Analysis and establish a correlation between serum ceruloplasmin, serum apelin level and thyroid profile in patients with hypothyroidism and healthy controls

Background: Hypothyroidism is an endocrine disorder resulting from deficiency of thyroid hormone. It is often the primary process in which the thyroid gland produces insufficient amounts of thyroid hormone. It can also be secondary, i.e., lack of thyroid hormone secretion due to the failure of either adequate thyrotropin (TSH) secretion from the pituitary gland or thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) from the hypothalamus (secondary or tertiary hypothyroidism). The patient's appearance may vary from asymptomatic to, rarely, coma with multisystem organ failure (myxoedema coma). Methods: The present observational descriptive, cross sectional study has been conducted on 120 newly diagnosed Subclinical Hypothyroidism patients of 20-50 years age group of both sex attending the OPD of department of medicine, RVRS medical college and associated group of hospitals, Bhilwara from May 2021 to May 2022. Diagnosis of thyroid disorder has been made according to the criteria recommended by the European thyroid association guidelines-2013. The result has been compared with age and gender matched 120 euthyroid subjects acting as controls. Detailed history of participants including age, history of any medications, addictions has been taken. Written consent from all the subjects has been obtained for the study.Results: The mean serum FT3 level was found to be slightly decreased in Subclinical hypothyroid subjects (group I) as compared to healthy controls (group II) but the difference was statistically significant (p<0.0001). The mean serum FT4 level was found to be slightly decreased in Subclinical hypothyroid subjects (group I) as compared to healthy controls (group II) but the difference was statistically significant (p<0.0001). A highly significant increase (p<0.0001) in mean serum TSH level has been observed in subclinical hypothyroid subjects (group-I) when compared to controls (group- II). In subclinical hypothyroid subjects, mean serum ceruloplasmin levels were found to be significantly lower in comparison to healthy subjects (p<0.0001).Conclusions: The overall findings of the present study thus confirm that serum Apelin level is significantly higher in subclinical hypothyroid subjects and serum ceruloplasmin level is significantly lower in the subclinical hypothyroid subjects. However, further experimental and observational studies are needed to illustrate the role of serum ceruloplasmin and serum apelin in subclinical hypothyroidism

Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and effect of vitamin D supplementation on feto-maternal outcome in tertiary care centre

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is widely prevalent throughout the world. Pregnant women, neonates and infants form most vulnerable groups for vitamin D deficiency. Hypovitaminosis D in pregnancy has been reported to cause various fetomaternal effect, i.e. increased risk of preeclampsia (PE), gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), caesarean section, hypocalcemia, subclinical myopathy, neonatal tetany, hyperbilirubinemia congenital rickets and infantile rickets, etc. Only few Indian studies are available in this regard. The objectives are to find prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and to evaluate the effect of supplementation with cholecalciferol in improving vitamin D levels in pregnant women and evaluate its correlation with feto-maternal outcome.Methods: A prospective observational was conducted on 120 Pregnant women on their first visit to hospital irrespective of gestational age were offered the test and on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria are included in study and vitamin D level was done to know the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. Apart from routine obstetrical investigation, serum vitamin D (total) level was estimated. All results were recorded and analyzed statically.Results: Out of 120 patients 101 (84.1%) were found to be vitamin D deficient. Mean age of vitamin D deficient group was 28.31±3.86 and sufficient group was 26.37±2.83.81 (67.5%) were vegetarian and 39 (32.5%) were nonvegetarian.75 (92.59%) vegetarian and 26 (66.66%) non-vegetarian found to be vitamin D deficient. (p<0.05). Vitamin D supplementation has been observed to reduce risk of preeclampsia. (p<0.05) and vitamin D sufficiency associated with reduced risk of low birth weight babies.Conclusions: Vitamin D supplementation reduces risk of maternal comorbidities and helps improve neonatal outcomes

Feto-maternal outcomes following caesarean section: a prospective comparative study at tertiary care centre in North-Western Rajasthan

