Risk Factors For Chronic Respiratory Diseases Among Rural Adults in Northwest India

Chronic respiratory diseases(CRD) remain a formidable challenge for public health experts acrossthe world due to their ever increasing morbidity and mortality. This study investigated various riskfactors for CRD among rural adults aged 20 years and above. The study was conducted in fourvillages under sub-health centre Domana in Kot Balwal health block and these villages wereselected randomly. For this cross-sectional population based study, a pre-tested respiratory healthquestionnaire was used. Those respondents who were found to be diagnosed cases of CRD werefurther enquired in detail about various risk factors for CRD. Out of 2018 respondents surveyed,177confirmed cases of CRD were detected.Various risk factors like being male, smoking, overcrowding,recurrent chest infections and use of non-clean fuel (wood, cow dung) were found to bestatistically significant. Among other risk factors, ventilation and history of allergy were found tobe highly significant statistically (p< 0.000). Smoking, recurrent chest infections, use of biomass fuel,ventilation and history of allergy were risk factors for CRD in rural adults aged 20 years andabove.

Thyroid Lesions: FNAC and Histopathology Correlation in Our Experience.

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology is considered the gold standard diagnostic test for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a cost effective procedure that provides a specific diagnosis rapidly with minimal complications. Based on the cytology findings, patients can be followed up in cases of benign diagnosis and subjected to surgery in cases of malignant diagnosis thereby decreasing the rate of unnecessary surgery. The purpose of the present study was to correlate the fine needle aspiration cytology findings with histopathology of excised specimens. Methods: This was a prospective study conducted on 310 consecutive patients between June 2012 and May 2015. All patients with clinically diagnosed thyroid nodule were included in the study. Results: In our study sensitivity of the thyroid FNAC ranges from 93.02% to 100% and its specificity from 60.42% to 96.62% respectively. Positive predictive value is 94.44% and negative predictive value is 100%. Commonest benign condition is multinodular goiter and malignancy is papillary carcinoma. Most difficult thyroid lesions to be reported are those in the intermediate category as cytomorphological features are overlapping.Conclusion: Fine needle aspiration cytology is a simple, easy to perform, cost effective, and easily repeated procedure for the diagnosis of thyroid cancer. It is recommended as the first line investigation for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules.

Involvement of Neuropeptide Orexin B in Basolateral Amygdala Mediated Consummatory Behaviour in Male Wistar Albino Rats.

The basolateral amygdala has been implicated in the regulation of food intake besides the hypothalamic centres. In the present study, we hypothesized that the Orexin B, a polypeptide identified in the lateral hypothalamic region, may be involved in the modification of the functions the of amygdaloid centres. We therefore studied the effect of infusion of Orexin B and its antagonist (TCS-OX2-29) into Basolateral amygdala to study the feeding behaviour. Materials and methods: Adult male Wistar albino rats were selected and grouped into control, sham operated control and experimental groups (n=6 each) Orexin was infused in two doses (3 nmol/μl, 30 nmol/ μl) and TCS-OX2-29(10 μg/μl) was infused in another group. Sequential Food intake and water intake were measured at 1, 2, 4, 6, 12 hours and intake for the day was also recorded in all groups and the results (mean±SEM) were statistically analyzed by Kruskal Wali’s test and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The food intake and water intake were significantly increased (p<0.01) in the high dose group though the increase in the low dose treated animals was less. Injection of Orexin B antagonist decreased the food and water intake significantly. Discussion and conclusion: The results suggest that Orexin plays a role in the modulation of feeding behaviour. In the lower doses it did not show significant effect. At higher doses, the effect was marked. The role of orexin in ingestive behaviour is further confirmed by the action of antagonist infusion, which resulted decrease in the feeding activities.

Colorectal malakoplakia in a child presenting as multiple polyposis coli.

Malakoplakia of the gastrointestinal tract is a rare chronic infl ammatory disorder, usually affecting the descending colon, sigmoid colon and rectum. It is commonly seen in adults. Only few cases have been reported in children. We report a case of malakoplakia of colon and rectum in a 7-year-old child who presented with multiple polyposis coli.

Effect of Orexin-A infusion in to the Nucleus Accumbens on consummatory behaviour and alcohol preference in male Wistar rats.

Background: Effect of administration of Orexin-A into nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in relation to the regulation of feeding behavior and alcohol consumption at specific time intervals is relatively unknown. Materials and methods: In this study, Male Wistar albino rats (n=54) weighing about 250±10 grams were implanted bilaterally with guide cannula (22 gauze) to target NAcc by stereotaxic surgery. Saline (0.9%) for control and Orexin-A for experimental groups (100 pmol or 250 pmol) were infused by Harvard picoplus pump. Food, water and alcohol (10%) consumption were measured at 1, 2, 4 and 24 hours to evaluate the effect of Orexin-A in fasted rats (24 hours). Preference study was carried out by two bottle choice test. Results: Orexin-A infusion into NAcc showed significant increase in food at 1 hr in all groups compared to controls (p<0.05) and alcohol (p<0.02) intake. The changes were dose dependent. There was no noticeable preference or alcohol. Conclusions for: These findings showed that Orexin-A in NAcc could be involved in feeding and drinking but not alcohol preference. The results highlight the effect of Orexin A infusion into NAcc in consummatory behaviour besides other hypothalamic and mesolimbic centres.

A hospital based study of Hereditary Hemolytic Anaemias in Davanagere district of Karnataka, India.

Background: Hereditary hemolytic anaemias constitute important cause of mortality and morbidity in developing countries next only to infection and malnutrition.These group of anaemias have various clinical presentations starting from their age of onset of symptoms, failure to thrive, anaemia, prostration, jaundice, splenomegaly, cholelithiasis, cardiomegaly, congestive cardiac failure, severe life threatening infections and chronic disabilities leading to distress in the families. Methodology: An analysis of 40 cases of hereditary hemolytic anaemia in the age group of 2 months to 12 years was done in the present study. On the basis of clinical presentations, physical findings, routine hematological investigations and hemoglobin electrophoresis pattern in hemoglobin defects were carried out to identify the type of hemolytic anaemias. Results: This clinocohematological study of hereditary hemolytic anaemia showed membrane defects- Hereditary spherocytosis in 4 cases (10%). The remaining 36 cases were having diseases affecting hemoglobin molecule which included Sickle cell anaemia-5 cases (12.5%), Sickle cell trait- 1 case (2.5%), Sickle cell/􀈕 thalassemia-1 case (2.5%), 􀈕 thalassemia major- 23 cases (57.5%) and 􀈕 thalassemia trait 6 cases(15%). Hereditary hemolytic anaemia with enzyme defects were not observed in this study. Majority of these cases presented with progressive pallor and hepatosplenomegaly. Peripheral blood smear examination showed microcytic hypochromic anaemia (87.5%) in majority of the cases. All cases were associated with reticulocytosis. Hemoglobin electrophoresis confirmed the diagnosis. Conclusion: Inspite of advanced diagnostic inestigations, the basic hematological investigation remains first panel or step towards the approach to diagnose hereditary hemolytic anaemia and hemoglobin electrophoresis will help in confirming the diagnosis.

Constitutive Heterochromatin Polymorphism In Pediatric Cancer Patients.

Incidence of constitutive C-band heteromorphism (CBH) is reported to be higher in patients with malignancy by some studies, while in others no difference is reported between control and malignant conditions. We have studied incidence of CBH in pediatric cancer patients in terms of > 25% size difference between the homologues of chromosome #1, #9 and #16 and compared it with (i) age-matched controls, (ii) controls with minimum 60 years of age and (iii) parents/siblings of pediatric cancer patients and overall prevalence of CBH was comparable between patients and three groups of control subjects. Statistically significant difference was observed between the total lengths of C-band of chromosome #1 for pediatric cancer patients and first degree relatives group (p < 0.01). 17 families of pediatric cancer patients were studied for the pattern of CBH. In three patients, CBH analysis, more number of cancer families and normal pedigrees will be more informative. The problem still remains unresolved and should be analyzed qualitatively using techniques of molecular cytogenetics.