First trimester uterine artery Doppler screening in the prediction of adverse pregnancy outcomes

Background: Uterine artery Doppler waveform has been extensively studied as a predictive marker for the later development of preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. Therefore, uterine artery doppler has emerged as a good test for the prediction of preeclampsia, being simple to perform, reproducible and non-invasive. The present study was done to evaluate the first trimester uterine artery Doppler in the prediction of adverse pregnancy outcome.Methods: This was a prospective cohort study for all pregnant women attending antenatal clinic during 11-14 weeks of gestation at Christian medical college and hospital, Ludhiana, during a period of 18 months. Study population of (n~270) was taken. A pre-designed case record was filled at the time of registration. After taking informed consent, these women underwent ultrasound for uterine artery Doppler pulsatility index along with nuchal translucency & nasal bone scan by transabdominal ultrasound. Patients were followed up throughout the gestation to find out the development of any adverse pregnancy outcomes (early onset preeclampsia, early onset fetal growth restriction, late onset preeclampsia, late onset fetal growth restriction, oligohydramnios, placental abruption and stillbirth).Results: In our study, about 75% of antenatal women were found to have normal first trimester uterine artery pulsatility index and the rest 25% had abnormal pulsatility index. About 40% of women with abnormal dopplers developed complications associated to hypertensive disorders and adverse pregnancy outcomes, while 60% went on to have a normal pregnancy. It was observed that 13.2% developed gestational hypertension, 10.29% developed pulmonary embolism, 1.47% developed eclampsia, 22.05% developed oligohydramnios, 42.64% developed fetal growth restriction, 4.41 % developed placental abruption and 5.88% delivered stillbirth neonates.Conclusions: As hypertensive disorders of pregnancy pose a great risk of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality, an evolution of Doppler studies have proven to be beneficial. Doppler ultrasound was found to be a valuable modality in the evaluation of fetal and placental circulation as well as in the prediction of pregnancy outcomes. According to the receiver operating characteristic curve obtained in our study, sensitivity and specificity of first trimester uterine artery pulsatility index was predictive for pregnancy complications and adverse outcomes

Effect of Syzygium cumini (jamun) seed powder on dyslipidemia: a double blind randomized control trial

Background: Diabetes is a metabolic syndrome characterized by disturbance in carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism. Dyslipidemia, commonly associated in diabetes, is major risk factor for macrovascular complications leading to CAD, major contributor to mortality associated with diabetes. Managing DM without side effects is challenge that attracts researchers toward plant based new products. Many studies have found anti-diabetic and anti-hyperlipidemic properties of seeds of Syzygium cumini, attributed to saponins, glycosides and flavonoids. So it should be further explored for its benefits.  The aim was to study the effect of jamun seed powder on dyslipidemia in type 2 DM. Methods: Patients with type 2 DM were randomly divided in two groups- group A was supplemented with 10 gms/day jamun seed powder and group B was given placebo powder. Patients and investigators were blinded about treatment allocated. Lipid profile was noted at baseline and 30th, 60th and 90th day. All the data was collected and analyzed at the end of study.Results: Improvement in dyslipidemia was seen after 60 days of supplementation with S. cumini seed powder. Statistically significant decrease in cholesterol levels by 10.55% and 15.79% in mean triglyceride levels by 8.28% and 13.66%, LDL-c levels by 10.29% and 14.50% was noticed at 60th and 90th day, respectively, reduction in VLDL-c levels by 9.38%, 12.90% and 20.69% was noted at 30th, 60th and 90th day. HDL-c increased significantly by 11.11% and 13.89% in males and 10.81% and 16.21% in females after 60 and 90 days of supplementation with S. cumini seed powder.Conclusions: A significant overall effect of S. cumini supplementation was found in improvement of lipid profile in type 2 diabetes subjects. However, above results are seen in small number subjects, further multicenter studies with larger sample size, supplementation dose and time should be planned and its effects in detail should be explored.

An international prospective study of INICC analyzing the incidence and risk factors for catheter-associated urinary tract infections in 235 ICUs across 8 Asian Countries

Background: Identify urinary catheter (UC)-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) incidence and risk factors (RF) in 235 ICUs in 8 Asian countries: India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Methods: From January 1, 2014, to February 12, 2022, we conducted a prospective cohort study. To estimate CAUTI incidence, the number of UC days was the denominator, and CAUTI was the numerator. To estimate CAUTI RFs, we analyzed 11 variables using multiple logistic regression. Results: 84,920 patients hospitalized for 499,272 patient days acquired 869 CAUTIs. The pooled CAUTI rate per 1,000 UC-days was 3.08; for those using suprapubic-catheters (4.11); indwelling-catheters (2.65); trauma-ICU (10.55), neurologic-ICU (7.17), neurosurgical-ICU (5.28); in lower- middle-income countries (3.05); in upper-middle-income countries (1.71); at public-hospitals (5.98), at private-hospitals (3.09), at teaching-hospitals (2.04). The following variables were identified as CAUTI RFs: Age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.01; 95% CI = 1.01-1.02; P < .0001); female sex (aOR = 1.39; 95% CI = 1.21-1.59; P < .0001); using suprapubic-catheter (aOR = 4.72; 95% CI = 1.69-13.21; P < .0001); length of stay before CAUTI acquisition (aOR = 1.04; 95% CI = 1.04-1.05; P < .0001); UC and device utilization-ratio (aOR = 1.07; 95% CI = 1.01-1.13; P = .02); hospitalized at trauma-ICU (aOR = 14.12; 95% CI = 4.68-42.67; P < .0001), neurologic-ICU (aOR = 14.13; 95% CI = 6.63-30.11; P < .0001), neurosurgical-ICU (aOR = 13.79; 95% CI = 6.88-27.64; P < .0001); public-facilities (aOR = 3.23; 95% CI = 2.34-4.46; P < .0001). Discussion: CAUTI rate and risk are higher for older patients, women, hospitalized at trauma-ICU, neurologic-ICU, neurosurgical-ICU, and public facilities. All of them are unlikely to change. Conclusions: It is suggested to focus on reducing the length of stay and the Urinary catheter device utilization ratio, avoiding suprapubic catheters, and implementing evidence-based CAUTI prevention recommendations

