Field Identification of Threadfin breams, Silverbellies, Croakers and Bullseye

Nemipterids are one among the most commercially important groups of marine fishes in the tropical Indo-West Pacific region. Family Nemipteridae comprises of five genera: Nemipterus, Parascolopsis, Pentapodus, Scaevius, and Scolopsis. Nemipterus is popularly known as “pink perch”, contributed to 4.78% (1,62,764 t) of the total fish landings in the country during 2015

Milestone Operations in Heart Valve and Aortic Replacement: Anniversaries Worth Remembering

Seventy years ago, in 1952, Charles A. Hufnagel implanted a caged-ball prosthesis into the descending thoracic aorta, to treat a patient with aortic valve insufficiency. In 1962, 60 years ago, the first aortic homograft was implanted in a subcoronary position by Donald N. Ross and Brian G. Barratt-Boyes. Forty years ago, in 1982, the first anticalcification treatment was introduced in commercially manufactured porcine bioprostheses. All such important or even milestone events should be remembered, since they witness efforts made by those who have significantly influenced the clinical history of aortic and valvular diseases

Decadal Trends of Indian Demersal Fisheries

Fisheries sector plays an important role in the overall socio-economic development of India. India is one of the major fish producing countries in the world contributing over 3% of both marine and freshwater fishes of the world production. Marine fishes, based on their depth-wise distribution are grouped mainly as pelagic and demersal, the former occupying surface and subsurface waters and the latter the neritic areas in the continental shelf. Demersal fishes are those fishes which can either rest on the sea floor or which can float in the water column just above the sea floor. The demersal fish resources of India include the elasmobranchs, eels, major perches, threadfin breams, silverbellies, sciaenids, lizardfishes, pomfrets, bulls eye, catfishes, flatfishes, goatfish and white fish. There is a significant contribution by the demersal fishes to the total Indian marine fish landings. When compared to the pelagic resources, proper exploitation of the demersal finfishes in India has been initiated since 1960-62 period. With the introduction of mechanized bottom trawling the exploitation of demersal finfishes attained a 2.7 fold increase reaching 0.52 million tonnes in the late eighties from 0.08million tonnes during the late fifties. In 2017, the demersal fish production of India reached new heights with a peak annual average landing of 1 million tonne which is almost an increase of 12.5 fold from the late fifties. The annual average landings of demersal finfishes along the Indian coast during 2010-2015 was accounted to 0.95 million tonnes contributing 26.32% to the total landings. However, the catch share of demersal finfishes during the last 35 years indicates that the contribution of demersal finfishes to the total Indian marine landings is decreasing over the years. The maximum share was reported in 1983 with 33% contribution and the lowest share was in 1989

Field Identification of Major Elasmobranchs along the Indian Coast

Elasmobranchs are an important group of demersal fishes which are represented by sharks, skates and rays. India is the world’s second biggest shark fishing nation next to Indonesia. They belong to the Class Elasmobranchii under the Phylum Chordata. Sharks are caught with various gears like drift gillnets, longlines, hooks and line units and are landed throughout the year. They feed on bony fishes, other sharks, rays, crustaceans and squids

Field Identification of Major Demersal Teleost Fish Species along the Indian Coast

Based on their vertical distribution, fishes are broadly classified as pelagic or demersal. Species those are distributed from the seafloor to a 5 m depth above, are called demersal and those distributed from a depth of 5 m above the seafloor to the sea surface are called pelagic. The term demersal originates from the Latin word demergere, which means to sink. The demersal fish resources include the elasmobranchs, major perches, catfishes, threadfin breams, silverbellies, sciaenids, lizardfishes, pomfrets, bulls eye, flatfishes, goatfish and white fish. This chapter deals with identification of the major demersal teleost fish species

Climate Change Impacts on Indian Marine Fisheries and adaptation strategies

Increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere has resulted in warming of climate systems or global warming. Global warming is a long-term rise in the average temperature of the earth's climate system, an aspect of climate change shown by temperature measurements and by multiple effects of the warming. The term commonly refers to the mainly human-caused observed warming since pre-industrial times and its projected continuation, though there were also much earlier periods of global warming. In the modern context the terms are commonly used interchangeably, but global warming more specifically relates to worldwide surface temperature increases; while climate change is any regional or global statistically identifiable persistent change in the state of climate which lasts for decades or longer, including warming or cooling. Many of the observed warming changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record and in historical and paleoclimate proxy records of climate change over thousands to millions of years

Left atrial appendage thrombosis and persistent atrial fibrillation: Combined treatment with a totally thoracoscopic approach

