ABSTRACT
DISCUSSION Ground realities in brain death certification. Sunil Shroff and Sumana Navin DOI: 10.20529/IJME. 2020.021 Dr. Zubair Umer Mohamed’s comment lucidly articulates the practical issues, arising from the linking of brain stem death certification to organ donation, especially in the state of Kerala. Our article advocates the delinking of brain stem death from organ donation […]
ABSTRACT
In India, the definition of brain death is contained only in the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) of 1994. Doctors of ICU patients who are brain dead are unsure of what to do when the relatives refuse organ donation. However, ventilating a dead patient goes against correct medical practice and also blocks a valuable ICU bed. Delinking brain death from organ donation is essential, and this requires inclusion of “brain death” in the definition of death in The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, so that a uniform policy can be framed in the country
Subject(s)
Belgium , Cadaver , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Humans , India , Organ Transplantation/statistics & numerical data , Presumed Consent/legislation & jurisprudence , Tissue Donors/legislation & jurisprudence , Tissue Donors/supply & distribution , Tissue and Organ Procurement/legislation & jurisprudence , Tissue and Organ Procurement/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
Inter-individual differences in cancer susceptibility may be mediated in part through polymorphic variability in the bioactivation and detoxification of carcinogens. The glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), which are active in detoxification of wide variety of carcinogens, have been consistently implicated as cancer susceptibility genes in this context. We here assessed the association of GSTM1 and GSTP1 polymorphisms with susceptibility to prostate cancer in a case-control study of 75 patients and 100 age-matched controls in a South Indian population. The GSTM1 null polymorphism was detected by PCR and the GSTP1 Ile105Val polymorphism by PCR-RFLP using peripheral blood DNA.There was no significant link between the null genotype of GSTM1 and risk of prostate cancer (OR-1.79; 95% CI-0.78-4.11; P-0.18). However, the GSTP1 Ile/Val genotype was significantly associated with a decreased risk for prostate cancer (OR-0.36; 95% CI-0.18-0.73; P<0.001). Analysis of the variant GSTM1 and GSTP1 genotypes in combination did not reveal any significant difference between cases and controls, even with a stratified analysis tumor grades. Thus our study indicates that the GSTP1 Ile/Val genotype may decrease risk of prostate cancer in the South Indian population.