VITAMIN C AS AN ADD ON SUPPLEMENTATION TO STANDARD ANTITUBERCULAR TREATMENT IMPROVES SPUTUM SMEAR CONVERSION IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED DRUG SENSITIVE PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS

Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of oral supplementation of Vitamin C along with standard anti-tubercular (anti TB) drugs on the sputum smear conversion in the newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients. Methods: This was a prospective, observational study in which 49 newly diagnosed pulmonary TB patients were given oral vitamin C supplementation along with standard anti TB treatment during intensive phase (2 months)  of the treatment. Examination of sputum smear at the end of intensive phase of anti-tubercular treatment was done. At the end of intensive phase, comparison was done between results of sputum smear examination of study population with the TB patients of general population from the same locality who were receiving only standard anti TB treatment and not add on Vitamin C supplementation. Results: The comparison between the results of study population (Sputum conversion – 100%) with that of general population (Sputum conversion – 92.47%) shows significant difference between both the population with p value < 0.05 (p-value = 0.041). Conclusion: This study showed that Vitamin C supplementation as add on therapy to the existing standard anti TB treatment improves the sputum smear conversion and decreases the disease activity to a greater extent than routine standard anti TB treatment alone

EFFECT OF METFORMIN ON HEART RATE VARIABILITY IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS PATIENTS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

OBJECTIVES – There is a worldwide epidemic of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It is associated with cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy. Heart rate variability (HRV) is the gold standard for its measurement. Thus, effect of metformin therapy on HRV was evaluated in newly diagnosed T2DM patients. METHODS – This was a prospective, observational study carried out from January 2020 to September 2021 in the medicine outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Gujarat, India. The study included newly diagnosed T2DM patients of both genders aged 18-70 years. Baseline HRV parameters were recorded by performing electrocardiogram for a fixed duration of 5 minutes. Follow up was done after 6 months of metformin 500 mg monotherapy. Time domain analysis was done using square root of mean square of successive R-R interval difference (RMSSD) and frequency domain analysis was done using low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) ratio. Paired t-test was used for analysis. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS – A total of 30 patients were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 43.5 ± 4.5 years. The highest number of patients were from age group between 41-50 years (33.3%). There were more number of females (56.7%) compared to males (43.3%). There was an increase in the RMSSD value after metformin treatment, but it was not statistically significant (P= 0.308). In frequency domain analysis, there was no significant improvement in LF, HF as well as LF/HF ratio (P = 0.655).   CONCLUSION – There was a minor improvement in HRV parameters after six months of metformin therapy, but it was not statistically significant. Further studies with larger sample size should be planned with one or more oral hypoglycaemics

A multi-species occupancy modeling approach to access the impacts of land use and land cover on terrestrial vertebrates in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Western Ghats, India.

Urbanization is one of the main drivers in the conversion of natural habitats into different land use and land cover types (LULC) which threaten the local as well as global biodiversity. This impact is particularly alarming in tropical countries like India, where ~18% of the world's population live, and its ever-growing economy (i.e., industrial development) expanded urban areas by several folds. We undertook this study to examine the impacts of urbanization (i.e., LULC) on terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians) in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Western Ghats, India. We sampled different habitats ranged from highly disturbed urban areas to less disturbed forested areas. Multiple sampling methods such as quadrat sampling, line transect, point count, and camera trapping were used to quantify the target taxa. We used multi-species occupancy modeling in the Bayesian framework to estimate detection probability and occupancy and to assess the effect of various LULC on different species. All four groups showed a significant negative impact of increasing anthropogenic habitat cover on occupancy. Out of 213 species detected in this study, 96% of mammals, 85% of birds, 93.75% of amphibians, and 69.43% of reptiles showed a negative effect of anthropogenic habitat cover. Evidence suggests that historical and recent human disturbances could have played an important role in transforming this area from semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forest to open, scrubby, dry deciduous, and fire-prone landscape. This might be the reason for the high occupancy of open and degraded forest habitat preferring species in our study area. We recommend species-rich areas in the MMR, e.g., Karnala Bird Sanctuary (KBS) and Prabalgad-Matheran-Malanggad Hill Range (PMMHR), must be conserved through habitat restoration, ecotourism, public awareness, and policymaking