Collaural fistula: a case report

Cervico-aural [collaural fistula] fistula is rare and it accounts for less than 5% of branchial cleft anomalies. In this paper, we report one such case of a 9 year old girl who was presented to us with two discharging cutaneous openings on the right side; one in the floor of the external auditory canal and another in the neck at the junction of the upper 2/3rd and lower third of the sternomastoid muscle along its anterior border

The scientific Thoughts of Kalameka Pulavar in Solo Songs

It is the literature composed during the Sangam period that still stands as the lifeblood of Tamil literature. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they are the mother and forerunner of contemporary literature. Thus, the collection of solo songs has an important place in Tamil literature. It highlights the lives and ethics of the people. The songs of Kalameka Pulavar are praiseworthy. The contribution of science to today's medicine is immense. With the development of science, new drugs have been discovered in medicine and a permanent solution has been found for various terminal diseases. Nevertheless, today's scientific medicine has also endorsed the system of medicine found in the Sangam literature and has made its continuous use among the people. It is used in today's medicine as a natural medicine for various skin diseases. This is what Kalamekar, the scholar of the Sangam age, also teaches through his song. The purpose of this article is to highlight the scientific thoughts and medical references found in the poems of Kalameka Pulavar

Wigner Crystals Phases in Bilayer Quantum Hall Systems

(This is a substantially shortened version of the original abstract:) The Wigner crystal phase diagram of the bilayer systems have been studied using variational methods. Five crystal phases are obtained. As the layer spacing increases, the system will undergo a sequence of phase transitions. A common feature of most bilayer Wigner crystals is that they have mixed (pseudo-spin) ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order.Comment: 19 figures. Figures will be provided upon request. Submitted in PRB in Nov 94

Study of Bacterial and Parasitic profile of Acute Diarrhoea in Children Under Five Years of Age with special reference to Detection and Characterization of Rota Virus.

INTRODUCTION : The gastrointestinal tract is home to 10 times more bacteria than cells in the entire human body. It is the site of sophisticated interactions between microbial pathogens, commensals, host epithelial cells and the immune system, a kind of jungle of biologic interactions, evolution and natural history whose balance is crucial for childhood growth and development. Diarrhoea is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. Globally, there are about two billion cases of diarrhoeal disease every year. Diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age with an estimated 1.5 million child deaths every year. It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined99. Diarrhoeal disease continues to be a public health problem especially in developing countries where they are estimated to be responsible for 2.5 million infant deaths per year with an annual mortality rate of 4.9/ per 1000 children and an incidence of 3.2 episodes of diarrhoea per child-year among children under 5 years of age. n In India, one third of total paediatric admissions in hospitals are due to diarrhoeal diseases and 17% of all deaths in indoor paediatric patients are diarrhoea related76. Diarrhoea is the cause of death in almost 23% of Indian children who die before the age of 5. Hence this study was undertaken to identify the bacterial, parasitic profile and rota viral infections in children under 5 years of age with diarrhoea and from children under 5 years of age presenting to hospital for reasons other than diarrhoeal illness. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : To determine the prevalence of bacteria and parasites in stool samples from diarrheal cases of children under 5 years of age. To find antibiotic susceptibility of significant bacterial isolates. To determine the incidence of rota virus infection in children under 5 years of age with acute diarrhoea. To examine the age distribution of rota virus infected children. To evaluate clinical severity of rota virus infection in children. To evaluate the protective effect of breast feeding on rota virus diarrhoea. To evaluate the distribution of different genotypes of rotaviruses circulating in the community. CONCLUSION : In the present study, rota virus, Shigella sp, Vibrio sp, Salmonella sp, EHEC, Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium were seen significantly in children with diarrhoea. All of the Shigella and Salmonella isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin and gentamycin. Vibrio cholerae was sensitive to tetracycline which is used for chemoprophylaxis and thus holds good still now. High rate of resistance of bacterial isolates to cotrimoxazole and ampicillin was seen which recommends continuous antibiotic surveillance to monitor development of resistance. Rota virus incidence was found to be 16% among children under five years of age with diarrhoea. Majority of them were in the age group of 7 to 12 months associated with severe dehydration and protective effect of breast feeding was not found against rota virus infection in this age group. The genotype combination of rota virus identified were G1P[8],G2P[4] and G10P[untypeable]. Thus the present study shows significant association of rota virus in children under five years of age with acute diarrhoea and the prevalence of uncommon genotype G10. The significant association of rota virus in childhood diarrhoea along with clinical severity suggests consideration of a rota virus vaccine in the childhood immunization program. In developing countries like India, exposure to an environment contaminated with human and animal faeces and close contact with animals in the domestic environment are factors enabling viral reassortment and the emergence of new strains. Most of the rota virus strains in circulation appear to be like those of common genotypes G1-4 which are components of current vaccine. But the non typeable strains pose an unknown antigenic challenge to the current vaccine Rotateq. Hence continuous and prospective monitoring of circulating strains in a large scale study will detect any change in the distribution of rotavirus strains which would influence the vaccine based preventive strategies in India

