Prevalence of Fibrocalculous Pancreatic Diabetes in Chennai in South India

Fibrocalculous pancreatic diabetes is a form of diabetes secondary to chronic pancreatitis found in tropical, developing countries. There is no population based data on prevalence of fibrocalculous pancreatic diabetes. This paper reports on prevalence of fibrocalculous pancreatic diabetes in Chennai in South India based on the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study

Prevalence, Awareness and Control of Hypertension in Chennai - The Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES – 52)

Objective : To study the prevalence, awareness and control of hypertension in Chennai representing Urban South India. Methods : The Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES) is one of the largest epidemiological studies on diabetes carried out in India, where 26,001 individuals aged ≥ 20 years were screened using systematic random sampling method. Every tenth subject recruited in Phase 1 of CURES was requested to participate in Phase 3 of CURES and the response rate was 2,350/26,001 or 90.4%. An oral glucose tolerance test was performed in all individuals except self-reported diabetic subjects. Anthropometric measurements and lipid estimations were done in all subjects. Hypertension was diagnosed in all subjects who were on drug treatment for hypertension or if the blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mmHg. Results : Hypertension was present in 20% [men:23.2% vs. women:17.1%, p<0.001] of the study population. Isolated systolic hypertension (Systolic BP ≥ 140 and Diastolic BP<90 mmHg) was present in 6.6% while isolated diastolic hypertension (DBP ≥ 90 and SBP<140 mmHg) was present in 4.2% of the population. Among the elderly population (aged ≥ 60 years), 25.2% had isolated systolic hypertension. Age, body mass index, smoking, serum cholesterol and triglycerides were found to be strongly associated with hypertension. Among the total hypertensive subjects, only 32.8% were aware of their blood pressure, of these, 70.8% were under treatment and 45.9% had their blood pressure under control. Conclusion : Hypertension was present in one-fifth of this urban south Indian population and isolated systolic hypertension was more common among elderly population. Majority of hypertensive subjects still remain undetected and the control of hypertension is also inadequate. This calls for urgent prevention and control measures for hypertensio

Bioresorbable scaffolds: a new paradigm in percutaneous coronary intervention

Numerous advances and innovative therapies have been introduced in interventional cardiology over the recent years, since the first introduction of balloon angioplasty, but bioresorbable scaffold is certainly one of the most exciting and attracting one. Despite the fact that the metallic drug-eluting stents have significantly diminished the re-stenosis ratio, they have considerable limitations including the hypersensitivity reaction to the polymer that can cause local inflammation, the risk of neo-atherosclerotic lesion formation which can lead to late stent failure as well as the fact that they may preclude surgical revascularization and distort vessel physiology. Bioresorbable scaffolds overcome these limitations as they have the ability to dissolve after providing temporary scaffolding which safeguards vessel patency. In this article we review the recent developments in the field and provide an overview of the devices and the evidence that support their efficacy in the treatment of CAD. Currently 3 devices are CE marked and in clinical use. Additional 24 companies are developing these kind of coronary devices. Most frequently used material is PLLA followed by magnesium

Corneoscleral laceration and ocular burns caused by electronic cigarette explosions

PURPOSE: To report cases of acute globe rupture and bilateral corneal burns from electronic cigarette (EC) explosions. METHODS: Case series. RESULTS: We describe a series of patients with corneal injury caused by EC explosions. Both patients suffered bilateral corneal burns and decreased visual acuity, and one patient sustained a unilateral corneoscleral laceration with prolapsed iris tissue and hyphema. A review of the scientific literature revealed no prior reported cases of ocular injury secondary to EC explosions; however, multiple media and government agency articles describe fires and explosions involving ECs, including at least 4 with ocular injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Given these cases and the number of recent media reports, ECs pose a significant public health risk. Users should be warned regarding the possibility of severe injury, including sight-threatening ocular injuries ranging from corneal burns to full-thickness corneoscleral laceration

Surveillance for Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease among an Industrial Population in Southern India

