A comparative study of balloon mitral valvuloplasty and closed mitral commissurotomy in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis.

Rheumatic mitral stenosis is frequently encountered in our country. It affects younger population and is a major cause of morbidity Mitral valvotomy is the definitive therapy for this disease and can be achieved by closed mitral commissurotomy (CMC), open mitral commissurotomy (OMC) or by percutaneous transluminal mitral valvuloplasty (PTMV). Compared to CMC, PTMV is less invasive but more expensive at this moment. With the reduction of cost, PTMV may become the procedure of choice for the treatment of rheumatic mitral stenosis in future.

Application of filter paper method for collection of blood for MLPA test.

The results of MLPA test using serum and filter paper eluate have been compared in this paper. Testing 64 patient samples at 1:32 dilution, 31 were negative by both serum and eluate, 20 were positive by both, six were positive only by serum and one was positive only eluate. In six other cases eluate gave equivocal results while serum result was clearly positive. Some eluates negative at 1:32 dilution gave weak positive agglutination at 1:16 dilution.

Maternal deaths--a ten-year study.

In a 10-year retrospective study of maternal deaths at RG Kar Medical College, Calcutta there were 651 maternal deaths with 410 in first 5-year period and 241 in second 5-year period. The leading causes of deaths were due to abortion, toxaemia, haemorrhage (antepartum and postpartum) and jaundice in pregnancy. Direct causes were responsible for death in 77.6% cases, indirect causes in 17.5% cases and unrelated causes in 4.9% cases. Majority (557) were unbooked and mostly multigravida (434) cases. Most of them (251) were in the age group of 20-25 years. Haemorrhage was the single most common cause to claim 188 lives. It was also noted that 155 deaths occurred within 12 hours of hospital admission.

A single form of metallothionein is present in both heavy metal induced and neonatal chicken liver.

Multiplicity of metallothionein and their genes in higher animals are documented extensively in recent literature. In contrast, chicken liver produced apparently a single form of metallothionein upon heavy metal exposure. This protein was purified by gel filtration and ion exchange chromatography and another technique based on heat treatment and acetone fractionation, followed by ion exchange chromatography. In adult uninduced chicken liver the presence of metallothionein was below the detection limit. But, like mammalian system, chicken liver was found to contain high amount of metallothionein at neonatal stage. This naturally occurring neonatal chicken hepatic metallothionein was purified and compared with the heavy metal induced adult hepatic metallothionein. The biochemical and immunobiological comparative analysis of adult and neonatal hepatic metallothionein showed identical characteristics. The neonatal metaltothionein expressed naturally was a zinc metallothionein and unlike few other mammalian neonatal metallothionein did not contain any copper. Metallothionein was undectable in unfertilized eggs, in early embryos, and in postnatal chicken, from 4 weeks after birth. The highest level of this naturally occurring neonatal metallothionein was found in 1–4 day old neonatal liver, which was about 1·5% of the total cytosolic protein. This is the first reported evidence for the presence of ontogenically modulated expression of metallothionein in avian system. Possible biological role of neonatal metallothionein and their cellular interactions has been discussed.

Iodide transport in isolated cells of mouse submaxillary gland.

A method has been developed to isolate cells from the submaxillary gland of mouse by treatment with pronase. Three fractions of cells have been isolated having almost equal iodide concentrating activity. The isolated cells show time dependent uphill transport of iodide. The transport is substrate-saturable, having a Km value of 0·3 μΜ for iodide. The transport is sensitive to antithyroid drugs, metabolic inhibitors and to some extent to ouabain. Pseudohalide such as thiocyanate competes with the transport of iodide. Thyroid hormones or thyroid stimulating hormone have no significant effect on the iodide transport in these cells.