Lessons from neurolathyrism: A disease of the past & the future of Lathyrus sativus (Khesari dal).

Neurolathyrism is past history in India since Lathyrus sativus (khesari dal) is no longer used as a staple. A consensus has evolved that khesari dal is harmless as part of a normal diet. L-ODAP (β-N-oxalyl-l-α-diamino propionic acid) the neurotoxic amino acid, from this pulse, is detoxified in humans but not in animals but still no laboratory animal is susceptible to it under acceptable feeding regimens. L-ODAP is an activator of protein kinase C and consequential crucial downstream effects such as stabilization of hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) could be extremely conducive to humans under a variety of situations. ODAP is gradually finding a place in several patents for this reason. Homoarginine the second amino acid from L. sativus can be a better substrate for endogenous generation of nitric oxide, a crucial signaling molecule associated with the cardiovasculature and control of hypertension. These features could make L. sativus a prized commodity as a functional food for the general cardiovasculature and overcome hypoxic events and is set to change the entire perception of this pulse and neurolathyrism.

Knowledge, attitude and practices about leprosy among medical officers of Hyderabad urban district of Andhra Pradesh.

In India, MDT was implemented through vertical programme staff of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme till the year 2001, when it was integrated into general health services (GHS). Human resource development of GHS is a vital, preparatory action for successful integration of leprosy into GHS. District Technical Support Teams (DTST) have been formed with responsibility for building the capacity of medical and paramedical staff of urban health posts (UHPs). In this context, it is necessary to know the current levels of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) about leprosy prevailing among health staff at a given point in time, so that required knowledge and skills can be imparted, if need be. The present study is an attempt in this direction for assessing the KAP status of health staff working in Hyderabad city. 402 staff members (352 females and 50 males) working in urban health posts, the Employees State Insurance Corporation and the Central Government Health Services dispensaries in Hyderabad urban district in Andhra Pradesh were included in the study carried out in 2004 in order to assess KAP, and some operational parameters. A questionnaire was used to elicit responses of 110 medical officers in urban Hyderabad and the data were analysed and discussed. Medical officers have shown consistent higher knowledge on leprosy, followed by nursing staff as compared to other paramedical workers Only 40% of the medical officers had the opportunity of seeing at least 1 case of leprosy in their practice. Medical Officers who received training in leprosy and possessed reference material on leprosy have shown higher knowledge and practice. More than half of the study subjects did not have specific training in leprosy. Two major operational problems expressed by the medical officers were managing big crowds in OPD and time lost in meetings. 96 (87.3%) of 110 medical officers felt integration of leprosy services into general health services can be effectively implemented. 78 (71%) expressed that a leprosy patient with severe reaction needed priority attention at the out-patient department indicating good understanding of reactions in leprosy and a positive attitude towards such patients. There is a need to organize training at regular intervals to cover new persons as well as reinforcing and updating the knowledge of those already trained.

Remediation of attention deficits in head injury.

Head injury is associated with psychological sequelae which impair the patient's psychosocial functioning. Information processing, attention and memory deficits are seen in head injuries of all severity. We attempted to improve deficits of focused, sustained and divided attention. The principle of overlapping sources of attention resource pools was utilised in devising the remediation programme. Tasks used simple inexpensive materials. Four head injured young adult males with post concussion syndrome underwent the retraining program for one month. The patients had deficits of focused, sustained and divided attention parallel processing, serial processing, visual scanning, verbal learning and memory and working memory. After the retraining programme the deficits of attention improved in the four patients. Serial processing improved in two patients. Parallel processing and neuropsychological deficits did not improve in any patient. The symptom intensity reduced markedly and behavioural functioning improved in three of the four patients. The results supported an association between improving attention and reduction of symptom intensity. Attention remediation shows promise as a cost effective, time efficient and simple technique to improve the psychological and psychosocial functioning of the head injured patient.

A monomeric protein with hemagglutinating activity from seeds of Vigna mungo (Phaseolus mungo).

Black gram (Vigna mungo) seeds are shown to contain a lectin with certain unusual features. The lectin agglutinates only trypsinized red cells, and its sugar specificity is complex as none of the common sugars, oligosaccharides or complex polysaccharides exhibit any affinity for the lectin. The purified lectin has a molecular weight of 58 kDa and is a monomer. Unlike other plant lectins, antibodies to the P. mungo lectin do not exhibit any immunological cross reactivity. The clot forming ability of the lectin is unusual in that the clot once formed is rapidly disaggregated indicated that it induces, as yet undefined, certain membrane alterations.

Mitral valve repair: techniques and results.

From January 1986 to December 1989, seventy patients underwent mitral valve repair. Sixty-four patients had severe mitral stenosis (MS) and mitral regurgitation (MR), while six patients had severe mitral regurgitation (MR) only. The technique used was a combination of posterior semicircular annuloplasty, mitral commissurotomy and chordal shortening. There were two operative deaths. All except three of the surviving patients are asymptomatic. There has been no episode of thromboembolism. One patient has required valve replacement and two others have had a revision of the repair in the follow up period. Predischarge and late (3 months to 3 years) echocardiography suggests that the repair is satisfactory.

An enzymic method for the determination of chitin and chitosan in fungal cell walls.

The free and N-acetyl glucosamine contents, serving as a measure of the amounts of chitosan and chitin respectively, were determined in the chitinase hydrolysates of the cell wall of a wild strain of Neurospora crassa. Chitinase, obtained from cultures of Serratia marcescens, could hydrolyse the cell wall completely apart from being capable of hydrolysing preparations of chitin and chitosan. The free and N-acetyl glucosamines, released by chitinase hydrolysis, were determined by a modified Morgan-Elson reaction carried out in the presence and absence of acetic anhydride. The method is capable of estimating chitin and chitosan contents in as little as 100 μg of cell wall material.