Gabapentin attenuates acute hypoxic stress-induced behavioral alterations and oxidative damage in mice: possible involvement of GABAergic mechanism.

The effect of gabapentin has been investigated on acute hypoxic stress-induced behavioral alterations and oxidative damage in mice. Mice were subjected to hypoxia for 2 hr. Treatment with gabapentin (50 and 100 mg/kg) significantly increased ambulatory movements, exerted anti-anxiety like effect and reduced oxidative damage in mice subjected to acute hypoxic stress. Treatment with picrotoxin (1.0 mg/kg) per se had no significant effect on behavioral and biochemical parameters of stressed mice. Treatment with muscimol (0.05 mg/kg) per se significantly increased the locomotor activity of stressed mice, exerted significant anti anxiety effect and significantly reduced the oxidative damage. Further, pretreatment with picrotoxin (1.0 mg/kg) significantly blocked whereas pretreatment with muscimol (0.05 mg/kg) significantly potentiated the neuroprotective effect of gabapentin. These results suggest that gabapentin produces its neuroprotective effect in mice subjected to acute hypoxic stress through GABA(A) receptor mechanism.

Serum transferrin receptor-ferritin index shows concomitant iron deficiency anemia and anemia of chronic disease is common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in north India.

Anemia is a frequent cause of morbidity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We studied the prevalence of anemia of chronic disorders (ACD) and ACD with coexistent iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in patients with RA using sTfR/log ferritin ratio (sTfR - F index). Complete blood counts, percent transferrin saturation, serum ferritin, sTfR, sTfR-F index measurements were carried out in 100 anemic RA patients. Twenty-five IDA subjects without any other illness and 25 age- and sex-matched normal controls were studied. Prevalence of anemia in RA patients was 50.5%. Patients with sTfR-F index value < 1.5 were classified as pure ACD and patients with sTfR-F index value> 1.5 were classified as ACD with coexistent IDA. Using these criteria, 20% patients were found to have pure ACD and 80% patients had coexistent ACD and IDA. In the normal control group, sTfR-F index was found to be 0.16-1.8. We found that sTfR-F index can clearly distinguish IDA control cases and normal subjects with no overlap in the range of sTfR-F index.

Disseminated herpes simplex infection with cystic fibrosis: a case report.

A 6 months old female infant presented with history of fever, cough and severe respiratory distress. There was past history of recurrent attacks of pneumonia. She succumbed to the illness after a hospital stay of 7 days. Postmortem revealed morphological evidence of cystic fibrosis along with herpes simplex infection of liver and adrenals. The co-existence of disseminated herpes simplex infection and cystic fibrosis is very rare.

Plasmacytoma of the clivus: a case report.

A 60-year-old male presented with headache and diplopia for 2 months. Computed tomography of the head showed a heterogeneously enhancing expansile lytic lesion in clival region. The patient underwent surgery and histopathological examination revealed it to be plasmacytoma of the clivus. The multiple myeloma work-up was negative. Solitary plasmacytoma localized to the skull base is extremely rare. Prior to this, only three case reports of plasmacytoma of the clivus have been described in the English literature.