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Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major causative agent of parenterally acquired hepatitis. Vertical transmission of HCV occurs from mother to infant during pregnancy, delivery, or neonatal period. Hepatitis C infection among pregnant females can adversely affect both mother and fetus, leading to chronic infection in infants who later develop liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of hepatitis C among pregnant females attending antenatal clinic.Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was done over a period of six months from January to June 2019. A total of 550 pregnant females were included in the study who attended Antenatal Clinic for routine check-up and whose blood samples were sent to Microbiology Laboratory for screening of anti-HCV antibodies by Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method.Results: Out of 550 pregnant females tested, 3 were found to be reactive to anti-HCV antibodies by ELISA; hence the prevalence was found to be 0.5%. All 3 seropositive females belonged to age group 26-35 years, were indoor patients (IPD) and belonged to lower socio-economic class. Majority of seropositive females belonged to urban areas (66.7%, 2/3) as compared to those from rural areas (33.3%, 1/3).Conclusions: Although, prevalence of hepatitis C was found to be less among pregnant females attending ANC of this institute, still routine screening of all pregnant females for anti-HCV antibodies is highly recommended, for timely detection of disease in mothers and prevention of its transmission to infants.
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Chronopharmacology aims at the use of biological rhythms in the clinical treatment to enhance both effectiveness and tolerance and minimizes the side effects of a drug by determining the best biological time for its administration. It involves bot h the investigation of drug effects as a function of biologic timing and the investigation of drug effects upon rhythm characteristics. Rhythmicity has been detected in several physiological variables such as pulse, temperature, blood pressure and hormonal secretions like diurnal variation insulin effects on blood glucose. The goal of chronopharmacology is to optimize the therapeutic effect and control or reduce the adverse effects without altering the functioning of the drug in the body. Auto-induction, auto- inhibition and food effects are considered to be the reasons of chronopharmacology. The effectiveness and toxicity of many drugs vary depending on dosing time associated with 24 hrs rhythm of biological, physiological and behavioral processes under the control of the circadian clock. Now a day, the chronopharmacological principle is used in the therapy of various diseases such as angina, hypertension, asthma, peptic ulcer, diabetes, migraine, etc. This article aims to introduce chronopharmacology, their terminologies, causes and need of it, biological clock and biological rhythms in various biological systems and the dependence of diseases on biological rhythms.
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Background: Hepatitis B infection is one of the most common public health problems worldwide. Hepatitis B virus Surface Antigen (HBsAg) positive mothers may transmit the virus vertically to neonates transplacentally during pregnancy, perinatally during delivery or postnatally through breast milk. Such neonates being carriers of virus are at a very high risk of developing chronic liver diseases at a younger age and also, they act as reservoirs of infection in the community. Objective of the study is to evaluate the seroprevalence of HBsAg in pregnant females attending Antenatal Clinic.Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was done from January to June 2019. A total of 840 pregnant females were included in the study who attended Antenatal Clinic for routine checkup whose blood samples were sent to Microbiology Laboratory for screening of HBsAg by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).Results: Out of 840 pregnant females included in the study, 8 were reactive to HBsAg, hence, prevalence was found to be 0.95%. The seroprevalence of HBsAg was found to be more (1.40%) in 26-35 year females. Maximum seropositivity was seen in females from urban areas (1.0%), those attending OPD of ANC (1.03%) and those who belonged to lower socio-economic class (1.02%).Conclusions: Routine free screening for HBV infection should be offered to all antenatal females to reduce the risk of vertical transmission to the neonates born to infected mothers, thereby, preventing them from becoming carriers and developing chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma later in life.
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Giant cell tumor (GCT) involving distal ulna being rare with reported rate of 0.45-3% of all GCT cases; the literature has only sporadic cases reported. Various treatment options have been proposed, and dilemma exist whether to do resection alone or resection combined with stabilization or reconstruction. Also, there is no conclusive evidence regarding the method of stabilization or reconstruction. A case of GCT of lower end ulna treated with excision of the distal end of ulna and stabilization of stump with extensor carpi ulnaris tendon slip in a 41-year-old female. The patient had an excellent functional outcome and no evidence of recurrence at 2 years of follow-up. Resection of ulna proximal to the insertion of pronator quadratus could lead to instability in the form of radio-ulnar convergence and winging of the ulnar stump and result in limitation of forearm rotation and weakness in grasping. Stabilization of the ulnar stump after resection for a GCT gave excellent results.
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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.