RESUMO
Purpose: Sensitive, specific, rapid and cost-effective technique for malaria diagnosis is need of the hour. Microscopy has been the gold standard for malaria diagnosis, but its interpersonnel variability and lack of sensitivity make it subjective test. Conventional polymerase chain reaction (cPCR) has proven to be sensitive technique, but costly and time-consuming. Considering these factors, we have compared microscopy and cPCR with newly derives ultra-fast, portable PCR machine called Palm PCR. Materials and Methods: Palm PCR is arranged with three heat blocks precisely made for three stages of PCR cycles with 34 min for 1100 bp Plasmodium genus outer primer to amplify and 10 min each for Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax inner primers of 120 bp and 205 bp, respectively. A total of 191 suspected samples were processed and evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: The area under ROC curve analysis for Palm PCR with reference standard microscopy for P. falciparum, P. vivax and Plasmodium was 0.8969, 0.9121 and 0.9116, respectively, and with reference standard cPCR was 1.0 for all of them. ROC curve area close of suggests that Palm PCR can be as significant as cPCR in malaria diagnosis. In fact, ultra-rapid amplification with same precision makes Palm PCR better technique than cPCR. Conclusion: Palm PCR is sensitive, rapid and works on battery with simple laboratory facility requirements. Portable electrophoresis and transilluminator combined with Palm PCR could be implemented as an important diagnostic tool in resource-limited and rural areas. Similar studies with wider parameters in rural areas will help us evaluate and maybe establish Palm PCR as PCR platform of choice for such specific set-ups.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in our society with dyslipidemia contributing significantly to atherosclerosis. Thus measurement of plasma lipids would help in identifying people at risk for CVD. The goal of this study was to ascertain the prevalence of Dyslipidemia among young adult population in urban India. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was conducted for a period of one year--from 1st January 2006 to 31st December 2006. Around 1805 subjects with > or =40 age group were selected from a population of approximately 9000 urban dwellers who had attended annual general health check ups in P. D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical research Center. Health status was evaluated by physical check ups, complete fasting lipid profiles and blood glucose levels. Dyslipidemia risk and impaired blood sugar levels were determined as per National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) - Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III guidelines and American Diabetes Association (ADA) respectively. RESULTS: The prevalence of dyslipidemia was observed to be higher in males then in females. Among participants who had a total Cholesterol (TC) concentration > or = 200 mg/dl, 38.7% were males and 23.3% were females. High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was abnormally low in 64.2% males and 33.8% in females. The increase of prevalence of hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia was more prominent in 31-40 age group than in < or =30 age group. CONCLUSION: The low percentage of adults with controlled lipid concentrations suggests that there is a need for awareness programs for the prevention and control of Dyslipidemia and impaired blood sugar levels.