Application and Effectiveness of Immunostimulants, Probiotics, and Prebiotics in Aquaculture: A Review

Immunostimulants, also called immunomodulators, adjuvants, or biological response modifiers, stimulate the immune system. They can be administered in the form of drugs or nutrients. Probiotics are organisms or substances that improve the intestinal microbial balance of a host animal. Prebiotics are indigestible components in a diet that are metabolized by specific microorganisms and prove helpful for the growth and health of the host. When provided as dietary supplements in feeds, even in small quantities, immunostimulants, probiotics, and prebiotics usually improve immunity, feed efficiency, and growth performance of crustaceans and fishes. The use of immunostimulants, probiotics, and prebiotics in aquaculture are presented in this review

Controlled delivery of Imatinib mesylate from collagen coated poly(lactic acid) microspheres: In vitro release studies

The development of injectable microspheres for controlled drug delivery to the desired site is a major challenge. We demonstrated the possibility of entrapping an anticancer drug, Imatinib mesylate, in collagen coated biodegradable poly (lactic acid) microspheres with a mean diameter of 10-20 µm. The collagen coating on polymeric matrix surfaces through various surface modification techniques was the current scenario to improve bio-integration of the polymers with the in-vivo system. Here protein adsorption principle is used and various characterization techniques like FTIR, DSC and SEM analysis are used to confirm collagen coating. The reduction in burst release of the Imatinib from the PLA microspheres further confirms its presence and role in controlled release.  This collagen coated PLA microspheres may have potential for the targeted delivery of Imatinib mesylate to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumors, chronic myeloid leukemia cancer

Measuring the Epilation Force Over the Frontal and Occipital Region in Cases of Female Pattern Hair Loss Using Hand Held Trichotilometer

