Second Trimester Antenatal Umbilical Coiling Index and Its Doppler Flow Characteristics and Perinatal Outcome: A Prospective study

OBJECTIVE: To study correlation between antenatal Umbilical Cord Coiling Index (UCI) and umbilical vein blood flow and perinatal outcome. METHODS: UCI and umbilical vein blood flow were determined in 200 antenatal women with by ultrasonography and colour doppler between 20 to 28 weeks gestation. Results were correlated with following factors: gestational age of delivery, mode of delivery, meconium stained liquor, abnormal heart rate, birth weight, APGAR score and statistically analysed by Chi-square test. RESULTS: Hypocoiling was associated with preterm deliveries, LBW, low APGAR, abnormal heart rate and NICU admissions. Hypercoiling was associated with SGA, caesarean sections, meconium staining of liquor, low APGAR and NICU admissions. Increased umbilical vein blood flow was associated with SGA, meconium stained liquor and abnormal foetal heart rate. Decreased umbilical vein blood flow was associated with preterm deliveries, low birth weight, low APGAR. Positive correlation was observed between UCI and umbilical vein blood flow. UCI and umbilical vein blood flow also had positive correlation with birth weight and low APGAR. CONCLUSION: Abnormal coiling and abnormal umbilical vein blood flow can be used as a predictor of birth weight and low APGAR

IMPLEMENTATION OF MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL AND AUTO TUNING BASED PID FOR EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE CONTROL IN CSTR

Continuous Stirrer Tank Reactor (CSTR) is an important topic in process control and offering a diverse range of researches in the area of chemical and control engineering. A simulation on mathematical model has several advantages over the experiment on a real model or system, which is used for steady state analysis and dynamic state analysis. The main objective is to control the temperature of CSTR in the presence of disturbance. Various control approaches have been applied on CSTR to control its parameters through PID control and MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL (MPC). Model design and simulation are done in MATLAB SIMULIN

Coronary Sinus to Left Atrial Communication

Congenital coronary sinus anomalies are rare in clinical practice, partly due to the lack of symptoms. We present a case of coronary sinus anomaly causing a right-to-left intracardiac shunt in a 46 years/old African American female with a past medical history of obstructive sleep apnea, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and ischemic cardiomyopathy who presented with hypoxia. In the months prior to her presentation, she had suffered an inferior myocardial infarction with right ventricular involvement, as well as resulting severe tricuspid regurgitation. In conclusion, further investigations revealed a communication between the coronary sinus (CS) and left atrium (LA)

Evaluation of suitable solvents for testing the anti-proliferative activity of triclosan - a hydrophobic drug in cell culture

166-171Triclosan, a broad spectrum antibiotic is currently being evaluated for its anti-cancer property. Though several solvents are available to dissolve lipophilic (hydrophobic) drugs, solubility and toxicity aspects pose a challenge, when combined with the cell culture medium. In this paper, we present a simple approach based on physico-chemical and biologic criteria to choose a suitable solubilizing agent to study the anti-proliferative property of triclosan in breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Triclosan was dissolved in five different solvents viz. DMSO, absolute ethanol, 1 N NaOH, 55% polyethylene glycol + 45% ethanol mixture (PEM) and acetone and diluted with the culture medium (1 mg/ml). Although triclosan dissolved completely in all five solvents, on dilution with culture medium, turbidity was observed in DMSO, 1 N NaOH and ethanol. Cell viability was 95.23% in 10 ml of acetone, when compared with 49.45% at the same volume of PEM. This non-toxic nature of acetone was supported by DNA fragmentation analysis and phase contrast microscopy. A significant decrease in cancer cell proliferation at 100 mg/ml of acetone-solubilized triclosan, compared with 100 mg/ml of PEM-solubilized triclosan (p<0.05) indicated stronger anti-proliferative effect and greater drug-sensitivity of triclosan when solubilized in acetone. Results showed that acetone-solubilized triclosan was suitable for anti-cancer investigations in cultured MCF-7 cells

Fluid biomarkers in cerebral amyloid angiopathy

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a type of cerebrovascular disorder characterised by the accumulation of amyloid within the leptomeninges and small/medium-sized cerebral blood vessels. Typically, cerebral haemorrhages are one of the first clinical manifestations of CAA, posing a considerable challenge to the timely diagnosis of CAA as the bleedings only occur during the later disease stages. Fluid biomarkers may change prior to imaging biomarkers, and therefore, they could be the future of CAA diagnosis. Additionally, they can be used as primary outcome markers in prospective clinical trials. Among fluid biomarkers, blood-based biomarkers offer a distinct advantage over cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers as they do not require a procedure as invasive as a lumbar puncture. This article aimed to provide an overview of the present clinical data concerning fluid biomarkers associated with CAA and point out the direction of future studies. Among all the biomarkers discussed, amyloid β, neurofilament light chain, matrix metalloproteinases, complement 3, uric acid, and lactadherin demonstrated the most promising evidence. However, the field of fluid biomarkers for CAA is an under-researched area, and in most cases, there are only one or two studies on each of the biomarkers mentioned in this review. Additionally, a small sample size is a common limitation of the discussed studies. Hence, it is hard to reach a solid conclusion on the clinical significance of each biomarker at different stages of the disease or in various subpopulations of CAA. In order to overcome this issue, larger longitudinal and multicentered studies are needed.</p