or variable) and long GnRH agonist COS protocols were used. Participants undergoing COS with all gonadotropins were recruited. The study population was subgrouped into two groups according to P4 level on day of hCG trigger (calculated according to ROC curve): Group A (p≤1.5 ng/dl, n=140/279, 50.17%) and Group B (p>1.5 ng/dl, n=139/279,49.82%).Results: The dose of Gonadotropins required, terminal estradiol levels and number of oocytes retrieved were significantly required higher in group B as compared to group A. The percentage of subjects with progesterone rise on the day of hCG trigger were significantly more in agonist protocol (56.1%) as compared to antagonist protocol(43.9%, p1.5 ng/ml) on day of hCG trigger is associated with lower pregnancy rate and clinical pregnancy rates

Knowledge, attitude and practice of antenatal care among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in a tertiary care hospital of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India

Background: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of antenatal care among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in a tertiary care hospital and also to identify factors that are associated with non-usage of antenatal care.Methods: The study was conducted on 150 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in department of obstetrics and gynecology of K. D. Medical College and associated hospital of Mathura from September 2019 to December 2019. After obtaining consent, randomly selected pregnant women were given a pre-designed, structured questionnaire on socio-demographic variables, knowledge, attitude and practice towards antenatal care.Results: In the present study, out of 150 respondents, 62.7% had knowledge and awareness regarding antenatal care. There was inadequate knowledge about frequency of antenatal visits with 59.3% subjects wanting to deliver in the hospital.Conclusions: To improve effective utilization of ANC services, we need to bring behaviour changes, improve communication and quality of service delivery, along with effective monitoring and evaluation. Awareness should be developed in the community about the importance of registration for ANC, educating women about the detection of complications during pregnancy, importance of TT injection, IFA tablets and extra nutrition

Clinical and ultrasonological features of adenomyosis and its histopathological correlation

Background: Adenomyosis is a common gynaecological condition that affects the menstruating women. Uterine enlargement, dysmenorrhoea and HMB are regarded as the cardinal clinical symptoms of adenomyosis. Classically it was thought, compared with ultrasonography, when adenomyosis is suspected, MRI enables more accurate diagnosis of the disease.Methods: 78 subjects were enrolled after an informed consent that had complaints of HMB, Dysparenuia, dysmenorrhea, and chronic pelvic pain. Detailed history of the enrolled subjects was taken, followed by a clinical examination. These patients were then subjected to TVS where myometrial echo texture, presence of myometrial cysts, blurring of endomyometrial junction was noted. After hysterectomy, histopathological diagnosis was obtained.Results: 78 subjects enrolled in the study. The mean age was 44.2 years. 43.5% had parity of 4 or more. HMB was present in 97.8% and dysmenorrhea in 93.48 % of HPE positive patient. Transvaginal sonography had a sensitivity of 89.13%, specificity of 90.62%, positive likelihood ratio of 9.51, negative likelihood ratio of 0.12, positive predictive value of 93.18%, negative predictive value of 85.29% and a diagnostic accuracy of 89.74%.Conclusions: Thus adenomyosis has a prevalence of 30.23%. HMB with dysmenorrhoea and chronic pelvic pain helps in diagnosis. TVS is both sensitive and specific in diagnosing adenomyosis without need for additional diagnostic tool. Endomyometrial junction blurring is the sensitive and specific criteria on TVS

Occurrence and risk factors of Vitamin D deficiency in Indian children living with HIV – A case–control study

