A comparative study to assess the effect of escitalopram and amitriptyline on psychomotor functions in patients of depression

Background: Depression is a most common and widespread of all psychiatric disorders. Treatment of depression includes the use of antidepressants commonly used clinically such as tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Certain antidepressants apart from improvement in the symptoms found to have detrimental effect on cognitive and psychomotor function. Objective of this study was to assess and to compare the effect of escitalopram and amitriptyline on cognitive and psychomotor functionsMethods: Effect of escitalopram and amitriptyline on psychomotor function was assessed by using Critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) and Reaction time (RT) in patients of mild to moderate depression at the end of 2nd and 4th week of monotherapy.Results: Patients in both the group have their RT remained significantly higher (p<0.001) in comparison with control and CFF remained significantly lower at the end of both the week. There was a significant rise in CFF in escitalopram group as compared to amitriptyline (p<0.001). Escitalopram showed a significant improvement in Visual reaction time (VRT), Auditory reaction time (ART) and Choice reaction time (CRT) (p<0.001) compared to amitriptyline at both the follow ups.Conclusions: Findings of this study support the use of Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) i.e. escitalopram which had shown less impairment of psychomotor function in patients of Depression as compared to amitriptyline (Tricyclic antidepressant), in special subgroups of population who operate machinery, drive vehicle or require alertness for the work

CORRELATION OF TOTAL ANTIOXIDANT STATUS (TAS) WITH DNA DAMAGE IN HIV/AIDS PATIENTS

Abstract Title: Correlation of total antioxidant status (TAS) with DNA damage in HIV/AIDS patients. Background: The antioxidant deficiency in HIV-positive populations is probably due to increased utilization of antioxidant micronutrients because of increased oxidative stress rather than to inadequate dietary intake [1].  Objectives: The study had 2 principal objectives. The first was to determine total antioxidant status (TAS) and DNA damage in HIV /AIDS patients on varying antiretroviral therapy(ART)  and those not on ART. The second objective was to ascertain whether there is any correlation between TAS and oxidative DNA damage in these patients. Design: This was a cross-sectional study involving 300 HIV positive and 100 HIV-negative subjects aged 20–60 yrs. Results: The varying ART has not have much effect on TAS levels but there was different levels of DNA damage in ART first line, ART second line and ART not yet started patients. There is a negative correlation between TAS & DNA damage. Conclusions: In this study, we observed that ART plays a significant role in the oxidative DNA damage. Decreased TAS is associated with increased DNA damage. Â

Studies on the hepatic and renal status of patients with sickle cell disease from western zone of Maharashtra, India

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited monogenic genetic disorder in Indian tribal and non-tribal population. This condition is caused by mutations in the hemoglobin gene and inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. Pathogenesis in SCD varies widely from patient to patient. Most of the infections affect SCD pathogenesis, so early diagnosis of the same is important.Methods: The present study was designed to evaluate the biochemical parameters to assess the hepatic and renal status in SCD subjects from west zone of Maharashtra, India. Patients with sickle cell disease (n=50) from primary health centres of Palghar were included in this study and age and sex matched healthy persons (n=50) were controls. Informed written consent was obtained from all the study subjects.Results: Our findings showed that Aspartate trasaminase (AST), Alanine transaminase (ALT), bilirubin and creatinine increased significantly above normal level in SCD subjects. Albumin and urea levels in SCD were found to have decreased in the SCD subjects. There is a slight increase in uric acid and creatinine levels; this indicates an adverse effect on hepatic function and moderate effect on renal function in sickle cell anemia patients. Most common events of SCD pathogenesis, can be categorized into hemolytic events and vaso-occlusive crisis-based events. Adverse effect on hepatic function can lead to further hemolytic events.Conclusions: Although specific biomarkers related to these different events needs to understand for assessment of pathogenesis, the ones we have studied can be useful to assess the status of hepatic and renal function to follow the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.

Study of prescribing pattern of antimicrobial agents in indoor patients of a tertiary care hospital

Background: To evaluate prescribing pattern of antimicrobial agents in indoor patients of medicine and surgery department of SBH Government Medical College, Dhule.Methods: This was a retrospective cross sectional study carried over a period of 3 months. The patients who were admitted and received antimicrobial therapy in department of Medicine and Surgery were randomly selected and included in the study. The case record sheet and drug chart were obtained from Medical Record Section of the Hospital. The data was collected using case record form specially prepared for the study. The cases were categorised according to slightly Modified Kunin’s Criteria. Results: Total numbers of patients receiving antimicrobial therapy were 130 in medicine department and 93 in surgery department. Most commonly prescribed antimicrobial agent was cefotaxime (21.7%) in medicine and metronidazole in surgery (30.6%) department. The average number of antimicrobials per patient was found to be 1.7 and 3.02 in medicine and surgery department respectively. The switch on therapy from parenteral to oral route was employed in 16.15% patients in medicine department and 11.82% patients in surgery department.  As per Kunin’s modified criteria, 66.2% and 58.06% patients received antimicrobial therapy appropriately in Medicine and surgery department respectively.Conclusion: This study highlights the problem of over-prescription of antibiotics and a trend towards polypharmacy. The interventions to rectify the problem of inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents are needed to make therapy more rational and cost effective.

