Screening study of dipstick urinalysis of healthy neonates delivered in tertiary care hospital, from Vadodara, Gujarat

Background: Urinary dipstick is one of the most important advances in the current diagnostic procedure in pediatric nephrourology. Dipstick test is easy to perform bedside test, gives an immediate result, is relatively cheap, and require less sophisticated training of personnel; so could be used for asymptomatic patients. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to evaluate the usefulness of urine dipstick bedside screening test for diagnosis of underlying congenital kidney disease in otherwise healthy neonates. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted from April 2018 to November 2018. A total of 900 healthy newborns were enrolled. Random spot urine samples were obtained within first 72 h of life. Dipstick test was performed using Siemens Multistix 10SG and positive or negative reading for biochemical parameters was recorded and compared with laboratory test. Newborns with 1st positive dipstick test were issued screen positive cards and called for follow-up on 7th day of life for 2nd dipstick test. Those with persistent 2nd dipstick positive were further investigated to rule out any congenital anomaly. Results: Of total 900 neonates, 504 (56%) were males and 396 (44%) were females. Of the total newborns, 441 (49%) were positive for proteinuria, 2 (0.2%) for nitrites, and 54 (6%) for leukocytes during 1st dipstick urinalysis. Urine routine microscopic evaluation showed 450 (50%) positive for protein and 322 (35%) positive for pus cells. On subsequent follow-up of positive cases, only 2 (0.5%) newborns were positive for proteinuria on 2nd dipstick (p=0.7061). Conclusion: Bedside dipstick urine test as a screening test was not useful in otherwise healthy neonates due to renal immaturity in first few days of life

A rare case of heterotopic pregnancy: case report

Heterotopic pregnancy is defined as the coexistence of intrauterine and extrauterine gestation. The incidence is low and estimated to be 1 in 30,000 of spontaneous pregnancies though it is becoming commoner with assisted reproductive technique. It can be a life-threatening condition and can be easily missed with the diagnosis being overlooked. We present a rare case of spontaneous heterotopic pregnancy with intrauterine gestation without cardiac activity and unruptured tubal ectopic

An ensemble multi-model technique for predicting chronic kidney disease

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a type of lifelong kidney disease that leads to the gradual loss of kidney function over time; the main function of the kidney is to filter the wastein the human body. When the kidney malfunctions, the wastes accumulate in our body leading to complete failure. Machine learning algorithms can be used in prediction of the kidney disease at early stages by analyzing the symptoms. The aim of this paper is to propose an ensemble learning technique for predicting Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). We propose a new hybrid classifier called as ABC4.5, which is ensemble learning for predicting Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The proposed hybrid classifier is compared with the machine learning classifiers such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), C4.5, Particle Swarm Optimized Multi Layer Perceptron (PSO-MLP). The proposed classifier accurately predicts the occurrences of kidney disease by analysis various medical factors. The work comprises of two stages, the first stage consists of obtaining weak decision tree classifiers from C4.5 and in the second stage, the weak classifiers are added to the weighted sum to represent the final output for improved performance of the classifier

A study of cervical Papanicolaou smears examination in patients with abnormal vaginal discharge

Background: Reproductive tract infection represents major public health problem in developing countries. Cervical infections are common problems among women of reproductive age and associated with clinical complaints of vaginal discharge. Pap smear is a screening test to diagnose various abnormal pathology of cervix. Aims and objectives of this study was to identify various causes of vaginal discharge and frequency of various pathogenic microorganisms in cervical smear.Methods: This was hospital based descriptive study carried out on 300 female patients who attended obstetrics and gynecology clinic at tertiary care hospital with compliant of vaginal discharge. Cervical smear samples were collected, conventional smears were prepared by trained technical staff and stained using Papanicolaou (Pap) technique.Results: The most common age group affected with vaginal discharge was 26 to 35 years with 115 cases. The most common associated symptom was lower abdominal pain seen in 75 cases. Most frequent findings on per speculum examination was thick whitish discharge in 186 cases and the most common pathogenic organism found was Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) in 177 cases.Conclusions: The study emphasizes the need for educating women of rural community to raise the awareness for cervical Pap screening

Evaluation of complication during third stage of labour at tertiary care center

Background: The objective of the present study was to determine the maternal outcome of complications of third stage of labour and to determine the risk factors and evaluate the management protocols for these complications.Methods: This is retrospective study of maternal outcome with complications of third stage of labour carried out at tertiary care centre from June 2016 to December 2019. Patients who developed any complications of third stage of labour after vaginal delivery or caesarean section were included.Results: Complications observed during third stage of labour were atonic PPH 0.82% (74 cases), traumatic PPH 0.55% (50 cases), retained placenta (including placenta accreta spectrum) 0.21% (19 cases), secondary PPH 0.03% (3 cases), uterine inversion 0.03% (3 cases) and amniotic fluid embolism 0.01% (1 case). Maximum cases were seen in 18-24 years of age group. Only 36% patients having atonic PPH responded to medical treatment, 46% patients having atonic PPH responded to conservative surgery, 18% of patients required radical surgery.Conclusions: Third stage complications are potentially life threatening. Associated conditions for third stage complication are high parity, anemia, hydramnios, multiple pregnancy, malpresentation, placenta previa, and adherent placenta. Early anticipation and early intervention with proper planning is required to reduce the maternal morbidity and mortality in third stage complication

