Cardiac Abscess with Ventricular Aneurysm Secondary to Old Myocardial Infarction.

Myocardial Abscess (MA) is a rare life threatening condition mostly occurring secondary to underlying infective endocarditis. But it can also be found secondary to septicemia with some unknown focus of sepsis in the body. Development of MA as a consequence of left ventricular aneurysm (LVA) secondary to myocardial infarction is very rare. We report the case of 56 year old male, who presented with high grade fever and leukocytosis. On detailed evaluation, he was found to have a myocardial abscess with underlying LVA.

Incidence and clinical implication of TT virus in patients with hepatitis and its frequency in blood donors in India.

BACKGROUND: Transfusion Transmitted Virus (TTV), also known as Torque Teno Virus is a new novel viral agent which appears to correlate with some acute and chronic hepatitis cases and may produce liver damage under specific circumstances. Aim of this study was to detect TT virus by real-time PCR, study its clinical implications and effects of its co-infection in HBV and HCV chronic liver diseases. METHODS: The study population comprised 50 acute hepatitis, 50 chronic hepatitis patients and 100 voluntary blood donors. All samples were tested for serum bilirubin, AST, ALT and alkaline phosphatase levels and for all available viral markers for hepatitis. The detection of TT viral genome was carried out by real-time PCR using TTV sequences as reported by Takahashi et al with modifications on the basis of database of the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank (GenBank accession no. AB008394). RESULT: Serum was positive for TTV in 72% of volunteer blood donors, 77.4% (24/31) of hepatitis A cases, 87.6% (36/41) of HBV-positive, 77% (10/13) of HCV-positive, and 92.8% (13/14) of non-B, non-C cases. Co-infection of TTV with other hepatitis viruses was detected in some patients. CONCLUSION: TTV is a frequent virus detected in patients with various types of viral hepatitis, in cases of hepatitis without obvious viral agent, and from the healthy population in India. Rate of TTV was found to be significantly higher (92.8%) for Non A-E hepatitis group.

Impact of azadirachtin, an insecticidal allelochemical from neem on soil microflora, enzyme and respiratory activities.

The effect of 10% azadirachtin granules (alcoholic extract of neem seed kernel mixed with China clay) was studied on the population of bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, Azotobacter and nitrifying bacteria; soil dehydrogenase, phosphatase and respiratory activities on 0, 15th, 30th, 60th and 90th days after application in sandy loam soil collected from the fields. It was observed that baring the Azotobacter sp., azadirachtin at all the doses exerted a suppressive effect on the rest of the microbial communities and enzyme activities in the initial 15 day period. The population of bacteria, actinomycetes besides phosphatase and respiratory activities recovered after 60th day and subsequently increased significantly. The fungi and nitrifiers were most sensitive groups as their numbers were reduced significantly throughout the studies. The two times and five times recommended dose of azadirachtin had very high biocidal effects on the soil microorganisms and its activities. However, analysis of the data by the Shannon Weaver index showed that azadirachtin reduces both the form and functional microbial diversity at all doses.

Aggressive angiomyxoma of the jejunum: a rare cause of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding.

Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding accounts for nearly 5% of all gastrointestinal haemorrhage and is frequently due to a lesion in the small bowel. We report the case of a male patient with obscure overt gastrointestinal bleed in whom repeated upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, colonoscopy, computed tomography scanning and exploratory laparotomy showed no specific pathology. However, on capsule endoscopy done subsequently, a small polyp in the jejunum was located and resected. Histology revealed an aggressive angiomyxoma. This type of small bowel lesion has not been reported in the literature before.

Extraskeletal osteochondroma in the nape of the neck: a case report.

Extraskeletal osteochondroma in the nape of the neck is rare and its pathological diagnosis is based on radiological and histopathological examination. It is vital that such a diagnosis be considered when a discrete, ossified mass is localised in soft tissues, even at atypical sites. Differential diagnoses include myositis ossificans, a lipomatous lesion, a pseudomalignant osseous tumour, an ossifying fibromyxoid tumour, an extraskeletal chondroma with endochondral ossification, synovial (osteo) chondromatosis, tumoural calcinosis, a synovial sarcoma, and an extraskeletal osteosarcoma. Clinical awareness of this benign entity is important as no malignant transformation or metastasis has been reported. Marginal excision with histopathological identification is the treatment of choice.

Outbreak of Multi-drug Resistant Salmonella Typhi Enteric Fever in Mumbai Garrison.

BACKGROUND: There was an epidemic of enteric fever in Mumbai garrison during Nov-Dec 2000 with more than 150 cases admitted to a tertiary care service hospital. METHODS: All the cases presented with fever and some had splenomegaly, bradycardia, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. The epidemic was investigated by the station health organization (SHO) and the case and bacteriological study was carried out in pathology laboratory of the service hospital. The serological study was carried out at Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune and the Phage typing was carried out at Lady Harding Medical College, New Delhi. RESULTS: Blood cultures were positive in 92(63%) for Salmonella typhi and Widal test was positive in 83(55%). All strains were resistant to four primary drugs i.e. ampicillin, chloramphenicol, co-trimoxazole and tetracycline. All but two were treated successfully with ceftriaxone. The Salmonella typhi belonged to phage group E1 and biotype I. CONCLUSION: Extensive epidemiological investigation of cases and water sources of cantonment area pointed to a common source of the epidemic i.e. the well near 'Gurudwara'.

Giant cell reparative granuloma of the base of the skull presenting as a parapharyngeal mass.

Giant cell reparative granuloma is an infrequent non-tumoral lesion affecting the maxillary and mandibular bones and only rarely, the cranial bones. We report a case of giant cell reparative granuloma of the base of the skull in a 12-year-old female who presented with a parapharyngeal mass. Computerized Tomography (CT) showed the intracranial extension and destruction of surrounding bones.

Metalaxyl effect on nitrogenase activity (acetylene reduction) and yield of mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) wilzek).

In an experiment, application of different levels of metalaxyl to a sandy loam soil significantly affected the nodulation and nitrogenase activity of mungbean. In both the compost amended and unamended soils, 0.5 mg kg(-1) of metalaxyl enhanced acetylene reduction activity and yield of mungbean, where as higher concentrations (1 mg and 2.5 mg kg(-1) of fungicide) inhibited the nodulation traits as well as economic traits of mungbean.

Role of computed tomography in patients with hemoptysis and a normal chest skiagram.

Thirty patients of hemoptysis with a normal skiagram chest were evaluated by computed tomography. Majority of the patients were between 21 to 50 years of age. Seventy percent had mild hemoptysis while 30 percent had moderate hemoptysis. Computed tomography provided diagnostic information in 16 patients (53%). The various aetiologies were bronchiectasis (20%), tuberculosis (20%), pneumonia (6.7%), bronchial carcinoid in one case and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis in one case. Computed tomography may play a role in screening patients who present with hemoptysis with normal chest radiographs.

Posterior mediastinal teratomas.

Posterior mediastinal teratomas are rare. We report this entity in a five year old boy. A review of literature of eighteen cases is presented.

Evaluation of computed tomograms in paediatric head trauma.

Computed tomograms of 107 patients of head trauma in the paediatric age group were evaluated. Generalised brain swelling (44%) and falx sign (44%) were the commonest findings observed in the computed tomograms. The overall mortality was 16.8% of which all except one were those with Glasgow coma scale between 3 and 7.