The study of antiphospholipid antibodies in recurrent pregnancy loss

Background: Around 15% of clinically recognised pregnancies in women less than 35 years old result in spontaneous miscarriage. However recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is encountered in 5% of couples with two or more losses and in around 1–2% of couples with three or more losses. In view of the increasing burden of recurrent pregnancy loss in the society and in view of Anti-phospholipid syndrome being one of the undisputed treatable cause for recurrent pregnancy loss, this study aims to evaluate the significance of the antibody profiles of APS in relation to RPL in OBG dept of VIMS and RC.Methods: Patients coming to the Obstetric and Gynaecology department of Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bangalore, from December 1st 2014 to June 30th 2016. A detailed history of patients was taken based on set questionnaires. Detailed general and gynaecological examination findings were taken. Routine blood investigations were sent along with investigations for aPLAs which included: - Lupus Anticoagulant (LA) - Anti Cardiolipin Antibody (ACA) - Anti β2 glycoprotein 1 (Anti-β2GP1Ab). Final results are statistically evaluated.Results: A total of 56 patients of recurrent miscarriage with two or more prior pregnancy losses were considered. Out of the 56 patients, 23 patients were excluded as per the exclusion criteria and 33 patients were included in the present study. The mean age of the study group was 24.63 years (Range: 20-32 years). Overall, seven patients (21.21%) were seen to have positive antiphospholipid antibody titers amongst the 33 patients, with repeat testing done after 12 weeks to confirm the positivity. Five patients (15.15%) were positive for ACA antibody. Four (12.12%) patients were positive for LA and B2GP1 each. Two patients (6.06%) were positive for both LA and ACA antibodies. Two patients (6.06%) were positive for LA and B2GP1 antibodies and two other (6.06%) patients were positive for ACA and Anti-β2GP1Ab. There was a statistically significant association noticed between ACA positivity and POG at 1st pregnancy loss. However, the overall association of APLA positivity and POG at pregnancy loss was not statistically significant.Conclusions: There was a significant difference of POG at first pregnancy loss in ACA positive patients as compared to the ACA negative patients. However, when all the APLA positive patients were considered the difference was not statistically significant

Induction of Lipoxygenase in downy mildew resistant seedlings of pearl millet in response to inoculation with Sclerospora graminicola

Lipoxygenase (LOX) activity was studied in seedlings of pearl millet genotypes resistant and susceptible to downy mildew pathogen Sclerospora graminicola. An increase in LOX activity was observed during the incompatible host-pathogen interaction whereas the activity decreased in compatible ones. Resistant pearl millet seedlings exhibited a 2.4-fold increase in LOX activity after inoculation with the pathogen. The enzyme activity was maximum at 18 h after inoculation. The enzyme activity was maximum in shoot portion of resistant genotype after inoculation. The enzyme activity correlated well with the degree of host-resistance to the pathogen. Substrate-based gel assay revealed five isozymes (LOX-1, LOX-2, LOX-3, LOX-4 & LOX-5) in both susceptible and resistant genotype. An additional isozyme (LOX-6) was unique to only resistant genotype after inoculation

Assess the Levels of Dependence And Severity of Psychiatric Illness Among Adolescent Boys Addicted to Marijuna

Marijuana refers to the dry leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from cannabis sativa or cannabis India plant; it is a psychoactive sedative drug. Adolescent age group is more likely to use cannabis in the form of Marijuana and experience many psychiatric illness problems from use. A recent survey from partnership at drug free shows that about 10% of teens smoke cannabis at least 20 times each month. The main objective of the study is to assess the dependency and associated psychiatric illness among adolescent people at selected area. The sampling sizes of 100 were recruited in purposive sampling technique; descriptive study was used along with structured MEEQ questionnaires. In study results shows that level of dependency were 46% adolescents are short term dependent to marijuana, 36% are moderate level of dependent to marijuana, and 23% adolescents are long term dependent to marijuana. There is a significant association between the level of dependency state of marijuana and the psychiatric illness such as visual hallucination, auditory hallucination, improved memory and learning ability at (p<0.05)

