Incidence of Metopic Suture in Adult Human Crania in Uttar Pradesh

Introduction: Failure of ossification in the vertical direction between the two halves of the frontal bone is called a metopic suture; this suture is present in between the superciliary arch and tubers of the frontal bone so it is also called a median frontal suture. At birth, the frontal bone present is two half, in the 1st year they contact each other, and within the 7th to 8th year, they fused together. Sometimes, bones may not be fused completely and it becomes metopic fontanelle. MaterialsandMethods: The goal of the current study was to determine the prevalence of metopic suture in adult human skulls in Uttar Pradesh. One hundred and fifty macerated skulls of undetermined age and sex were used for this. The anatomical departments of Teerthankar Mahaveer Medical College and Research Center (Moradabad), King George Medical College (Lucknow), SRMS Institute of Medical Science (Bareilly), Govt. Medical College Kannauj, and Govt. Medical College Saharanpur provided these skulls. Results: This study has found the incidence of metopic sutures of about 12.90%. The two types of metopic sutures were found in this study, namely complete metopic suture 4.52% and incomplete metopic suture 8.38% in which found 0.64% “V” shape metopic suture. Conclusion: Themorphological study of metopic sutures on adult crania is useful for anatomists, experts in forensic medicine, and neurologists for performing surgical procedures in this area

Design and validation of Integrated Yoga Therapy module for Antarctic expeditioners

Background: Extreme environments are inherently stressful and are characterized by a variety of physicaland psychosocial stressors, including, but not limited to, isolation, confinement, social tensions, minimalpossibility of medical evacuation, boredom, monotony, and danger. Previous research studies recommend adaptation to the environment to maintain optimal function and remain healthy. Different interventions have been tried in the past for effective management of stress. Yoga practices have beenshown to be beneficial for coping with stress and enhance quality of life, sleep and immune status.Objective: The current article describes preparation of a Yoga module for better management of stressorsin extreme environmental condition of Antarctica.Materials and methods: A Yoga module was designed based on the traditional and contemporary yogaliterature as well as published studies. The Yoga module was sent for validation to forty experts of whichthirty responded.Results: Experts (n ¼ 30) gave their opinion on the usefulness of the yoga module. In total 29 out of 30practices were retained. The average content validity ratio and intra class correlation of the entiremodule was 0.89 & 0.78 respectively.Conclusion: A specific yoga module for coping and facilitating adaptation in Antarctica was designed andvalidated. This module was used in the 35th Indian Scientific expedition to Antarctica, and experimentsare underway to understand the efficacy and utility of Yoga on psychological stress, sleep, serum biomarkers and gene expression. Further outcomes shall provide the efficacy and utility of this module inAntarctic environments.© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institute of Transdisciplinary Health Sciencesand Technology and World Ayurveda Foundation. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-NDlicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Awareness about rabies and health seeking behavior among animal bite victims attending a tertiary care hospital of Jharkhand

Background: Rabies is an acute fatal disease of central nervous system, caused by Lyssavirus Type 1. Rabies in dogs is the source of 99% of human infection. Awareness about rabies and health seeking behavior are crucial determinants of rabies control. Present study was done to assess awareness regarding animal bite and health seeking behavior among affected population.Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in central emergency department of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand for a period of four months. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Sample size was 114 using consecutive sampling method. The participants were interviewed after taking informed consent. Data collected were entered in MS Excel and analyzed using SPSS version 20.Results: A total of 114 subjects participated in the study of which 83 (72.8%) were male and 31 (27.2%) female. Most commonly affected age group found was 21-30 years (35.1%). Majority 101 (88.6%) of them resided in urban areas, and only 79 (69.3%) acquired secondary education and above. Most of the animal bite was caused by dogs 102 (89.5%), unprovoked 79 (69.3%) in nature and most common site involved lower limb 70 (61.4%). Majority 68 (59.6%) of the dog bite wound were of category II. Only 55 (48.2%) of animal bite victims washed their wound with soap and water. Majority 58 (50.9%) of the study participants had no knowledge about consequences of dog bite. Median reporting time to tertiary institute was found to be four hours.Conclusions: There was average level of awareness about rabies among animal bite victims attending RIMS, Ranchi

