Idiopathic aplastic anemia: a rare case report in Jammu and Kashmir region, India

Idiopathic aplastic anemia is a pancytopenia disorder that is a rare but life threatening for both mother and fetus during pregnancy. Association of aplastic anemia with pregnancy is unclear but considered to be interrelated. Bone marrow transplantation is the most effective treatment for adult aplastic anemia but is inadvisable to perform during pregnancy because of the teratogenic effect of immunosuppressive agents or radiation therapy to the growing fetus. Supportive care, withdrawal from offending drugs and involving erythrocytes and platelets transfusion is a promising way to save the life. Here author present a case report of 36-year-old lady with idiopathy aplastic anemia. In this case medical investigation revealed severe anemia of unknown origin. The patient was treated with hematinics, blood transfusion and glucocorticoids. A healthy baby was delivered without evidence of hemolysis at her eight month and one week of pregnancy, the patient recovered and discharged with normal incidence. Being a rare case, it becomes a necessity to report such life-threatening disorder and management. Moreover, to our knowledge this is the first case reported of its kind from Jammu and Kashmir Division of India.

Potential of Probiotics in Hypercholesterolemia: A Meta‑analysis.

Human studies on the effects of probiotics on lowering blood cholesterol levels have not yielded conclusive results. A meta‑analysis of randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of probiotics on lipid profile was conducted. Articles were reviewed systematically from web search bases; PubMed, Cochrane Clinical Trial Registry. Those studies which were meeting the inclusion criteria‑providing matching placebo, at least single blind for probiotics and placebo, providing mean and standard deviations and not involving the use of probiotics were selected. 14 studies from 12 randomized controlled trials were analyzed providing information of 606 normo/hypercholesterolemic patients using Review Manager 5.3 (The Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, UK). The pooled mean net change for total cholesterol (TC) is −8.40 mg/dl (−13.63, −3.61), for low‑density lipoprotein (LDL) is −6.63 mg/dl (−10.63, −2.63), for high‑density‑lipoprotein‑cholesterol is 0.59 mg/dl (−0.92, 2.09), and for triglycerides is −1.32 mg/dl (−6.49, 3.85). The findings of the analysis conclude that probiotics supplementation does lower serum TC and LDL‑cholesterol levels significantly and hence a reduction in the risk factor of developing coronary heart disease.