A STUDY ON KANDUGHNA TAILA IN FILARIAL LYMPHANGITIS AND ULCERS

The disease Shlipada is very common in Andhra Pradesh Coastal belts. The chronic filarial patients used to suffer from acute periodic episodes. During these acute periodic episodes majority of the filarial patients develop lymphangitis (inflammation of lymphatic vessel), wounds and ulcers in affected legs. Some of the patients develop oozing blisters and pustules. Patients with these acute symptoms suffer from severe pain and tenderness and un-hygiene may lead to secondary bacterial infections. These periodic episodes often end with fibrosis and permanent swelling (Lymphedema). Many Ayurvedic herbal and herbo-mineral drugs were successfully used internally to reduce chronic filarial swelling (lymphedema), but there is an ultimate need to find an external application to reduce the acute symptoms like lymphangitis, wounds and ulcers. Kandughna taila is a Ayurvedic herbal oil prepared from Kandughna Dashaimani (a group of 10 drugs indicated in Itching) of Caraka samhita. This Kandughna taila was selected to study externally on Filarial patients. As a part of PhD study to find the efficacy of drug this oil alone was used in 28 patients in an open clinical trail. Encouraging results were observed during and after 30 days of treatment. Out of 28 cases, 8 (28.8%) got good response, 15 (53.6%) got fair response, 2 (7.1%) got poor response and 3 (10.7%) cases did not show any response. Overall 63.68% relief was found in all acute clinical parameters. Parameter wise 62% of relief in lymphangitis, 56.1% in pain, 62.5% in tenderness, 77.78% relief in wound/ ulcer were found. In statistical analysis based paired t-test relief on acute symptoms like lymphangitis, pain, tenderness, wound were found highly significant (P<0.0001). Statistically overall effect of treatment on acute symptoms was also found highly significant (P<0.0001)

PHYSICO - CHEMICAL STUDY OF DIFFERENT METHODS OF PARADA SAMANYA SHODHANA

Shodhana (purification) is an important concept in Rasashastra, it is said that every drug should be subjected to Shodhana before its internal use and Mercury is no exception. Owing to its origin or other causes, Mercury is likely to be associated with different types of impurities of various degrees. Though many Doshas are attributed to Mercury Naga (Lead), Vanga (Tin) Doshas are considered the major ones. With the help of advanced chemical analytical techniques, quantitative detection of lead and tin contents in Mercury is possible to-day. Chemical analysis for lead and tin contents in Mercury before Shodhana i.e. unprocessed and after Shodhana i.e. processed leads to conformation of Naga, Vanga Doshas in Mercury. At the same time efficacy of the purificatory methods can be assessed by observing the reduction in percentage of lead and tin content in processed Mercury. Keeping this idea in mind, the present study physico-Chemical Study of different methods of Parada Samanya shodhana was under taken. All Samanya shodhana methods were screened to find out the most easy, quickest method and four methods were selected for this study. During the pharmaceutical work, time consumption, yield, and cost were taken into account in each selected purificatory methods. Four purified samples of Mercury along with raw sample of Mercury were sent for chemical analysis to SASTRA University, Tanjavur and samples were analyzed by using Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Depending upon the practical observation and statistical analysis it is concluded that Naga and Vanga- lead and tin are same respectively. All purificatory methods are effective in reducing lead and tin content that contaminate Mercury. The fourth method which consisted of triturating Mercury with Nagavalli swarasa, Ardraka swarasa and Triksara is most efficacious, quick, economic and more yielding method among the four selected Samanya shodhan methods. Apart from the criteria of good yield, and economy the Hingulotta parada and second method in which Mercury is triturated with Sudha churna, Lasuna kalka, and Saindhava lavana are more viable methods

Efficient transplacental IgG transfer in women infected with Zika virus during pregnancy