INTRODUCTION : The Female Pattern Hair Loss is defined as progressive thinning of hair which is usually non scarring. There is usually gradual decrease in the ratio of terminal hair and vellus hair, which is termed as Folliculminiaturization. It is hair thinning occurring predominantly over the frontal and vertex region of the head, however it can involve any region of the scalp and sometimes it can present as diffuse hair thinning. Female pattern hair loss may begin as early as puberty. This pattern of hair loss has greater psychological impact on affected patients. Alopecia affecting a woman's emotional health status, has a great psychological impact as it causes distress to the patient, also increases the concern regarding one’s appearance and continuity of hair loss. Based on the levels of androgens, FPHL was earlier classified into Androgen dependent FPHL and Androgen independent FPHL. Trichotillometer was first designed and constructed by C L Krumdieck in the year 1981. It is a hand held device, which helps in measuring the force, necessary to epilate the individual hair. It can be used in an outpatient basis, to determine the force required to pluck the individual hair, in patients with alopecia. AIM OF THE STUDY : To determine the epilation force (EF) required to pluck the anagen hair and telogen hair from frontal and occipital region of the scalp in female pattern hair loss. REVIEW OF LITERATURE : Studies were conducted using the trichotillometer, to evaluate the nourishment status in adults.1,2 Chase et al., conducted a study on 17 adults patients who had features of protein energy malnutrition. The aim of their study was to assess the force required to pluck the hair amongst the study population and it was compared with healthy individuals. The plucking force had significant correlation with that of serum albumin, hair shaft diameter, triceps skin fold, arm muscle circumference, weight, hematocrit and beta carotene. STUDY DESIGN: Hospital based Observational study RESEARCH SUBJECTS : The study will be carried out on patients attending the outpatient Department of Dermatology, Venerology and leprology, PSGIMSR, Coimbatore. SAMPLE SIZE: 30. Inclusion Criteria : 1. Age more than 20 years, 2. Patients diagnosed to have female pattern hair loss clinically using LUDWIG’s classification (only class 2), 3. Only female patients were included in the study. Exclusion Criteria : Hair wash done within last three days at the time of OPD visist. Currently on treatment for the hair loss. METHODOLOGY : • Informed and written consent will be obtained from all patients. • The volunteers will be made to sit on the stool. • The clip at the lower end of the trichotillometer The will be attached to the distal end of a single hair shaft . • Spring balance is pulled upwards gently by hand at the top end with the help of the ring attached to its top till the hair snaps from the scalp. • Force indicator slides down the inner wall of the spring balance and stops at the point when the hair is detached from the scalp. • The force in gm will be noted and taken as the epilation force. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: All the data obtained from these parameters will be recorded in excel sheets and statistical analysis will be done. RESULTS : The mean force required to pluck anagen and telogen hair over frontal region was 0.51N and 0.71N respectively, which was not statistically significant (p value – 0.152). Similarly, the mean force required to pluck anagen and telogen hair over occipital region was 0.61N and 0.51N respectively, however the results did not reach its statistical significance. CONCLUSION : We conclude that, Trichotillometer is a simple, portable and easy to use device which can be used in the OPD for the diagnosis of pattern hair loss. We can also compare the epilation force of anagen hair, before and after the treatment in diseased patients with the help of this equipment to find the effectiveness of the given hair loss treatment

Streblus asper Lour. (Shakhotaka): A Review of its Chemical, Pharmacological and Ethnomedicinal Properties

Streblus asper Lour is a small tree found in tropical countries, such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Various parts of this plant are used in Ayurveda and other folk medicines for the treatment of different ailments such as filariasis, leprosy, toothache, diarrhea, dysentery and cancer. Research carried out using different in vitro and in vivo techniques of biological evaluation support most of these claims. This review presents the botany, chemistry, traditional uses and pharmacology of this medicinal plant

Genome-wide multi-omics profiling of colorectal cancer identifies immune determinants strongly associated with relapse

The use and benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy to treat stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) patients is not well understood since the majority of these patients are cured by surgery alone. Identification of biological markers of relapse is a critical challenge to effectively target treatments to the ~20% of patients destined to relapse. We have integrated molecular profiling results of several “omics” data types to determine the most reliable prognostic biomarkers for relapse in CRC using data from 40 stage I and II CRC patients. We identified 31 multi-omics features that highly correlate with relapse. The data types were integrated using multi-step analytical approach with consecutive elimination of redundant molecular features. For each data type a systems biology analysis was performed to identify pathways biological processes and disease categories most affected in relapse. The biomarkers detected in tumors urine and blood of patients indicated a strong association with immune processes including aberrant regulation of T-cell and B-cell activation that could lead to overall differences in lymphocyte recruitment for tumor infiltration and markers indicating likelihood of future relapse. The immune response was the biologically most coherent signature that emerged from our analyses among several other biological processes and corroborates other studies showing a strong immune response in patients less likely to relapse