Bilateral single-session retrograde intra-renal surgery: A safe option for renal stones up to 1.5 cm

Introduction: Assessment of treatment outcomes in patients undergoing bilateral single-session retrograde intra-renal surgery (RIRS) for bilateral renal stones up to 1.5 cm. Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of 74 patients was done with bilateral renal calculi, who underwent bilateral single-session RIRS at our stone referral hospital from December 2011 to May 2014. The selection criteria for this intervention were patient's preference, failure of other treatments and stone up to 1.5 cm. Patients with creatinine more than 2, pyonephrosis sepsis, bilateral impacted pelviureteric junction calculi were excluded from study. All patients were evaluated with serum biochemistry, urinalysis, urine culture, plain radiography of kidney-ureter-bladder, intravenous urography, renal ultrasonography (USG) and/or computed tomography (CT). Follow-up evaluation included serum biochemistry and postoperative plain film and renal USG. The success rate was defined as patients who were stone-free or only had a residual fragment of less than 4 mm. CT was conducted only in patients with residual stones, which were present in seven patients. Results: A total of 74 patients (50 male, 24 female) with a mean age 39.2 ± 15.2 were included in the present study. The mean stone size was 11.7 ± 2.4 mm. The stone-free rates were 86.84% and 97.29% after the first and second procedures, respectively. In eight patients (10.8%), minor complications were observed, whereas no major complications were noted in the studied group. There was no significant difference in pre- and post-operative serum creatinine levels. Conclusion: In patients with bilateral renal stones up to 1.5 cm bilateral single-session RIRS with flexible ureteroscope can be safely performed with low complication rate

Experimental Investigations of On-line Fiber Optic H₂S Gas Sensor for Industrial Applications

355-358Fiber optic sensors to-date is a rapidly growing field with several potential benefits over the conventional electronic and electrical sensors. Intensity based fiber optic sensors are conceptually simple, ruggedised and cost-effective as they can be implemented using less expensive multimode fibers and their assemblies and other components. The various aspects of design,development and experimental investigations of an on-line fiber optic H2S gas sensor based on interference free lead acetate detection technology for industrial flow lines are discussed

QSAR-Based Models for Designing Quinazoline/Imidazothiazoles/Pyrazolopyrimidines Based Inhibitors against Wild and Mutant EGFR

<div><p>Overexpression of EGFR is responsible for causing a number of cancers, including lung cancer as it activates various downstream signaling pathways. Thus, it is important to control EGFR function in order to treat the cancer patients. It is well established that inhibiting ATP binding within the EGFR kinase domain regulates its function. The existing quinazoline derivative based drugs used for treating lung cancer that inhibits the wild type of EGFR. In this study, we have made a systematic attempt to develop QSAR models for designing quinazoline derivatives that could inhibit wild EGFR and imidazothiazoles/pyrazolopyrimidines derivatives against mutant EGFR. In this study, three types of prediction methods have been developed to design inhibitors against EGFR (wild, mutant and both). First, we developed models for predicting inhibitors against wild type EGFR by training and testing on dataset containing 128 quinazoline based inhibitors. This dataset was divided into two subsets called wild_train and wild_valid containing 103 and 25 inhibitors respectively. The models were trained and tested on wild_train dataset while performance was evaluated on the wild_valid called validation dataset. We achieved a maximum correlation between predicted and experimentally determined inhibition (IC₅₀) of 0.90 on validation dataset. Secondly, we developed models for predicting inhibitors against mutant EGFR (L858R) on mutant_train, and mutant_valid dataset and achieved a maximum correlation between 0.834 to 0.850 on these datasets. Finally, an integrated hybrid model has been developed on a dataset containing wild and mutant inhibitors and got maximum correlation between 0.761 to 0.850 on different datasets. In order to promote open source drug discovery, we developed a webserver for designing inhibitors against wild and mutant EGFR along with providing standalone (<a href="http://osddlinux.osdd.net/" target="_blank">http://osddlinux.osdd.net/</a>) and Galaxy (<a href="http://osddlinux.osdd.net:8001" target="_blank">http://osddlinux.osdd.net:8001</a>) version of software. We hope our webserver (<a href="http://crdd.osdd.net/oscadd/ntegfr/" target="_blank">http://crdd.osdd.net/oscadd/ntegfr/</a>) will play a vital role in designing new anticancer drugs.</p></div