Serum Beta HCG and uterine artery Doppler studies in second trimester to predict preeclampsia and eclampsia

Background: Hypertensive disorders during pregnancy remain amongst the most significant and intriguing unsolved problems in obstetrics. The study aims at testing the hypothesis that women with high serum beta hCG levels and alterations in waveforms in the uterine artery doppler in early second trimester have high risk of developing pre-eclampsia.Methods: Serum Beta hCG estimation was done by Sandwich chemiluminescence immunoassay method. All uterine artery waveforms were obtained using a Toshiba nemio ultrasound machine attached to a 3.5 MHz curvilinear transducer, with colour and pulsed Doppler abilities.Results: For prediction of preeclampsia or eclampsia uterine artery Doppler velocimetry alone shows specificity of 96.30%, sensitivity of 90%, positive predictive value of 94% and negative predictive value of 80%. When it is combined with serum beta HCG sensitivity and specificity are almost same, but alone serum beta HCG levels are showing sensitivity of 96% and specificity of just 76%.Conclusions: Abnormal waveforms on uterine Doppler studies are the better predictors for preeclampsia and eclampsia when done in early second trimester

Exploring the Evolving Role of Herbal and Alternative Medicine in Modern Healthcare

This review article examines the evolving role of herbal and alternative medicine in modern healthcare. It explores the historical context of herbal medicine and its cultural significance, as well as the factors contributing to its resurgence in popularity. The review discusses the scientific evidence supporting the efficacy and safety of herbal remedies, along with the challenges associated with conducting research in this field. It also explores the integration of herbal medicine into conventional healthcare systems and the importance of collaboration between healthcare professionals and herbal practitioners. Furthermore, the review addresses the potential benefits and risks of combining herbal remedies with conventional treatments and emphasizes the need for informed decision-making and open communication between patients and healthcare providers. Overall, this review highlights the increasing recognition of herbal and alternative medicine as valuable components of comprehensive healthcare and underscores the need for further research and integration in modern medical practices

Dietary Intake and Rural-Urban Migration in India: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Migration from rural areas of India contributes to urbanisation and lifestyle change, and dietary changes may increase the risk of obesity and chronic diseases. We tested the hypothesis that rural-to-urban migrants have different macronutrient and food group intake to rural non-migrants, and that migrants have a diet more similar to urban non-migrants. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The diets of migrants of rural origin, their rural dwelling sibs, and those of urban origin together with their urban dwelling sibs were assessed by an interviewer-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. A total of 6,509 participants were included. Median energy intake in the rural, migrant and urban groups was 2731, 3078, and 3224 kcal respectively for men, and 2153, 2504, and 2644 kcal for women (p<0.001). A similar trend was seen for overall intake of fat, protein and carbohydrates (p<0.001), though differences in the proportion of energy from these nutrients were <2%. Migrant and urban participants reported up to 80% higher fruit and vegetable intake than rural participants (p<0.001), and up to 35% higher sugar intake (p<0.001). Meat and dairy intake were higher in migrant and urban participants than rural participants (p<0.001), but varied by region. Sibling-pair analyses confirmed these results. There was no evidence of associations with time in urban area. CONCLUSIONS: Rural to urban migration appears to be associated with both positive (higher fruit and vegetables intake) and negative (higher energy and fat intake) dietary changes. These changes may be of relevance to cardiovascular health and warrant public health interventions

Serum Beta HCG and uterine artery Doppler studies in second trimester to predict preeclampsia and eclampsia

Background: Hypertensive disorders during pregnancy remain amongst the most significant and intriguing unsolved problems in obstetrics. The study aims at testing the hypothesis that women with high serum beta hCG levels and alterations in waveforms in the uterine artery doppler in early second trimester have high risk of developing pre-eclampsia.Methods: Serum Beta hCG estimation was done by Sandwich chemiluminescence immunoassay method. All uterine artery waveforms were obtained using a Toshiba nemio ultrasound machine attached to a 3.5 MHz curvilinear transducer, with colour and pulsed Doppler abilities.Results: For prediction of preeclampsia or eclampsia uterine artery Doppler velocimetry alone shows specificity of 96.30%, sensitivity of 90%, positive predictive value of 94% and negative predictive value of 80%. When it is combined with serum beta HCG sensitivity and specificity are almost same, but alone serum beta HCG levels are showing sensitivity of 96% and specificity of just 76%.Conclusions: Abnormal waveforms on uterine Doppler studies are the better predictors for preeclampsia and eclampsia when done in early second trimester

