Effect of passive smoking on endothelial function in: healthy adults.

BACKGROUND: Active smoking predisposes to atherosclerotic vascular disease but recent evidence that inhalation of environmental tobacco smoke (passive smoking) may also have deleterious cardiovascular effects, has enormous public health implications. Endothelial dysfunction is an important early feature of atherogenic process, which may occur due to passive smoking. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of passive smoking on endothelial function (measured by flow-mediated dilatation, a marker of endothelium-dependent arterial dilatation) and compare it with non-smokers. STUDY DESIGN: Case control study. SETTING: Out-Patient Department of Medicine, Government Medical College, Nagpur. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-five young, healthy, male adults between 15-30 years age were studied. There were three groups: (a) Non smokers (n = 25) (b) Passive smokers (n= 25) and (c) Active smokers (n = 25). Subjects with diabetes mellitus, hypertension and ischemic heart disease were excluded. Lipid profile was measured in all. Endothelial function was tested non-invasively by using high frequency linear vascular probe on brachial artery. Resting brachial artery lumen, flow at rest and after hyperemia, flow-mediated dilatation and nitroglycerine-induced dilatation were measured. RESULTS: The mean brachial artery lumen dilatation and flow at rest were similar in all the three groups. Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD%, a marker of endothelium-dependent dilatation and endothelial function) was significantly higher in non-smokers than passive smokers (8.9 +/- 4.8 Vs 5 +/- 2.3, p < 0.01) and also as compared with active smokers (8.9 +/- 4.8 Vs 6.6 +/- 2.2, p < 0.05). Nitroglycerine-induced dilatation, (a marker of endothelium-independent dilatation ) was similar in all the three groups. Serum lipids (mean cholesterol, LDL, and mean LDL/HDL ratio) were statistically significantly higher in passive and active smokers as compared with non-smokers (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Like active smoking, passive smoking was also associated with impaired endothelial function, (a key early event in atherogenesis) and altered lipid profile, in healthy young adults.

Short PR interval and abnormal systolic time interval as a method of carrier detection in maternal relations of patients with muscular dystrophy.

Seventeen relatives of patients with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (Group A) and 6 relatives of patients with adult type of muscular dystrophy (Group B) were studied. Short PR interval on electrocardiogram and abnormal systolic time interval (STI) were consistent findings in 14 of 15 female relatives (93.35%) in group A, while these criteria were lacking in group B. Myopathic pattern (i.e. tachycardia, short PR interval, R/S ratio in V1 greater than 1.5, significant Q wave in V4, V5, V6 on electrocardiogram) was present in two (13.35%) of 15 female relatives from group A. It was absent in group B. Male relatives in both the groups had normal electrocardiogram and normal systolic time interval.

Single dose therapy of ascariasis--a randomized comparison of mebendazole and pyrantel.

A multicentre, randomized trial was carried out to compare the efficacy of two single-dose treatments for ascariasis: mebendazole 200 mg, and pyrantel 10 mg/kg. Each centre enrolled 200 patients with a suspected diagnosis of ascariasis, 100 for each treatment, and the treatments were randomized for each centre. To confirm the diagnosis, stools were examined for eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides by Kato's thick smear method. Efficacy was evaluated by stool examination repeated three weeks after treatment by a "blind" technician using two methods, viz. Kato's thick smear method and the zinc sulfate flotation method. Cure was defined as absence of ascaris eggs in the stools by both methods. Of the 600 enrolled patients, 32 were excluded from analysis as their initial stool examination was negative, and 568 completed the trial: 284 on each treatment. The cure rate was 80 per cent in the mebendazole group and 90 per cent in the pyrantel group (P less than 0.01). Thus pyrantel was found to be significantly more efficacious than mebendazole for single-dose treatment of ascariasis.