Background: Caesarean section (CS) is employed when vaginal delivery is not feasible or hazardous to the mother and/or her baby. The procedure, however, is not without risk. We determined the fetomaternal outcomes of CS conducted at P.B.M Tertiary hospital situated in the North-Western region of Rajasthan.Methods: This is a Hospital based prospective comparative study of all CSs performed for various indications at the Dept. of Gynaecology and Obst., S.P. Medical College and P.B.M Hospital, Bikaner, India, from August 01, 2016, to July 31, 2017. All patients who had CS at any time within the 24 h period were noted and followed up until discharge. The sociodemographic data, types of CS, indications, and feto-maternal outcomes were documented in a proforma. Statistical analysis was carried out using the SPSS version 24.Results: There were 16386 deliveries out of which 4456 (27.1%) were by LSCS. The age range of the group A was 21-25 years while in group B it was 26-30 years. The mean age group A was 22.4, and group B it was 27.9 years. Total 6572 primigravida patients delivered and 32.1% had LSCS. Total 9814 multigravida patients delivered and 12.6% had primary LSCS. In group A, 119(79.3%) LSCS were elective as compared to group B where only 19(12.7%) were elective and this difference was found statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Indication of LSCS is different in both the groups. Fetal distress was most common indication in group A (53.3%) while in group B most common indication was APH (35.9%). Perinatal mortality/morbidity was significantly higher in group B (7.3%) as compared to group A (2.7%).Conclusions: The CS rate in this study was 27.1%. Although primary caesarean section in multipara constitutes only a small percentage of total deliveries and caesarean, they are associated with high maternal and perinatal morbidity. The reason for these complications is many. Beside obstetrical causes, factors like lack of antenatal care, low socioeconomic status, anaemia, malnutrition and illiteracy also play a major role obstructed labor and previous CS among Maternal and perinatal complications were more frequent with emergency CS and in the referred cases

Oral Health Knowledge, Attitude and Practices among Adults toward Tooth Loss and Utilization of Dental Services in Moradabad District

Background and objectives: For centuries, people have&nbsp;accepted tooth loss as an inevitable part of the human condition.&nbsp;Tooth loss impairs the quality of life, often substantially, andaffects the well being of the person. The objectives of study&nbsp;were to evaluate behavioral characteristics of the adults like&nbsp;beliefs about tooth loss and utilization of available health services&nbsp;which might be associated with tooth loss.&nbsp;Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on&nbsp;1,200 adults of Moradabad district, aged 35 to 74 years, 565&nbsp;from urban area and 635 from rural area who were selected by&nbsp;multistage systematic random sampling technique. Data was&nbsp;collected by an interview followed by examination for the numberof missing teeth.&nbsp;Results: Mean number of missing teeth in the study population&nbsp;was 4.2. Around half of the study population, i.e. 51.1% of the&nbsp;adults claimed that they had no dental treatment facilities nearby.&nbsp;Among the 602 adults (50.2%) who had utilized dental services&nbsp;earlier, greatest response for reason of dental visit was for&nbsp;extraction of teeth&nbsp; (48.7%).&nbsp;Conclusion: The findings from this study are useful in identifying&nbsp;the sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics associated&nbsp;with tooth loss among the study population. The insights gained&nbsp;from this study illustrate the need for tailoring Oral Health&nbsp;Promotion Programs and Services for the community, as the&nbsp;modification of these nondisease independent factors can&nbsp;reduce the tooth loss and improve the oral health of the adults&nbsp;of Moradabad district

How is Vaping Framed on Online Knowledge Dissemination Platforms?