Cost analysis of antiretroviral agents available in India

Background: AIDS is one of the most prevalent causes of death due to infectious origin which requires a lifelong therapy. There is variation in prices of antiretroviral drugs available in Indian market. Thus, a study was planned to find out variation in prices of antiretroviral drugs either as a single drug or in combination and to evaluate the difference in cost of various brands of the same antiretroviral drugs by calculating percentage variation in cost in Indian rupees.Methods: Cost of antiretroviral drugs manufactured by different pharmaceutical companies, in the same strength and dosage forms was obtained from “Current Index of Medical Specialties” July-October 2014 and “Indian Drug Review” Vol. XXI, Issue No. 4, 2014. The difference in the maximum and minimum price of the same drug manufactured by different pharmaceutical companies and percentage variation in cost was calculated.Results: Percentage variation in cost for antiretroviral drugs marketed in India was found to be zidovudine (100 mg) - 436%, lamivudine (100 mg) - 268%, tenofovir (300 mg) - 149.5%, didanosine (250 mg) - 73.75%, indinavir (400 mg) - 35.26%. Among the combination therapy, price variation was lamivudine + zidovudine (150 + 300 mg) - 314%, lamivudine + stavudine (150 + 40 mg) - 105%, lopinavir + ritonavir (133.3 + 33 mg) - 25%.Conclusion: There is wide variation in the prices of antiretroviral agents available in the market. Regulatory authorities, pharma companies, physicians should maximize their efforts to reduce the cost of drugs

Shedding light on the polyphyletic behavior of the genus Sterkiella: The importance of ontogenetic and molecular phylogenetic approaches

Present study, investigates a poorly known species of the genus Sterkiella, i.e., S. tricirrata, based on two populations isolated from soil samples collected from the Colfiorito Regional Park, Umbria Region, Italy and from the Silent Valley National Park, India. Both populations showed a highly similar morphology, however different ontogenetic pattern in between. The study confirms the validity of the species S. tricirrata which was considered to be a species within the Sterkiella histriomuscorum complex. The main ontogenetic difference between S. tricirrata and other species of the genus Sterkiella is the different mode of formation of anlagen V and VI of the proter in the former. In the phylogenetic analyses, Sterkiella tricirrata clusters with Sterkiella sinica within the stylonychine oxytrichids, in a clade away from the type species (Sterkiella cavicola) of the genus Sterkiella. The study highlights the importance of ontogenetic as well as molecular data in shedding light on the polyphyletic behavior of the genus Sterkiella. A detailed description of S. tricirrata based on morphology, ontogenesis and molecular phylogenetic methods is presented. Further, the improved diagnosis has been provided for the genus Sterkiella and the poorly known species S. tricirrata

An adaptation of a macroscale methodology to assess the direct economic losses caused by Tropical Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe

Tropical cyclones are among the costliest disasters in the world, with reported losses amounting to billions of US dollars on an annual basis. To reduce the impact of disasters including cyclones, Zimbabwe signed the Sendai Framework whose Target C is aimed at reducing the direct economic losses of disasters. Under the direction of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), an open-ended intergovernmental expert working group (OIEWG) developed a simple methodology for estimating direct disaster-economic loss. Therefore, this study tested the applicability of the OIEWG methodology in assessing the direct economic losses induced by Tropical Cyclone Idai (TCI) in Zimbabwe. The results revealed that TCI inflicted huge losses in most sectors of the economy, notably the housing, agriculture and the critical infrastructure. The sectoral analysis approach of the OIEWG methodology worked well in distinguishing direct and indirect loses as well as in underlining the need to adopt and effectively implement adequate risk reduction strategies in the built environment. Strengthening such strategies such as the ‘build back better’ principle, cyclone forecasting and warning systems and constructing cyclone-resilient infrastructure is critical in order to minimise direct losses attributed to cyclones

Security System for Industrial Gate And Generation of Gate Pass

This paper gives description of face recognition system which automatically identifies and/or verifies the identity of a person from digital images. The basic flow of system is the image is captured by camera. The PCA algorithm detects the face and extracts its features. After the extraction, system compares the captured images with data base images. When the system found the person to be authorized then the system opens the gate automatically. But if the person is unauthorized then the system does not allow to entering in the industrial campus as well as it will generate the gate pass for the person