Comparison of renal growth in breast fed and artificial fed infants: a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Renal growth in infancy determines renal function in adulthood and can easily be assessed via infant renal volume. Renal growth is influenced by many endogenous and exogenous factors among which nutrition is of prime importance. Worldwide, infants get their nutrition either from breast milk or formula, both of which have controversial roles in kidney growth and development. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done on healthy infants in the Pediatric Nephrology Department of Mayo Hospital, Lahore. These infants were either breastfed or artificially fed and their kidney volumes were noted to determine any significant difference in kidney size. Both informed and written consent was taken before data collection and the data was analyzed using SPSS version 26. RESULTS: Out of 80 infants included in our study, 55% were male and 45% were female. The mean age was 8.9 months and the mean weight was 7.6 kg. The mean total kidney volume was 45.38 cm3 and the mean relative kidney volume was 6.12 cm3/kg. No statistical difference in relative renal volume was found between breastfed and artificially fed infants. CONCLUSION: The present study aimed to compare the renal volume and thus renal growth in breastfed versus formula-fed infants. No statistical significance was found in relative renal volume between breastfed and artificially fed infants.

Thoracic imaging finding of rheumatic diseases.

In the era of Precision Medicine, diagnostic imaging plays a key role in initial diagnosis and treatment response assessment in thoracic manifestation of various rheumatic disorders; resulting in increased dependency on imaging for treatment planning. Chest radiographs serve as a good initial screening tool for assessment of emergent and urgent thoracic conditions, e.g., pneumothorax, pulmonary edema, consolidation and pleural effusions. Cross-sectional imaging techniques, e.g., computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) are most commonly utilized to evaluate more detailed pulmonary and mediastinal manifestations of rheumatic conditions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound are most commonly used in cardiovascular, neural and musculoskeletal structures. This review article aims to highly key common thoracic imaging findings of rheumatic disorders, highlighting imaging test of choice for the particular disorder.

Genetic diversity of serum proteins in some muslim populations of India.

The Muslim population of India is known for its historical and socioreligious significance. Literature on the genetic structure of this segment of India's population is scanty. Therefore we have investigated the allele frequency distribution of haptoglobin (HP) and transferrin (TF) phenotypes among the Muslims to explore the genetic diversity of the Muslim immigrant populations of Aligarh. Aligarh is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India (latitude 27 degrees 54'N, longitude 78 degrees 5'E), situated 130 km southeast of Delhi. The population is mainly represented by Muslim immigrants from the eastern, northern, southern, and western regions of India and from abroad. Differences in allele frequencies of both HP and TF were statistically significant for the population of immigrants from western India and insignificant for others. The alleles HP*2 and TF*C2 show maximum frequencies in the southern population (0.882 and 0.822, respectively) followed by the eastern population (0.862 and 0.807) and the northern population (0.806 and 0.650). In the northern population a third allele, TF*C3, is also detected, with a mean frequency of 0.044. The average heterozygosity (H(L)) values for HP and TF are 0.273 and 0.361, respectively, and the pooled values for gene diversity parameters for both loci are H(T) = 0.4294 +/- 0.0351, H(S) = 0.4225 +/- 0.0271, and D(ST) = 0.0069 +/- 0.0051. The pooled G(ST) value is 0.0153 +/- 0.0108. The magnitude of these values indicates genetic similarity among the investigated populations. Our AMOVA results also demonstrate similarity among populations of the same geographic region. However, we note substantial differentiation among different regions (Phi(CT) = 0.221). The UPGMA dendrogram shows a cluster between the eastern and southern populations, to which the northern population joins. Our results reveal genetic similarity among different immigrant populations, with the western population being the most distant. Therefore the present study on culturally, geographically, and linguistically different endogamous groups of Muslims may have significance in understanding their genetic relationship.