Radiological Morphometric Study of Angle of Inclination in Adult Human Femur from North India

Background: The femur is one of the long bones being thoroughly studied anatomically and has three parts; proximal, distal end and a long shaft. The angle between femur neck and angle with the long axis of shaft, are known as neck-shaft angle, collodiaphyseal angle, and also known as cervico-diaphyseal angle, angle of inclination, and femoral carrying angle, Neck – shaft angle is important regarding its stability, control of lateral balance, walking and facilitates hip movement. It varies with age, body structure, width of pelvis, being less in adult in persons short with limbs and in women. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Anatomy and department of radiology Government medical college Saharanpur, uttarprades, The antero-posterior view of pelvic radiograph taken from the Department of Radiology Government medical college Saharanpur, uttarprades.the70 samples were included in the study. Results: The mean right angle of inclination was 126.760±4.330 with range 1180-1350 and left angle of inclination was 128.100±5.340 with range 1180-1360. The overall angle of inclination was 127.420±4.530 with range 118.50-1350. Conclusion: The angle of inclination in adult human femur gives a basic structural and functional knowledge to prevent the abnormality with the help of orthopedic surgeon and society and mentian the stability, control of lateral balance, walking and facilitates hip joint movement, helpful to understand different aspect of clinical disease conditions, including changes in osteoporosis, common site of fracture, associated congenital anomalies as well as medicolegal cases.

Assessment of Sahiyya (Accredited Social Health Activist) in relation to antenatal services: Ormanjhi, Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Background: Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) acts as a „bridge‟ between the rural people and health service outlets and would play a central role, in achieving national health and population policy goals. In Jharkhand ASHA is known as “Sahiyya”. The present study was aimed to assess Sahiyyas in relation to antenatal services delivered by her in the field practice area Ormanjhi of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi. Methods: This was a community based cross sectional study. All Sahiyyas (26), women having children under 3 years of age (196), pregnant women (140), Anganwadi workers (AWWs) (16) and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) (6) from the study area were recruited for the study. Assessment of antenatal services delivered by Sahiyyas was done based on interview with Sahiyyas which was then crosschecked through the responses of beneficiaries, AWWs and ANM. Results: All Sahiyyas in the study area were aware about her job responsibilities like help during registration and mobilization during pregnancy but when cross checked, 70.2% and 60.9% beneficiaries received help during registration and mobilization. Out of 336 beneficiaries, only 23.2% and 19.9% responded that were counselled by Sahiyyas on nutrition and adequate rest during pregnancy during their home visits. Conclusions: Sahiyyas were well aware of her responsibilities related to antenatal services like counselling mothers on diet, rest and other health advices through home visits but these jobs were not being done passionately by her as other incentive oriented jobs.

Multi-domain cognitive screening test for neuropsychological assessment for cognitive decline in acclimatized lowlanders staying at high altitude.

Background & objectives: Ascent to high altitude has been reported to cause hippocampal atrophy and cognitive impairment in mountaineers. We assessed the cognitive performance and probable occurrence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in acclimatized lowlanders (ALL) staying at altitudes above 4,300 m for duration above 12 months and validated a multi-domain cognitive screening test (MDCST) for future demographic studies on MCI. Methods: Following evaluation of sensitivity and correlation of the newly developed MDCST battery with Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scores on a group of 28 individuals, the MDCST battery was validated on a population of 843 ALL staying at high altitude MSL >4,300 m and 862 subjects staying at MSL <230 m. EEG recordings were performed on 840 ALL staying at altitudes above 4,300 m and 743 control subjects staying at MSL <230 m. Results: Percentage prevalence of MCI was 4.18 per cent in the ALL population as assessed by MMSE while that of the LL population was <0.42 per cent. The percentage prevalence of MCI based on calculations from the MDCST scores was 12.4 per cent in the ALL population as compared to 1.19 per cent in the LL population. Decrease in alpha wave amplitude at the T3 and T4 sources in MCI subjects was observed in LL group while there was an increase in amplitude for alpha wave in these regions in the ALL groups. Domain specific MDCST showed decline in immediate recall, procedural memory and mind body co-ordination which was negligible in the LL population. Interpretation & conclusions: MDCST exhibited excellent psychometric properties in terms of sensitivity, and test-retest reliability qualifying it to be used as a more effective cognitive measure for assessment of MCI in demographic studies in comparison to traditional measures. Our findings also showed increased prevalence of MCI in ALL population staying for longer durations at high altitude which is neurophysiologically distinct from MCI leading to Alzheimer's disease.

