Amniotic fluid embolism: a comprehensive review

Amniotic Fluid Embolism (AFE) is an obstetric catastrophe which occurs in 1 in 8000-80000 deliveries.1 It presents with shortness of breath, hypotension, hypoxemia, uterine atony, post-partum hemorrhage, disseminated intravascular coagulation, convulsions, coma and death. Pathophysiology is not clearly understood. It may be due to anaphylactoid like reaction to fetal cells that enter maternal circulation. There are no proven risk factors though a few have been postulated. Treatment is mainly supportive. The corner stone of management is a multi-disciplinary approach with support given to the failing organ systems. The mortality and morbidity due to AFE is very high. Hence prompt diagnosis and effective supportive measures is the key in the management

Clinicopathological evaluation of postmenopausal bleeding

Background: Seventy percent of cases of postmenopausal bleeding have an innocent or harmless cause of bleeding but 30% of them are associated with malignancy. Hence it requires a thorough evaluation clinically and pathologically. As a considerable number of patients complaining of postmenopausal bleeding are reporting, the current study was undertaken to find out the incidence of the postmenopausal bleeding and the causes responsible for it.Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study was performed on women with the history of post-menopausal bleeding. Patients with premature menopause whether surgical or natural (age 5 mm should be thoroughly investigated, treated and followed up meticulously

Conservation of mangrove forest covers in Kochi coast

Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants of tropical and subtropical intertidal regions of the world. The specific regions where these plants occur are called mangrove ecosystems. They are breeding, feeding and nursery grounds for many estuarine and marine organisms, including finfish and shell fish. India has only 2.66% of the world’s mangroves, covering an estimated area of 4,827 sq. k

Root Canal Morphology of Mandibular First Permanent Molars in an Indian Population

An in vitro study was performed to determine the number of roots, root canals per tooth, root canal configurations, and frequency of isthmi and apical deltas in mandibular first permanent molars in an Indian population. Hundred and fifty mandibular first permanent molars were collected and subjected to clearing technique. The cleared teeth were examined in a stereomicroscope under 7.5x magnifications. The canal configurations were categorized using Vertucci's classification. Overall 94.6% of the mandibular first molars had two roots, and 5.3% had extradistal roots (distolingual root). In addition, 64% of the specimens had three root canals, and 36% had four root canals. The most common canal configurations of mesial and distal roots were Vertucci type IV (54%) and type I (65.3%), respectively. Clinician should be aware of the complex root canal morphology of mandibular first molars among the Indian population before and during the root canal treatment

Puducherry mangroves under sewage pollution threat need conservation

Indian mangroves have a rich diversity of soil-dwelling organisms which include micro, meio and macro forms. Mangrove ecosystem provides an ideal nursery and breeding ground for most of the marine and brackish water fish and shellfish. India has only 2.66% of the world’s mangroves1, covering an estimated area of 4827 sq. km. The present study area lies within the margins of lat. 11°90′107″– 11°90′703″N and long. 79°80′547″– 79°81′851″E. Mangrove exists as fringing vegetation over 168 ha distributed along the sides of Ariankuppam estuary, which empties into the Bay of Bengal (Coromandal coast) at Veerampatinam on the southeastern coast of Indi

Synthesis of 1-arylamido-2-oxo-4-methylpyrido[b]phenothiazines

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DIPEPTIDYL PEPTIDASE-IV INHIBITORY ACTIVITIES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS: TERMINALIA ARJUNA, COMMIPHORA MUKUL, GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE, MORINDA CITRIFOLIA, EMBLICA OFFICINALIS

Objective: The present study was designed to screen the dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) inhibitory ability of hydroalcoholic extracts of Terminaliaarjuna, Commiphora mukul, Gymnema sylvestre, Morinda citrifolia, and Emblica officinalis and compare their inhibitory activity with the syntheticDPP-IV inhibitors (Sitagliptin and Vildagliptin). The aim of the study was to identifying indigenous sources of DPP-IV inhibitors for the managementof type II diabetes mellitus as alternatives to their synthetic counterparts.Methods: The hydroalcoholic extract of T. arjuna, C. mukul, G. sylvestre, M. citrifolia, E. officinalis and synthetic DPP-IV inhibitors (Sitagliptin andVildagliptin) were tested in vitro for DPP-IV inhibitory activity.Results: The DPP-IV inhibitory activity of synthetic drugs Vildagliptin was found to be 90.42±7.84% and Sitagliptin 84.67±8.21%. The DPP-IVInhibitory activity of T. arjuna was found to be 83.39±7.58%, C. mukul: 92.97± 8.45%, G. sylvestre: 16.98±1.69%, M. citrifolia: 24.64±2.24%, andE. officinalis: 85.95±7.16%. C. mukul extract showed superior inhibitory activity than reference standard drugs (Sitagliptin and Vildagliptin).Conclusion: C. mukul, T. arjuna, and E. officinalis extracts possess significant DPP-IV Inhibitory activity while G. sylvestre and M. citrifolia failed tomarkedly inhibit DPP-IV enzyme.Keywords: Type II diabetes mellitus, Dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inhibitors, Plant extracts, In vitro assay

