Disulfiram induced hemoptysis: a case report

Disulfiram (tetraethylthiuram disulfide [TETD]) has been used for more than 50 years as a deterrent to ethanol abuse in the management of alcoholism. Approximately 200,000 alcoholics take disulfiram, or Antabuse, regularly in the United States. Haemoptysis is the expectoration of blood originating from the lower respiratory tract. It is a common alarming symptom accounting for 10 to 15% of all pulmonary visits. Here, we present the case report of a 39-year old male patient who came to the medicine OPD with complaints of coughing of blood in the early morning hours since one and a half months. During history taking, it was understood that the patient was administered disulfiram by his wife, without his knowledge to prevent him from consuming alcohol since one and a half months (the patient is a chronic alcoholic). There was no history of any other drug intake which could cause haemoptysis like anticoagulants, thrombolytics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Infections causing haemoptysis like tuberculosis, pneumonia and bronchitis were ruled out. Haemoptysis subsided once disulfiram was stopped. Thus, in this case, because of the temporal relationship between exposure to the drug and the onset of symptoms, disulfiram was considered as the most probable cause of haemoptysis. The adverse drug reaction was considered probable (score 5) according to the Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale

Phenytoin/albendazole induced exanthematous eruptions: a case report

Exanthematous drug eruptions, often called “drug rashes” or “maculopapular eruptions” by non-dermatologists are the most common form of cutaneous drug eruption. Cutaneous reactions are among the most common adverse effects of drugs, including penicillins, cephalosporins, sulfonamides, and allopurinol (with an incidence of up to 50 cases per 1000 new users), and particularly the aromatic amine anti-seizure medications, including carbamazepine, phenytoin, and lamotrigine (with an incidence of up to 100 cases per 1000 new users). Phenytoin is a hydantoin derivative anticonvulsant drug used primarily in the management of complex partial seizures and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Albendazole is a benzimidazole medication used for the treatment of a variety of parasitic worm infestations. Carbamazepine and phenytoin are among the most common causes of antiepileptic drug-related cutaneous adverse reactions. Manifestations range from a mild erythematous maculopapular rash to life-threatening Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis. Albendazole induced rashes and urticaria have been reported in less than 1% of the patients. Here we present the case of a 12-year-old male patient who came to the dermatology outpatient department with complaints of itching and maculopapular eruptions all over the body. The patient gave a history of taking tablet phenytoin and tablet albendazole for neurocysticercosis since 1-week. There was no fever or any other systemic manifestations. There was no history of any other drug intake. A diagnosis of phenytoin/albendazole induced exanthematous eruptions was made. Both the medications were discontinued, and the patient was advised to take syrup sodium valproate 200 mg BD. For the rashes and itching, the patient was advised to take tablet hydroxyzine HCl 10 mg OD, tablet prednisolone and tablet levocetirizine for 5 days. Improvement was seen and the itching reduced. Rechallenge was not done. In this event, casualty assessment using Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale revealed that phenytoin/albendazole were probable causes for the adverse drug reaction

A study of prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women from rural areas attending to Obstetric Department in Akash Hospital, Karnataka, India

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in pregnancy is a significant risk factor for developing upper urinary tract infection and pyelonephritis which is associated with significant maternal and fetal risks. The aim of this study was to know the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy, to identify the organisms and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns and to formulate a single or combined rapid screening method as an acceptable alternative to urine culture.Methods: A total of 375 pregnant women aged between 18 to 45 years were included in this study. Clean catch mid-stream urine samples were collected. Screening tests done were gram staining of uncentrifuged urine, pus cell count, nitrite test and leukocyte esterase test. Identification of pathogens and antibiotic sensitivity tests were performed as per standard urine culture and sensitivity methods.Results: Out of the 375 pregnant women, 31 (8.4%) had significant bacteriuria. High percentage of women with ASB were primigravidas (51.38%) and in 2nd trimester (43.86%). The most common organism isolated was E.coli (56.14%). In screening tests, gram staining of uncentrifuged urine had a sensitivity of 85.71%. Sensitivity of 71.42% was found in Nitrite and leucocyte esterase tests. However, the combination of these two tests, with either test positive, showed sensitivity and negative predictive value of 90.47% and 99.09% respectively.Conclusions: Early detection and treatment of ASB in pregnancy can prevent complications. ASB can be identified by simple and combined rapid screening methods and urine culture along with antibiogram. Therefore, screening and treatment of ASB may be incorporated as routine antenatal care for safe motherhood and healthy newborn

Dissection of genetic diversity present in eggplant populations using simple sequence repeat markers