ASSESSMENT OF COMPARATIVE PATIENT SATISFACTION AND SIDE-EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH TAMSULOSIN VERSUS SILODOSIN THERAPY IN BENIGN PROSTATE HYPERPLASIA

Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the comparative patient satisfaction and side-effects of the currently prescribed drugs – tamsulosin and silodosin for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Methods: A prospective study was conducted in a total of 110 BPH patients from the Department of Urology for a period of 6 months. Fifty-five patients in each group received silodosin 8 mg or tamsulosin 0.4 mg once daily. Data were collected using a suitably designed pro forma and the patient satisfaction was assessed with patient’s perception of study medication (PPSM) scale. International prostate symptom score (IPSS) was used for assessing the severity of symptoms. Results: The current study found that the treatment had a significant effect on improving scores of PPSM and IPSS at which all changes were significant at p&lt;0.01 (paired t-test). An independent t-test showed that silodosin group had a greater improvement in PPSM scores – PPSM total by 40.4%, PPSM global by 43.7%, and PPSM pain by 0.39% which was supported by corresponding decline in IPSS scores. The side effects reported for tamsulosin were headache (5.5%), dizziness (5.5%), dry mouth (3.6%), and postural hypotension (14.4%) and those reported for silodosin were myalgia (5.5%), dizziness (7.3%), diarrhea (1.8%), and postural hypotension (10.9%). Conclusion: Patient satisfaction was improved by both the alpha blockers but silodosin showed a significantly greater increase in patient satisfaction than tamsulosin. Thus, silodosin is the better drug of choice

Lung Lesion Extraction Using Histogram Binning Based Automatic Segmentation Approach

Lung Lesion Extraction becomes the crucial part in the lung cancer diagnosis. The accurate segmentation of lung lesion from computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans is important for lung cancer diagnosis and research. A novel toboggan based growing automatic segmentation approach (TBGA) with a three-step framework is used for lung lesion segmentation. The initial seed point in the lung lesion was first automatically selected using an improved toboggan method for the subsequent 3D lesion segmentation. Then, the lesion was extracted by an automatic growing algorithm with multi constraints. Finally, the segmentation result was optimized by a lung lesion refining method. By using this lung lesion segmentation algorithm better performance will be obtained. The combination of TBGA and adaptive histogram binning, have similar or slightly better accuracy than previously obtained TBGA results on same-center training and evaluation. In conclusion, we believe that the novel HBBAS can achieve robust, efficient and accurate lung lesion segmentation in CT images automatically

Aldo-keto reductase-1 (AKR1) protect cellular enzymes from salt stress by detoxifying reactive cytotoxic compounds

Cytotoxic compounds like reactive carbonyl compounds such as methylglyoxal (MG), melandialdehyde (MDA), besides the ROS accumulate significantly at higher levels under salinity stress conditions and affect lipids and proteins that inhibit plant growth and productivity. The detoxification of these cytotoxic compounds by overexpression of NADPH-dependent Aldo-ketoreductase (AKR1) enzyme enhances the salinity stress tolerance in tobacco. The PsAKR1 overexpression plants showed higher survival and chlorophyll content and reduced MDA, H2O2, and MG levels under NaCl stress. The transgenic plants showed reduced levels of Na+ levels in both root and shoot due to reduced reactive carbonyl compounds (RCCs) and showed enhanced membrane stability resulted in higher root growth and biomass. The increased levels of antioxidant glutathione and enhanced activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and glutathione reductase (GR) suggest AKR1 could protect these enzymes from the RCC induced protein carbonylation by detoxification process. The transgenics also showed higher activity of delta 1-pyrroline-5- carboxylate synthase (P5CS) enzyme resulted in increasedproline levels to maintain osmotic homeostasis. The results demonstrates that the AKR1 protects proteins or enzymes that are involved in scavenging of cytotoxic compounds by detoxifying RCCs generated under salinity stress. © 2017 Elsevier Masson SA

