A study of 150 cases of posterior circulation stroke.

Stroke is known to human race since antiquity. The seventh century great Indian physician, Charaka lucidly described the symptoms of stroke which he called `Pakshaghat` meaning hit one half of body. The other synonyms are ardhang or lakwa. According to Charaka, stroke affects either left or right side of body leading to impaired mobility and function of that half of body (hemiparesis) and difficulty in speaking which may be inability to talk at all (aphasia) or slurred speech (dysarthria). He had also identified head as the seat of vital organ, controlling the senses and nerve centers of the whole body. These meticulous observations of stroke symptoms are relevant even today. Stroke is one of the major causes of death disability and dependency among all the neurological disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines stroke as rapidly developing clinical symptoms and / or signs of focal, at times global loss of cerebral function, with symptoms lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death, with no apparent cause other than of vascular origin. The global prevalence of stroke is estimated to be 5 to 8 /1000. Globally stroke incidence was also variable according to the ethnic differences in a common geographical location and ranged from 93 to 223/1,00,000 population. Epidemiology of stroke in India is difficult to study due to multiple factors. Nevertheless, many investigators have addressed this question in various regions of India, which may be considered representative of the whole population. The crude prevalence rate was 220/1,00,000(range : 44-843/1,00,000). The incidence rate of stroke in India was estimated to be 13/1,00,000 in a study done at Vellore on a population sample of 2,58,576 followed over two years, while another study conducted at Rohtak found the stroke incidence to be 33/1,00,000 (27/1,00,000 for first ever stroke). The stroke risk increases steeply as the age advances. In a study from Kashmir, prevalence rate of stroke was 41 per 1,00,000 population in the age range of 15-39 years, which increased to 1,075 per 1,00,000 for the age group of 50-59 years. The posterior circulation, unlike the intracranial portions of the anterior circulation, is prone to atherosclerosis as much as other systemic arteries. In the case of one vertebral artery being occluded, collateral flow comes from the opposite vertebral artery, from muscular cervical artery branches, and from posterior communicating artery. The intracranial branches of the vertebral artery and basilar artery were minutely studied and a syndrome was described for each prompting a cynic to remark the neurologic equivalent of Hall of Fame is a brainstem eponym. AIM OF THE STUDY: To study the demographic profile and symptoms To study the risk factors To study the pattern of posterior circulation stroke To prognosticate the posterior circulation stroke based on clinical and radiological findings. CONCLUSION: All patients with brain ischemia deserve full evaluation of their brain for vascular lesions. With the advent of newer techniques, MRI with DW imaging, MRA, extra cranial and transcranial doppler studies it is possible to investigate the brain and stroke mechanisms quickly and noninvasively. Cardiac investigations are just as important in patients with posterior circulation ischemia, because a considerable number of posterior circulation infarcts are cardio embolic

A Study of Myocardial Infarction in Women

Coronary artery disease has been frequently viewed as a disease only of men. Carefully designed clinical trials in women with coronary artery disease have begun only since 1980. Now coronary artery disease has begun to be recognized as a leading cause of death in women. Risk factor of the disease and medical interventions have been studied thoroughly only in men. In women, use of oral contraceptive pills, hormone replacement therapy, menopause, cultural and social roles, family pressure seem to act synergistically with the known coronary artery disease risk factors and also contribute to the sex differences of the disease. Age at presentation, less specific or subtle clinical manifestations, hence not reaching the tertiary care centre at the appropriate time, greater difficulties and bias in the clinical diagnosis, higher risks involved in angiography, angioplasty and coronary artery bypass graft techniques, higher incidence of cardiac morbidity and mortality are the major sex differences studied and analyzed. Once coronary artery disease develops women have no survival advantage over men, whatever be the age group. Ventricular septal rupture, free wall rupture, congestive cardiac failure, recurrent myocardial infarction, bleeding with thrombolytic therapy is some of the common problems faced in women. Late reference, smaller body size, fragile coronary blood vessels are some of the reasons attributed to high mortality and morbidity. In the present study conducted at CMC hospital from 1st Jan to 31st Dec 2005 it was found out that the Myocardial Infarction was higher in Postmenopausal women than Premenopausal women. The multiplicity of risk factors was higher in the Premenopausal women. Typical risk factors for male Myocardial Infarction like Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, Obesity, Hypercholesterolemia, Positive family history also prevailed in the females. Complication and mortality were on the higher side in the case of females. Hence, coronary artery disease needs to be addressed as a special and specific issue in women. There is great scope for further studies regarding therapeutic interventions in women

A study of 150 cases of posterior circulation stroke.

