Ultrasonographic evaluation of abnormal uterine bleeding in postmenopausal women

Background: Objectives of current study were to diagnose causes of Abnormal Uterine Bleeding (AUB) in postmenopausal women (PMW) and to correlate it with curettage and histopathological findings, hysteroscopy and thereby minimizing unnecessary interventions in the form of operations and hysteroscopy where sonography depicts normal findings.Methods: After obtaining ethical clearance present prospective observational study was conducted from November 2010 to November 2012, to evaluate the endometrium in 50 postmenopausal women (PMW) with bleeding per vagina referred to the department of Radio diagnosis by the department of gynaecology in Bangalore medical college and research institute. After applying inclusion and exclusion criterias the cases were evaluated with ultrasonography both transabdominal (TAS) and transvaginal scan (TVS where ever necessary). Histopathological and hysteroscopic correlation was done in all cases.Results: 58% of the PMW with bleed were in the age group of 51-60 years. Most common cause of PMB was atrophic endometrium (44%), endometrial polyp (22%), followed by malignancy (14%), and hyperplastic endometrium (6%). At Endometrium thickness less than 4 mm there were nil chances of carcinoma.Conclusions: In women with AUB in postmenopausal age ultrasonography (USG) can be considered as an initial imaging modality for diagnosing endometrial diseases. The sensitivity and specificity of USG for Atrophic endometrium is 100% & 84% respectively with accuracy of 100%, endometrial polyp the specificity is 100% with accuracy of 88%. For malignancy USG showed 100% specificity & accuracy of 100%. Hence USG is highly accurate for evaluating endometrial pathologies. Being noninvasive, less costly & good patient compliance USG should be considered as an initial imaging modality over invasive investigations like D&C, hysteroscopy in evaluating endometrial disorders

EFFICACY OF SUPPLEMENTATION OF PROBIOTICS ALONG WITH ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS IN VULVOVAGINAL INFECTIONS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to ascertain the efficacy of probiotics along with antimicrobials in the treatment of vulvovaginitis and to evaluate the rate of recurrence. Methods: The study was done on 60 patients who were randomly selected and divided into two groups of 30 each. Prior permission from the Institutional Ethics Committee and higher authorities was obtained before conducting the study. One group received standard treatment including antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal as per the gynecologist discretion and in other group along with standard treatment, probiotic capsules containing combination of Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactobacillus sporogenes (50 million), Streptococcus faecalis (30 million), Clostridium butyricum (2 million), and Bacillus mesentericus (1 million) given orally twice daily and followed up for a period of 3 months. The drugs were started on the 5th day after menstruation taking starting of the bleeding as day 1. Results: The parameters compared were symptoms and signs (significantly reduced – p-value), clue cells (significantly reduced in number), and recurrence rates (significantly reduced), in 80% of patients smears which were not consistent with BV. Maximum number of patients showed negative KOH mount (71.5%), saline wet mount was negative in 80% of patients in antimicrobial agents + probiotics group. Conclusion: From the present interventional study, probiotics along with antimicrobial agents showed better improvement than antimicrobial agents alone. Hence, supplementation of probiotics along with antimicrobial agents provides better efficacy than antimicrobial agents alone in treating vulvovaginal infections

Dry sliding wear behaviour of Ta/NbC filled glass-epoxy composites at elevated temperatures

In this work an attempt was made to evaluate wear loss, specific wear rate and coefficient of friction of Glass-Epoxy (G-E) composites with and without Tantalum Niobium Carbide (Ta/NbC) filler. A vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM) technique was employed to fabricate the composite specimens. The fabricated wear specimens were tested by using pin-on-disk test rig at various temperatures viz., 30, 60, 90 and 120° C at normal applied loads of 10 N and 20 N. Sliding velocity of the disc of 1.5 m/s was maintained and test was continued for each sample up to a sliding distance of 5000 m. The wear loss in both the composites increases with increase in temperature and applied normal load. However, Ta/NbC particulate filler incorporated G-E composite exhibits lower wear rate and higher coefficient of friction as compared to unfilled G-E composite. The features of worn surfaces of the specimens were examined under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and findings are analysed

