A CASE OF LEPTOSPIROSIS WITH ERYTHEMA NODOSUM AND REACTIVE ARTHRITIS DURING THE FIRST TRIMESTER OF PREGNANCY

Leptospirosis is a zoonosis and occurs in endemic as well as epidemic forms in many parts of India. Manifestations may range from asymptomatic infection to fulminant fatal disease with myositis, conjunctivitis, hepatic, renal, cardiac and neurological involvement and hemorrhagic manifestations. A 30 years old lady in her first trimester of gestation presented with fever, multiple painful erythematous swellings over the front of both legs and swelling associated with pain of left ankle joint for 1 week . On evaluation she had erythema nodosum over the anterior aspect of both lower extremities and reactive arthritis of left ankle joint. Leptospira serology for Immunoglobulin M was positive. She was started on intravenous ceftriaxone 1 gm twice daily. After 7 days of treatment, erythema nodosum and reactive arthritis subsided. Erythema nodsum and reactive arthritis which are rare manifestations of leptospirosis have occurred together in a patient during the first trimester of pregnancy makes this case worth presenting

Surival of remote set seed of the clam Paphia malabarica : Effect of continued submergence and short term exposures to salinity variations

Globally clam mariculture is a very popular aquaculture activity. The seed for farming to a great extent comes from the natural bed but in many countries the hatchery produced clam seed is farmed. Most farmers also have adopted the convenient technique of remote setting the seed. Remote setting is the technique of setting the pediveliger larvae produced in hatcheries at sites away from the hatchery usually near the farm site. Paphia malabarica commonly known as the yellow foot clam or textile clam is an important resource and supports a commercial fishery in their places of occurrence. In the present experiment pediveliger larvae of P. malabarica produced in the hatchery of CMFRI at Tuticorin were remote set at the Calicut Marine hatchery complex after a transit period of 26 hrs. They were reared in the hatchery and before transferring these clams to the field two sets of experiments mainly to i) evaluate the effect of continued exposure to different salinities ranging from 0 to 35 ppt and ii) evaluate 10,15,20, and 25 ppt and subsequent revival in ambient salinity of 35 ppt were conducted to understand their tolerance to variations in salinity

A RARE CASE OF YELLOW PHOSPHOROUS POISONING WITH ACUTE CHOLESTATIC HEPATITIS, BICYTOPENIA AND IMPENDING HEPATIC FAILURE

Yellow phosphorus is a protoplasmic poison (a potent hepatotoxin). Fulminant poisoning results from ingestion of more than 1 to 2 g. An 18 y old adult male presented with ingestion of rodenticide poison containing 3 percent phosphorous in paste form. He was asymptomatic during the first day of hospitalization. He developed jaundice on the second day. On evaluation, his total leukocyte count was 1.800 (109/l) on the day of admission, which improved to 4.400 (109/l) on the 7th day. His platelet count was 1.53 (109/l) on the day of admission, which decreased daily till 0.80 (109/l) on the 7th day of hospitalization. His prothrombin time started deranging from the second day of admission with a crest of 38 s and INR 2.98 noted on the 5th day. He was given N-acetyl cysteine on the 5th day following which PT/INR began to improve and reached to a baseline normal. The regimen of N-acetyl cysteine used was a loading dose of 150 mg/kg IV over 1 h, followed by 50 mg/kg IV over 4 h and 100 mg/kg IV over 16 h. He was also treated with fresh frozen plasma and intravenous vitamin k. The man made a dramatic recovery and became stable.Keywords: India, Kerala, Kottakkal, Phosphorous, Poisoning, N-acetyl cysteine, Hepatitis, Hepatic failur

Candida tropicalis spondylodiskitis in a patient with carcinoma of sigmoid colon: a case report

Fungal spondylodiskitis is being increasingly reported in immunocompromised patients. A patient who presented with severe back pain three months following laparoscopic resection of Carcinoma of Sigmoid colon is presented here. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the spine showed evidence of multilevel lumbar spondylodiskitis. Biopsy done via the posterior approach showed Candida tropicalis sensitive to fluconazole and resistant to Amphotericin B. Patient was treated with fluconazole and had good relief. Posterior pedicle screw stabilization was done to provide mechanical stability

Remote setting of the yellow clam, Paphia malabarica, and the pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata, in India

Paphia malabarica and Pinctada fucata are two commercially important bivalves of India, the former as an edible resource and the latter for the production of akoya and mabe pearls. The seed production techniques for these two bivalves have been developed at the Tuticorin Research Centre of CMFRI. Feasibility of remote setting for the larvae of P. fucata was tried at the Marine Hatchery of CMFRI at Calicut along the west coast. Utilising the shellfish hatchery at Tuticorin, growth and survival of remote set spat of Paphia malabarica and Pinctada fucata in the postset phase was monitored for 52 days in the hatchery. Remote set pearl oyster spat and clam spat had almost the same length one month after settlement. The pearl oyster spat reached 3.56 mm in one month after settlement and 8.28 mm in 80 days

Covalent polymer functionalization of graphene/graphene oxide and its application as anticorrosion materials

Research on grapheme-polymer composites as the promising ion barrier materials to tackle the corrosion issue is rapidly developing and attracts interests from both academia and industry. In this minireview, we highlight the covalent functionalization of graphene and its derivatives such as graphene oxide (GO) with polymer brushes, and their application in anticorrosion within the last 3 years. There are some recent excellent reviews published on single layer graphene and graphene-based polymer composites for anticorrosion. However, the covalent functionalization of graphene and GO with polymer brushes for application in anticorrosion has not been addressed in those reviews. In this review, we describe first the current state of the art of covalent functionalization of graphene/GO with polymer brushes. We then discuss the application of pristine graphene as anticorrosion material and its drawbacks which can be overcome by graphene-based polymer composites. Afterwards, we discuss in detail the recent progress and development of covalent polymer functionalized graphene/GO as anticorrosion coatings, reported within the last 3 years. Finally, as perspective, we will briefly summarize the work on composites of polymers with other two-dimensional (2D) materials as anticorrosion coatings. Herein, hexagonal boron nitride, the most studied 2D materials after graphene, and Ti3C2Tx MXene which is the rising star of 2D transition metal carbide/nitride will be discussed

Ti₃C₂T_<i>x</i>MXene Polymer Composites for Anticorrosion:An Overview and Perspective

[Image: see text] As the most studied two-dimensional (2D) material from the MXene family, Ti(3)C(2)T(x) has constantly gained interest from academia and industry. Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene has the highest electrical conductivity (up to 24,000 S cm(–1)) and one of the highest stiffness values with a Young’s modulus of ∼ 334 GPa among water-dispersible conductive 2D materials. The negative surface charge of MXene helps to disperse it well in aqueous and other polar solvents. This solubility across a wide range of solvents, excellent interface interaction, tunable surface functionality, and stability with other organic/polymeric materials combined with the layered structure of Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene make it a promising material for anticorrosion coatings. While there are many reviews on Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene polymer composites for catalysis, flexible electronics, and energy storage, to our knowledge, no review has been published yet on MXenes’ anticorrosion applications. In this brief report, we summarize the current progress and the development of Ti(3)C(2)T(x) polymer composites for anticorrosion. We also provide an outlook and discussion on possible ways to improve the exploitation of Ti(3)C(2)T(x) polymer composites as anticorrosive materials. Finally, we provide a perspective beyond Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene composition for the development of future anticorrosion coatings