Minimally invasive surgical ablation is generally contraindicated in patients with atrial fibrillation and thrombosis of the left atrial appendage. We have treated three of these patients using an innovative technique based on a bilateral video-thoracoscopic approach, performing a continuous encircling lesion at the pulmonary veins outflow with radio-frequency ablation, simultaneously excluding the left atrial appendage. The postoperative course was uneventful, without neurologic events and all patients maintained a stable sinus rhythm at 1-year follow-up. This procedure represents a new mini-invasive method to treat persistent atrial fibrillation when partial thrombosis of the left atrial appendage contraindicates other ablation techniques

An integrated approach for treatment of acute type a aortic dissection

Background and objective: We reviewed a single-institution experience to verify the impact of surgery during different time intervals on early and late results in the treatment of patients with type A acute aortic dissection (A-AAD). Materials and Methods: From 2004 to 2021, a total of 258 patients underwent repair of A-AAD; patients were equally distributed among three periods: 2004–2010 (Era 1, n = 90), 2011–2016 (Era 2, n = 87), and 2017–2021 (Era 3, n = 81). The primary end-point was to assess whether through the years changes in indications, surgical strategies and techniques and increasing experience have influenced early and late outcomes of A-AAD repair. Results: Axillary artery cannulation was almost routinely used in Eras 2 (86%) and 3 (91%) while one femoral artery was mainly cannulated in Era 1 (91%) (p < 0.01). Retrograde cerebral perfusion was predominantly used in Era 1 (60%) while antegrade cerebral perfusion was preferred in Eras 2 (94%,) and 3 (100%); (p < 0.01). There was a significant increase of arch replacement procedures from Era 1 (11%) to Eras 2 (33%) and 3 (48%) (p < 0.01). A frozen elephant trunk was mainly performed in Era 3. Hospital mortality was 13% in Era 1, 11% in Era 2, and 4% in Era 3 (p = 0.07). Actuarial survival at 3 years is 74%, in Era 1, 78% in Era 2, and 89% in Era 3 (p = 0.05). Conclusions: With increasing experience and a more aggressive approach, including total arch replacement, repair of A-AAD can be performed with low operative mortality in many patients. Patient care and treatment by a specific team organization allows a faster diagnosis and referral for surgery allowing to further improve early and late outcomes

Use of sutureless and rapid deployment prostheses in challenging reoperations

Sutureless and rapid-deployment bioprostheses have been introduced as alternatives to traditional prosthetic valves to reduce cardiopulmonary and aortic cross-clamp times during aortic valve replacement. These devices have also been employed in extremely demanding surgical settings, as underlined in the present review. Searches on the PubMed and Medline databases aimed to identify, from the English-language literature, the reported cases where both sutureless and rapid-deployment prostheses were employed in challenging surgical situations, usually complex reoperations sometimes even performed as bailout procedures. We have identified 25 patients for whom a sutureless or rapid-deployment prosthesis was used in complex redo procedures: 17 patients with a failing stentless bioprosthesis, 6 patients with a failing homograft, and 2 patients with the failure of a valve-sparing procedure. All patients survived reoperation and were reported to be alive 3 months to 4 years postoperatively. Sutureless and rapid-deployment bioprostheses have proved effective in replacing degenerated stentless bioprostheses and homografts in challenging redo procedures. In these settings, they should be considered as a valid alternative not only to traditional prostheses but also in selected cases to transcatheter valve-in-valve solutions

Length-weight relationships of three reef-associated fishes Lutjanus gibbus, Pinjalo lewisi and Pristipomoides filamentosus off Kochi, southwest coast of India

Length-weight relationships (LWRs) of three reef-associated fishes belonging to the family Lutjanidae viz ., Lutjanus gibbus (Forsskal, 1775), Pinjalo lewisi Randall, Allen & Anderson, 1987 and Pristipomoides filamentosus (Valenciennes, 1830), were estimated based on 548 samples collected from trawl net and hook and line fishery off Kochi, southwest coast of India. Sampling was done at Kochi (Lat. 09°56′327′′N, Long. 76°15′764′′E) and Munambam (Lat. 10°10′965′′N, Long. 76°10′258′′E) landing centers from May 2017 to November 2019. The estimated coefficient (b value) ranged from 2.597 ( P. lewisi , N = 89) to 2.902 (P. filamentosus , N = 240). Coefficient of determination (r2) ranged from 0.906 ( L. gibbus ) to 0.952 ( P. filamentosus), indicating a strong functional LWRs that were highly significant (p <0.001). The study reports the new maximum total length (TLmax) for P. lewisi and also records first estimates of length-weight relationships for three major species of snappers from the region. The generated LWR parameters will be of great importance in evaluating the biological changes in fish stocks and for developing sustainable management measures for snappers in the southeastern Arabian Sea