Burden of Neurological Disorders across the US from 1990-2017: A Global Burden of Disease Study

Importance: Accurate and up-to-date estimates on incidence, prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-years (burden) of neurological disorders are the backbone of evidence-based health care planning and resource allocation for these disorders. It appears that no such estimates have been reported at the state level for the US. Objective: To present burden estimates of major neurological disorders in the US states by age and sex from 1990 to 2017. Design, Setting, and Participants: This is a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study. Data on incidence, prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of major neurological disorders were derived from the GBD 2017 study of the 48 contiguous US states, Alaska, and Hawaii. Fourteen major neurological disorders were analyzed: stroke, Alzheimer disease and other dementias, Parkinson disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, migraine, tension-type headache, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, brain and other nervous system cancers, meningitis, encephalitis, and tetanus. Exposures: Any of the 14 listed neurological diseases. Main Outcome and Measure: Absolute numbers in detail by age and sex and age-standardized rates (with 95 uncertainty intervals) were calculated. Results: The 3 most burdensome neurological disorders in the US in terms of absolute number of DALYs were stroke (3.58 95% uncertainty interval UI], 3.25-3.92] million DALYs), Alzheimer disease and other dementias (2.55 95% UI, 2.43-2.68 million DALYs), and migraine (2.40 95% UI, 1.53-3.44 million DALYs). The burden of almost all neurological disorders (in terms of absolute number of incident, prevalent, and fatal cases, as well as DALYs) increased from 1990 to 2017, largely because of the aging of the population. Exceptions for this trend included traumatic brain injury incidence (-29.1% 95% UI, -32.4% to -25.8%); spinal cord injury prevalence (-38.5% 95% UI, -43.1% to -34.0%); meningitis prevalence (-44.8% 95% UI, -47.3% to -42.3%), deaths (-64.4% 95% UI, -67.7% to -50.3%), and DALYs (-66.9% 95% UI, -70.1% to -55.9%); and encephalitis DALYs (-25.8% 95% UI, -30.7% to -5.8%). The different metrics of age-standardized rates varied between the US states from a 1.2-fold difference for tension-type headache to 7.5-fold for tetanus; southeastern states and Arkansas had a relatively higher burden for stroke, while northern states had a relatively higher burden of multiple sclerosis and eastern states had higher rates of Parkinson disease, idiopathic epilepsy, migraine and tension-type headache, and meningitis, encephalitis, and tetanus. Conclusions and Relevance: There is a large and increasing burden of noncommunicable neurological disorders in the US, with up to a 5-fold variation in the burden of and trends in particular neurological disorders across the US states. The information reported in this article can be used by health care professionals and policy makers at the national and state levels to advance their health care planning and resource allocation to prevent and reduce the burden of neurological disorders.. © 2021 American Medical Association. All rights reserved

Intentional Poisoning as a Cause of Admission to Accident and Emergency in a Tertiary Care Hospital within a Year

Introduction: Poisoning is a common medico social problem nowadays and is often distressing for both family members and medical staff. The present study aims to evaluate the pattern of self poisoning with special preference to psychoactive drugs. Methodology: Study sample comprised of all episodes of self poisoning that had resulted in admission between January to December 2008.Pateints taking any toxic/pharmacological substance by accident or ignorance were excluded. Results: Out of 1206 patients admitted to accident and emergency during the study period, 140 were due to intentional poisoning (11.6%) Age of the patients varied from 16-65 years. The maximum incidence was between 21-30 years. The male: female ratio was 1.18:1.Most common substance used was organophosphate compound (OPC) (31.7%) followed by benzodiazepines (BZD) (20.7%) and household articles comprised of 18.5%. Multiple drug combinations with alcohol was 30%.Around 13.5% had history of mental illness. Conclusion: At present due to vast development in all fields of life like industries, medicine and agriculture, a significant number of new compounds have appeared as new poisonous substances, which have led to more number of poisoning cases. Although there are restrictions on sale of drugs in India, vulnerability to insecticide cannot be ignored

