Knowledge & Attitude of Medical Students towards Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH)

Introduction: Amalgamation of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha& Homeopathy) with allopathy medicine is a practicable solution for scarcity of health care providers in India. In this regard Government of India has recently mainstreamed AYUSH in rural area by in cooperating it in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). But the scope of this incorporation will be subjective to the acceptance of AYUSH by allopathic practitioners. Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitude of allopathic health care professionals (undergraduates, postgraduates and interns) towards AYUSH system of medicine. Material and Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in medical students of a college in Karnataka, India. Questionnaire was used and data was analyzed using SPSS 16.ver. Results: Out of 131 medical students 49% were males and 51% were females. Only 49.6% of them could expand AYUSH completely and 61% knew that AYUSH was included under NRHM. Attitude of the allopathic practitioners was positive towards AYUSH. 72.5% of them welcomed the Government move of mainstreaming AYUSH in primary health care delivery under NHM in rural areas. Conclusion: Majority of the medical students had positive attitude towards AYUSH and welcome the step of government to include them in NHM

Antenatal dexamethasone for early preterm birth in low-resource countries

BACKGROUND: The safety and efficacy of antenatal glucocorticoids in women in low-resource countries who are at risk for preterm birth are uncertain. METHODS: We conducted a multicountry, randomized trial involving pregnant women between 26 weeks 0 days and 33 weeks 6 days of gestation who were at risk for preterm birth. The participants were assigned to intramuscular dexamethasone or identical placebo. The primary outcomes were neonatal death alone, stillbirth or neonatal death, and possible maternal bacterial infection; neonatal death alone and stillbirth or neonatal death were evaluated with superiority analyses, and possible maternal bacterial infection was evaluated with a noninferiority analysis with the use of a prespecified margin of 1.25 on the relative scale. RESULTS: A total of 2852 women (and their 3070 fetuses) from 29 secondary- and tertiary-level hospitals across Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan underwent randomization. The trial was stopped for benefit at the second interim analysis. Neonatal death occurred in 278 of 1417 infants (19.6%) in the dexamethasone group and in 331 of 1406 infants (23.5%) in the placebo group (relative risk, 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72 to 0.97; P=0.03). Stillbirth or neonatal death occurred in 393 of 1532 fetuses and infants (25.7%) and in 444 of 1519 fetuses and infants (29.2%), respectively (relative risk, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.99; P=0.04); the incidence of possible maternal bacterial infection was 4.8% and 6.3%, respectively (relative risk, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.56 to 1.03). There was no significant between-group difference in the incidence of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among women in low-resource countries who were at risk for early preterm birth, the use of dexamethasone resulted in significantly lower risks of neonatal death alone and stillbirth or neonatal death than the use of placebo, without an increase in the incidence of possible maternal bacterial infection.Fil: Oladapo, Olufemi T.. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Vogel, Joshua P.. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Piaggio, Gilda. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Nguyen, My-Huong. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Althabe, Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Centro de Investigaciones en Epidemiología y Salud Pública. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria. Centro de Investigaciones en Epidemiología y Salud Pública; ArgentinaFil: Metin Gülmezoglu, A.. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Bahl, Rajiv. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Rao, Suman P.N.. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: de Costa, Ayesha. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Gupta, Shuchita. Organizacion Mundial de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Shahidullah, Mohammod. No especifíca;Fil: Chowdhury, Saleha B.. No especifíca;Fil: Ara, Gulshan. No especifíca;Fil: Akter, Shaheen. No especifíca;Fil: Akhter, Nasreen. No especifíca;Fil: Dey, Probhat R.. No especifíca;Fil: Abdus Sabur, M.. No especifíca;Fil: Azad, Mohammad T.. No especifíca;Fil: Choudhury, Shahana F.. No especifíca;Fil: Matin, M.A.. No especifíca;Fil: Goudar, Shivaprasad S.. No especifíca;Fil: Dhaded, Sangappa M.. No especifíca;Fil: Metgud, Mrityunjay C.. No especifíca;Fil: Pujar, Yeshita V.. No especifíca;Fil: Somannavar, Manjunath S.. No especifíca;Fil: Vernekar, Sunil S.. No especifíca;Fil: Herekar, Veena R.. No especifíca;Fil: Bidri, Shailaja R.. No especifíca;Fil: Mathapati, Sangamesh S.. No especifíca;Fil: Patil, Preeti G.. No especifíca;Fil: Patil, Mallanagouda M.. No especifíca;Fil: Gudadinni, Muttappa R.. No especifíca;Fil: Bijapure, Hidaytullah R.. No especifíca;Fil: Mallapur, Ashalata A.. No especifíca;Fil: Katageri, Geetanjali M.. No especifíca;Fil: Chikkamath, Sumangala B.. No especifíca;Fil: Yelamali, Bhuvaneshwari C.. No especifíca;Fil: Pol, Ramesh R.. No especifíca;Fil: Misra, Sujata S.. No especifíca;Fil: Das, Leena. No especifíca

