study of non spinal, extra articular, osseous tuberculosis in a tertiary care hospital of Lahore Pakistan

The incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis has increased tremendously during the present decade and is expected to rise further. A prospective study of 21 patients with osseous tuberculosis was carried out in orthopaedic department unit - I Mayo Hospital, Lahore.The diagnosis was made by physical examination, mantoux and mycodot test, haematological examination, culture [Pus, Urine, Sputum] X-rays of involved area, bone scan and MRI. The patient were discharged on chemotherapy and were advised to visit for follow up for one year on monthly basis for initial four months. Out of 21 patients 19 completed their follow up while 2 were lost during follow up. All patients completed their treatment. Young females in the age group of 10-20 years [66.6%] suffered from the disease more frequently than the other age groups and the male to female ratio was found to be 1:1.6

Gastric projecting neurons of dorsal [motor] nucelus of the vagus nerve [DMV] and their arborization

Objective: the purpose of this study is to locate the gastric projecting neurons in the DMV and examine their dendritic arborization

Material and methods: to achieve these objectives aqueous solution of cholera toxin conjugated horseradish peroxidase [CT-HRP] was injected in to the walls of the stomach using Hamilton syringe. The retro- gradely labelled gastric projecting neurons and their dendritic arborization was mapped in the DVC. The anterograde labelling was also observed in the DMV and subnuclei of the nucleus of the tractus solitarius [NTS]

Results: this light microscopic study revealed the areas where overlapping between the DMV, its dendritic tree and afferent terminals of the central nucleus of the Amygdala [CeA] could occur. These areas will be taken up for future ultrastructural evidence for synapses between the axon terminals of the CeA and gastric projecting neurons. In addition, vago-vagal connections were observed

Conclusion: the results from this study and the previous experiments'" indicate that the most likely areas for such contacts to occur are within and across the dorsal border of the DMV, in the dorsomedial and dorsal parts of the NTSm, and in the commissural nucleus of the NTS. In these regions, input from the CeA overlaps the distribution of labelled cell bodies and dendrites of gastric projecting neurons. It was in these areas; therefore, that ultrastructural evidence for synapses between CeA axon terminals and gastric vagal motor neurons was sought [in preparation]