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the third most important solanaceous vegetable and most diversified within species spread across the world-geographical area. A study was conducted to assess the genetic diversity among the selected fifty-four eggplant genotypes (sub-categorized into five sub-population) using twenty-three SSR markers. The Analysis of Molecular Variance among the five sub-population of eggplant revealed the existence of 90.67% variation within populations and 9.34% variation among populations. The SSR markers analysis revealed important locus-wise information like mean Observed-Heterozygosity (0.216), mean Expected-Heterozygosity (0.496), Shannon’s Information Index (0.879), mean number of different alleles (3.209), mean number of effective alleles (2.535), Fixation-Index (0.649). Further, Phylogenetic-analysis clearly categorize genetically distinct individuals in which the most diversified clusters was cluster-1 (C1) out of total of five clusters and especially, wild cultivars were grouped into cluster-5 (C5). The obtained results can be used in eggplant breeding and germplasm conservation in a resourceful manner

Proteus Simulation Using Various Power Converters for a Photovoltaic System

The need for renewable energy sources is on the increasethanks to the acute energy crisis within the world these days. Solar powercould be aimportant untapped resource in an exceedingly tropical country like India. The main hindrance for the penetration and reach of solar photovoltaic [PV] systems is their low efficiency. The main objective is to use the buck, boost and buck-boost converter along with a maximum power point tracking [MPPT] control mechanism to increase the efficiency of a PV system. The MPPT is responsible for extracting the maximum possible power from the photovoltaic cell. The converters are used to supply a constant and required voltage magnitude to the loa

Biomimetic synthesis of silver nanoparticles using endosymbiotic bacterium inhabiting euphorbia hirtal. And their bactericidal potential

The present investigation aims to evaluate biomimetic synthesis of silver nanoparticles using endophytic bacterium EH 419 inhabiting Euphorbia hirta L. The synthesized nanoparticles were initially confirmed with change in color from the reaction mixture to brown indicating the synthesis of nanoparticles. Further confirmation was achieved with the characteristic absorption peak at 440 nm using UV-Visible spectroscopy. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were subjected to biophysical characterization using hyphenated techniques. The possible role of biomolecules in mediating the synthesis was depicted with FTIR analysis. Further crystalline nature of synthesized nanoparticles was confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) with prominent diffraction peaks at 2θ which can be indexed to the (111), (200), (220), and (311) reflections of face centered cubic structure (fcc) of metallic silver. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed morphological characteristics of synthesized silver nanoparticles to be polydisperse in nature with size ranging from 10 to 60 nm and different morphological characteristics such as spherical, oval, hexagonal, and cubic shapes. Further silver nanoparticles exhibited bactericidal activity against panel of significant pathogenic bacteria among which Pseudomonas aeruginosa was most sensitive compared to other pathogens. To the best of our knowledge, present study forms first report of bacterial endophyte inhabiting Euphorbia hirta L. in mediating synthesizing silver nanoparticle

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Spectra of some new graph operations and some new classes of integral graphs

In this paper, we define duplication corona, duplication neighborhood corona and duplication edge corona of two graphs. We compute their adjacency spectrum, Laplacian spectrum and signless Laplacian. As an application, our results enable us to construct infinitely many pairs of cospectral graphs and also integral graphs. Keywords: Duplication corona, Duplication edge corona, Duplication neighborhood corona, Cospectral graphs, Integral graphs

Disulfiram induced hemoptysis: a case report

Disulfiram (tetraethylthiuram disulfide [TETD]) has been used for more than 50 years as a deterrent to ethanol abuse in the management of alcoholism. Approximately 200,000 alcoholics take disulfiram, or Antabuse, regularly in the United States. Haemoptysis is the expectoration of blood originating from the lower respiratory tract. It is a common alarming symptom accounting for 10 to 15% of all pulmonary visits. Here, we present the case report of a 39-year old male patient who came to the medicine OPD with complaints of coughing of blood in the early morning hours since one and a half months. During history taking, it was understood that the patient was administered disulfiram by his wife, without his knowledge to prevent him from consuming alcohol since one and a half months (the patient is a chronic alcoholic). There was no history of any other drug intake which could cause haemoptysis like anticoagulants, thrombolytics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Infections causing haemoptysis like tuberculosis, pneumonia and bronchitis were ruled out. Haemoptysis subsided once disulfiram was stopped. Thus, in this case, because of the temporal relationship between exposure to the drug and the onset of symptoms, disulfiram was considered as the most probable cause of haemoptysis. The adverse drug reaction was considered probable (score 5) according to the Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale