ABSTRACT
Newly diagnosed breast abscesses are generally treated as a medical emergency that may necessitate immediate interventional treatment. At our institution, there is no in-house after-hours coverage for breast ultrasonography. We could find no peer-reviewed studies on the cost-effectiveness or clinical management impact of on-call ultrasound technologist coverage for imaging of breast abscesses. The purposes of this study were to determine the incidence of breast abscess in patients with clinical findings highly suggestive of abscess, identify clinical factors associated with breast abscess in such patients, and determine the impact of after-hours emergent or urgent breast ultrasonography on the clinical management of breast abscesses in both outpatients and inpatients. We retrospectively reviewed 100 after-hours breast ultrasound studies performed at our tertiary care center from 2011 to 2015 for evaluation of a suspected breast abscess. Only 26% of our patients with clinically suspected abscess ultimately had a confirmed abscess. Factors associated with breast abscess were a palpable abnormality and a history of breast surgery within the eight weeks before presentation. After-hours diagnosis of an abscess was associated with after-hours clinical intervention. Of the 74 patients in whom after-hours ultrasound imaging showed no evidence of abscess, only three patients underwent after-hours drainage. Our findings support overnight and weekend breast ultrasound coverage in large tertiary care centers.
ABSTRACT
The dopamine receptor-D4 and the dopamine transporter have been investigated for their role in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Reports of their genetic association with ADHD have shown mixed results. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association of variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) of the DRD4 and DAT1 genes with ADHD in children. A pilot 1:1 case control study, with 44 clinically confirmed ADHD cases and 44 age/gender matched healthy controls, was conducted at a tertiary care centre in Mumbai. Variable number tandem repeats of DRD4 exon 3, DAT1 intron 8 and 3'UTR were genotyped by PCR-AGE. Several allele repeats of the genes were observed in the screened subjects. Statistical significance was observed for the 10R/10R genotype of the DAT1 3'UTR VNTR between cases and controls.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between loci linked to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: A pilot study consisting of age-matched and gender-matched angiographically confirmed CAD cases (n=150) and non-CAD controls (n=150) was performed to test an association. Illumina's Human Cardio-Metabo BeadChip containing 3112 variants associated with HDL-C levels was used for genotyping. RESULTS: A preliminary analysis identified 36 variants from 16 genes that were statistically significant (p<0.05) between cases and controls. However, none of the variants remained statistically significant after correction for multiple testing. Besides, variants rs11039159 (MADD), rs749067 (MADD), rs367070 (LILRA3) and rs330921 (PPP1R3B) showed modest association with HDL-C levels. CONCLUSIONS: None of the HDL-C associated loci included in this study were found to be a significant risk factor for CAD. However, the study could replicate the findings of four variants influencing HDL-C levels.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Weak intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions are key players in stabilizing energetically-favored ligands, in an open conformational environment of protein structures. However, it is still poorly understood how the binding parameters associated with these interactions facilitate a drug-lead to recognize a specific target and improve drugs efficacy. To understand this, comprehensive analysis of hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonding and binding affinity have been analyzed at the interface of c-Src and c-Abl kinases and 4-amino substituted 1H-pyrazolo [3, 4-d] pyrimidine compounds. METHODOLOGY: In-silico docking studies were performed, using Discovery Studio software modules LigandFit, CDOCKER and ZDOCK, to investigate the role of ligand binding affinity at the hydrophobic pocket of c-Src and c-Abl kinase. Hydrophobic and hydrogen bonding interactions of docked molecules were compared using LigPlot program. Furthermore, 3D-QSAR and MFA calculations were scrutinized to quantify the role of weak interactions in binding affinity and drug efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: The in-silico method has enabled us to reveal that a multi-targeted small molecule binds with low affinity to its respective targets. But its binding affinity can be altered by integrating the conformationally favored functional groups at the active site of the ligand-target interface. Docking studies of 4-amino-substituted molecules at the bioactive cascade of the c-Src and c-Abl have concluded that 3D structural folding at the protein-ligand groove is also a hallmark for molecular recognition of multi-targeted compounds and for predicting their biological activity. The results presented here demonstrate that hydrogen bonding and optimized hydrophobic interactions both stabilize the ligands at the target site, and help alter binding affinity and drug efficacy.