Comparison of dermatoglyphic traits and dental anomalies associated with cleft lip or cleft lip and palate patients with normal healthy children

Background: Dermatoglyphics are considered as a window of congenital abnormalities and is known to be one of the best available diagnostic tools in genetic disorders. Objective: The present study was conducted to observe and compare the differences in the dermatoglyphic patterns between cleft lip/palate (CL/P) and normal healthy children and evaluate their associated dental findings. Setting: This is a cross-sectional prevalence study in which dermatoglyphic patterns and dental anomalies of 90 (CL/P) and normal healthy children aged 0-15 years were recorded under standard conditions of seating and lighting. Materials and Methods: Dermatoglyphic traits were recorded using ink stamp pad method. Dental findings were recorded through clinical and radiographic examination. Results: The most frequently seen dermatoglyphic trait in the study and control group was loops followed by whorls and arches. A highly significant (P < 0.001) difference between loops in the study and control group and statistically significant difference in the whorls (P = 0.001) were found using Student′s t-test. The comparison of dental anomalies was accomplished using Chi-square test and hypodontia (50%) was seen maximum in cleft patients. Conclusion: Any deviation in dermatoglyphics features indicates a genetic etiology

What's happening in your neighborhood? A Weakly Supervised Approach to Detect Local News

Local news articles are a subset of news that impact users in a geographical area, such as a city, county, or state. Detecting local news (Step 1) and subsequently deciding its geographical location as well as radius of impact (Step 2) are two important steps towards accurate local news recommendation. Naive rule-based methods, such as detecting city names from the news title, tend to give erroneous results due to lack of understanding of the news content. Empowered by the latest development in natural language processing, we develop an integrated pipeline that enables automatic local news detection and content-based local news recommendations. In this paper, we focus on Step 1 of the pipeline, which highlights: (1) a weakly supervised framework incorporated with domain knowledge and auto data processing, and (2) scalability to multi-lingual settings. Compared with Stanford CoreNLP NER model, our pipeline has higher precision and recall evaluated on a real-world and human-labeled dataset. This pipeline has potential to more precise local news to users, helps local businesses get more exposure, and gives people more information about their neighborhood safety.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 5 table

Association of nutritional status on salivary flow rate, dental caries status and eruption pattern in pediatric population in India

Aims: The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of nutrition on salivary flow rate (SFR) (unstimulated and stimulated), dental caries status, and eruption pattern in healthy and malnourished children. Materials and Methods: The study participants were categorized into healthy (Group I, n = 37) and malnourished groups (Group II: Malnourished height-for-age [n = 30] and Group III: Malnourished weight-for-age [n = 30]) as per classification of chronic malnutrition. SFR, dental caries status, and eruption pattern were noted for all groups. Statistical Analysis: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the differences in unstimulated and stimulated SFR and dental caries among three groups. The lowest square difference was used for post hoc comparison and Pearson's correlation to investigate the association between SFR and dental caries. The statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: The unstimulated SFR values were found to be 0.53 ± 0.15 ml/min (Group I), 0.14 ± 0.04 ml/min (Group II), and 0.21 ± 0.20 ml/min (Group III). For stimulated SFR, the values were 1.94 ± 0.44 ml/min (Group I), 1.17 ± 0.48 ml/min (Group II), and 1.07 ± 0.52 ml/min (Group III). Dental caries status was recorded to be 2.43 (Group I), 6.4 (Group II), and 4.66 (Group III). The participants with delayed eruption pattern were 8.10%, 23.30%, and 16.60% for Group I, Group II, and Group III, respectively. Conclusion: The values for unstimulated and stimulated SFR were significantly less, but dental caries status and delayed eruption were found to be more in malnourished groups as compared to the normal group