A study of Association of Mast Cell Count in Different Grades of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: Mast cells(MC) are cells of the immune cells which can secrete a variety of molecules. Many studies suggest that mast cells may either promote tumour growth in some types of cancer or may act in an opposite manner in other tumour types. Aim: To evaluate the association of mast cells in the different grades of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma(OSCC). Material and methods: Fifteen diagnosed cases each of well, moderate and poorly differentiated OSCC were identified from the institutional archival material. Two slides each were made of 5 μm thickness and stained with Hematoxylin and eosin and 1% Toluidine blue stain. Each section was evaluated for mast cells in peritumoural, intratumoural locations and at the invasive front of the tumour. The results obtained were subjected to statistical evaluation by an SPSS version 19 using Chi square test, Anova and Post hoc Tuckey tests. Results: An inverse relation was observed between MC count with grade of the tumour with maximum MC located in the peritumoural area followed by the invasive front and the least in the intra tumoural areas. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that a decrease in MC count is associated with an advanced histologic grade of OSCC and hence a poorer prognosis, thus favouring the protective role of mast cells in OSCC.Keywords: Mast cells, Oral squamous cell carcinoma, Histological gradin

Proteinase inhibitors of pigeonpea cv. BSMR 736: Characterization and bioefficacy against Helicoverpa armigera

Pigeonpea is an agriculturally important leguminous crop with high vulnerability to insect pest attack specifically, Helicoverpa armigera. The proteinase inhibitors (PIs) mediated host plant resistance against insect pests is a promising sustainable agricultural research practice. The current study was carried out to perceive biochemical characterization of proteinase inhibitors named PPTI in the pigeonpea (cv. BSMR 736). The purification of PPTI from crude protein seed extract was achieved by acetone precipitation, N-LP-IEF, and trypsin affinity chromatography. It was found to inhibit bovine trypsin and HaGPs in vitro. The optimal conditions for inhibition were pH 8 and temperature 40ºC. The PPTI showed four isoinhibitors bands on native, non-reducing and reducing SDS-PAGE in the range of 26.7–19.3 KDa. Upon resolution on two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), PPTI produced nine pI variant spots having isoelectric point (pI) 6.6, 6.6, 6.3, 6.1, 5.9, 5.8, 5.7, 5.6 and 5.6. An artificial diet containing PPTI reduced the H. armigera larval weight about 69%, with 25% mortality. For eco-friendly sustainable agricultural practices, natural compounds like PPTI could be expressed in transgenic crops to prevent the invasion of H. armigera in pigeonpea

Fitting in a complex chi^2 landscape using an optimized hypersurface sampling

Fitting a data set with a parametrized model can be seen geometrically as finding the global minimum of the chi^2 hypersurface, depending on a set of parameters {P_i}. This is usually done using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The main drawback of this algorithm is that despite of its fast convergence, it can get stuck if the parameters are not initialized close to the final solution. We propose a modification of the Metropolis algorithm introducing a parameter step tuning that optimizes the sampling of parameter space. The ability of the parameter tuning algorithm together with simulated annealing to find the global chi^2 hypersurface minimum, jumping across chi^2{P_i} barriers when necessary, is demonstrated with synthetic functions and with real data

An Experimental Investigation of the Scaling of Columnar Joints

Columnar jointing is a fracture pattern common in igneous rocks in which cracks self-organize into a roughly hexagonal arrangement, leaving behind an ordered colonnade. We report observations of columnar jointing in a laboratory analog system, desiccated corn starch slurries. Using measurements of moisture density, evaporation rates, and fracture advance rates as evidence, we suggest an advective-diffusive system is responsible for the rough scaling behavior of columnar joints. This theory explains the order of magnitude difference in scales between jointing in lavas and in starches. We investigated the scaling of average columnar cross-sectional areas due to the evaporation rate, the analog of the cooling rate of igneous columnar joints. We measured column areas in experiments where the evaporation rate depended on lamp height and time, in experiments where the evaporation rate was fixed using feedback methods, and in experiments where gelatin was added to vary the rheology of the starch. Our results suggest that the column area at a particular depth is related to both the current conditions, and hysteretically to the geometry of the pattern at previous depths. We argue that there exists a range of stable column scales allowed for any particular evaporation rate.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, for supporting online movies, go to http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/nonlinear/movies/starch_movies.htm

Cosmological Perturbations in Non-Commutative Inflation

We compute the spectrum of cosmological perturbations in a scenario in which inflation is driven by radiation in a non-commutative space-time. In this scenario, the non-commutativity of space and time leads to a modified dispersion relation for radiation with two branches, which allows for inflation. The initial conditions for the cosmological fluctuations are thermal. This is to be contrasted with the situation in models of inflation in which the accelerated expansion of space is driven by the potential energy of a scalar field, and in which the fluctuations are of quantum vacuum type. We find that, in the limit that the expansion of space is almost exponential, the spectrum of fluctuations is scale-invariant with a slight red tilt. The magnitude of the tilt is different from what is obtained in a usual inflationary model with the same expansion rate during the period of inflation. The amplitude also differs, and can easily be adjusted to agree with observations.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur