Barriers to Early Diagnosis and Treatment among Breast Cancer Survivors: Qualitative Study in Tertiary Care Hospital, North Karnataka

Introduction: Around the World, Breast cancer has become one of the common cancers among women. Prevalence and mortality of Breast cancer in India are 18 lakh & 12.7 per lakh cases respectively. One of the important reasons behind late presentation & high death rate is the lack of breast cancer awareness. Objectives: To assess the barriers in diagnosis and treatment among breast cancer patients and to explore the perception about cancer prevention among them. Methods: A qualitative study was done among women with confirmed breast cancer who were admitted to KIMS, Hubballi, and Cancer hospital, Navanagar in April 2019. Data collection was done by the In-depth interview method and analyzed as per qualitative study protocol standards. Results: The data was collected among 14 participants. Themes were generated accordingly. The findings showed lack of awareness, myths, financial constraints, negligence were the major barriers to the early presentation of breast cancer. Conclusion: This study showed barriers such as lack of awareness, negligence, fear, financial constraints, myths and misconceptions, social stigma, lack of family support. Measures taken to reduce mortality by early diagnosis and treatment.

Corneal staining during cataract surgery: Natural course, ASOCT features, and preventive measures

We report the natural course of the accidental injection of trypan blue into the corneal stroma while performing a routine cataract surgery by a resident during a training session. The corneal staining resolved with conservative medical treatment over 7 weeks. This case describes the anterior segment optical coherence tomography (ASOCT) features of corneal staining. It emphasizes on the relatively benign nature of this dye and the follow-up course. Causes that may be responsible for this untoward complication are highlighted with the necessary preventive measures that need to be taken care are also discussed.

Progression of early phase diabetic nephropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats: Evaluation of various kidney-related parameters.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the serious secondary complications of diabetes, which results in end-stage renal failure. Reports on the progressive nature of early phase DN especially with respect to kidney parameters such as kidney weight, type IV collagen excretion, total kidney and urinary glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are few. This work was undertaken to determine systematically the progression of early phase DN in relation to various kidney-related parameters for a period of four months. Experimentally-induced diabetic rats were grouped based on fasting blood glucose levels. Various basic and kidney-related parameters such as kidney weight, microalbuminuria, urinary excretion of GAGs and type IV collagen, total kidney GAGs, histopathology, glomerular area and glomerular volume were examined in control and diabetic rats. There was a progressive increase in fasting blood sugar, urine sugar, kidney weight, microalbuminuria, urine glycosaminoglycans, urine type IV collagen, glomerular area and glomerular volume but there was a progressive decrease in kidney glycosaminoglycans. Glomerular sclerotic condition was aggravated with the increase in duration of diabetes from 1 to 4 months. Onset of DN in rats begins subtly after one month of diabetes but gets vitiated and more pronounced at the end of four months.