We assessed (i) the risk of cardiovascular disease in an industrial population in Chennai, southern India and (ii) whether the status of treatment and control of diabetes and hypertension would be different in an industrial population, which is provided free healthcare, compared with the general population of Chennai. Subjects residing in the residential areas of 2 industries (Indian Airlines and Integral Coach Factory) in Chennai in southern India were recruited. The subjects were employees (n=440) selected by an age- and sex-stratified random sampling method, and their family members (n=727) in the age group of 20–69 years; a total of 1167 subjects. Fasting plasma glucose, lipid estimations and anthropometric measurements were done in all the subjects. Information on demographic and lifestyle determinants was obtained using a questionnaire. Diabetes was diagnosed using the American Diabetes Association criteria and metabolic syndrome was defined by the Adult Treatment Panel III criteria with modified waist definition for Asian Indians. Results. Age-adjusted prevalence of major risk factors for cardiovascular disease using the 2001 Census of India were as follows: diabetes 11.9%; hypertension 25.4%; dyslipidaemia 40.2%; hypertriglyceridaemia 28.3%; overweight (body mass index ³23 kg/m2) 60.2%; and metabolic syndrome 34.1%. Use of tobacco in any form was present in 22.9% of men and 0.5% of women; 79% of the subjects followed a sedentary lifestyle. Among subjects receiving medication, 42.1% of subjects with diabetes and 55.3% of subjects with hypertension had their disease under adequate control. A comparison of these results with the general population of Chennai showed that the industrial population had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in spite of having better access to healthcare facilities. Conclusions. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease was high in this industrial population of Chennai. Although the overall treatment and control of diabetes and hypertension was better than that in the general population, it was still inadequate and this emphasizes the need for greater awareness about non-communicable diseases

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Thermodynamics of Modified Chaplygin Gas and Tachyonic Field

Here we generalize the results of the work of ref. [10] in modified Chaplygin gas model and tachyonic field model. Here we have studied the thermodynamical behaviour and the equation of state in terms of volume and temperature for both models. We have used the solution and the corresponding equation of state of our previous work [12] for tachyonic field model. We have also studied the thermodynamical stability using thermal equation of state for the tachyonic field model and have shown that there is no critical points during thermodynamical expansion. The determination of $T_{*}$ due to expansion for the tachyonic field have been discussed by assuming some initial conditions. Here, the thermal quantities have been investigated using some reduced parameters.Comment: 10 page

Progress in treatment by percutaneous coronary intervention: The stent of the future

First generation drug-eluting stents have considerably reduced in-stent restenosis and broadened the applications of percutaneous coronary interventions for the treatment of coronary artery disease. The polymer is an integral part of drug-eluting stents in that, it controls the release of an antiproliferative drug. The main safety concern of first generation drug-eluting stents with permanent polymers - stent thrombosis - has been caused by local hypersensitivity, delayed vessel healing, and endothelial dysfunction. This has prompted the development of newer generation drug-eluting stents with biodegradable polymers or even polymer-free drug-eluting stents. Recent clinical trials have shown the safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents with biodegradable polymer, with proven reductions in very late stent thrombosis as compared to first generation drug-eluting stents. However, the concept of using a permanent metallic prosthesis implies major drawbacks, such as the presence of a foreign material within the native coronary artery that causes vascular inflammation and neoatherosclerosis, and also impedes the restoration of the vasomotor function of the stented segment. Bioresorbable scaffolds have been introduced to overcome these limitations, since they provide temporary scaffolding and then disappear, liberating the treated vessel from its cage. This update article presents the current status of these new technologies and highlights their future perspectives in interventional cardiology

Interacting Ricci Dark Energy with Logarithmic Correction

Motivated by the holographic principle, it has been suggested that the dark energy density may be inversely proportional to the area $A$ of the event horizon of the universe. However, such a model would have a causality problem. In this work, we consider the entropy-corrected version of the holographic dark energy model in the non-flat FRW universe and we propose to replace the future event horizon area with the inverse of the Ricci scalar curvature. We obtain the equation of state (EoS) parameter $\omega_{\Lambda}$, the deceleration parameter $q$ and $\Omega_D'$ in the presence of interaction between Dark Energy (DE) and Dark Matter (DM). Moreover, we reconstruct the potential and the dynamics of the tachyon, K-essence, dilaton and quintessence scalar field models according to the evolutionary behavior of the interacting entropy-corrected holographic dark energy model.Comment: 24 pages, accepted for publication in 'Astrophysics and Space Science, DOI:10.1007/s10509-012-1031-8

Accretions of Various Types of Dark Energies onto Morris-Thorne Wormhole

In this work, we have studied accretion of the dark energies onto Morris-Thorne wormhole. For quintessence like dark energy, the mass of the wormhole decreases and phantom like dark energy, the mass of wormhole increases. We have assumed two types of dark energy like variable modified Chaplygin gas (VMCG) and generalized cosmic Chaplygin gas (GCCG). We have found the expression of wormhole mass in both cases. We have found the mass of the wormhole at late universe and this is finite. For our choices the parameters and the function $B(a)$, these models generate only quintessence dark energy (not phantom) and so wormhole mass decreases during evolution of the universe. Next we have assumed 5 kinds of parametrizations of well known dark energy models. These models generate both quintessence and phantom scenarios. So if these dark energies accrete onto the wormhole, then for quintessence stage, wormhole mass decreases upto a certain value (finite value) and then again increases to infinite value for phantom stage during whole evolution of the universe. We also shown these results graphically.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1112.615