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

A study on deliberate self harm patients attending tertiary care teaching hospital – South India

Background Deliberate Self Harm is a complex and confounding phenomenon with significant morbidity and mortality. We studied deliberate self harm (DSH) patients from agrarian society at a tertiary care teaching hospital.     Method  A two year  prospective study of all Deliberate self harm patients brought to the hospital. Data was collected by semi structured pro forma     Results A total 275 patients were brought to the hospital with history of Deliberate self harm during the study period of 2 years. Of this, 152(55.3%) were males and 123(44.7) were females. Majority people were young adults

Epigenetic alterations—The silent indicator for early aging and age‐associated health‐risks

Abstract Aging is the process of gradual physiological deterioration till death and this process perpetually reduce the functionality of an individual. To address the rationale and provide geriatric care, the constant target of geroscience is to identify reliable biomarkers for aging. Over the past decades, diversified advancements in epigenetic studies crescively support the fact that the accumulation of epigenetic changes accompanies the process of aging. A growing number of studies have suggested that alterations occur through three fundamental mechanisms like methylation of DNA, histone protein modification, and production of non‐coding microRNAs. Each of these changes occurs silently and provokes alterations in the circumstantial expression of genetic material without altering the underlying gene sequences. The changes in gene expression due to epigenetic alterations are suggested to be the cause of early aging and the onset of age‐related health risks. This review would attempt to give an integrated overview of epigenetic changes related to aging and age‐associated health risks. This review also discussed epigenomes influencing early aging and factors modulating it. Since epigenetic changes are reversible, early identification of epigenetic markers can be a hope for future geriatric medicine. Finally, this review emphasizes the identification of blood‐based epigenetic biomarkers in order to enlighten the future scope for therapeutic intervention to slow down the aging process

NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY SYNDROME - A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional status of people living with HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (PLHAs) on antiretroviral treatment (ART) and their knowledge with respect to role of nutrition in maintaining their health and to know the association of various factors with nutritional status and knowledge among PLHAs attending ART centers.Methods: A cross-sectional study carried out at ART center of a tertiary care institution in Maharashtra. A total of 104 PLHAs who were started on ART for the 1st time and completed minimum 6 months of treatment and who gave consent were included in the study. Data were collected by personal interview technique after taking informed consent with the help of pre-tested, prevalidated questionnaire with predetermined scoring system along with anthropometric measurements and relevant investigations maintaining strict confidentiality. Those with &lt;50% scores were marked as unsatisfactory and more than 50% as satisfactory. Data were entered into Excel Sheet and were analyzed with SPSS 17.1 software.Results: In our study, 51.92% of the study participants were female, mean age was 38.5±9.6, 14.42% were illiterate, 32% had undergone primary education, and equally had secondary education. 16.35% were drivers and almost all were married (96.15%). Mean hemoglobin (Hb%) before and after ART was 10.45±2.13 and 10.64±2.16, while mean CD4 count before and after ART was 177.26±146.52 and 413.69±266.25, respectively, while post-ART mean body mass index (BMI) was 20.55±3.07. Majority (75%) were on ART for more than 12 months. Majority (65.38%) had unsatisfactory score with respect to overall knowledge regarding nutrition. 28.85% were underweight and 2.88% obese; while 17.31% were overweight and rest were normal. 46.15% were anemic. Statistical significant difference was noted among age, educational status, marital status, knowledge score, and anemia status with respect to BMI. Logistic regression with BMI as an outcome showed that age binary had some association. It means that there are 2.7 times odds of normal BMI in higher age group. Statistically significant difference was also noted in mean CD4 count before and after ART therapy. Regression analysis showed that CD4 count post-ART depends on pre-ART CD4 count, ART duration, and gender of the individual. With each unit increases in pre-ART CD4 and ART duration, there is increase of 0.44 and 4.5 units in after ART CD4. Post-ART CD4 count increased more among females compared to males in our study.Conclusion: There exists a wide gap in PLHAs knowledge regarding nutritional aspects. The study also shows that good nutrition has good influence on CD4 count. PLHAs belonging to higher age 40 years, married, and educated, those who had better knowledge score and good Hb% had better nutrition. Therefore, there is an urgent need for nutritional interventions like frequent health educational sessions on nutrition to increase the knowledge of PLHAs can be emphasized during each follow-up visit at ART centers. There is a need to identify PLHAs with no or minimum nutritional support and provides nutritional supplementation, for which planning and policy section needs adequate research evidences from India

