Maternal Serum TSH Value in Early Pregnancy and its Relation with Pregnancy Outcome

Introduction: Thyroid disorders in pregnancy are amongthe common endocrine disorders. During pregnancy severalphysiological changes occur in maternal thyroid function andfailure to adapt to these changes result in thyroid dysfunction.Thyroid dysfunctions have many adverse effects on motherand fetus, like miscarriages, preeclampsia, eclampsia,placental abruption, preterm delivery, low birth weight, postpartum haemorrhage, neonatal hypothyroidism and impairedneurological and intellectual development of fetus. Studyaimed to find out the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction inpregnancy and to know maternal and foetal outcome.Material and methods: This cross sectional clinical studywas carried out at Obstetrics and Gynecology departmentin collaboration with Biochemistry Department, IGIMS,Patna, Bihar from August 2018 to August 2019 including100 pregnant women with single intrauterine pregnancy infirst trimester between 6-14th weeks of gestation. TSH levelwas estimated in all the pregnant women along with FT3,FT4, and Anti TPO Ab. According to the thyroid profile,patients were divided into 4 groups- Normal/ Subclinical/Overt hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism and followed tilldelivery for maternal and perinatal outcome.Results: In our study of 100 patients, 87 were found to havenormal thyroid function and 13 cases were having subclinicalhypothyroidism, using a cut off TSH level of 2.5-10uIU/ml inAntiTPO Ab positive and 4-10uIU/ml in AntiTPO Ab negativecases. No case of hyperthyroidism or overt hypothyroidismwas found. These 100 patients were divided into two groups.Patients having normal thyroid function were included inGroup 1 and patients with subclinical hypothyroidism wereincluded in group 2. In subclinical hypothyroidism group5(38.46%) cases were AntiTPO Ab positive and 8 cases wereAntiTPO Ab negative.Conclusion: Our study concludes that there is high prevalenceof subclinical hypothyroidism (13%) in pregnant womenduring 1st trimester. No significant difference was seen inmaternal and foetal outcome between euthyroid patients andtreated subclinical hypothyroid patients.

Introduction Of Case Based Learning In Teaching Of Biochemistry In IGIMS Patna.

Background & Objectives: Biochemistry is the basic science subject of first year MBBS course. It describes all the biochemical reactions occurring in the body, which makes the subject difficult and the student looses interest in it. In our institute, teaching is done mainly by didactic method. We introduced case based learning method (CBL) for teaching. The objective of this study was -1. To compare score of students by two methods of teaching – traditional lectures and case based methodology. 2. To evaluate student’s feedback regarding their perception to case based learning. Methods: After getting written consent from 1st year MBBS students , they were divided into two groups. One group (50 students - case) was taught by case based learning method and another group (50 students control group) was taught by traditional method. Improvement in their performance was assessed by MCQ and statistically compared. Perception of both groups about CBL was taken by a set of questionnaire based on Likert’s scale. Results: Statistically significant increase in performance of student taught by CBL method than student taught by traditional method was seen. Student’s and faculties’s perception about CBL was positive. All students found the CBL as effective method for learning. Conclusion: CBL is a good teaching learning method to increase involvement and interest of student in learning and enhance their academic performance. [Dr. Rekha K NJIRM 2016; 7(5):82-86]

Choroidal thickness profile in healthy Indian subjects.

Purpose: The aim was to study choroidal thickness (CT) and its profile based on location in healthy Indian subjects using Cirrus high definition (HD) optical coherence tomography. Materials and Methods: A total of 211 eyes of 115 healthy subjects with no retinal or choroidal disease were consecutively scanned using Cirrus HD 1 line raster scan mode without pupillary dilation. Eyes with any ocular disease or axial length (AXL) >24 mm or <20 mm were excluded. Experienced technician measured CT from the lower border of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) to the lower border of choroid. CT was measured from the posterior edge of the RPE to the choroid/sclera junction at 500‑μm intervals up to 3000 μm temporal and nasal to the fovea. Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate the correlation between CT at various locations and age, AXL, spherical equivalent, and macular thickness. Results: Mean age was 42.8 ± 13.6 years. Mean AXL was 22.84 ± 0.78 mm. Median spherical equivalent was 0.16 ± 0.64 D. Mean central macular thickness was 216.4 ± 30.03 μm. Choroidal was thinnest nasally and thickest subfoveally. On multivariate regression, age was the most significant factor affecting subfoveal CT (P = 0.000). Regression analysis showed an approximate decrease in CT of 1.18 μm every year. Conclusions: Our study provides CT profile in Indian healthy subjects in various age groups. CT depends on its location, subfoveal being the thickest and nasal being the thinnest. Age is a critical factor, which is negatively correlated with CT.

