Prevalence of Organic Colonic Lesions by Colonoscopy in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome Fulfilling Rome III Criteria.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder usually diagnosed by using symptom-based diagnostic criteria. Recent evidence suggests the presence of organic diseases in some patients fulfilling the diagnostic criteria of IBS which may be missed unless investigations are performed. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to find out the prevalence of organic colonic lesions at colonoscopy in patients with IBS fulfilling the Rome III criteria.The study was conducted in the department of Gastroenterology OPD of the North East Medical College, Sylhet, Bangladesh from December 2016 to December 2017. Consecutive 153 patients of IBS diagnosed by validated Bangla version of ROME III criteria were included in this study. Colonoscopy was done for each patient and findings were recorded. Prevalence of colonic disease was compared between those meeting criteria for IBS, according to the presence or absence of co-existent alarm features, and by IBS subtype. A substantial number of patients 43(28.1%) fulfilling the Rome III criteria were found to have organic colonic lesions at colonoscopy. No significant difference was found regarding colonic lesions among patients with IBS symptoms with or without alarm features (p=0.876). Colonic polyp was the commonest findings in 19(12.1%) subjects at colonoscopy, followed by colonic ulcers in 16(10.5%) subjects. Organic colonic lesions are found to be more common among relatively older age group patients (p=0.011). A significant number of patients with symptoms compatible with IBS exhibited colonic lesions following investigation with a predilection towards older age. Careful clinical evaluation and relevant investigations are necessary to reduce diagnostic uncertainty.

Impact of zinc application methods on green gram (Vigna radiata L.) productivity and grain zinc fortification.

Application of Zn @ 0, 5.5 kg, 22 kg Zn ha(-1), 0.1% Zn foliar application, 5.5 kg Zn + 0.1% Znspray, increased the yield, concentration and its uptake in seed and straw in all the green gram genotypes. However, combined application of 5.5 kg Zn ha(-1) + 0.1% Zn as foliar increased the straw yield by 56.4% and seed yield by 57%, which was the highest. Maximum Zn concentration in straw and seed (5.48 and 3.5 folds over control) was achieved when combined application of soil + foliar was made. Soil + foliar application of Zn increased the seed crude protein by 26.9% over control. Seed and straw Zn content showed a significant and positive correlation with all yield attributes except branches per plant.

Automated white matter total lesion volume segmentation in diabetes.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: WM lesion segmentation is often performed with the use of subjective rating scales because manual methods are laborious and tedious; however, automated methods are now available. We compared the performance of total lesion volume grading computed by use of an automated WM lesion segmentation algorithm with that of subjective rating scales and expert manual segmentation in a cohort of subjects with type 2 diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Structural T1 and FLAIR MR imaging data from 50 subjects with diabetes (age, 67.7 ± 7.2 years) and 50 nondiabetic sibling pairs (age, 67.5 ± 9.4 years) were evaluated in an institutional review board-approved study. WM lesion segmentation maps and total lesion volume were generated for each subject by means of the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM8) Lesion Segmentation Toolbox. Subjective WM lesion grade was determined by means of a 0-9 rating scale by 2 readers. Ground-truth total lesion volume was determined by means of manual segmentation by experienced readers. Correlation analyses compared manual segmentation total lesion volume with automated and subjective evaluation methods. RESULTS: Correlation between average lesion segmentation and ground-truth total lesion volume was 0.84. Maximum correlation between the Lesion Segmentation Toolbox and ground-truth total lesion volume (ρ = 0.87) occurred at the segmentation threshold of k = 0.25, whereas maximum correlation between subjective lesion segmentation and the Lesion Segmentation Toolbox (ρ = 0.73) occurred at k = 0.15. The difference between the 2 correlation estimates with ground-truth was not statistically significant. The lower segmentation threshold (0.15 versus 0.25) suggests that subjective raters overestimate WM lesion burden. CONCLUSIONS: We validate the Lesion Segmentation Toolbox for determining total lesion volume in diabetes-enriched populations and compare it with a common subjective WM lesion rating scale. The Lesion Segmentation Toolbox is a readily available substitute for subjective WM lesion scoring in studies of diabetes and other populations with changes of leukoaraiosis.