Synthesis and characterization of heteroleptic Schiff base transition metal complexes: a study of anticancer, antimicrobial, DNA cleavage and anti-TB activity

<p>In search of effective bioactive compounds, we have synthesized the new Co(II), Ni(II), and Cu(II) complexes of the Schiff base derived from 8-formyl-7-hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin and 2-hydrazino benzothiazole and characterized by analytical, spectroscopic (IR, NMR, UV–vis, Mass), magnetic, powder X-ray diffraction data (PXRD) and TGA studies. Elemental analysis suggests the stoichiometry of the synthesized complexes and the solution electronic spectral study revealed the octahedral geometry of the compounds. Thermal analysis shows the presence of water molecule outside the coordination sphere and powder-XRD patterns have been studied to test the degree of crystallinity of the complexes and unit cell calculations were made. All the synthesized compounds were tested against human ovarian cancer cell line (PA-1). The synthesized metal complexes exhibited enhanced activity against the tested bacterial (<i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> and <i>Escherichia Coli</i>) and fungal strains (<i>Candida albicans</i> and <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i>) as compared to free ligand (LH). The results of the DNA-cleavage activity suggest that the ligand and its metal complexes can cleave CT-DNA at different degrees. Further, anti-tuberculosis activity was done using microplate almar blue assay. Among all these synthesized compounds, the Cu(II) complex exhibits good cleaving ability compared to other newly synthesized metal complexes.</p

Physicians' Perceptions about the Emergence of Adolescent Overweight in India

Background: Overweight is increasing in developing countries even as underweight remains highly prevalent in some communities, leading to a double burden of malnutrition. This study explored physicians' perceptions about emergence of overweight and its clinical management in a socioeconomically developing region of India, where underweight constitutes to be a major health problem among children and adolescents. Objective:This study aimed to explore how physicians in the Vijayapura city, India are understanding and managing the emerging double burden of underweight and overweight in adolescents. Material and Methods: A semi structured questionnaire was developed consisting of 35 close-ended questions about causes of obesity, gender differences, and treatment practices and three open-ended questions about the perceived main reasons for obesity .One question ranked various reasons for emergence of adolescent obesity. Twenty- ve physicians participated in the survey. Results: Physicians treated more adolescents for underweight than overweight; however, most said overweight had increased over the past 5 years (72%) while underweight had been steady or decreased (80%). Most desired more training on treating patients for overweight (92%) and under-nutrition (60%). Most agreed that urban dwelling (72%), high socioeconomic status (72%), male gender (84%) and parental obesity (80%) were risk factors for obesity. Almost all discussed eating habits (100%) and activity levels (80%), and two-thirds ranked environmental factors, like urbanization, globalization, and technology, as most inuential. Conclusion: Physicians indicated that while the predominant problem among adolescents in this part of India is underweight, overweight is increasing due to various environmental, socioeconomic, cultural, and behavioral factors

Hematological Profile of Painters: A Case -Control Study

ABSTRACT Occupational diseases are often neglected due to its direct impact on a person&apos;s economy. Painters are at a high risk of developing alterations in their haematological profile, apart from respiratory and skin diseases. Our aim to study the haematological profile in painters and take preventive steps in order to improve their health. This case-control study was done in 30 painters and 30 non-painters in the Department of Physiology, S. N. Medical College, Bagalkot. Ethical clearance and informed consent were obtained. Blood sample was drawn from antecubital vein. Hemoglobin, RBC count, total and differential leucocytic counts, and platelet count of the painters and non-painters were estimated. The results obtained were compared between the two groups statistically using unpaired t test. This study revealed there were a decrease in hemoglobin and neutrophils, and a decrease in RBC, Platelet and total leucocyte counts in painters. An increase in eosinophils, lympocytes and basophils was also noted in them as compared to nonpainters. A check on these haematological parameters should be kept in case of painters in order to take preventive measures to improve their health