Nitrogen and sulphur mustard induced histopathological observations in mouse visceral organs.

Nitrogen mustards (HN) and sulphur mustard (SM) are potent alkylating blister inducing chemical warfare agents. Single 1.0 LD50 dose produced a progressive fall in body weight from second day onwards in all groups of mustard agents exposed animals. Histological examination of spleen, liver, skin and kidney revealed significant histopathological lesions in nitrogen mustards and sulphur mustard. These lesions include granulovascular degeneration with perinuclear clumping of the cytoplasm of hepatocytes and renal parenchymal cells. Renal lesions were characterized by congestion and hemorrhage. The maximum toxic manifestation were noted in spleen and skin of HN-3 exposed mice while sulphur mustard reported maximum toxicity in liver and kidneys. The study suggests both nitrogen mustards and sulphur mustard to be extremely toxic by percutaneous route based on histopathological observation and can contributed to earlier reported free radical generation by these toxicants.

Intestinal parasitosis among subjects undergoing cataract surgery at the eye camps in rural hilly areas of Nepal.

Present study investigated the intestinal parasitosis among 221 subjects undergoing cataract surgery (M: 129 and F: 92; aged 13-86 years) at the eye camps in three rural hilly districts (Ramechhap, Sindhupalchok and Dhading) in 2006. Stool samples collected in clean, dry, screw capped plastic containers were examined locally by direct smear technique and anti-parasitic drugs were distributed to parasite positive subjects. The remaining stool samples were fixed with 10% formal-saline, transported to Shi-Gan Health Foundation/Nat'l Inst of Trop Med and Public Health Research, Kathmandu and re-examined by formal-ether sedimentation technique. A total of 148 samples (66.9%) were positive for some kind of intestinal parasites (F: 68.5% and M: 65.9%; P > 0.05). Ramechhap (Manthali) and Sindhupalchok (Chautara) had higher positive rate (71.8% and 70.7%, respectively) than in Dhading (Salyantar) (60.0%) (P > 0.05). Tibeto-Burman (indigenous nationalities) ethnic group had highest positive rate (70.1%) compared with Indo-Aryan (64.7%) and Dalits (57.7%). Subjects without toilet (latrine) had marginally higher positive rate (69.7%) than those having toilet at their home (65.5) (P> 0 .05). Age was independent of positive rate. Vegetarians had marginally higher parasitic infection rate compared to their non-vegetarian counterparts. Helminths were more common than protozoa. Overall, hookworm was the commonest parasite detected. However, Ascaris was common in Dhading District. Entamoeba histolytica was most common among protozoa and was followed by Cyclospora and others.

Rapid rescreening of cervical smears by cytopathologists: experience at a WHO collaborating centre for research in cytology.

The conventional 10% random full rescreening of cervical smears has been criticized as a quality assurance measure as it is not scientifically based and tends to detect only a few false negative cases. Rapid rescreening (RR) of negative cervical smears seems to be a viable alternative, especially in developing countries, as it picks up more positive lesions, reduces the false negative rate and is cost effective. We performed rapid review on 12374 cervical smears received under a hospital based cervical cancer screening programme. An additional 498 lesions were picked up on RR including a sizeable number of low and high grade lesions as well as 2 malignant cases. Thus RR led to an increase in efficiency of our laboratory.

Tuberculous lymphadenitis: correlation of cellular components and necrosis in lymph-node aspirate with A.F.B. positivity and bacillary count.

Cytomorphologic features of tuberculous lymphadenitis cases as observed in lymph-node aspirates were analysed and correlated with AFB positivity and bacillary count. Cytologic features were categorized under three major groups, viz. epithelioid granuloma without necrosis, epithelioid granuloma with necrosis and necrosis without epithelioid granulomas. These three major groups showed a distinct trend in respect of their cellular constituents. While cases with appreciable lymphocytic and multinucleated giant cells component showed a significant decreasing trend, cases with neutrophilic infiltration showed an increasing trend (P less than 0.001). In the above three groups, 9.1 percent, 64.7 percent and 77.4 percent respectively showed AFB positivity, the difference being highly significant (P less than 0.001). All 14 cases with very high bacillary count (greater than 50 bacilli per 500 oil immersion field) were associated with necrosis and 71.4% of them neutrophilic infiltration. A univariate analysis revealed that in presence of lymphocytes, epithelioid cells and Langhan's giant cells, AFB positivity was significantly lower while the picture was just the reverse in presence of necrosis and neutrophilic infiltration (P less than 0.001). The odd's rations for all these variables were highly significant (P less than 0.001). However, a multivariate regression analysis revealed that necrosis was the only independent contributing factor towards AFB positivity.