Neonatal outcomes of eclamptic mothers in a tertiary government rural teaching hospital of Eastern India

Background: Studies related to the neonatal outcomes of eclamptic mothers in a rural sociodemographic setting of India are not abundant. Objective: The objective of the study was to identify and assess the significance of the neonatal outcomes of eclamptic mothers in a rural population. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional, observational, and epidemiological study in a tertiary care government teaching hospital catering rural agro-based population of Eastern India. The study was conducted during April 2012–March 2013 and consisted of two groups. One group comprised neonates born to 100 consecutive eclamptic mothers and another consisted of neonates of 100 non-eclamptic (control) mothers. Both groups were statistically matched after selection through inclusion-exclusion criteria. Results: The majority of eclamptic mothers were unbooked, primigravidae (86%), in late teens (66%), belonging to socioeconomic Class IV (92%) of modified Kuppuswamy scale (2007). About 72% of neonates were born with one or more adverse neonatal outcomes (p<0.001). Neonatal outcomes as observed in this study were prematurity (40%, p=0.001), low birth weight (LBW) (60%, p<0.001), intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) (12%, p=0.032), and birth asphyxia (33%, p=0.016), while hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, early-onset sepsis, early neonatal death, and stillbirth were not found to be statistically significant. Late preterm births were also significant (p=0.004). Conclusion: Eclampsia in the rural population is an important cause of significant neonatal morbidity in terms of prematurity, LBW, IUGR, and birth asphyxia. It is a significant risk factor for late preterm births as well

Differential expression of 9-O-acetylated sialoglycoconjugates on leukemic blasts: a potential tool for long-term monitoring of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Earlier studies have demonstrated overexpression of 9-O-acetylated sialoglycoconjugates (9-O-AcSGs) on lymphoblasts, concomitant with high titers of anti-9-O-AcSG antibodies in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Our aim was to evaluate the correlation between expression of different 9-O-AcSGs during chemotherapeutic treatment. Accordingly, expression of 9-O-AcSGs on lymphoblasts of ALL patients (n = 70) were longitudinally monitored for 6 years (1997-2002), using Achatinin-H, a 9-O-acetylated sialic acid (9-O-AcSA) binding lectin with preferential affinity for 9-O-AcSGs with terminal 9-O-AcSAα2→6GalNAc. Western blot analysis of patients (n = 30) showed that 3 ALL-specific 9-O-AcSGs (90, 120 and 135 kDa) were induced at presentation; all these bands disappeared after treatment in patients (n = 22) who had disease-free survival. The 90 kDa band persisted in 8 patients who subsequently relapsed with reexpression of the 120 kDa band. FACS analysis revealed that at presentation (n = 70) 90.1 ± 5.0% cells expressed 9-O-AcSGs, which decreased progressively with chemotherapy, remained <5% during clinical remission and reappeared in relapse (80 ± 10%, n = 18). Early clearance of 9-O-AcSG+ cells, during 4-8 weeks of treatment showed a good correlation with low risk of relapse. Sensitivity of detection of 9-O-AcSG+ cells was 0.1%. Numbers of both high- and low-affinity binding sites were maximum at presentation, decreased with treatment and increased again in clinical relapse. We propose that close monitoring of 90 and 120 kDa 9-O-AcSGs may serve as a reliable index for long-term management of childhood ALL and merits therapeutic consideration

Antibodies against 9-O-acetylated sialoglycans: a potent marker to monitor clinical status in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Background: Although childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is highly responsive to chemotherapy, reliable techniques are needed to determine treatment outcome and predict impending relapse. In ALL, the cell surface over expression of 9-O-acetylated sialoglycans (9-OAcSGs) on lymphoblasts and concomitant high antibody titers in patients' sera was reported. Objectives: The present study was aimed to evaluate whether anti-9-OAcSG titers can be harnessed to monitor the clinical outcome of ALL. Design and methods: Anti-9-OAcSGs were analyzed by ELISA in children receiving either UK ALL X (n = 69, Group I) in India or UK ALL 97 (n = 47, Group II) in UK along with age-matched normal healthy controls at different time points over a period of > 2 years. An attempt was also made to investigate subclass distribution of disease-specific IgG. Moreover, 17 patients having a higher sample size were longitudinally monitored. Results: Antibody levels were raised at disease presentation, decreased with remission induction, and importantly, reappeared with clinical relapse. Sera from patients with other hematological disorders and normal controls showed negligible levels of circulating anti-9-OAcSGs. In patients of both Groups I and II, the assay showed high sensitivity (98.92% and 96.77%) and specificity (92.1% and 95.91%), respectively. IgG subclass analyses during different phases of treatment revealed that 9-OAcSG-specific IgG1 could serve as a better prognostic marker in ALL. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the potential of this disease-specific antibody as an alternate marker in diagnosis and long-term assessment of ALL patients, suggesting its application in detection and prediction of impending relapse. Therefore, the expression of anti-9-OAcSGs, irrespective of their treatment protocol, may serve as an economical yet effective index for monitoring of childhood ALL

