ABSTRACT
Nearly one billion hectares of arid and semiarid areas of the world are salt affected and remain barren due to salinity or water scarcity. These lands can be utilized by adopting appropriate planting techniques and integrating trees with tolerant crops, forage grasses, oil yielding crops, aromatic and medicinal plants. Biosaline agroforestry provides various ecosystem services such as the improved soil fertility, carbon sequestration, and biomass production. Provisioning services relating to biomass production have been well studied in different biosaline agroforestry. Tree plantations and agroforestry enrich the soil in organic matter and exert a considerable ameliorative effect on soil properties. The soil microbial biomass serves as a useful indicator of soil improvement under salt stress. By integrating trees with the naturally occurring grassland systems on highly sodic soils, the soil organic carbon content increased from 5.3 Mg ha−1 (in sole grass) to 13.6, 10.9, and 14.2 Mg ha−1, when Dalbergia sissoo, Acacia nilotica, and Prosopis juliflora trees were introduced with grass. The strip-plantations of clonal Eucalyptus tereticornis sequestered 15.5 t ha–1 carbons during the first rotation of 5 years and 4 months. The soils of biosaline agroforestry could store 25.9–99.3 Mg C ha−1 in surface 0.3 m soil. Maintaining the stores and sink of carbon in agroforestry could play a key role in climate change mitigation as well as help in adaption changing environmental conditions.
ABSTRACT
Thirty-seven dilated cardiomyopathy cases have been studied and compared with 20 normal controls. Serum selenium levels in relation to coronary risk factors were studied. Serum samples were analysed for selenium, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein(HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose levels. Smoking, alcohol intake, positive family history, psychosocial tension, obesity, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia and hyperglycaemia were found in the following percentages 27%, 8%, 5%, 73%, 41%, 38%, 81%, 46% respectively in dilated cardiomyopathy patients. Low selenium (< 4.5 micrograms/dl) and HDL cholesterol levels and high total cholesterol, triglycerides, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, very low density lipoprotein cholesterol and glucose levels were observed in dilated cardiomyopathy cases compared to controls. The present results support the concept that low selenium levels along with other risk factors play an important role in developing dilated cardiomyopathy.
Subject(s)
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated/blood , Echocardiography , Humans , Lipids/blood , Reference Values , Risk Factors , Selenium/bloodABSTRACT
The hemodynamic data and electrocardiograms of thirty-three patients of moderate to severe aortic stenosis were analysed retrospectively to find out if there was any correlation between 12 lead ECG-QRS score and left ventricular peak systolic pressure (LVPSP) and/or peak systolic gradient (PSG) across the aortic valve. The mean age of the study population was 33.33 (+/- 15.02SD) years, with the male to female ratio being 9:2. The mean 12 lead ECG-QRS score in these 33 patients was 281 mm (+/- 46.02SD), the mean LVPSP 203.52 mmHg (+/- 46.62SD) and the mean PSG across the aortic valve was 81.0 mmHg (+/- 41.62SD). There was good correlation of 12 lead ECG-QRS score with LVPSP (r = 0.47, P less than 0.001) and with PSG across the aortic valve (r = 0.58, P less than 0.001), latter being more significant. The best correlation was however found between 12 lead ECG-QRS score and PSG across the aortic valve in patients over 35 years of age (r = 0.88). In conclusion there is a direct relationship between 12 lead ECG-QRS score and peak systolic gradient across the aortic valve and the latter can be approximately calculated non-invasively with the help of regression equation- Peak systolic gradient (in mmHg) = 12 lead ECG-QRS score/3 - 10.6
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Aortic Valve Stenosis/diagnosis , Child , Child, Preschool , Electrocardiography , Female , Cardiac Catheterization , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
The relationship between the mean frontal QRS axis calculated from the scalar 12 lead ECG, and the pulmonary artery (PA) pressures obtained by cardiac catheterisation in 64 cases of isolated rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS), was analysed. An overall trend of rightward axis shift with increasing PA pressures was observed; the best correlation was seen with systolic PA pressures (r = 0.51). It was possible to recognise 3 categories of patients: (1) With an axis of 70 degrees and below, systolic PA pressures were below 70 mm Hg in 82.4% of cases and below 80 mm Hg in 94% of cases; diastolic pressures were below 40 mm Hg in 88.2%; mean PA pressures were below 50 mm Hg in 88.2% cases. (2) With an axis of 71 degrees to 100 degrees, systolic PA pressures ranged from 30 to 120 mm Hg, diastolic PA pressures from 12 to 60 mm Hg and mean PA pressures from 19 to 80 mm Hg. (3) With an axis of above 100 degrees, systolic PA pressures were over 70 mm Hg in 95.5% of cases, diastolic PA pressures more than 30 mm Hg in 90.9%, and mean PA pressures more than 45 mm Hg in 90.9% cases. It was therefore possible to predict, with reasonable accuracy, the range of PA pressures in patients with isolated MS, except in those cases with an axis between 71 and 100 degrees.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Child , Electrocardiography , Female , Heart/physiopathology , Humans , Hypertension, Pulmonary/diagnosis , Male , Middle Aged , Mitral Valve Stenosis/diagnosis , Myocardial Contraction , Pulmonary Artery/physiopathology , Rheumatic Heart Disease/diagnosis , Vascular ResistanceABSTRACT
A rare case of biventricular outflow tract obstruction in the form of discrete subaortic membrane and hypertrophic anomalous right ventricular muscle bundle associated with ventricular septal defect is presented.