Aggregation properties of a short peptide that mediates amyloid fibril formation in model proteins unrelated to disease.

Short peptides have been identified from amyloidogenic proteins that form amyloid fibrils in isolation. The hexapeptide stretch 21DIDLHL26 has been shown to be important in the self-assembly of the Src homology 3 (SH3) domain of p85α subunit of bovine phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3-SH3). The SH3 domain of chicken brain α- spectrin, which is otherwise non-amyloidogenic, is rendered amyloidogenic if 22EVTMKK27 is replaced by DIDLHL. In this article, we describe the aggregation behaviour of DIDLHL-COOH and DIDLHL-CONH2. Our results indicate that DIDLHL-COOH and DIDLHL-CONH2 aggregate to form spherical structures at pH 5 and 6. At pH 5, in the presence of mica, DIDLHL-CONH2 forms short fibrous structures. The presence of NaCl along with mica results in fibrillar structures. At pH 6, DIDLHL-CONH2 forms largely spherical aggregates. Both the peptides are unstructured in solution but adopt β-conformation on drying. The aggregates formed by DIDLHL-COOH and DIDLHL-CONH2 are formed during drying process and their structures are modulated by the presence of mica and salt. Our study suggests that a peptide need not have intrinsic amyloidogenic propensity to facilitate the selfassembly of the full-length protein. The propensity of peptides to form self-assembled structures that are nonamyloidogenic could be important in potentiating the self-assembly of full-length proteins into amyloid fibrils.

Body composition & cardiovascular functions in healthy males acclimatized to desert & high altitude.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Several physiological changes affecting physical fitness occur in humans whenever they are exposed to extremes of environments such as heat, cold and high altitude (HA). The present study was undertaken to evaluate effect of stay in desert and HA on physical fitness and body composition of physically active individuals. METHODS: Study was conducted on three groups of male soldiers (n=30 in each group) at different climatic conditions i.e., temperate (plains of north India), hot desert (Rajasthan), and HA (3600 m) in Western Himalayas. Subjects were acclimatized to hot and HA environments and had similar BMI (body mass index). Body fat, lean body mass, haemoglobin levels were determined along with, blood pressure and physical fitness index (PFI). RESULTS: The body fat of subjects at temperate, desert and HA was found to be 15.4, 12.8 and 16.9 per cent respectively. The resting heart rate and blood pressure were higher in altitude group in comparison to others. PFI score of volunteers at temperate, desert and HA were found to be 97.4 +/- 10.3, 92.4+/- 14.4 and 83.8 +/- 6.2 respectively. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: A combination of different factors i.e., higher resting pulse rate, increased blood pressure and body fat may be responsible for lower PFI at HA. The observed differences in body fat content of different groups could be an adaptive feature to the environment.

Clinical outcome of autologous cultivated limbal epithelium transplantation.

