A pregnancy with GDM, hypothyroidism, polyhydrramnios with history of treatment for subfertility

Gestational diabetes (GDM) is defined as carbohydrate intolerance that begins or is first recognized during pregnancy. Although it is a well-known cause of pregnancy complications, its epidemiology has not been studied systematically. There are several identifiable predisposing factors for GDM, and in the absence of risk factors, the incidence of GDM is low. Low thyroid hormone levels in early pregnancy are a risk factor for GDM incidence. Although gestational hyperthyroidism is uncommon (0.2%), hypothyroidism (autoimmune disease or suboptimal iodine intake) occurs in 2.5% of women and is predictive of reduced neonatal and child neuropsychological development and maternal obstetric complications.  It is well documented that thyroid disorders are associated with maternal and fetal complications during gestation and sequelea after delivery. The case-finding strategy does not solve the serious problem of leaving undiagnosed and untreated patients without risk factors. In the absence of strong evidence that support universal thyroid screening in pregnancy, current guidelines suggest a case-finding approach targeting thyroid function testing in high-risk groups. A couple have history of sub-fertility. Patient conceived following treatment. During pregnancy, GDM developed and later half of pregnancy was complicated by polyhydramnios. Baby was delivered by LSCS due to PPROM

Canagliflozin (Invokana®): a First-in-Class Anti-diabetic Drug

The US Food and Drug Administration have approved (on March 29, 2013) a novel glucose-lowering agent, canagliflozin (Invokana, Janssen Pharmaceuticals) for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes. Canagliflozin is the first in a new class of drug, an oral inhibitor of sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2). Inhibition of SGLT2 decreases glucose reabsorption in the renal tubule and increases urinary glucose excretion (UGE), with a consequent lowering of plasma glucose levels as well as weight loss.The profile of effective glucose lowering, weight loss, improved b-cell function, and low risk of hypoglycemia suggest that canagliflozin may be a clinically useful new antihyperglycemic agent

Resonant detectors of gravitational wave in the linear and quadratic generalized uncertainty principle framework

In this work, we consider a resonant bar detector of gravitational wave in the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) framework with linear and quadratic momentum uncertainties. The phonon modes in these detectors vibrate due to the interaction with the incoming gravitational wave. In this uncertainty principle framework, we calculate the resonant frequencies and transition rates induced by the incoming gravitational waves on these detectors. We observe that the energy eigenstates and the eigenvalues get modified by the GUP parameters. We also observe non-vanishing transition probabilities between two adjacent energy levels due to the existence of the linear order momentum correction in the generalized uncertainty relation which was not present in the quadratic GUP analysis [\href{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/abac45}{Class. Quantum Grav. 37 (2020) 195006}]. We finally obtain bounds on the dimensionless GUP parameters using the form of the transition rates obtained during this analysis.Comment: 19 pages LATEX. Comments are welcom

Comparative evaluation of effects of combined oral anti-diabetic drugs (sulfonylurea plus pioglitazone and sulfonylurea plus metformin) over lipid parameters in type 2 diabetic patients

Background: Type 2 diabetes is associated with significant cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Dyslipidemia, which affects almost 50% of patients with type 2 diabetes, is a cardiovascular risk factor characterized by elevated triglyceride levels, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, and a preponderance of small, dense, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. In addition to their glucose-lowering properties, oral anti-diabetic agents may have effects on lipid levels, especially triglycerides (TGs), HDL-C, LDL-C and total cholesterol levels.Methods: A prospective, open-labeled, randomized, parallel-group study was carried out in sizable number of patients (n=40) of established type 2 diabetes on combined oral anti-diabetic drugs, to investigate the effects of combined oral anti-diabetic on lipid parameters who was not receiving any hypolipidemic agent in addition.Results: Statistically significant mean reduction of triglycerides (TGs) of 25.1mg/dl (a 15.30% reduction from baseline value) and by 13.5 mg/dl (a 8.94% reduction from baseline value) in the SU (sulfonylurea) plus PIO (pioglitazone) and SU plus MET (metformin) group respectively. Present study also shows improvement in HDL cholesterol with SU plus PIO group by 13.18% which is almost twice that observed in SU plus MET group (8.06%). Present study also shows increase in LDL cholesterol with SU plus PIO group by 2.10%, is just opposite to SU plus MET group (4.92 % decrease). With SU plus PIO group, a statistically significant mean reduction of total cholesterol (TC) of 8.33mg/dl (5.14 % decrease) and by 7.62 mg/dl (4.28% decrease) in the SU plus MET group.Conclusions: Pioglitazone, a thiazolidinedione, has been shown to improve the lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes by increasing HDL-C levels and by decreasing triglyceride and total cholesterol levels in monotherapy or combination regimens with sulfonylurea. Metformin also has been shown to reduce LDL-C, TC, and TG levels and increase HDL-C levels in monotherapy and in combination regimens with sulfonylurea. In contrast, LDL cholesterol levels mild increase with pioglitazone monotherapy or with SU combination therapy. Thus the results of this study have demonstrated that SU plus pioglitazone is an effective combination regimen for patients insufficiently treated with SU monotherapy and may provide possible positive effects on other coronary risk factors/ dyslipidemias associated with the type 2 diabetes

