Postural dysautonomia in response to head-up tilt in a military pilot aspirant: Aeromedical considerations

Intolerance to orthostasis encompasses a group of responses on assumption of upright posture. One such response is postural dysautonomia. One of the types of postural dysautonomia is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which is characterised by an increase in heart rate of more than 30 bpm without hypotension along with other features of dysautonomia on attaining an erect posture, either actively or passively. This paper brings out a case of postural dysautonomia in a pilot aspirant in response to Head-up tilt (HUT) test. A 23-year-old female military pilot aspirant reported for evaluation of Syncope and Air Sickness. She gave a history of solitary episode of loss of consciousness on ground while preparing for an early morning sortie. She was diagnosed with a case of neurocardiogenic syncope and was put back to flying training. Subsequently, after about 2 months, she developed features of air sickness while flying and also could not tolerate preliminary motion sickness desensitisation at her unit. A thorough medical evaluation failed to reveal any neurocardiological abnormality. Before commencing the air sickness desensitisation protocol at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, she was subjected to HUT during which she developed signs and symptoms suggestive of postural dysautonomia. A test retest assessment with repeat HUT and passive standing test revealed similar responses.

BLENDED LEARNING INNOVATIVE EFFECTIVE STUDENT CANTERED EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES IN THE NURSING PROFESSION

Blended learning, a pedagogical approach is nowadays widely accepted as a combination of both “face-to-face” and online learning components. Concerns have grown throughout time regarding an instructional methodology and a teaching and learning strategy. Several studies and reviews all over the world highlighted that Blended Learning is the most effective method of transferring knowledge to the students and implementation of this approach in professional fields like medical, nursing, and paramedical courses will not only improve the teaching- learning environment but also motivate the students in the self-directed learning approach. The term is specifically given to the educational practice of using a combination of traditional classroom teaching and digital learning. National and internationally this method are being used in an educational institution to motivate the students in effective learning. Computers and technology have their own impact on Integrated learning and the teaching-learning process utilizes these impacts to improve the learning methods of the students.

Parenteral ciprofloxacin in persistent diarrhoea in children.

In a controlled trial of 30 cases of persistent diarrhoea in infants, ciprofloxacin was used parenterally for systemic antibiotic therapy. Group A cases (15 in number) were treated with parenteral ciprofloxacin and group B control cases (remaining 15) were treated with parenteral ampicillin and chloramphenicol or ampicillin/amikacin along with treatment of dehydration and malnutrition. All group A cases had excellent response and 9 infants of group B had no response up to day 4. After stopping all other drugs and with parenteral ciprofloxacin they responded favourably. Follow-up of all the cases was done regularly every 2 weeks for 6 months after discharge. No toxicity of ciprofloxacin was noted.

Immunochemical identification of mung bean actin like protein and its cellular involvement during germination.

Actin like protein, extracted and purified from Vigna radiata (mung bean) seedling, has been found to give positive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with mouse monoclonal antiactin antibody. In vivo studies show that cytochalasin Β at sublethal dose inhibits the chromosomal movement at metaphase stage during germination. From in vitro studies it is found that the actin like protein isolated from mung bean seedling has a cytochalasin Β binding property with a Kd value 1·2 × 10–5 M. From these two specific observations it appears probable that the biological function of mung bean actin like protein is to take part in cell division process directly or indirectly during the time of seedling development.