Congenital stridor due to bilateral vocal cord palsy.

Congenital stridor is one of the rare presentations of respiratory distress at birth. The commonest cause of congenital stridor is laryngomalacia, which accounts for 60% of the causes. The other common causes are congenital subglottic stenosis and vocal cord palsy (VCP). VCP is usually unilateral and most often linked with birth trauma, and is temporary. Bilateral palsy can be associated with other congenital anomalies. The current report describes a case of congenital bilateral VCP, not related to birth trauma and severe enough to require tracheostomy.

Non-fermenters in urinary tract infection.

Sixty four (4.4%) strains of non-fermenting gram negative bacteria (NFGNB) were isolated out of 1,380 bacterial isolates from 7,784 urine samples, of which 43 were isolated from male patients and 21 from female patients. P. aeruginosa was found to be the commonest (67.2%) followed by A. lwoffi (7.8%), A. anitratus and P. acidovorans testosterani (6.2% each), P. maltophilia and P. denitrificans (4.8% each), P. putida and P. vesiculare (1.5% each). Forty two(65.6%) of these isolates were isolated as pure cultures and 22(34.4%) as predominant organisms. Most of these isolates i.e. 50-88.8% were sensitive to Norfloxacin and Ofloxacin and 22.2% to 66.6% of these isolates were sensitive to Gentamycin and Cephalexin whereas 11.1% of these isolates were sensitive to Co-trimoxazole and Ampicillin. All of these isolates were resistant to Penicillin and Tetracycline.

Effect of various doses of medroxyprogesterone acetate on intestinal functions in rats.

The dose relationship between medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a long acting contraceptive, and rat intestinal digestive and absorptive functions has been investigated. The study revealed that the activities of brush border sucrase, lactase and leucine aminopeptidase were stimulated only at high doses, viz 70 mg/kg (180 mumol/kg) body weight and above, whereas the activity of alkaline phosphate was depressed at comparatively low dose (17.5 mg/kg; 45 mumol/kg body weight). This decrease was found to be significant (p less than 0.001) at all the doses tested. The inhibition in the intestinal uptake of calcium paralleled the decrease in alkaline phosphatase activity. Relatively high amount of MPA (140 mg/kg; 360 mumol/kg) was required to augment the uptake of glucose and amino acid. The results obtained do not indicate a close relationship between the dose of the drug and the extent of alteration in the rat intestinal digestive and absorptive functions. The study appears to confirm the association between brush border enzymes activities and uptake of nutrients in rat intestine.

Impact of annual immunisation programme with oral polio vaccine on the prevalence of paralytic poliomyelitis.

Lameness survey was conducted in a rural community development block of Haryana in 1985. Enumerators contacted school teachers, anganwadi workers and several key informants in the community to identify lame children in 1-11 years age-group. Physician verified 219 lame cases to be due to poliomyelitis. Prevalence of poliomyelitis lameness was 7.3/1000 children born in 1974-76, 7.7/1000 children born in 1977-1980 and 2.3/1000 children born in 1981-1984 (expected to increase to 3.1/1000 when all children born in 1981-84 cross 5th year of life). Immunisation coverage with 3 doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV) was less than 10% during 1974-80 when immunisation was a clinic based activity. Coverage increased from 50 to 80% during 1981-85 when OPV was given in annual immunisation campaign. The results indicate that prevalence of paralytic poliomyelitis dropped at least by 60% after giving OPV in annual immunisation campaigns.