We analyze 1,888 articles and 1,119,453 vaping posts to study how vaping is framed across multiple knowledge dissemination platforms (Wikipedia, Quora, Medium, Reddit, Stack Exchange, wikiHow). We use various NLP techniques to understand these differences. For example, n-grams, emotion recognition, and question answering results indicate that Medium, Quora, and Stack Exchange are appropriate venues for those looking to transition from smoking to vaping. Other platforms (Reddit, wikiHow) are more for vaping hobbyists and may not sufficiently dissuade youth vaping. Conversely, Wikipedia may exaggerate vaping harms, dissuading smokers from transitioning. A strength of our work is how the different techniques we have applied validate each other. Based on our results, we provide several recommendations. Stakeholders may utilize our findings to design informational tools to reinforce or mitigate vaping (mis)perceptions online.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2206.07765, arXiv:2206.0902

US News and Social Media Framing around Vaping

In this paper, we investigate how vaping is framed differently (2008-2021) between US news and social media. We analyze 15,711 news articles and 1,231,379 Facebook posts about vaping to study the differences in framing between media varieties. We use word embeddings to provide two-dimensional visualizations of the semantic changes around vaping for news and for social media. We detail that news media framing of vaping shifted over time in line with emergent regulatory trends, such as; flavored vaping bans, with little discussion around vaping as a smoking cessation tool. We found that social media discussions were far more varied, with transitions toward vaping both as a public health harm and as a smoking cessation tool. Our cloze test, dynamic topic model, and question answering showed similar patterns, where social media, but not news media, characterizes vaping as combustible cigarette substitute. We use n-grams to detail that social media data first centered on vaping as a smoking cessation tool, and in 2019 moved toward narratives around vaping regulation, similar to news media frames. Overall, social media tracks the evolution of vaping as a social practice, while news media reflects more risk based concerns. A strength of our work is how the different techniques we have applied validate each other. Stakeholders may utilize our findings to intervene around the framing of vaping, and may design communications campaigns that improve the way society sees vaping, thus possibly aiding smoking cessation; and reducing youth vaping

Non-invasive diagnosis of liver fibrosis in children with chronic hepatitis B by transient elastography

Background Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is one of the most alarming global health problems. Children with CHB mostly remain asymptomatic but serious sequelae like cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma may develop at any age. Liver biopsy, despite being the gold standard,  is not preferable for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis because it is invasive and painful. Transient elastography, a noninvasive marker for fibrosis, could play an important role in this disease. Objective To observe the role of transient elastography in the assessment of the progression  of liver damage  in children with chronic hepatitis B. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at The Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, there were a total of 55 cases of CHB. Besides proper clinical history, physical examination, and initial investigation, transient elastography was performed in all of the cases. Liver biopsy was taken in 20 patients with raised serum ALT level after taking proper consent. Elastographic findings were compared with clinical, biochemical, virological, and histological findings. Results The mean age was 11.46  (SD 3.6) years and 68.7% were male. Most (65.4%) of the patients were asymptomatic at presentation and biochemically normal. Liver stiffness measurements had positive but insignificant correlation with liver biopsy (r=0.43, P=0.06). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, diagnostic accuracy for transient elastography were 80%, 53.3%, 36.3%, 88%, and 60% respectively. Areas under the  ROC curve were 0.76 (95%CI 0.47 to 1.0) for patients with significant fibrosis (F? 2). Using a cut off value of 8.05 kPa, patients with significant fibrosis were detected with a sensitivity, specificity of 80% and 53%, respectively. Findings of transient elastography were significantly associated with clinical findings like anaemia, jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly, stigmata of CLD and biochemical findings like  serum ALT, AST as well as  virological parameters. Conclusion  Transient elastography has a limited role in confirming a diagnosis of significant fibrosis. But because of good sensitivity, transient elastography can be used as an initial presumptive diagnostic tool for assessing significant hepatic fibrosis.  A cut off value of less than 8.05 in transient elastography can be used for exclusion of significant fibrosis

Partisan US News Media Representations of Syrian Refugees

We investigate how representations of Syrian refugees (2011-2021) differ across US partisan news outlets. We analyze 47,388 articles from the online US media about Syrian refugees to detail differences in reporting between left- and right-leaning media. We use various NLP techniques to understand these differences. Our polarization and question answering results indicated that left-leaning media tended to represent refugees as child victims, welcome in the US, and right-leaning media cast refugees as Islamic terrorists. We noted similar results with our sentiment and offensive speech scores over time, which detail possibly unfavorable representations of refugees in right-leaning media. A strength of our work is how the different techniques we have applied validate each other. Based on our results, we provide several recommendations. Stakeholders may utilize our findings to intervene around refugee representations, and design communications campaigns that improve the way society sees refugees and possibly aid refugee outcomes