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a newly-identified infectious cause of congenital disease. Transplacental transfer of maternal IgG to the fetus plays an important role in preventing many neonatal infections. However, antibody transfer may also have negative consequences, such as mediating enhancement of flavivirus infections in early life, or trafficking of virus immune complexes to the fetal compartment. ZIKV infection produces placental pathology which could lead to impaired IgG transfer efficiency as occurs in other maternal infections, such as HIV-1 and malaria. In this study, we asked whether ZIKV infection during pregnancy impairs transplacental transfer of IgG. We enrolled pregnant women with fever or rash in a prospective cohort in Vitoria, Brazil during the recent ZIKV epidemic. ZIKV and dengue virus (DENV)-specific IgG, ZIKV and DENV neutralizing antibodies, and routine vaccine antigenspecific IgG were measured in maternal samples collected around delivery and 20 paired cord blood samples. We concluded that 8 of these mothers were infected with ZIKV during pregnancy and 12 were ZIKV-uninfected. The magnitude of flavivirus-specific IgG, neutralizing antibody, and vaccine-elicited IgG were highly correlated between maternal plasma and infant cord blood in both ZIKV-infected and -uninfected mother-infant pairs. Moreover, there was no difference in the magnitude of plasma flavivirus-specific IgG levels between mothers and infants regardless of ZIKV infection status. Our data suggests that maternal ZIKV infection during pregnancy does not impair the efficiency of placental transfer of flavivirus-specific, functional, and vaccine-elicited IgG. These findings have implications for the neonatal outomes of maternal ZIKV infection and optimal administration of antibody-based ZIKV vaccines and therapeutics

Association between Features of Spontaneous Late Preterm Labor and Late Preterm Birth

Objective This study aimed to evaluate the association between clinical and examination features at admission and late preterm birth. Study Design The present study is a secondary analysis of a randomized trial of singleton pregnancies at 34 0/7 to 36 5/7 weeks' gestation. We included women in spontaneous preterm labor with intact membranes and compared them by gestational age at delivery (preterm vs. term). We calculated a statistical cut-point optimizing the sensitivity and specificity of initial cervical dilation and effacement at predicting preterm birth and used multivariable regression to identify factors associated with late preterm delivery. Results A total of 431 out of 732 (59%) women delivered preterm. Cervical dilation ≥ 4 cm was 60% sensitive and 68% specific for late preterm birth. Cervical effacement ≥ 75% was 59% sensitive and 65% specific for late preterm birth. Earlier gestational age at randomization, nulliparity, and fetal malpresentation were associated with late preterm birth. The final regression model including clinical and examination features significantly improved late preterm birth prediction (81% sensitivity, 48% specificity, area under the curve = 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68-0.75, and p -value < 0.01). Conclusion Four in 10 women in late-preterm labor subsequently delivered at term. Combination of examination and clinical features (including parity and gestational age) improved late-preterm birth prediction

Association of preterm birth with long-term survival, reproduction, and next-generation preterm birth

10.1001/jama.299.12.1429JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association299121429-1436JAMA

Effect of breastfeeding on weight retention from one pregnancy to the next: Results from the North Carolina WIC program

10.1016/j.ypmed.2010.07.017Preventive Medicine515368-372PVTM

Contraceptive use by obese women 1 year postpartum

10.1016/j.contraception.2009.03.017Contraception805463-468CCPT

Gestational weight gain in consecutive pregnancies

10.1016/j.ajog.2010.06.038American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology2033279.e1-279.e6AJOG

A Bayesian growth mixture model to examine maternal hypertension and birth outcomes.

Maternal hypertension is a major contributor to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW). Although several studies have explored the relationship between maternal hypertension and fetal health, few have examined how the longitudinal trajectory of blood pressure, considered over the course of pregnancy, affects birth outcomes. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian growth mixture model to jointly examine the associations between longitudinal blood pressure measurements, PTB, and LBW. The model partitions women into distinct classes characterized by a mean arterial pressure (MAP) curve and joint probabilities of PTB and LBW. Each class contains a unique mixed effects model for MAP with class-specific regression coefficients and random effect covariances. To account for the strong correlation between PTB and LBW, we introduce a bivariate probit model within each class to capture residual within-class dependence between PTB and LBW. The model permits the association between PTB and LBW to vary by class, so that for some classes, PTB and LBW may be positively correlated, whereas for others, they may be uncorrelated or negatively correlated. We also allow maternal covariates to influence the class probabilities via a multinomial logit model. For posterior computation, we propose an efficient MCMC algorithm that combines full-conditional Gibbs and Metropolis steps. We apply our model to a sample of 1027 women enrolled in the Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby Study, a prospective cohort study of host, social, and environmental contributors to disparities in pregnancy outcomes