Radiological Age estimation from Xiphi-sternal joint in living person.

Age determination is very important. The perfect way to store the age related data is still lacking in developing countries. For age determination, different parts of the skeleton are more useful at different age ranges. The different age ranges include fetal, children, teen age, young adult, and older adult. Age determination is required in both civil as well as criminal cases. So for these cases, forensic experts are entrusted duty to determine the age. Forensic experts rely on radiographs of various bones and joints to determine age. Most of the age determination data available in middle and old adult is from autopsies and not from living population radiographs. Due to lack of this living person radiograph database, Xiphisternal joint is studied to determine the age in middle and old people. Lateral view radiograph of this joint was done in people whose exact date of birth was known and who had a valid proof of date of birth.

Dedicated decontamination: A necessity to prevent cross contamination in high throughput mycobacteriology laboratories.

Unrecognized cross-contamination has been known to occur in laboratories frequently, especially with sensitive recovery system like BACTEC 460 TB. In March 2001, we investigated a pseudo-outbreak of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in three smear negative clinical specimens and would like to present our experience in this communication. METHODS: All suspected cases were confirmed by checking the drug susceptibility and DNA fingerprints using spoligotyping as well as restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS: On investigation, the most likely cause was found to be the use of common decontamination reagents and phosphate buffer. CONCLUSIONS: To avoid erroneous diagnosis, we have devised a dedicated decontamination procedure, which includes separate aliquoting of phosphate buffer and decontamination reagents per patient. Timely molecular analysis and appropriate changes to specimen processing have been identified as useful measures for limiting laboratory cross contamination.

Use of bactec 460 TB system in the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

PURPOSE: To evaluate, the efficacy of BACTEC 460 TB system for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai, India. METHODS: We compared 12,726 clinical specimens using BACTEC 460 TB system and conventional method for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis over a period of six years. Result: The overall recovery rate was 39% by BACTEC technique and 29% using Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium. An average detection time for B actec0 460 TB system was found to be 13.3 days and 15.3 days as against 31.2 days and 35.3 days by LJ method for respiratory and nonrespiratory specimens respectively. The average reporting time for drug susceptibility results ranged from 6-10 days for the BACTEC 460 TB system. CONCLUSIONS: The BACTEC system is a good system for level II laboratories, especially in the diagnosis of extrapulmonary and smear negative tuberculosis.

Identification of amastigote-specific antigens of Leishmania donovani using kala-azar patient sera.

Antigenic characterization of the soluble fraction of axenic amastigotes of Leishmania donovani ( strain Dd8, causative agent of Indian kala-azar) and their comparison with promastigotes is reported. The axenic amastigotes were assessed for their immunological status employing anti-A2 monoclonal antibody which is extremely specific for L. donovani amastigotes. SDS-PAGE of 35[S] methionine labeled proteins of the two parasite stages exhibited few stage specific and some conserved antigens in both the stages. An increased synthesis of heat shock proteins was observed in axenic amastigotes. Western blot experiments employing sera of kala azar positive patients identified immunodominent antigens of 116,83,26 and 12 kDa in axenic amastigotes which were not present in promastigotes. These amastigote stage specific antigens may have immense potential in immunodiagnosis and prophylaxis of kala-azar.

Effect of low voltage on electrical properties of eye lens.

In the present study, the Cole-cole plot of lens tissue has been drawn using AC impedance system (EG and G PARC Model 318) in the frequency range 10 mHz to 10 Hz at low voltage stress. The impedus locus between real part (Z') and imaginary part (Z") of complex impedance of lens was examined. Results showed that the extracellular resistance (Re), distribution factor (alpha) and depressed angle (theta) were significantly varied at experimental low voltages. An attempt has been made to explain the electrical data of voltage-tissue interaction on the basis of solid state biophysics.

Effect of sodium stibogluconate on hepatic mixed function oxidase system and marker enzymes of golden hamsters during Leishmania donovani infection.

During L. donovani infection in golden hamsters, tremendous hepatic damage was observed as apparent from increased activities of glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, glutamate pyruvate transaminase, succinate dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphatase and acid ribonuclease. The levels of cytochrome P-450 and related monooxygenases, viz. aniline hydroxylase and aminopyrine-N-demethylase registered significant decrease in infected animals. Sodium stibogluconate, a standard antileishmanial drug, though caused the removal of parasites from infected tissues, but did not help in the recovery of deranged hepatic markers. The results explain the higher mortality of stibanate treated infected animals as compared to untreated animals infected with L. donovani.

Biochemical changes in heat stressed promastigotes of Leishmania donovani.

On exposing promastigotes of L. donovani (Dd-8) to 34 degrees C for 30 hr, the flagella were shed, and size was decreased with 10% viability loss. The in vitro and in vivo infectivity of two forms was more or less similar. The 45Ca2+ uptake by the transformed cells was increased as compared to normal cells. Activity of 5'-nucleotidase was increased while activity of Mg(2+)-ATPase remained same. Parasite antioxidant enzymes were also significantly altered by heat shock. There was significant increase in superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase. It was accompanied by decrease in ratio of reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione.

Status of glutathione in lymphoid tissues of golden hamster during Leishmania donovani infection.

During Leishmania donovani infection of golden hamsters, changes in the glutathione levels of lymphoid tissues were observed. While in liver and thymus there was significant decrease in the levels of reduced and oxidised glutathione, that in spleen, bone marrow cells, peritoneal exudate cells and lymph nodes increased, indicating a role for host glutathione in establishing the infection.