Association of cord serum albumin with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia among term-neonates

Background: NH affects nearly 60% of term and 80% of preterm neonates during first week of life. 6.1% of well term newborn have a serum bilirubin over 12.9 mg%. Serum bilirubin over 15 mg% is found in 3% of normal term newborns. Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia (NH) is a cause of concern for the parents as well as for the paediatricians. Aim of study to find out the association between various levels of cord serum albumin (CSA) and significant neonatal hyperbilirubinemia requiring interventions like phototherapy or exchange transfusion and whether it can be used as a risk indicator for subsequent development of significant jaundice.Methods: The present study was conducted on 150 randomly selected eligible term neonates delivered at Department of Pediatrics, Rajkiya Mahila Chikitsalaya, JLN Medical College and Associated Group of Hospitals, Ajmer, India.Results: Authors conducted a prospective study on 150sequentially born term babies. Cord blood was collected at birth and cord serum albumin estimation was done within 4-6 hours of collection of the blood. Cohort was grouped into Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 based on CSA level ≤ 2.8g/dl, 2.9-3.3g/dl and ≥ 3.4 g/dl respectively. Knowledge of risk factors of NH in neonates could influence decision of early discharge vs. prolonged observation cord serum albumin level of ≤ 2.8g/dl has a correlation with incidence of significant hyperbilirubinemia in term newborns. So this ≤ 2.8g/dl of cord serum albumin level can be used as risk indicator to predict the development of significant hyperbilirubinemia. Whereas cord serum albumin level ≥3.4g/dl is considered safe.Conclusions: Term neonates with hyperbilirubinemia with a total serum bilirubin level ≥17 mg/dl had levels of cord serum albumin of ≤ 2.8 g/dl, and this can be used as a risk indicator to predict the development of NH

Feto-maternal outcomes following caesarean section: a prospective comparative study at tertiary care centre in North-Western Rajasthan

Background: Caesarean section (CS) is employed when vaginal delivery is not feasible or hazardous to the mother and/or her baby. The procedure, however, is not without risk. We determined the fetomaternal outcomes of CS conducted at P.B.M Tertiary hospital situated in the North-Western region of Rajasthan.Methods: This is a Hospital based prospective comparative study of all CSs performed for various indications at the Dept. of Gynaecology and Obst., S.P. Medical College and P.B.M Hospital, Bikaner, India, from August 01, 2016, to July 31, 2017. All patients who had CS at any time within the 24 h period were noted and followed up until discharge. The sociodemographic data, types of CS, indications, and feto-maternal outcomes were documented in a proforma. Statistical analysis was carried out using the SPSS version 24.Results: There were 16386 deliveries out of which 4456 (27.1%) were by LSCS. The age range of the group A was 21-25 years while in group B it was 26-30 years. The mean age group A was 22.4, and group B it was 27.9 years. Total 6572 primigravida patients delivered and 32.1% had LSCS. Total 9814 multigravida patients delivered and 12.6% had primary LSCS. In group A, 119(79.3%) LSCS were elective as compared to group B where only 19(12.7%) were elective and this difference was found statistically highly significant (p&lt;0.001). Indication of LSCS is different in both the groups. Fetal distress was most common indication in group A (53.3%) while in group B most common indication was APH (35.9%). Perinatal mortality/morbidity was significantly higher in group B (7.3%) as compared to group A (2.7%).Conclusions: The CS rate in this study was 27.1%. Although primary caesarean section in multipara constitutes only a small percentage of total deliveries and caesarean, they are associated with high maternal and perinatal morbidity. The reason for these complications is many. Beside obstetrical causes, factors like lack of antenatal care, low socioeconomic status, anaemia, malnutrition and illiteracy also play a major role obstructed labor and previous CS among Maternal and perinatal complications were more frequent with emergency CS and in the referred cases