Burden of central nervous system infection in cases of fever with seizure and its association with outcome: an experience in a tertiary care center of Uttarakhand, India

Background: CNS infections have been linked to adverse neurological sequelae notably seizures and mortality. Although, various etiologies of AFE have been studied, but the mystery still remains untangled for the substantial risk factors for the diagnosis and outcome.Methods: This prospective study was carried out on 67 children between 2 months to 15 years, from (May 2016 to April 2017) tertiary care centre of Uttarakhand. Patients were analysed for demographic variables, haematological parameters, CSF analysis, neuroimaging and their outcome was assessed at one month of follow up.Results: This study showed, 70% (n=47) of the cases presented in acute febrile encephalopathy. Most cases were diagnosed with pyogenic meningitis (40%, n=27) and More commonly occur during rainy season (39%; n=26) radiologically meningeal enhancement (28%; n=18) as the most common finding. Cases of acute febrile encephalopathy with GCS ?5 had significant association with mortality. (Fischer exact value of 0.005; significant at p<0.05).Conclusions: Clinical signs of meningitis are not always reliable, and a laboratory support is required to reach early diagnosis hence. Pseudomonas and MRCONS were the major pathogens responsible for the bacterial meningitis among the paediatric age groups, hence antibiotic management should be planned intensively while culture reports are awaited. Cluster of cases with meningoencephalitis were found in rainy season hence suggested possible etiologies are JE/ Scrub/ Enterovirus. Mortality as well as morbidity was high in cases with acute encephalitis syndrome cause? JE/unknown etiology in this era for modern medicine hence vector control strategies be encouraged.

Screening for disease resistance in barley cultivars against Bipolaris sorokiniana using callus culture method.

Screening for resistant barley genotypes in response to fungal toxin of Bipolaris sorokiniana was assessed on standing barley plants as well as in selected callus lines of the same. For the standing lines tested, those manifesting chlorosis in response to toxin infiltration showed a significantly slower disease progress as compared to the necrotic lines. Also, necrosis in the callus tissues of the susceptible cultivar in MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of the crude toxin was significantly higher than in the callus tissues of the chlorotic lines studied. Similar host response to the toxin in in vitro and field situations open up the possibility of screening barley cultivars for resistance to spot blotch using callus culture as against classical methods of screening in order to increase accuracy and save time and space.

Inheritance and identification of molecular markers associated with spot blotch (Cochliobolus sativus L) resistance through microsatellites analysis in barley

Spot blotch resistant (IBON 18) and susceptible (RD 2508) lines were crossed to investigate inheritance of resistance and to identify simple sequence repeats (SSRs) associated with resistance. F1 resistance was intermediate and suggested additive nature of inheritance. Three additive genes was noted in the distribution of F3, F4 and F5 generations. In F6 and F6-7, the quantitative and qualitative approaches also suggested the control of three resistance genes. The parents and the RILs (F6/F6-7) were grown in four environments and spot blotch severity recorded. Forty five SSR primers, specific for chromosomes 1 (7H) and 5 (1H), were applied. Of these, 12 were polymorphic between the parents, and between the resistant and susceptible bulks. Three markers BMS 32, BMS 90 and HVCMA showed association with resistance, which was further confirmed through selective genotyping. The co-segregation data on the molecular markers (BMS 32, BMS 90 and HVCMA) and spot blotch severity on 173 RILs was analyzed by single marker linear regression approach. Significant regression suggested linkage among BMS 32, BMS 90 and HVCMA and the three resistant genes (designated as Rcs-qtl-5H-1, Rcs-qtl-5H-2 and Rcs-qtl-1H-1.) respectively. These markers explained 28 percent, 19 percent and 12 percent of variation respectively, for spot blotch resistance among the RILs.