Background: Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is highly prevalent in healthy individuals. Studies suggest that Vitamin D plays an important role in immune system. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the frequency of VDD in Indian children living with HIV (CLHIV) and to find out the risk factors associated with it. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional comparative study conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital of North India. A total of 52 CLHIV were enrolled consecutively from the pediatric HIV center and an equal number of age- and sex-matched controls were enrolled from the pediatric outpatient department. Serum Vitamin D levels of cases and controls were assessed and compared. Various risk factors, both classical (age, sex, sunlight exposure, average dietary intake of calcium, and Vitamin D) and disease related (WHO and immunological stage, duration, and regimen of treatment), were evaluated for VDD in CLHIV. Results: The prevalence of VDD in cases and controls was 69.23% and 19.23%, respectively (p<0.001). The mean serum Vitamin D level of the cases (18.24±11.2 ng/dL) was significantly lower than that of controls (31.58±17.31 ng/dL) (p<0.001). The risk factor that predicted the occurrence VDD in CLHIV was a poor intake of Vitamin D. Conclusion: CLHIV are more prone to VDD; hence, there is a need to regularly evaluate, supplement, and monitor for Vitamin D status in these children

Obesity in Adolescents: Prevalence and Association with Sociodemographic and Lifestyle Factors

Introduction: Overweight and obesity has become a worldwide epidemic and is a growing public health concern. The increase in prevalence and severity of obesity among children and adolescents has been attributed largely to behavioral factors such as changing eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. Objective: To determine prevalence of obesity and abdominal obesity among adolescents and its association with sociodemographic factors and lifestyle. Methods: Present cross-sectional study was conducted in the urban field practice area under the Community Medicine Department of LLRM Medical College, Meerut, among 872 adolescents. All localities in the field area were covered and house to house survey was done. Questions were asked about eating patterns, physical activity and sedentary lifestyle. Data was collected and analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 17.43, 6.88%, respectively. Obesity was significantly higher among females, those who indulged in unhealthy eating habits were physically inactive, watched television for a longer duration and ate junk while watching television. Conclusion: In the present study, we found that high junk food consumption and a sedentary lifestyle were found to be significantly associated with childhood overweight/obesity. As a result, timely interventions should be taken to improve awareness about healthy lifestyle behavior to prevent obesity and its complications among adolescents

Antimicrobial Activity of Secondary Metabolites in Medicinal Plants: An Update

Plants have filled in as a significant wellspring of elements for conventional drugs for centuries. Verifiable records and present day ethno botanical field examines feature their significance in the conventional treatment of irresistible malady. Be that as it may, plants form just a minor level of present collection of FDA-endorsed antimicrobial medications. The present article gives an outline of active components of plants as hint for other wellspring of antimicrobial agents to be used in the battle against microscopic organisms. It additionally surveys the ethno botanical way to deal with sedate disclosure and talks about various inventive focuses for future medication revelation endeavours in this field. Without an uncertainty, antimicrobials are miracle tranquilizers. They have represented a very long time against different irresistible infections and spared a huge number of lives. The ongoing disappointment of antimicrobials because of the sensational rise of multidrug-safe microbes and fast spread of new diseases, be that as it may, prompts wellbeing associations and the pharmaceutical business worldwide to change their methodology and to expand improvement of antimicrobials against quickly rising anti-infection safe microorganisms. In spite of the fact that there is thinking about elective wellsprings of characteristic antimicrobial molecules from plants having different methods of activity, some of which have been utilized in regular medication for a considerable length of time and have appeared to have serious impacts contrasted with other antimicrobials. This examination portrays plant intensity as an elective hotspot for antimicrobial agents

Asymmetric Satellite-Underwater Visible Light Communication System for Oceanic Monitoring

In this paper, we investigate the performance of the proposed oceanic monitoring system that connects the oceanic life with the terrestrial life. For continuous real-time monitoring and ubiquitous coverage, the communication system is aided with a satellite link. Multiple sensor nodes (SN) are deployed at different water levels that collect sensor data and transmit it to underwater vehicles (UV) using underwater visible light communication (UVLC). The UVLC system provides higher data rates at lower latency as compared to existing radio frequency (RF) and acoustic wave alternative for underwater communication (UWC). The UWC system comprises of horizontal haul (HH) and vertical haul (VH) UVLC links modelled using turbulence induced fading. The vertical haul links are modelled as the concatenation of successive non-mixing turbulent links to take into account the change of turbulence with the change of water level. The UVs and submarines communicate with the floating vessels (FVs) using vertical haul UVLC link. The UVs collect the data from the low power sensor nodes and offloads it to the FVs, which further beams it to the satellite on the RF carriers. The novel expressions of performance metrics such as outage probability and average bit error rate are derived. Further, the performance of the system is analysed for various system and channel parameters to prove the feasibility of the proposed communication system