Design and evaluation of fast dissolving tablets containing diclofenac sodium using fenugreek gum as a natural superdisintegrant

Objective: To formulate diclofenac sodium as fast dissolving tablets (FDTs) using fenugreek gum as a natural superdisintegrant which also possess anti-inflammatory activity.Methods:physicochemical characterizations. The swelling index and viscosity of fenugreek gum was 221% and 293.4 mpa.s respectively. FDTs of diclofenac sodium was formulated by direct compression technique using different concentrations (1%-6%, w/w) of fenugreek gum as a natural superdisintegrant and compared with renowned synthetic superdisintegrants like sodium starch glycolate and croscarmellose sodium. The anti-inflammatory activity of a formulation was evaluated with carrageenan induced experimental rats.Results:An attempt was made to extract the fenugreek gum and evaluated it for various friability, hardness and results complied with the limits. The drug release from all the formulations ascertained first order kinetics. Among all the formulations F3 containing fenugreek gum with the concentration of 6% produced least disintegrating time 21 seconds resulting in higher drug release rate 93.74% at the end of 25 min. Hence, it was considered as optimized formulation. The present study revealed that the fenugreek gum as a natural superdisintegrant showed better disintegrating property than the most widely used synthetic superdisintegrants like sodium starch glycolate and croscarmellose sodium in the formulations of FDTs. The formulated tablets were evaluated for various physical tests like weight variation, Conclusions: The results suggested that the fenugreek gum act as a good super disintegrating agent and it showed promising additive anti-inflammatory activity with diclofenac sodium.

Serum magnesium level in preterm labour.

Preterm labour, (PTL) defined as labour after 28 weeks but before 37 completed week of gestation, is an ill omen for our country as the incidence is 5-10% leading to 70-80% of perinatal deaths. Besides varied etiology, it may be due to alteration in basic biochemical functions of the body at cellular level stating emphasis to trace elements, of which magnesium, being one of them, is subject of interest now a days. Serum magnesium was estimated in fifty cases of Preterm labour of idiopathic etiology (28-37 wks), 35 normal pregnancy cases of the same gestational age and 15 normal non-pregnant ladies. Varied hypomagnesemia was observed in Preterm labour cases (1.47 mg/dl +/- 0.22 S.D.), normal value of serum magnesium was found in normal non-pregnant ladies and slightly low value were observed in pregnant ladies of same gestational age. Age and parity had no significant effect on serum magnesium level in our study. As far as socio-economic study is concerned, it was found to be higher in high socio-economic group and low in lower group. Thus from this study it can be concluded that estimation of serum magnesium in pregnancy may prove to be a valuable tool in predicting preterm onset of labour.

Covert bacteriuria in nephrotic syndrome.

Prevalence of covert bacteriuria in patients of nephrotic syndrome admitted for kidney biopsy was studied in 205 patients. Age ranged from 10 years to 65 years. 148 patients were male and 57 were female. Prevalence of covert bacteriuria was found in 38 patients (18.53%). In bacteriuric patients 30 were male, 8 were female. Escherichia coli was the commonest organism grown in bacteriuric patients (30 or 78.9%). Serum albumin was low and 24-hour urinary protein excretion was high in bacteriuric patients in comparison to abacteriuric patients. In bacteriuric patients membranous nephropathy was the commonest histopathological finding present in 15 patients (39.47%).