STUDY ON AGE RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION (DRY TYPE) IN CONTEXT TO PITTA VIDAGDHA DRISHTI AND ITS AYURVEDIC MANAGEMENT

Age Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) is the leading cause of the vision loss and blindness in people above 50 years of age. ARMD is characterised by central vision loss, distorted or blurred vision, decreased visual acuity, Central or para-central blind spot (scotoma). An almost similar clinical condition to ARMD is seen in Pitta Vidagdha Dristi. Dry ARMD is more prevalent (90%) and slower in progress than Wet ARMD. The Ayurvedic management of Pitta Vidagdha Drishti is similar to Pittaja Abhishyanda. With this background a specific line of treatment for the Pitta Vidagdha Drisht in Sushruta Samhita is adopted. In this study, total 22 patients, 12 in group A (Triphala Ghrita, Saptamrita Lauha, Rasayana Churna and Shatavari etc.) & 10 in Group B (Control) were registered. The duration of therapy was of 3 months in both the groups. Group A showed better results on ARMD when compared with that of Group B especially on perception of flashes of light (72.23%) & dim light adaptation problem (45.23%). So ARMD (Dry type) can be better managed by Ayurvedic treatment group than the Modern multivitamin group

Mitigating effects of vildagliptin in experimental diabetes with metabolic syndrome

Background: Vildagliptin has multiple beneficial effects reported in isolated studies like anti-diabetic, cardio protective, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. However, there is no experimental evidence presently available with regard to the possible beneficial effects of vildagliptin on attenuating changes observed in metabolic syndrome co-existing with diabetes in experimental rats. Thus, the present study was designed to evaluate potential effects of vildagliptin on various components of metabolic syndrome. Also to elucidate the underlying mechanisms: DPP-IV, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant pathways were studied.Methods: A combination of high fat diet (HFD) and low dose of streptozotocin (STZ) 40 mg/kg was used to induce metabolic syndrome co-existing with diabetes mellitus in wistar rats. The HFD were fed to rats for 10 weeks to induce metabolic syndrome. At the end of 3 weeks, diabetes was induced by a single STZ injection (40 mg/kg body weight). Vildagliptin (10 mg/kg) was administered to rat from 5th to 10th weeks daily and various parameters of Diabetes and metabolic syndrome were studied. Also to understand the mechanisms; DPP-IV pathway, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant parameters were studied. Biochemical indices of injury (pancreatic, liver and renal function) and histopathological assessment of injury was evaluated in experimental groups. Immunohistochemistry of pancreas was done to assess beta cell mass.Results: The vildagliptin treatment ameliorated the deleterious effects associated with metabolic syndrome and diabetes. The beneficial effects demonstrated by vildagliptin on various parameters include: anti-diabetic (reduced blood glucose, HbA1c, HOMA-IR, increased serum insulin, HOMA-β and restoration of pancreatic function), central obesity (reduced body weight, abdominal circumference (AC), thoracic circumference (TC), AC/TC ratio) and hypolipidemic (favourable lipid profile, artherogenic index) activity. A significant restoration of cardiac injury as indicated by CPK-MB levels was observed. In addition, DPP-IV pathway (reduced serum DPP-IV), anti-inflammatory (reduced hs-CRP levels), and antioxidant (reduced MDA) contributed its beneficial effects in diabetes with metabolic syndrome model. The protective effects on heart, pancreas, liver and kidney were confirmed by histopathological report. The immunohistochemical report of pancreas showed preservation of beta cell mass in vildagliptin treated rats.Conclusions: Vildagliptin treatment ameliorates deleterious changes of diabetes with metabolic syndrome. Beneficial effects of vildagliptin can be attributed to hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, antioxidant, cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory effects

IMPLEMENTATION OF REJECTION STRATEGIES INSIDE MALAYALAM CHARACTER RECOGNITION SYSTEM BASED ON RANDOM FOURIER FEATURES AND REGULARIZED LEAST SQUARE CLASSIFIER

Robust and reliable recognition are indeed necessary requirements for optical character recognition systems. Distortions present in the document image and the pre-processing errors cause the optical character recognition system to apply rejection policies to achieve reliable recognition in computer assisted applications. The objective of this paper is to implement a robust and reliable character recognition system for Malayalam language. Random Fourier features classified with Regularized Least Square loss function based Regression classifier can approximate the non-linear kernel machines. Baseline Malayalam character recognition based on Random Fourier features and Regularized Least Square regression classifier is implemented in this paper. Up on this baseline character recognition system, rejection strategies are applied and are experimented with real world document images. An improvement in recognition accuracy is achieved with the simulated Malayalam character recognition system at the cost of rejecting character images having low classification score