Coexisting structural disorder and robust spin-polarization in half-metallic FeMnVAl

Half-metallic ferromagnets (HMF) are on one of the most promising materials in the field of spintronics due to their unique band structure consisting of one spin sub-band having metallic characteristics along with another sub-band with semiconductor-like behavior. In this work, we report the synthesis of a novel quaternary Heusler alloy FeMnVAl and have studied the structural, magnetic, transport, and electronic properties complemented with first-principles calculations. Among different possible structurally ordered arrangements, the optimal structure is identified by theoretical energy minimization. The corresponding spin-polarized band structure calculations indicates the presence of a half-metallic ferromagnetic ground state. A detailed and careful investigation of the x-ray diffraction data, M\"{o}ssbauer and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra suggest the presence of site-disorder between the Fe and Mn atoms in the stable ordered structure of the system. The magnetic susceptibility measurement clearly establishes a ferromagnetic-like transition below $\sim$213 K. The ${^{57}}$Fe M\"{o}ssbauer spectrometry measurements suggest only the Mn-spins could be responsible for the magnetic order, which is consistent with our theoretical calculation. Surprisingly, the density-functional-theory calculations reveal that the spin-polarization value is almost immunized (92.4\% ${\rightarrow}$ 90.4\%) from the Mn-Fe structural disorder, even when nonmagnetic Fe and moment carrying Mn sites are entangled inseparably. Robustness of spin polarization and half metallicity in the studied FeMnVAl compound comprising structural disorder is thus quite interesting and could provide a new direction to investigate and understand the exact role of disorders on spin polarization in these class of materials, over the available knowledge.Comment: 12 page

Proteomic analysis of human plasma in chronic rheumatic mitral stenosis reveals proteins involved in the complement and coagulation cascade

BACKGROUND: Rheumatic fever in childhood is the most common cause of Mitral Stenosis in developing countries. The disease is characterized by damaged and deformed mitral valves predisposing them to scarring and narrowing (stenosis) that results in left atrial hypertrophy followed by heart failure. Presently, echocardiography is the main imaging technique used to diagnose Mitral Stenosis. Despite the high prevalence and increased morbidity, no biochemical indicators are available for prediction, diagnosis and management of the disease. Adopting a proteomic approach to study Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis may therefore throw some light in this direction. In our study, we undertook plasma proteomics of human subjects suffering from Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis (n = 6) and Control subjects (n = 6). Six plasma samples, three each from the control and patient groups were pooled and subjected to low abundance protein enrichment. Pooled plasma samples (crude and equalized) were then subjected to in-solution trypsin digestion separately. Digests were analyzed using nano LC-MS(E). Data was acquired with the Protein Lynx Global Server v2.5.2 software and searches made against reviewed Homo sapiens database (UniProtKB) for protein identification. Label-free protein quantification was performed in crude plasma only. RESULTS: A total of 130 proteins spanning 9–192 kDa were identified. Of these 83 proteins were common to both groups and 34 were differentially regulated. Functional annotation of overlapping and differential proteins revealed that more than 50% proteins are involved in inflammation and immune response. This was corroborated by findings from pathway analysis and histopathological studies on excised tissue sections of stenotic mitral valves. Verification of selected protein candidates by immunotechniques in crude plasma corroborated our findings from label-free protein quantification. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that this protein profile of blood plasma, or any of the individual proteins, could serve as a focal point for future mechanistic studies on Mitral Stenosis. In addition, some of the proteins associated with this disorder may be candidate biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. Our findings might help to enrich existing knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in Mitral Stenosis and improve the current diagnostic tools in the long run. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1559-0275-11-35) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users