Mechanism and kinetics of chlorpyrifos co-metabolism by using environment restoring microbes isolated from rhizosphere of horticultural crops under subtropics

The indiscriminate use of organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos in agricultural crops causes significant soil and water pollution and poses a serious threat to the global community. In this study, a microbial consortium ERM C-1 containing bacterial strains Pseudomonas putida T7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa M2, Klebsiella pneumoniae M6, and a fungal strain Aspergillus terreus TF1 was developed for the effective degradation of chlorpyrifos. Results revealed that microbial strains were not only utilizing chlorpyrifos (500 mg L–1) but also coupled with plant growth-promoting characteristics and laccase production. PGP traits, that is, IAA (35.53, 45.53, 25.19, and 25.53 μg mL–1), HCN (19.85, 17.85, 12.18, and 9.85 μg mL–1), and ammonium (14.73, 16.73, 8.05, and 10.87 μg mL–1) production, and potassium (49.53, 66.72, 46.14, and 52.72 μg mL–1), phosphate (52.37, 63.89, 33.33, and 71.89 μg mL–1), and zinc (29.75, 49.75, 49.12, and 57.75 μg mL–1) solubilization tests were positive for microbial strains T7, M2, M6, and TF1, respectively. The laccase activity by ERM C-1 was estimated as 37.53, 57.16, and 87.57 enzyme U mL–1 after 5, 10, and 15 days of incubation, respectively. Chlorpyrifos degradation was associated with ERM C-1 and laccase activity, and the degree of enzyme activity was higher in the consortium than in individual strains. The biodegradation study with developed consortium ERM C-1 showed a decreased chlorpyrifos concentration from the 7th day of incubation (65.77% degradation) followed by complete disappearance (100% degradation) after the 30th day of incubation in the MS medium. First-order degradation kinetics with a linear model revealed a high k –day value and low t1/2 value in ERM C-1. The results of HPLC and GC-MS analysis proved that consortium ERM C-1 was capable of completely removing chlorpyrifos by co-metabolism mechanism

Genomic profiling of NETs : A comprehensive analysis of the RADIANT trials

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) have historically been subcategorized according to histologic features and the site of anatomic origin. Here, we characterize the genomic alterations in patients enrolled in three phase 3 clinical trials of NET of different anatomic origins and assess the potential correlation with clinical outcomes. Whole-exome and targeted panel sequencing was used to characterize 225 NET samples collected in the RADIANT series of clinical trials. Genomic profiling of NET was analyzed along with nongenomic biomarker data on the tumor grade and circulating chromogranin A (CgA) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels from these patients enrolled in clinical trials. Our results highlight recurrent large-scale chromosomal alterations as a common theme among NET. Although the specific pattern of chromosomal alterations differed between tumor subtypes, the evidence for generalized chromosomal instability (CIN) was observed across all primary sites of NET. In pancreatic NET, although the P value was not significant, higher CIN suggests a trend toward longer survival (HR, 0.55, P = 0.077), whereas in the gastrointestinal NET, lower CIN was associated with longer survival (HR, 0.44, P = 0.0006). Our multivariate analyses demonstrated that when combined with other clinical data among patients with progressive advanced NETs, chromosomal level alteration adds important prognostic information. Large-scale CIN is a common feature of NET, and specific patterns of chromosomal gain and loss appeared to have independent prognostic value in NET subtypes. However, whether CIN in general has clinical significance in NET requires validation in larger patient cohort and warrants further mechanistic studies