A study of changing trends of maternal mortality at the tertiary care centre, MMC & RI Mysore, India

Background: Maternal mortality is a reflection of the care given to women by the society. It is tragic that deaths occur during the natural process of child birth and most of them are preventable. Aims and objectives: To study the maternal mortality and the causes resulting in maternal death over 5 years in a tertiary care centre, Cheluvamba hospital, MMC & RI, Mysore. To find out avoidable factors and use information thus generated to reduce maternal mortality.Methods: A retrospective study of all maternal deaths from June 2008 to June 2013. All maternal deaths were reviewed and studied in detail including admission death interval and cause of death.  Results: Maternal mortality ratio ranged between 262 to 109/100000 births. The causes of death were hypertensive disorders (30.4%), haemorrhage (24.8%), anaemia (14.8%), sepsis (6.8%) and others (23.2%). Maximum deaths (70.6%) occurred in women between 20-29 years of age, multigravida contributed to 54.96% of maternal mortality. 42 % were unbooked, 97% were referred cases. Conclusions: Overall maternal mortality was 215/100000 live births. Maternal deaths due to direct obstetric causes were 87% and indirect were 13 %. The causes of potentially preventable deaths include haemorrhage, anaemia, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation and its complications. Hypertensive disorders were the leading cause of death, followed by haemorrhage. Anaemia was an important indirect cause of death. Most maternal deaths are preventable by optimum utilization of existing MCH facilities, identifying the bottlenecks in health delivery system, early identification of high risk pregnancies and their timely referral to tertiary care centre

Evaluation of claw development in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879)

Dynamics of claw development in Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) was evaluated through monosex culture. The segregated males and females were stocked separately in two earthen ponds of 200 m2 area, at a density of 2.5 m-2 and reared for 3 months. Percentage contribution of claw weight to body weight (PCB) increased from 8.96 to 14.4% in the first month, but the change was minimal (14.4 to 17.19%) during the rest of the culture period. In order to delineate the relationship further, the data obtained was pooled together and classified into different classes based on the body weight (class interval 10 g). Interestingly, PCB in males decreased gradually upto 30 - 40 g weight class and then increased considerably for higher weight classes. But for females, the increase in PCB was marginal

The impact of oil price crisis on financial performance of commercial banks in Bahrain

Oil export is the major source of revenue for the countries in the Middle East. Their economies are sensitive to fluctuations in oil prices. The present study examines the impact of oil crisis on the performance of selected banks of Kingdom of Bahrain using profitability, efficiency, capital adequacy and liquidity ratios in the pre-crisis and crisis periods. The study reveals that there is no significant difference in the performance of banks in the pre-crisis and crisis period. The results indicate that there is a significant difference in the performance of conventional banks and Islamic banks in the pre-crisis period. However, there is no significant difference in the performance of conventional banks and Islamic banks during the crisis period

WATER QUALITY ANALYSIS: A CASE STUDY IN BYRAMANGALA LAKE WATER AND SURROUNDING GROUND WATER

A study was carried out to find out the water quality of Byramangala lake of Ramanagara district. The water quality of Byramangala lake water and ground water from bore wells situated in the area within 600 meters surrounding the lake was analyzed. The quality analysis of various parameters such as BODs, COD, DO, E-Coli, and pH, Total Dissolved Solids, Total Suspended Solids and Total Hardness were tested. In addition, the presence of metals such as Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Lead (Pb), and Iron (Fe) in the lake water and ground water samples were tested. Results for the various tests conducted showed similar trends for both lake water and ground water. It was observed that certain parameters such as BOD5, and COD were beyond permissible limits as per the BIS standards for drinking water. A few remedial measures have been proposed that may help in mitigating the pollution in the selected project area Byramangala Lake