Clinical study of placenta previa and its effect on maternal health and fetal outcome

Background: When the placenta is implanted partially or completely in the lower uterine segment it is called placenta previa. The objective of the study was to determine the incidence, obstetric risk factors, obstetric management, maternal mortality and morbidity, perinatal outcome in women presenting with placenta previa.Methods: Total 106 pregnant women with placenta previa were analyzed between January to December 2015. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria these women were analyzed with respect to their age, parity, gestational age and clinical features at presentation, history of warning bleeding, duration  of hospitalization, need for blood transfusion, period of gestation at delivery, route of delivery and ICU admissions. For the newborn APGAR score, birth weight, need for NICU admission, still birth rate, neonatal mortality rate are noted down.Results: In this study 0.64% of the deliveries were complicated with placenta previa among them 23.6% women were above 30 years of age and 80.2% were multigravidas. 60.4% had major degree placenta previa, 36.8% had prior cesarean deliveries, 7.5% had prior abortion, 39.7% preterm deliveries. 85.8% cases delivered by cesarean delivery, 12.7% cases had postpartum haemorrhage and 4.7% had adherent placenta. There were 86.8% ICU admissions, 3.8% cases of acute kidney injury in present series.Conclusions: Advancing maternal age, multiparity, prior cesarean section, and prior abortions are independent risk factors for placenta previa. Placenta praevia remains a risk factor for adverse maternal and perinatal outcome. The detection of placenta previa should encourage a careful evaluation with timely delivery to reduce the associated maternal and perinatal complications

Biometric Authentication using Nonparametric Methods

The physiological and behavioral trait is employed to develop biometric authentication systems. The proposed work deals with the authentication of iris and signature based on minimum variance criteria. The iris patterns are preprocessed based on area of the connected components. The segmented image used for authentication consists of the region with large variations in the gray level values. The image region is split into quadtree components. The components with minimum variance are determined from the training samples. Hu moments are applied on the components. The summation of moment values corresponding to minimum variance components are provided as input vector to k-means and fuzzy kmeans classifiers. The best performance was obtained for MMU database consisting of 45 subjects. The number of subjects with zero False Rejection Rate [FRR] was 44 and number of subjects with zero False Acceptance Rate [FAR] was 45. This paper addresses the computational load reduction in off-line signature verification based on minimal features using k-means, fuzzy k-means, k-nn, fuzzy k-nn and novel average-max approaches. FRR of 8.13% and FAR of 10% was achieved using k-nn classifier. The signature is a biometric, where variations in a genuine case, is a natural expectation. In the genuine signature, certain parts of signature vary from one instance to another. The system aims to provide simple, fast and robust system using less number of features when compared to state of art works.Comment: 20 page

Occurrence of linezolid induced thrombocytopenia and its association with the risk factors: a review article

Linezolid is the oxazolidinone group of antibiotic with wide range of activity against the gram positive bacteria including methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus and penicillin resistant pneumococci and vancomycin resistant enterococci. Patients who are on linezolid were reported to have reversible myelosuppression especially thrombocytopenia and anaemia. Since there are less number of studies regarding the occurrence of thrombocytopenia and the risk factors associated with it, this study was undertaken to evaluate the occurrence of linezolid induced thrombocytopenia and its association with risk factors. It was a systematic review with synthesis of available literature in English language. Articles were retrieved using search terms included “linezolid”, “and”, “or”, “thrombocytopenia” from Clinical key and PubMed, published during 2000 - 2017. Out of 16 studies retrieved, only 7 studies were analysed based on inclusion and exclusion criteria; of them, 3 were found to be prospective and retrospective cohort each and only one was retrospective cross-sectional study. The occurrence of linezolid induced thrombocytopenia range from 18-50% with normal renal function and 57% of incidence associated with renal insufficiency patients. The risk factors were found to be dose of linezolid >18-27mg/kg, body weight of subjects <55kg, creatinine clearance <88.39 to 60ml/min/1.73m2 and baseline platelet count <200*103/mm3, serum albumin concentration, serum creatinine, concomitant caspofungin therapy and duration of linezolid therapy

DESIGN, DOCKING AND SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL BROMO ISATIN INCORPORATED ISOXAZOLE DERIVATIVES AS VEGFR-2 INHIBITORS

