Hypoglycemic effect of Catharanthus roseus in normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

The effects of crude juice (at 0.5 and 1 ml/kg b.w.) and aqueous extract (at 0.30 and 0.45 gm/kg b.w.) of leaves of Catharanthus roseus on serum glucose level in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats were examined at 8 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours following single oral administration. The administration of crude juice at 1 ml/kg b.w. continued for another 9 doses (total 10 single morning doses given) and its effect was examined on the 4th and 11th day. The rats were made diabetic by single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin at 45 mg/kg b.w. Glibenclamide was used in the study for comparison. The crude leaf juice at 0.5 and 1 ml/kg b.w. reduced the serum glucose level in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats throughout the 24-hour period significantly (P varies between 0.05 and 0.001 at different times). The aqueous extract at 0.30 and 0.45 gm/kg reduced the serum glucose level in streptozotocin diabetic rats at 8 and 12 hour significantly (P varies between 0.05 to 0.01 at different times) but not at the 24 hour. Glibenclamide, at 500 mug/kg, also reduced the serum glucose level in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats throughout the 24-hour period (P<0.001).The crude leaf juice at 1 ml/kg also significantly reduced the serum glucose level in the streptozotocin induced diabetic rats on the 4th and 11th day (P<0.001 on both occasions). The effect of crude leaf juice at 1 ml/kg b.w administered daily orally over a 10 day period was also examined on a group of normal rats at different times. The study showed significant reduction at 8 hr (P<0.05), 12 hr, 24 hr and on the 4th day (P<0.01 on these 3 occasions) and also on the 11th day (P<0.001).

Preoperative discrimination of benign and malignant ovarian tumors using color Doppler sonography and its correlation with histopathology.

A total of forty clinically diagnosed ovarian tumors were studied over a period of one year. The study aimed at evaluating the efficacy of trans-vaginal color Doppler sonography (TV-CDS) in preoperative discrimination of benign and malignant ovarian tumors and to correlate the imaging findings with postoperative histopathological findings. The pulsatility Index (PI) and Resistive Index (RI) were studied as primary effecacy variables of TV-CDS. In the present study, using TV-CDS, 72.5% of the ovarian tumors were found benign and 22.8% were malignant which were significantly correlated with postoperative histopathological findings. The average PI for benign and malignant tumors were 1.98 and 0.77 respectively and RI for benign and malignant tumors were 0.62 and 0.41 respectively. The low PI and RI values in malignant tumors as compared to benign ones were statistically highly significant (p < 0.001). The validity tests for TV-CDS were found to be 90% sensitive, 100% specific and 97% accurate. The study concludes that TV-CDS is a useful imaging diagnostic modality in preoperative discrimination of benign and malignant ovarian tumors due to its excellent characterization of tumors neo-vascularization.