78 research outputs found
Utilisation of Postnatal Care among Rural Women in Nepal
Background: Postnatal care is uncommon in Nepal, and where it is available the quality is often poor. Adequate utilisation of postnatal care can help reduce mortality and morbidity among mothers and their babies. Therefore, our study assessed the utilisation of postnatal care at a rural community level.
Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in two neighbouring villages in early 2006. A total of 150 women who had delivered in the previous 24 months were asked to participate in the study using a semi-structured questionnaire.
Results: The proportion of women who had received postnatal care after delivery was low (34%). Less than one in five women (19%) received care within 48 hours of giving birth. Women in one village had less access to postnatal care than women in the neighbouring one. Lack of awareness was the main barrier to the utilisation of postnatal care.
The woman's own occupation and ethnicity, the number of pregnancies and children and the husband's socio-economic status, occupation and education were significantly associated with the utilisation of postnatal care.
Multivariate analysis showed that wealth as reflected in occupation and having attended antenatal are important factors associated with the uptake of postnatal care. In addition, women experiencing health problems appear strongly motivated to seek postnatal care.
Conclusion: The postnatal care has a low uptake and is often regarded as inadequate in Nepal. This is an important message to both service providers and health-policy makers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the actual quality of postnatal care provided. Also there appears to be a need for awareness-raising programmes highlighting the availability of current postnatal care where this is of sufficient quality
Common mental disorders among adult members of ‘left-behind’ international migrant worker families in Sri Lanka
Evidence for a retroviral insertion in TRPM1 as the cause of congenital stationary night blindness and leopard complex spotting in the horse
Leopard complex spotting is a group of white spotting patterns in horses caused by an incompletely dominant gene (LP) where homozygotes (LP/LP) are also affected with congenital stationary night blindness. Previous studies implicated Transient Receptor Potential Cation Channel, Subfamily M, Member 1 (TRPM1) as the best candidate gene for both CSNB and LP. RNA-Seq data pinpointed a 1378 bp insertion in intron 1 of TRPM1 as the potential cause. This insertion, a long terminal repeat (LTR) of an endogenous retrovirus, was completely associated with LP, testing 511 horses (χ²=1022.00, p<<0.0005), and CSNB, testing 43 horses (χ2=43, p<<0.0005). The LTR was shown to disrupt TRPM1 transcription by premature poly-adenylation. Furthermore, while deleterious transposable element insertions should be quickly selected against the identification of this insertion in three ancient DNA samples suggests it has been maintained in the horse gene pool for at least 17,000 years. This study represents the first description of an LTR insertion being associated with both a pigmentation phenotype and an eye disorder.Rebecca R. Bellone … David L. Adelson, Sim Lin Lim … et al
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Updating the approaches to define susceptibility and resistance to anti-tuberculosis agents: implications for diagnosis and treatment
11 páginas, 2 figuras, 1 tablaInappropriately high breakpoints have resulted in systematic false-susceptible AST results to anti-TB drugs. MIC, PK/PD and clinical outcome data should be combined when setting breakpoints to minimise the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.I. Comas was supported by PID2019-104477RB-I00 from the Spanish Science Ministry
and by ERC (CoG 101001038)Peer reviewe
Leptin response in patients with tuberculous pleuritis
Background & objectives: Tuberculous pleuritis is used as a model to understand the protective immune
response in tuberculosis. It is predominated by Th1 response at the site of infection, where a possible role
for the leptin, a known enhancer of Th1 response, could be speculated. Hence, we investigated leptin levels
in pleural effusions in patients with both tuberculous (TP) and non-tuberculous (NTP) pleural effusion.
Methods: Leptin and cytokine levels were assessed in serum and pleural fluid of TP and NTP patients
(N = 20 each) by ELISA. Multivariate regression analysis were performed to find the possible
determinants of leptin taking leptin as the dependent and body mass index (BMI), gender, source of
leptin [i.e., serum or pleural fluid (PF)], age and disease status as independent variables.
Results: PF leptin levels were significantly higher than serum leptin levels in both the groups however
the PF leptin levels were significantly lower in TP subjects compared to NTP. The results showed that the
leptin was found to be dependent on BMI but not on the other parameters. However, regression analysis
based on the source of leptin showed males to be a better predictor of leptin. No correlation was observed
between leptin and measured immune parameters.
Interpretation & conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that the decreased leptin levels were associated
with reduction in BMI but not with the disease status in tuberculous pleuritis
Impact of Tuberculosis on Serum Leptin Levels in Patients with HIV Infection
Aim: Tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodefi ciency virus
(HIV) are classical wasting diseases accompanied by
immunosuppression. As leptin is involved in the weight
regulation and cellular immunity, we investigated the
role of leptin levels in the co-infection of HIV and TB (HIVTB).
Methods: The study group consists of the patients
with asymptomatic HIV infection (n = 20), patients with
HIV-TB co-infection (n = 20) and healthy control subjects
(n = 20). Serum leptin levels and the concentrations of
IFN- � , TNF- � , IL-12 and IL-4 cytokines were measured by
ELISA before the start of the treatment. CD4 + T-cell counts
were determined in patients with HIV and HIV-TB by fl ow
cytometry. Body mass index (BMI) of the study subjects
was calculated. Results: Serum leptin levels and BMI
were signifi cantly lower in the patients with HIV-TB than
control and HIV subjects. Multivariate regression analysis
showed that serum leptin concentration was signifi -
cantly dependent on BMI and sex but not on age and the
disease groups. The leptin levels did not correlate either
with CD4 + T-cell counts or with any of the serum cytokines
in HIV and HIV-TB patients. Conclusion: Thus our fi nding
suggests that the leptin concentrations were strongly associated
with BMI and gender but not with the disease
state or with the circulating cytokine levels
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