A profile of coping skills in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome

Introduction: Coping skills adopted by patients suffering from chronic diseases such as Polycystic OvarianSyndrome (PCOS) can impact the psychological well-being and outcome. This however has not beenadequately studied in India. The aims of the study were to to study the type of coping skills used by thepatients of PCOS, to evaluate any difference in coping skills between patients with and without psychiatricco-morbidity and to study any correlation between coping skills and quality of life and body-mass index.Materials and Methods: 70 females in the reproductive age group (18-45 years) diagnosed with PCOS asper Rotterdam’s Criteria without any pre-existing psychiatric illness were clinically interviewed forpresence of anxiety and depression. Their coping skills were assessed using Brief Cope Scale. Their qualityof life was evaluated using World Health Organization Quality Of Life –BREF Scale. The scores werecompared using paired and unpaired t test and ANOVA.Results: Patients used both adaptive and maladaptive coping skills but scores on adaptive coping skillswere higher than those on maladaptive coping. Problem focused coping was significantly higher than bothemotional coping and dysfunctional coping. There was no significant difference in the coping skills inpatients with and without psychiatric morbidity. There was no significant correlation between coping andquality of life and body-mass index.Conclusion: Coping skills did not have a significant impact on the psychiatric morbidity or quality of lifeor body-mass index among patient with PCOS.

The use of handheld spectral domain optical coherence tomography in pediatric ophthalmology practice: Our experience of 975 infants and children.

Purpose: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an important imaging tool assessing retinal architecture. In this article, we report a single centers experience of using handheld spectral domain (SD)‑OCT in a pediatric population using the Envisu 2300 (Bioptigen Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC, USA). Methods: We studied SD‑OCT images from 975 patients imaged from January 2011 to December 2014. The variety of cases that underwent an SD‑OCT was analyzed. Cases examples from different case scenarios were selected to showcase unique examples of many diseases. Results: Three hundred and sixty‑eight infants (37.7%) were imaged for retinopathy of prematurity, 362 children (37.1%) underwent the test for evaluation of suboptimal vision or an unexplained vision loss, 126 children (12.9%) for evaluation of nystagmus or night blindness, 54 children (5.5%) for an intraocular tumor or a mass lesion such as retinoblastoma, and 65 children (6.7%) for other diseases of the pediatric retina. The unique findings in the retinal morphology seen with some of these diseases are discussed. Conclusion: The handheld SD‑OCT is useful in the evaluation of the pediatric retinal diseases. The test is useful in the assessment of vision development in premature children, evaluation of unexplained vision loss and amblyopia, nystagmus and night blindness, and intraocular tumors (including retinoblastoma).

Fungistatic activity of Semecarpus anacardium Linn. f nut extract.

Alcoholic extract of dry nuts of S. anacardium showed dose dependent antifungal activity in vitro against Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans. At 400 mg/ml concentration, growth of both the fungi was inhibited and considerable reduction in size of cells and hyphae was observed. Sporulation also decreased.