Stroke is known to human race since antiquity. The seventh century great Indian physician, Charaka lucidly described the symptoms of stroke which he called `Pakshaghat` meaning hit one half of body. The other synonyms are ardhang or lakwa. According to Charaka, stroke affects either left or right side of body leading to impaired mobility and function of that half of body (hemiparesis) and difficulty in speaking which may be inability to talk at all (aphasia) or slurred speech (dysarthria). He had also identified head as the seat of vital organ, controlling the senses and nerve centers of the whole body. These meticulous observations of stroke symptoms are relevant even today. Stroke is one of the major causes of death disability and dependency among all the neurological disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines stroke as rapidly developing clinical symptoms and / or signs of focal, at times global loss of cerebral function, with symptoms lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death, with no apparent cause other than of vascular origin. The global prevalence of stroke is estimated to be 5 to 8 /1000. Globally stroke incidence was also variable according to the ethnic differences in a common geographical location and ranged from 93 to 223/1,00,000 population. Epidemiology of stroke in India is difficult to study due to multiple factors. Nevertheless, many investigators have addressed this question in various regions of India, which may be considered representative of the whole population. The crude prevalence rate was 220/1,00,000(range : 44-843/1,00,000). The incidence rate of stroke in India was estimated to be 13/1,00,000 in a study done at Vellore on a population sample of 2,58,576 followed over two years, while another study conducted at Rohtak found the stroke incidence to be 33/1,00,000 (27/1,00,000 for first ever stroke). The stroke risk increases steeply as the age advances. In a study from Kashmir, prevalence rate of stroke was 41 per 1,00,000 population in the age range of 15-39 years, which increased to 1,075 per 1,00,000 for the age group of 50-59 years. The posterior circulation, unlike the intracranial portions of the anterior circulation, is prone to atherosclerosis as much as other systemic arteries. In the case of one vertebral artery being occluded, collateral flow comes from the opposite vertebral artery, from muscular cervical artery branches, and from posterior communicating artery. The intracranial branches of the vertebral artery and basilar artery were minutely studied and a syndrome was described for each prompting a cynic to remark the neurologic equivalent of Hall of Fame is a brainstem eponym. AIM OF THE STUDY: To study the demographic profile and symptoms To study the risk factors To study the pattern of posterior circulation stroke To prognosticate the posterior circulation stroke based on clinical and radiological findings. CONCLUSION: All patients with brain ischemia deserve full evaluation of their brain for vascular lesions. With the advent of newer techniques, MRI with DW imaging, MRA, extra cranial and transcranial doppler studies it is possible to investigate the brain and stroke mechanisms quickly and noninvasively. Cardiac investigations are just as important in patients with posterior circulation ischemia, because a considerable number of posterior circulation infarcts are cardio embolic

Sensing cloud optimization to solve ED of units with valve-point effects and multi-fuels

In this paper a solution to an highly constrained and non-convex economical dispatch (ED) problem with a meta-heuristic technique named Sensing Cloud Optimization (SCO) is presented. The proposed meta-heuristic is based on a cloud of particles whose central point represents the objective function value and the remaining particles act as sensors "to fill" the search space and "guide" the central particle so it moves into the best direction. To demonstrate its performance, a case study with multi-fuel units and valve- point effects is presented

Impregnation of S-layer protein isolated from extremophilic Bacillus Licheniformis NARW 02 onto titanium phosphate ceramic enhances uranium removal from aqueous solution

In the present study, bioceramic was prepared by impregnating surface layer protein (S-layer) isolated from extremophilic bacteria Bacillus licheniformis NARW 02 onto sol–gel-derived titanium phosphate (TiP) ceramic. The prepared bioceramic was used for adsorption of uranium ions from aqueous solution and compared with control lacking S-layer protein. The distribution coefficient value of TiP and bioceramic for uranium adsorption was 100.65 and 432.48 ml/g respectively. This study indicates that the bacterial S-layer can be potentially used to enhance the adsorption efficiency of the ceramics used in separation of uranium from waste water

The effect of cigarette smoke exposure on the development of inflammation in lungs, gut and joints of TNFΔARE mice

The inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha is a central mediator in many immune-mediated diseases, such as Crohn's disease (CD), spondyloarthritis (SpA) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Epidemiologic studies have shown that cigarette smoking (CS) is a prominent common risk factor in these TNF-dependent diseases. We exposed TNF Delta ARE mice; in which a systemic TNF-alpha overexpression leads to the development of inflammation; to 2 or 4 weeks of air or CS. We investigated the effect of deregulated TNF expression on CS-induced pulmonary inflammation and the effect of CS exposure on the initiation and progression of gut and joint inflammation. Upon 2 weeks of CS exposure, inflammation in lungs of TNF Delta ARE mice was significantly aggravated. However, upon 4 weeks of CS-exposure, this aggravation was no longer observed. TNF Delta ARE mice have no increases in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and a diminished neutrophil response in the lungs after 4 weeks of CS exposure. In the gut and joints of TNF Delta ARE mice, 2 or 4 weeks of CS exposure did not modulate the development of inflammation. In conclusion, CS exposure does not modulate gut and joint inflammation in TNF Delta ARE mice. The lung responses towards CS in TNF Delta ARE mice however depend on the duration of CS exposure

Manganese oxide catalysts for secondary zinc air batteries: from

An efficient, durable and low cost air cathode with low polarization between the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for a high performance and durable secondary zinc-air battery. Different valence states and morphologies of MnxOy catalysts were synthetized via thermal treatment of EMD (generating Mn2O3 and Mn3O4) and acid digestion of synthetized Mn2O3 (producing a-MnO2) in order to develop an efficient Bifunctional Air Electrode (BAE). Change in the ratio H+ to Mn2O3 during the acid digestion affects the sample microporosity, the crystallographic plane distribution, as well as the physical and chemical adsorbed water which was related to defects, i.e. cation vacancies (Mn4+) and Mn3+. These characteristics were discussed and linked to the electrocatalytic activity. The best ORR performing catalyst was that with the higher surface water content (associated to material BET surface area) and a (310) surface as the 2nd more contributing plane (after 211). On the other hand, the catalyst with the higher structural water and with (110) and (200) crystallographic planes being the most intensity contributors (after 211) was the most OER active material. In this work, it was able to find a relationship between catalyst structure and air-efficiency through a volcano-like relationship between air-efficiency and surface water content. Air-efficiency (also take as round-efficiency discharge/charge in battery context) can be taken as a good descriptor of potentially good materials for Zn-Air secondary batteries technology. In this term, we were able to prepare a Bifunctional Air Electrode based on the selected a-MnO2 sample which demonstrated a roundefficiency of 53%, a DV around 1 V and a neglected loss of the charge potential (about 2.1 V) over the entire lifecycle test (more 200 cycles over 30 hours) with a capacity retention superior to 95%.European Commission H2020: Proyecto ZAS “Zinc Air Secondary innovative nanotech based batteries for efficient energy storage” (Grant Agreement 646186

The Effect of Diagnostic Delays on the Drop-Out Rate and the Total Delay to Diagnosis of Tuberculosis

Background: Numerous patient and healthcare system-related delays contribute to the overall delay experienced by patients from onset of TB symptoms to diagnosis and treatment. Such delays are critical as infected individuals remain untreated in the community, providing more opportunities for transmission of the disease and adversely affecting the epidemic. Methodology/Principal Findings: We present an analysis of the factors that contribute to the overall delay in TB diagnosis and treatment, in a resource-poor setting. Impact on the distribution of diagnostic delay times was assessed for various factors, the sensitivity of the diagnostic method being found to be the most significant. A linear relationship was found between the sensitivity of the test and the predicted mean delay time, with an increase in test sensitivity resulting in a reduced mean delay time and a reduction in the drop-out rate. Conclusions/Significance: The results show that in a developing country a number of delay factors, particularly the low sensitivity of the initial sputum smear microscopy test, potentially increase total diagnostic delay times experienced by TB patients significantly. The results reinforce the urgent need for novel diagnostic methods, both for smear positive an

Targeting N-myristoylation for therapy of B-cell lymphomas

N-myristoyltransferases (NMTs) target many signaling proteins to membranes. Here the authors show an NMT inhibitor named PCLX-001 selectively kills lymphoma cells by shutting down their main survival signaling pathway and offers an additional treatment strategy for lymphoma patients