Single session, intrauser repeatability of anterior chamber biometric and corneal pachy-volumetric parameters using a new Scheimpflug+Placido device

AbstractPurposeTo analyze single session, intrauser reliability of a Scheimpflug device for anterior chamber (AC) and corneal parameters.MethodsIn this observational study, 100 normal candidates underwent Scheimpflug analysis with Sirius 3D Rotating Scheimpflug Camera and Topography System (Costruzione Strumenti Oftalmici, Italy). Two scans in dark room conditions were performed by the same experienced user. The candidates were asked to keep both eyes closed for 5min before the scans. Exclusion criteria were previous ocular surgery, corneal scarring and anterior segment/posterior segment anomalies. Only the right eyes were used for the analysis. Both corneal (central, minimum, and apical thickness, volume, horizontal visible iris diameter, and apical curvature) and anterior chamber (volume, depth, angle, horizontal diameter) measurements were evaluated.ResultsThere was no difference in the means of repeated measurements (p>0.05, ANOVA). Intraclass correlations between the measures were high and ranged from 0.995–0.997 for corneal to 0.964–0.997 for anterior chamber (AC) parameters. The precision of repeatability measures (1.96×Sw) was approximately 5μ for the central and minimum corneal thickness, 8μ for the apical corneal thickness, 0.06mm for AC (anterior chamber) depth and less than 2° for the AC angle.ConclusionsSirius Scheimpflug system has high repeatability for both corneal and AC parameters in normal eyes

Detection of clogged arteries using LabVIEW

People suffering from peripheral artery disease -- a debilitating condition that can lead to heart attack and stroke has been rose nearly to 24 percent, 202 million from 164 million worldwide, over the past decade. Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is nothing but building up of cholesterol and plaque in the arteries that lead to the extremities. In reality, PAD and CAD both are related to a single disease, atherosclerosis, which is a buildup of cholesterol in the arteries throughout the body and which eventually leads to heart diseases like heart attack. The diagnosis of heart disease starts from doctor checking the arteries through a stethoscope to detect any whooshing sound called as bruit which seems to be a crude method. Then certain blood tests are done through which levels of cholesterol, fats, etc. are checked. The Ankle/Brachial Index, followed by EKG (Electrocardiogram), Echocardiography, Computed Tomography Scan and Stress Testing. Final step is CCTA. Coronary CT angiography (C CTA) provides help in predicting heart attack risk in patients who are suspected to have coronary artery disease, but they mostly don’t show signs of any other risk factors, such as high cholesterol elevated blood pressure, or diabetes. The method proposed here is to detect peripheral artery disease through nerves in the foot. It’s safe to use unlike angiography where the suspected patients are exposed to special X-rays which might be harming. Also the time required for the results to generate is very less as well. The implementation of this method is a graphical representation of different artery points of the foot. So the inference is very easy. Frequent testing can be done and by comparing the graph obtained during different tests can be compared with previous reports

Targeting Pro-Inflammatory Function of Microglia Using Small Molecules to Combat Neurodegeneration

Microglia are the brain’s resident immune cells that are responsible for maintaining homeostasis in healthy conditions. During injury or infection, resting microglia get activated and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1b, IL-1a, IL-6, etc. along with reactive oxygen species like nitric oxide (NO) to combat neuroinflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Inflammation is characterized by the activation of resident-immune cells in the brain called microglia that respond to the eat-me signals released by the toxic amyloid beta peptides as well as the dying neurons in the microenvironment. Recent studies have shown that activated microglia induce neuronal death by secreting IL-1a, TNF-a, and C1q. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms in this process are not well understood. Furthermore, it has been previously shown that IL-1a and TNF-a promote neuronal death via the activation of astrocytes during inflammation. We used BV2 mouse microglia to investigate the IL-1a and TNF-a cytokine production in response to LPS activation using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In addition, the viability of the cells along with their NO production was evaluated using cell titer blue assay (CTB) and Griess assay. In this study, we show that small molecules can be used in single treatment and in combination to combat the inflammatory functions of microglia. These small molecules that modulate microglial functions may play an important role in developing new therapeutics for neuroinflammation

Comparison of HRCT chest findings among vaccinated and non-vaccinated COVID-19 patients

Background: Coronavirus disease 19 was first reported in Wuhan, China and it was declared a pandemic by WHO in March 12, 2020. Vaccination has provided a very effective way to prevent the spread and reduce the severity of this disease. The two vaccines currently approved by the Government of India are Covaxin and Covishield. HRCT is the most valuable tool available to assess the pulmonary involvement in this disease. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of vaccination on the severity of pulmonary involvement in COVID-19.  Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a department of radio diagnosis of tertiary health care hospital of Bihar for period of 4 months from April 2021 to July 2021.Results: The study involved a total of 100 patients (74 were males and 26 females), where 50 were (50%) were unvaccinated and 50 (28.6%) were vaccinated with one or both doses Covishield vaccine. The frequency of disease was least in 14 (7.9%) among fully vaccinated subjects. The CT severity score is less in those who took both doses of the vaccine. The mean CT score of all the patients included in the study was 12.64±11.1. However, the patients who received complete vaccination had significantly low mean CT scores (14.18±7.223) in comparison to the non-vaccinated patients (11.1±6.016).  Fully vaccinated patients had almost low CT severity score indicating mild form of disease.Conclusions: HRCT is the most sensitive modality to detect severity of COVID-19 pneumonia. Severe lung involvement is more common in the unvaccinated population (32%) as compared with the vaccinated group, in which only 25% members had severe lung involvement.

