Occurrence of common diseases due to habitual food habit or other habit among the students from different regions of Chattogram, Bangladesh

Background:There are some common diseases found among the students of different areas in Bangladesh which are either communicable or non-communicable. Different infectious diseases occur due to lack of hygiene practice and non-infectious diseases are developed because of many irregular daily habits all over the world. Our aim was to evaluate the habit of practicing hygiene and other daily activities to observe their impacts on the health status among the students from different regions of Chattogram in Bangladesh.Methods:With ethical approval, questionnaire forms of daily habits/activities were filled up by 750 students of different educational institutions. The data were analysed afterwards. Results:Among the population of the study 89% (n=667) students werefound to take regular bath; hand washing was regular among 32% (n=240) students, 54% (n=405) students were irregular in hand washing and the rests wash their hands rarely; on the other hand 41% (n=308) students consume street foods regularly; 38% (n=285) students wear eyeglasses due to weak sight; 23% (n=173) suffer from different skin diseases and 63% (n=473) students usually suffer from different gastro intestinal diseases.Conclusions:Our results are not so frustrating, but also not so much good as majority of the students are fond of unhealthy street foods, don’t wash hands regularly and more than half of the students suffer from GI tract diseases with other health problems. It could be recommended that some daily habits including avoiding street foods, intake of sufficient drinking water and hygiene practices should be improved more.

Simultaneous Occurrence of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection and Embolic Stroke.

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) due to spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is rare. Further, concurrent ACS with a cerebrovascular accident is improbable, but possible. We report a case of a young man, with a history of Hodgkin’s lymphoma treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy ten years ago, presented with acute coronary syndrome caused by an extensive dissection of the right coronary artery, together with acute ischemic stroke. Survivors of Hodgkin’s lymphoma are at increased risk for cardiovascular complications due to radiation, which can expedite atherosclerosis and can, eventually, give rise to dissection and cerebrovascular disease, as exemplified in our case. This case report and review outlines the incidence, epidemiology, causes, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Our case report is a remainder to clinicians to be mindful of concomitant occurrence of these two conditions and highlights the significant impact the treatment of each has on the other, especially when the literature does not have clear recommendations about simultaneous management. Spontaneous coronary artery dissection with concomitant ischemic cerebrovascular stroke poses a therapeutic dilemma and requires a multi-disciplinary team to appropriately manage the patient.

Molecular cloning, expression and characterization of a serine proteinase from Japanese edible mushroom, Grifola frondosa: solving the structure - function anomaly of a reported aminopeptidase

The N-terminal amino acid sequence of an aminopeptidase from Japanese edible mushroom, Grifola frondosa, was reported to have high similarity with that of a serine proteinase from basidiomycete, Agaricus bisporous (Nishiwaki and Hayashi, 2001). The full-length cDNA and the corresponding genomic DNA of the enzyme were cloned, based on the reported N-terminal amino acid sequence. The predicted open reading frame (ORF) of the cloned cDNA, encoding a product of 379 amino acids, was expressed in E. coli using pET expression vector. The expressed pro-enzyme (40 kDa) underwent autolysis to produce the mature protein (30 kDa) and a pro-peptide (10 kDa). The mature protein and the pro-peptide remained tightly bound to each other and could not be separated by Ni-NTA metal affinity chromatography or Q-Sepharose ion-exchange chromatography. The enzyme was inactive in the bound form. Upon treatment with subtilisin, the bound pro-peptide was further hydrolyzed and a high serine proteinase activity was recovered. No aminopeptidase activity was detected at any stage of the protein processing. These results clearly indicated that the N-terminal amino acid sequence and the function of the reported aminopeptidase were not derived from the same protein entity and hence caused the structure-function anomaly.

Extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphomas--a retrospective review of clinico-pathologic features and outcomes in comparison with nodal non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to analyze the anatomic distribution, clinical features and outcome of Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients according to the primary site (extranodal vs. nodal) with applicability of International Prognostic Index (IPI). METHODOLOGY: A retrospective review (1988 to 2004) of 557 cases of DLBC. RESULTS: The median age was 48.7 +/- 15.3 years; M:F ratio was 2:1. The distribution according to the primary site was: lymph node (N-NHL), 322 cases (58%) of which 145(44%) were stage IV, 76(23%) stage III, 60 (18%) stage II and 47 (15%) stage I. The extra nodal sites (EN-NHL) 235 (42%) cases included gastro-intestinal tract (44%), upper aerodigestive tract (19%), bones (8%), spine (5%), and unusual sites less than 3% each as breast, CNS, testis, lungs and skin. The median survival rate was 4.8 years and 6.3 years in N-NHL and EN-NHL respectively. In the latter this varied greatly depending on the primary site and stage of disease at presentation. In the univariate analysis factors associated with good prognosis were: age less than 60 years, early stage (I-II), extranodal involvement primarily gastric or bone, 0-1 extranodal site, 0-1 performance status, lack of B symptoms and normal LDH level. In the multivariate analysis age, performance status, stage of disease and level of LDH were the main variables predicting overall survival; no nodal or extranodal site maintained their prognostic value. CONCLUSION: Patients with EN-NHL present more frequently with early stage disease then those with N-NHL; overall survival in both groups largely depended on IPI and not on the site of origin of the malignancy.