Stability of electromagnetic waves in solid chiral materials

In this paper, the linear stability of Electromagnetic Waves (EMWs) in a source free, homogeneous, isotropic, Solid Chiral Material (SCM) is studied. The linear stability of EMWs is investigated using normal mode technique. The dispersion relation for frequency, of EMWs with horizontal basic electric field a function of y only is obtained. From this dispersion relation, the nature of stability (i.e., stable, unstable and neutrally stable) of EMWs are obtained for the cases namely or where the wave number is in the horizontal x-direction. ©Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Analgesic activity of new synthetic thiazolidine-4-ones derivatives

812-815Ten new synthetic thiazolidine-4-ones derivatives (5 chlorothiazolidine-4-ones, 3 methoxythiazolidine-4-ones and 2 hydoxythiazolidine-4-ones) having different substituents at R1, R2 and R3 were evaluated for their analgesic activity using different animal models and their structure activity relationship was also elucidated. Chlorothiazolidine-4-ones and methoxythiazolidine-4-ones exhibited analgesic activity in tail flick test, tail immersion test and acetic acid writhing test. C-III (chloride substituents at R1 and R2) produced higher latencies than any other compounds in tail flick test and C-I (no substituents at R1 and R2) was not effective in acetic acid writhing test. Hydroxythiazolidine-4-ones did not show analgesic activity in any of the animal models used. In conclusion, the character of substituents at R3 of thiazolidine moiety position may have an effect on the analgesic activity of thiazolidine-4-ones and either chloride or methoxy substitution may be necessary to produce analgesic activity. Two chloride substituents in a compound may increase the central analgesic activity of the compound

An Investigation of Abrasive Water Jet Machining on Graphite/Glass/Epoxy Composite

In the present research work, the effect of abrasive water jet (AWJ) machining parameters such as jet operating pressure, feed rate, standoff distance (SOD), and concentration of abrasive on kerf width produced on graphite filled glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite is investigated. Experiments were conducted based on Taguchi’s L27 orthogonal arrays and the process parameters were optimized to obtain small kerf. The main as well as interaction effects of the process parameters were analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression models were developed to predict kerf width. The results show that the operating pressure, the SOD, and the feed rate are found to be significantly affecting the top kerf width and their contribution to kerf width is 24.72%, 12.38%, and 52.16%, respectively. Further, morphological study is made using scanning electron microscope (SEM) on the samples that were machined at optimized process parameters. It was observed that AWJ machined surfaces were free from delamination at optimized process parameters

Non-specific lipid transfer proteins (ns-LTPs) from maize induce resistance in pearl millet against downy mildew disease

Non-specific Lipid Transfer Proteins were isolated and purified from maize seeds using combinations of ammonium sulphate precipitation and cat-ion exchange chromatography followed by HPLC. Two peptide segments were obtained by MALDI-TOF MS analysis, which were designated as ns-LTP M1 and ns-LTP M2. Both the ns-LTPs were treated to pearl millet seeds at different concentrations for 6 h. Among the concentrations tested, ns-LTP M1 (50 mu g/ ml) showed a maximum seed germination of 94% and 1320 seedling vigor followed by ns-LTP M2. The maximum downy mildew disease protection of 62% was offered by ns-LTP M1 (50 mu g/ ml) followed by ns-LTP M2 which offered 58% protection. Furthermore, peroxidase (POX) and lipoxigenase (LOX) enzymes related to plant resistance metabolism were also increased considerably after ns-LTP M1 treatment. POX activity was up to two folds when compared to susceptible control seedlings. Thus the present investigation suggests that the maize LTPs could enhance downy mildew disease resistance in pearl millet through the induction of defense mediated enzymes