PURPOSE: To report the clinical outcome of autologous cultivated limbal epithelial transplantation. METHODS: Eighty-six patients' records and their clinical photographs were reviewed for demographics, primary etiology, type of limbal transplantation, ocular surface stability, visual acuity, final outcome and possible factors affecting outcome and complications. RESULTS: Eighty-eight eyes of 86 patients with limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) underwent autologous cultivated limbal epithelium transplantation between March 2001 and May 2003, with a mean follow-up of 18.3 months. The etiology of LSCD was alkali burns in 64% patients. Sixty-one eyes had total LSCD. Thirty-two of the 88 eyes had undergone amniotic membrane transplantation and 10 eyes had previously undergone limbal transplantation with unfavorable outcome. Nineteen eyes underwent penetrating keratoplasty, of which 11 grafts survived at the final follow-up. Finally, 57 eyes (73.1%, 95% CI: 63.3-82.9) had a successful outcome with a stable ocular surface without conjunctivalization, 21 eyes (26.9%, 95%CI: 17.1-36.7) were considered failures and 10 patients were lost to follow-up. CONCLUSION: LSCD can be successfully treated by autologous cultivated limbal epithelium transplantation in majority of the cases.

Ex-vivo potential of cadaveric and fresh limbal tissues to regenerate cultured epithelium.

PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare the ex-vivo growth potential and formation of cultured corneal epithelium from residual corneo-limbal rings obtained from the operating room after penetrating keratoplasty, and fresh limbal tissues from patients undergoing routine cataract surgery. METHODS: With the approval of the Institutional Review Board and informed consent from patients, 1-2 mm of limbal tissues from 15 patients and 31 tissues from the cadaveric limbal ring preserved in MK medium (16 tissues) and Optisol (15 tissues) were used for the study. Donor data included age, time lapse between death and collection, collection and preservation and preservation and culture. Tiny bits of the limbal tissue were explanted on the de-epithelialised human amniotic membrane prepared following standard guidelines, and cultured using Human Corneal Epithelial cell medium. Radial growth from the explant was observed and measured by phase contrast microscopy over 2-4 weeks. After adequate confluent growth, whole mount preparation of the membrane was made and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Part of the membrane was fixed in formalin and processed for routine histologic examination. The sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin. RESULTS: Forty-six tissues were evaluated from 42 eyes (15 from patients, 31 from cadaveric eyes) with a mean age of 55.3 years +/- 21.23 years (range 18 years - 110 years). The growth pattern observed was similar in all the positive cases with clusters of cells budding from the explant over 24-72 hours, and subsequent formation of a monolayer over the next 2-3 weeks. The stained whole mount preparation showed a radial growth of cells around explants with diameter ranging from 5 to 16mm. Histologic evaluation of the membrane confirmed the growth of 2-3 cell-layered epithelium over the amniotic membrane. Cultivated epithelium around explant cell cultures was observed in 100% (15/15) of limbal tissue obtained from patients, as against 56% (9/16) of MK medium preserved tissues and 46.7% (7/15) of Optisol preserved tissues. This was statistically significant (P=0.0131) There was no significant statistical difference in the growth properties, i.e, the mean percentage of fragments showing growth (P=0.229) or the mean diameter of growth (P=0.479) in the cultures obtained from fresh and preserved tissues. The time lapse at various stages between death and utilisation and donor age had no significant influence on the growth potential of the limbal tissues. CONCLUSION: The potential for generating cultured corneal epithelium from fresh limbal tissues obtained from living subjects is higher than that observed with preserved tissues. It would also be worthwhile to address the factors that could further enhance the proliferative potential of the cadaveric tissues obtained from eye banks.

Protective effect of Gingko biloba extract against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in mice.

Doxorubicin (DXR) causes dose dependent cardiotoxicity in experimental animals and in humans. In chronic doxorubicin cardiotoxicity model mice, the role of G. biloba extract (Gbe) which has an antioxidant property, was investigated. Doxorubicin treated animals showed higher mortality (68%), increased ascites, marked bradycardia, prolongation of ST and QT intervals and widening of QRS complex. Myocardial SOD and glutathione peroxidase activity were decreased and lipid peroxidation was increased. Ultrastructure of heart of DXR treated animals showed loss of myofibrils, swelling of mitochondria, vacuolization of mitochondria. G. biloba extract significantly protected the mice from cardiotoxic effects of doxorubicin as evidenced by lowered mortality, ascites, myocardial lipid peroxidation, normalization of antioxidant enzymes, reversal of ECG changes and minimal ultrastructural damage of the heart. The results indicate that administration of G. biloba extract protected mice from doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.