A study of the effect of pre-radiation on healing of surgical wounds in the treatment of cancers of the head and neck

Background: Radiation therapy is an established modality in the treatment of head and neck cancer patients. It is used alone or in combination with surgery and chemotherapy. Although radiotherapy is useful to affect tumour death, it also exerts a deleterious effect on surrounding normal tissues. These effects are either acute or can manifest months or years after the treatment. The chronic wounds are a result of impaired wound healing. Compromised wound healing in irradiated tissues is a common and challenging clinical problem.Methods: A prospective observational study was done in a tertiary care teaching institute, Kolkata. The effect of radiation on surgery of cancers of head and neck was studied in 50 patients. The patients were divided into 2 groups of 25 each. The cases in the first group were irradiated prior to surgery and those on the second group were operated upon without any pre-radiation.Results: The highest incidence of wound complications in those patients who were operated upon within 2 weeks to 6 months of completion of RT (83.33%). Patients who had their blood Hb level at or above 11 gm% developed less number of wound complications (34.78%) as compared to those who had their blood Hb level between 8-11 gm% where complication rate was 48.15%. Those patients who had their oral cavity or pharynx opened during surgery had a much higher incidence of wound complications (54.54%) than whose oral cavity or pharynx were not interfered with (17.64%). Wound infection was 36% in the irradiated group and 12% in the non-irradiated group. Separation of wound edges or skin necrosis followed in 28% cases in the pre-radiated group and in 8% cases in the non-pre-radiated group.Conclusions: Radiotherapy is an integral modality of head and neck cancer therapy. Compromised wound healing is an important side effect of radiation therapy. All sorts of local complications as wound infection and necrosis, or ocutaneous fistulae, carotid artery perforation etc. are more pronounced in patients, who received prior radiotherapy. The complication of surgery after radiotherapy was found to be more pronounced between 2 weeks to 6 months in this series

Clinico-pathological profile, radiological presentation and drug susceptibility pattern of new smear positive (category I) pulmonary tuberculosis: a single centre experience in Delhi, India

Background:Aim of current study was to determine the clinical characteristics, radiological, laboratory features and anti-tubercular drug sensitivity in new smear positive (category I) pulmonary tuberculosis cases in a tertiary care dedicated TB OPD, Delhi. Methods:The study was a cross-sectional observational study and consists of 100 cases of new smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases (category I) irrespective of age and sex. The sputum were collected, stained with Ziehl-Nielsen (Z-N) staining and ultimately inoculated on Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) media for six weeks. All sputum smear positive cases were subjected to culture and drug-susceptibility testing by 1% proportion method on Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium. The Drug-Susceptibility Testing (DST) for isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (R-cin), ethambutol (EMB) and streptomycin (SM) were performed.Results:The age & sex distribution of 100 patients showed that majority of the patients (79%) belonged to 2nd, 3rd and 4th decades & 60 % were males and 40% were female with male to female ratio 3:2 respectively. Cough (83%), fever (77%) and weight loss (76%) were the most common presenting clinical features. The chest X-ray of 100 smear positive patients showed that 53% of patients had evidence of 35% unilateral and 18%  bilateral consolidation and 46% had cavitary lesions on chest X-ray (PA view) with 37% and 9% of patients having unilateral and bilateral cavities respectively. Of these 82 culture positives, 56.1% (n=46) were susceptible to all first-line anti-tubercular drugs, while 43.9% (n=36) were resistant to mostly one or other anti-tubercular drugs (INH, R-cin, SM or EMB).  Conclusion: We stressed the importance of early diagnosis of new cases by clinico-pathological features, identifying of drug resistance trends in anti-tubercular treatment naïve patients, in order to assess the efficacy of current interventions. Overall, these findings emphasize the importance of early diagnosis of drug resistance pattern of M. tuberculosis isolates to anti-tubercular in category I patients as well as its association with HIV across the country to timely modify and strengthen the national programs in order to prevent the emergence of MDR-TB strains and avert the threat of XDR-TB.