ABSTRACT
Ensuring agricultural food security is a major concern for the future world, and being the second mostconsumed crop, rice yield needs an urgent upliftment. Grain yield is a pleiotropic trait that employs a plethoraof genes functioning in complex signalling cascades. The yield related genes are controlled by variousregulatory factors including the microRNAs (miRNAs), the small 20–22 nucleotide (nt) non-coding RNAs,which have emerged as the master ribo-regulators of eukaryotic genes. Plant miRNAs can bind to highlycomplementary sequences in the target messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and negatively regulate gene expression tocoordinate the various biological processes involved in plant development. In rice, an ideal plant architecture(IPA) has been regarded as the key to attain high yield and several miRNAs have been deciphered to playimportant roles in orchestrating vital regulatory procedures for achieving optimum plant morphological yieldrelated traits like less unproductive tillers, more panicle branches and heavier grains. In this review, we presentand discuss the various genetic engineering strategies undertaken to manipulate the miRNA-mRNA expressionlevels in order to achieve improved grain output by modulation of rice plant architecture and recent advancesmade in this regard
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Background: ACS (Acute confusional states) are on the rise taking the shape of an epidemic. These states are common among the elderly, but young individuals are also not spared. Prompt diagnosis and management of these states can decrease the associated morbidity and mortality.Methods: In this prospective observational study, etiological profile of ACS was evaluated in a total 100 patients, selected over a period of one year, after they fulfilled the CAM (Confusion Assessment Method) criteria.Results: Among 100 patients of ACS, mean age was 54.77�.50 years, males were 66% and 34% were females. The most common diagnosis provisionally made on the basis of history and clinical examination was metabolic encephalopathy in 37% patients, meningoencephalitis (24%), CVA (Cerebrovascular accident) (18%), seizures (9%), sepsis (6%), poisoning (6%). Whereas the final diagnosis made after subjecting the patients to relevant investigations, was metabolic encephalopathy in 37% of patients, meningoencephalitis (20%), CVA (18%), sepsis (12%), unprovoked seizures (6%), poisoning (6%) and undetermined in 1%. The final diagnosis matched the provisional diagnosis in most of the patients except sepsis as a provisional diagnosis was underdiagnosed. The mean duration of hospital stay was 7.6�67days and the hospital stay was most commonly complicated by aspiration pneumonia and acute kidney injury.Conclusions: This study emphasizes that the ACS is an emergency medical situation, where prompt identification, workup and treatment should be done parallelly and urgently to prevent the morbidity and mortality.
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Background: To study the prevalence and pattern of iron de?ciency (ID)in heart failure (HF) patients with or without anaemia.Methods: This is a single-centre observational study, conducted at a tertiary care hospital of Punjab. Patients were selected based on validated clinical criteria-Framingham criteria. The iron parameters were done during the study including serum iron, serum ferritin, total iron binding capacity, and transferrin saturation (TSAT), to diagnose iron deficiency anaemia. Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin (Hb) < 13g/dl in males and <12 g/dL in females, based on WHO definition. Absolute iron deficiency is defined as serum ferritin < 100 mg/L and functional ID was defined as normal serum ferritin (100�0 mg/L) with low TSAT (<20%).Results: A total of 120 patients of Heart Failure (54% males and 46% females) were studied. Most of the patients were of high-functional NYHA class (Class IV NYHA n=45). Iron Deficiency was present in 60% patients with 31.66% patients having absolute and 28.33% patients having functional ID. Nearly one-fifth of the patients were having ID but without anemia, signifying importance of workup of Iron deficiency other than haemoglobin levels.Conclusions: Study highlights the neglected burden of ID in HF patients in India. This study suggests further large-scale studies to better characterize this easily treatable condition and considering routine testing in future Indian guidelines.
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Background: Atrial Fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia encountered in our clinical practice accounting for 1/3rd of the total hospital admissions for cardiac rhythm disturbances. Recent worldwide epidemiological data have reaffirmed that AF is a global epidemic and has adverse effects on long term morbidity and mortality. This study is aimed to assess the clinical profile and etiology along with Echocardiographic evaluation of patients presenting with Atrial Fibrillation.Methods: Total of 100 patients of Atrial Fibrillation were enrolled for the study, who got admitted in hospital from March 2017 to June 2018. These patients were evaluated clinically, and detailed Cardiovascular, Neurological examination was done to evaluate etiology and for any evidence of thromboembolism. Echocardiography was also done.Results: Mean Age of the patients enrolled was 67.02±12.50 yrs. There was male predominance. The presenting complaints were dyspnea, palpitations, chest pain & pedal edema. On Echocardiography, Hypertensive Heart Disease was found to be the most common etiology. Mean LA size was 46.18±9.49 mm. LA clot was present in 4% patients. Most common complication was congestive cardiac failure followed by stroke. CHA2DS2- VASc score was ?2 in 86% patients.Conclusions: Increasing age and hypertension are associated with occurrence of AF. Hypertensive heart disease was the most common etiology in elderly age group. Presence of LVH or left atrial enlargement in patients with hypertensive heart disease requires early management to improve the outcomes.
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Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is associated with various risk factors, which accelerates the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The increased relative risk for CVD due to diabetes is greater in women than in men. Aims and objectives of this study were to study the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among type 2 diabetes patients and to assess the sex differences in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among type 2 diabetes patients.Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed among the 500 adult (>15 years) patients of type 2 diabetes who attended Department of Medicine, SGRDIMSR, Amritsar and were assessed for the presence of various CVD risk factors and the prevalence of these was compared between both sexes.Results: The most prevalent CVD risk factor among 500 patients of type 2 DM was high HBA1C levels which was present in 67.2% of the study population. It was followed by obesity (which had prevalence of 66.2%), dyslipidaemia (i.e. high triglyceride levels - 64.8% and low HDL levels - 65.6%) and microalbuminuria along with macroalbuminuria (65.4%). Diabetic males had microalbuminuria (along with macroalbuminuria) as the most prevalent CVD risk factor (69.03%), followed by alcohol consumption (63.18%) and abnormal waist circumference (61%). On the other hand, the most prevalent CVD risk factor among female diabetics was high HBA1C (77.4%) followed by obesity (77.0%) and dyslipidaemia-hypertriglyceridemia (75.1%) and low HDL levels (70.5%).Conclusions: Cardiovascular risk factors were highly prevalent among patients with type 2 diabetes attending department of medicine, SGRDIMSR, Amritsar with different risk profiles among diabetic male and females. A gender-sensitive approach is required in planning interventions (counselling and treatment) to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetes.