Patterns of cardiac disorders and epidemiology of coronary artery disease in urban population of Ahmedabad.

A hospital based study of coronary artery disease (CAD) was carried out in Gujaratis, admitted to Dr Jivraj Mehta Smarak Health Foundation, Ahmedabad. Total 276 subjects were surveyed. CAD was diagnosed by ECG criteria. Prevalence of CAD in hospital admission was 29.6%. Highest incidence of CAD was seen in the age group of 51 to 60 years. Male/female ratio was 1.6:1. As a single risk factor hypertension was ranked first, next was obesity followed by hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, tobacco habits, and family history of CAD. Overall mortality of CAD was 3.99%, being 1.83% for angina pectoris (AP) and 5.39% for myocardial infarction (MI). Mortality rate was higher in subjects having 2 or more risk factors. Incidence of CAD in young (age < 40 years) was very low (1.09%).

A study of serum lipid profile part-1: Establishment of normal reference values of serum lipid levels in healthy vegetarian population of Gujarat.

Fasting samples of 1329 apparently healthy vegetarian Gujarati population were tested for total cholesterol, triglycerides and three major fractions of lipoproteins, i.e. high density lipoproteins, low density lipoproteins and very low density lipoproteins. All the values showed marked increase with the age. Except for serum triglycerides, values differ in males and females in the age group of above 45 years. Compared to Northern Indian population low density lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein values were higher, but values of triglycerides and very low density lipoproteins were lower. There is no significant difference in total cholesterol values. Compared to Southern Indian population low density lipoprotein and very low density lipoprotein values were higher but values of triglycerides, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein were lower. All serum lipid values were significantly lower than the Westem population. The range of values for both the sexes is presented for different age groups.

Immunoperoxidase reaction in diagnosis of rabies.

The results obtained by staining impression smears prepared from rabies positive brains revealed that with Seller's stain, Negribodies were detected in 76.28% specimens, whereas direct fluorescent antibody technique (FAT) and direct immunoperoxidase (IP) technique detected rabies antigen in 92.50% and 91.36% of brains respectively. This indicates that for giving rapid diagnosis Seller's stain may be of value but negative result does not rule out positive result. Direct FAT and direct IP were found sensitive and IP can replace FAT and is more sensitive than Sellers. Paraffin embedded sections were stained by Massignani Malferrari method, direct FAT and direct IP. All the three methods were found equally specific and sensitive. Direct FAT is only possible when fluorescent microscope is available. Its disadvantage is its impermanancy. Nonspecific reactions are also seen. These disadvantages can largely be avoided by employing direct IP since the method does not require a special kind of microscope, it can keep for a long time and it can be studied under electron microscope if desired. This test can also replace direct FAT in examining impression smears where fluorescent microscope is not available. Horseradish peroxidase from SIGMA, USA, type VI, RZ 3.0 was found most suitable.