A REVIEW ON RECENT ADVANCEMENT IN PULSATILE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Delivery systems with a pulsatile-release method are particularly involved in designing medicines for which traditional managed drug-release systems with the continuous release are not suitable. This medication also has a high first-pass impact or special conditions for chrono-pharmacology. These medications also have a high first-pass or unique chronopharmacological effect. The pulsatile release profile is characterised by a duration of no release (lag time) followed by a fast and full release of the drug. Pulsatile drug delivery systems may be classified into site-specific systems in which the drug is released inside the gastrointestinal system (e. g. colon) or time-controlled devices wherein the drug is released after a well-defined time period. Site-regulated release is typically controlled by environmental factors, such as pH or enzymes found in the intestinal tract, whereas drug release from time-controlled processes is controlled mainly by the delivery system and, preferably, not by the environment. This review covers various single-and multiple-unit oral pulsatile drug-delivery systems with an emphasis on time-controlled drug-release systems

A Prospective Observational Study of Spectrum of Tropical Infections in Pregnancy in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mumbai, Maharashtra

Background and aims: Pregnancy is associated with several hormonal and mechanical changes in the body. The tropical infections that most commonly affect pregnant females are malaria, dengue, leptospirosis and typhoid. These tropical infections cause many medical complications in pregnancy by causing anemia, thrombocytopenia, bleeding and inflammatory reactions. Therefore, we conducted a study to evaluate the clinical presentation, complications and outcome of tropical infections in pregnancy. Material and methods: The present study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai, Maharashtra over a period of 1½ year (January 2018 to June 2019) after getting approval from Institutional Ethics Committee. In this study, 250 pregnant patients admitted in medicine ward, obstetrics and gynecology ward, and ICU with symptoms and signs of tropical infections and age more than 18 years, who gave written informed consent, were included. Results: The most common age group amongst the study population was 20 to 24 years (41.6%), followed by 25 to 29 years (40%) and 30 to 35 years (18.4%). Most of the study population had gestational age of 1 to 12 weeks (61.6%), followed by 13 to 28 weeks (31.6%) and more than 28 weeks (6.8%). Most of the study population had parity 2 (46.8%), followed by parity 1 (43.2%), parity 3 (6.8%) and parity 4 (3.2%). The most common clinical features amongst the study population was fever (62%), followed by headache (32.8%), nausea (30.8%), pain in abdomen (26.4%) and petechiae (26%). The most common infections amongst the study population were malaria (11.2%), dengue (8%), leptospirosis (6%) and enteric fever (5.2%). The most common medical complications were bleeding due to thrombocytopenia (TCP) (6.8%), followed by serositis (5.2%), ARDS (4.4%), meningitis (2.8%), subconjunctival hemorrhage (2.8%) and encephalitis (1.4%). Complicated infections were seen in 30% of the study population. Conclusion: All pregnant women must be evaluated at primary care centers properly in their antenatal visits for their parity status and any associated risk factors and diseases. By doing this, we can reduce many tropical infections, complications and maternal mortality in early stage of pregnancy

A Prospective Observational Study of Spectrum of Tropical Infections in Pregnancy in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mumbai, Maharashtra

Background and aims: Pregnancy is associated with several hormonal and mechanical changes in the body. The tropical infections that most commonly affect pregnant females are malaria, dengue, leptospirosis and typhoid. These tropical infections cause many medical complications in pregnancy by causing anemia, thrombocytopenia, bleeding and inflammatory reactions. Therefore, we conducted a study to evaluate the clinical presentation, complications and outcome of tropical infections in pregnancy. Material and methods: The present study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai, Maharashtra over a period of 1½ year (January 2018 to June 2019) after getting approval from Institutional Ethics Committee. In this study, 250 pregnant patients admitted in medicine ward, obstetrics and gynecology ward, and ICU with symptoms and signs of tropical infections and age more than 18 years, who gave written informed consent, were included. Results: The most common age group amongst the study population was 20 to 24 years (41.6%), followed by 25 to 29 years (40%) and 30 to 35 years (18.4%). Most of the study population had gestational age of 1 to 12 weeks (61.6%), followed by 13 to 28 weeks (31.6%) and more than 28 weeks (6.8%). Most of the study population had parity 2 (46.8%), followed by parity 1 (43.2%), parity 3 (6.8%) and parity 4 (3.2%). The most common clinical features amongst the study population was fever (62%), followed by headache (32.8%), nausea (30.8%), pain in abdomen (26.4%) and petechiae (26%). The most common infections amongst the study population were malaria (11.2%), dengue (8%), leptospirosis (6%) and enteric fever (5.2%). The most common medical complications were bleeding due to thrombocytopenia (TCP) (6.8%), followed by serositis (5.2%), ARDS (4.4%), meningitis (2.8%), subconjunctival hemorrhage (2.8%) and encephalitis (1.4%). Complicated infections were seen in 30% of the study population. Conclusion: All pregnant women must be evaluated at primary care centers properly in their antenatal visits for their parity status and any associated risk factors and diseases. By doing this, we can reduce many tropical infections, complications and maternal mortality in early stage of pregnancy