Objective: To design, synthesize, in vitro Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor (VEGFR-2) assay, antiproliferative activity an Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion and Toxicity (ADMET) studies of some novel bromoisatin incorporated isoxazole derivatives. Methods: Designed compounds were synthesized by the condensation of different 3-aryl-5-methylisoxazole-4-carbohydrazides (5a-h) with 5-bromoisatin to give the target molecules. To predict the affinity and activity of the ligand molecule the docking program GOLD 3.1 was employed to generate different bioactive binding poses of designing molecules at the active site of protein VEGFR-2. All the synthesized compounds were characterized based on the spectral and elemental analysis data. Antiproliferative activity performed against Human Umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC cell line). Results: All the synthesized compounds showed the characteristic peaks in FTIR,1H, C[13]NMR and Mass spectral analysis. In molecular docking, all the synthesized compounds (6a-j) exhibited high fitness scores with minimum three bonding interaction with the active site VEGFR-2 kinase. In in-vitro, VEGFR-2 kinase assay, compounds 6a, 6b, 6d and 6e exhibited more than 70% inhibition at a single dose concentration of 5μM. In antiproliferative assay against HUVEC cell lines, compounds 6d and 6e exhibited potent activity with IC50 values in nanomolar concentrations. ADMET results of 6a, 6b, 6d and 6e are quite promising with least hepatotoxicity and good bioavailability. Conclusion: The derivatives were synthesized in quantitative yields. New derivatives posses antiproliferative activity, least hepatotoxicity and good bioavailability

Mining of miRNAs using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data generated for Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, highly conserved non-coding RNA molecules involved in theregulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Gene expression involves post-transcriptionalgene regulation by miRNAs. miRNAs are formed from precursor RNA molecules that fold intoa stem loop secondary structure. The mature miRNA is one end of the precursor miRNA,defined by the cut from ‘Drosha’ on either the 5’ or 3’ arm. In this study, we have used abioinformatics approach to identify miRNAs in 3,361 contigs obtained from partial genomesequence data of Abelmoschus esculentus (okra) sequenced by NGS technology. Using C-miiand psRNA Target tools, we identified two miRNAs and their target RNAs for which a regulatorymiRNA binding has been verified. Their targets consisted of transcription factors involved ingrowth and development, gene regulation and metabolism. Phylogenetic analysis of the newlyidentified miRNA family has been done to compare their level of conservation with respect tothe other members of the plant kingdom

Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Effect of Pleurotus ostreatus

In this study, ethanol extract of an edible mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus cultivated under the laboratory condition was investigated for its antioxidant and anticancer property in vitro. To confirm the total antioxidant activity, ABTS, DPPH free radical-scavenging assay was carried, along with total phenolic and flavonoid concentration. The ethanolic extract showed a potent antioxidant activity against both DPPH and ABTS radicals, with the EC50 value of 0.202±0.55 mg/mL and 6.42±0.261 mg/mL. Antioxidant components like total flavonoids were 1.82±0.15 µg/mg (Quercetin equivalent) and the total phenols were 8.52±0.6 mg/g (Catechin equivalent). Against the cancer cell (HL-60) in vitro P. ostreatus extracts exhibited the cytotoxic effect. The HL-60 cells treated with ethanol extract was further stained with propidium iodide and analyzed through flow cytometry, to identify whether the cytotoxicity induction was due to apoptosis or necrocis. The results of the flow cytometry confirm the cytotoxic effect of the mushroom extract was found to be mediated by the induction of apoptosis. In conclusion, our results supported the consumption of edible mushroom that act as a good dietary supplement and functional food

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF BLUMEA MOLLIS (D.DON) MERRILL

Objective: The objective of this research was to carry out the preliminary phytochemical screening and to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the methanolic extract of the Blumea mollis. Methods: In the present work, the phytochemicals of the whole plant were extracted using petroleum ether, chloroform, methanol, ethanol, and distilled water. These were then screened for triterpenes/steroids, alkaloids, anthraquinones, coumarins, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, and phenolic acids using standard methods. Further, the antimicrobial activity of the methanolic extract was determined using Gram-positive and negative bacteria. Agar well diffusion method was employed for antimicrobial activity study, and the zone of inhibition was found out. Results: The intensity of the color produced or the precipitate formed was used as the analytical response to these tests. Flavonoids, tannins, and phenolic acids showed positive results for phytochemical screening. The concentration of total phenols and flavonoids of the decoction was 45.5±0.2000 μg/ml gallic acid equivalent and 42.3±0.3606 μg/ml quercetin equivalent, respectively. Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans were inhibited by the methanolic extract of B. mollis in agar well diffusion test. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that the methanolic extract of B. mollis contains glycosides, phenolics, tannins, and flavonoids. Plant possesses significant antibacterial and antifungal property; the potent antimicrobial activity of the plant could be attributed to the presence of flavonoids and phenolic compounds in it

Association of Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Markers with Metabolic Syndrome in Asian Indians in India

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is associated with a proinflammatory state. Here, we assessed the contribution of inflammatory and oxidative stress markers towards prediction of MetS. A total of 2316 individuals were recruited in Phase I of the Indian Atherosclerosis Research Study (IARS). Modified ATPIII guidelines were used for classification of subjects with MetS. Among the inflammatory and oxidative stress markers studied, levels of hsCRP (P < .0001), Neopterin (P = .036), and oxLDL (P < .0001) were significantly higher among subjects with MetS. Among the markers we tested, oxLDL stood out as a robust predictor of MetS in the IARS population (OR 4.956 95% CI 2.504–9.810; P < .0001) followed by hsCRP (OR 1.324 95% CI 1.070–1.638; P = .010). In conclusion, oxLDL is a candidate predictor for MetS in the Asian Indian population