Inclusion body fibromatosis - A report of four cases and review of literature.

Inclusion body fibromatosis (IBF) also called the "Reye tumor" is a rare spindle cell proliferation with distinct clinicopathological features. This is a report of four cases of IBF from a single institute. Typical location, age, size of the lesion, bland histology, and paranuclear inclusions are the distinguishing features of this entity. Medical literature search reveals very few series of cases of IBF, the remaining cases being in the form of case reports. The aim of this report is to highlight the typical features of this rare entity.

Domestic violence against women--an international concern.

Domestic violence is a pattern of assault and coercive behaviour including physical, sexual and psychological attacks, by a person against his/her own intimate partner. Women are more frequently the victims. After a global overview of the prevalence and nature of domestic violence against women especially in Mauritius, this articles provides a discussion about health problems and risk factors among the female victims with the objective of giving preventive measures to eradicate it from society. NGOs, along with legislative measures, have proven helpful in improving quality of life and preventing violence-related injuries among women. The health sector also plays an important role as part of multi-sector efforts in early detection and prevention of cases of domestic violence. Psychiatrists are in a unique position for early identification of such patients as well as intervention.

Smoking habits, its forms and impact on pulmonary health in planes of Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 611 rural and 164 urban subjects were studied. Smoking was found more prevalent in urban areas as compared to rural areas. In relation to sex it was more prevalent among urban males and rural females. Bidi was the commonest mode of smoking among rurals, and cigarette in urban population. Pulmonary function test (PFT) analysis proved that smoking causes definite pulmonary functional impairments among smokers. Though its aetiology in producing restrictive impairment remains doubtful and may be additive only but its role in precipitating obstructive impairment is definite in urban smokers. On the contrary rural non-smokers suffer more from the obstructive impairment. Environmental pollution, exposure to toxic fumes and industrial gases in urban areas and organic and inorganic dust exposure in rural areas may be responsible for precipitation of pulmonary function impairments among non-smokers.

Breastfeeding in babies delivered by cesarean section.

One hundred mothers undergoing cesarean section and their infants were studied regarding various factors affecting the establishment of breastfeeding during their stay in hospital (mean = 11 +/- 3.6 days). Nearly two-thirds (65.7%) of mothers who underwent elective cesarean section, and 62.8% of mothers who received spinal anesthesia were breastfeeding exclusively; while only 53.8% mothers who had undergone an emergency cesarean section and 28.6% who received general anesthesia were exclusively breastfeeding their neonates. All 9 mothers who initiated breastfeeding within 12 h of the surgery were practicing total breastfeeding. In contrast only 5.8% of mothers who initiated breastfeeding after 96 hours, were exclusively breastfeeding their neonates. Total breastfeeding was more frequent (86.8%) in newborn infants who received prelacteal feeds by spoon as compared to those who received by feeding bottle (33.3%). Babies separated from the mothers in hospital were less likely (35.5%) to be on total breastfeeding as compared to those (68.1%) who were not separated from their mothers. This study suggests that for proper establishment of breastfeeding in mothers undergoing cesarean section an elective procedure under spinal anesthesia promotes, early initiation of breastfeeding. Early initiation of breastfeeding has highly significant correlation with establishment of breastfeeding while separation of babies from mothers discourages breastfeeding.

Neutrophil chemotactic factor produced by Japanese encephalitis virus stimulated macrophages.

The mechanism of neutrophil leucocytosis in cases of Japanese encephalitis is not known. We here report that during Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection in mice the splenic macrophages secrete a chemotactic factor that attracts the neutrophils. The peak activity of macrophage derived factor (MDF) was observed on day 7 following infection. The MDF acted in a dose-dependent manner. This chemoattractant was purified by low pressure liquid chromatography and gave a single band of 10 kD on silver stained polyacrylamide gel. The MDF was found to be heat resistant and sensitive to prolonged incubation with proteases.

Acute renal failure due to rifampicin.

A 23-year-old male patient with bacteriologically proven pulmonary tuberculosis was treated with the various regimens of antituberculosis drugs for nearly 15 months. Rifampicin was administered thrice as one of the 3-4 drug regimen and each time he developed untoward side effects like nausea, vomiting and fever with chills and rigors. The last such episode was of acute renal failure at which stage the patient was seen by the authors of this report. The patient, however, made a full recovery.

Cardiovascular responses elicited by microinjection of monoamines into mesencephalic nucleus dorsalis raphe in cats.

The effect of monoaminergic agonists and antagonists microinjected into mesencephalic nucleus dorsalis raphe has been studied on blood pressure and heart rate to elucidate the nature and role of these monoaminergic receptors in cardiovascular regulation. Microinjection of monoamines, noradrenaline, phenylephrine and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) into nucleus dorsalis raphe elicited hypertension and tachycardia which could be blocked by local pretreatment with piperoxan (an alpha-adrenoceptor blocker) and methysergide (a 5-HT receptor blocker) respectively. However, isoprenaline microinjections failed to evoke any response. Bilateral vagotomy did not prevent these cardiovascular responses evoked by monoamines microinjection, while cervical spinal cord (C1) transection with bilateral vagotomy prevented these responses. These monoaminergic receptors seem to be localized in nucleus dorsalis raphe since microinjection of monoamines into neural structures adjoining nucleus dorsalis raphe, failed to induce any cardiovascular response. Monoaminergic receptors are present in nucleus dorsalis raphe which modulate cardiovascular activity by influencing sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the intermediolateral columns of the spinal cord.