Fate and interconversion of alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-HCH on gram (Cicer arietinum Linn.) plants under subtropical field conditions at Ludhiana, India.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B Singh.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Composite flours prepared from wheat, greengram, bengalgram and blackgram flours were studied for the preparation of biscuits. Protein content of biscuits increased as the level of the pulse flours increased. Wheat flour containing bengalgram and blackgram flours adversely affected the top grain, texture and colour of biscuits. Biscuits made with higher levels of bengalgram (more than 15%) were tough and difficult to break and required higher compression force. Addition of greengram flour did not significantly affect top grain, texture and colour of biscuits. The biscuits made from 15% greengram supplemented wheat flour scored the highest for flavour characteristics. Thickness, diameter and spread ratio of biscuits containing different levels of pulse flours were significantly different from control sample. Sensory evaluation scores showed that acceptable biscuits can be prepared from wheat flour supplemented with these pulse flours at a level of 15 percent.
Percutaneous balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty for congenital pulmonary valve stenosis was performed in 40 adult patients (aged 18 to 56 years). The duration of follow-up was 24.5 +/- 11.5 months. The peak systolic pressure gradient from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery decreased from 107 +/- 29 mm Hg to 37 +/- 25 mm Hg immediately after the procedure. On follow-up, gradient obtained either by cardiac catheterization or Doppler echocardiography was 31 +/- 13 mm Hg. In eight patients with residual gradient after valvuloplasty of > 50 mm, the mean peak systolic gradient decreased from 74.5 +/- 18.3 to 33.5 +/- 13.9 mm Hg on follow-up. Thus balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty is a safe and effective procedure for the treatment of adult patients with pulmonic stenosis; there is a tendency for high residual gradients to regress on follow-up.
Percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty was performed in 54 consecutive patients with hypertension and renal artery stenosis caused by Takayasu's arteritis. Angioplasty was technically successful in 67 (89.3%) of 75 lesions attempted. In these 67 lesions, the degree of stenosis decreased from 88.3 +/- 4.8% to 23.5% +/- 13.6% (p < 0.001) after angioplasty. Following successful angioplasty there was significant improvement in hypertension (p < 0.001) within 48 hours. Patients with bilateral renal artery stenosis had higher systolic blood pressure both before balloon dilatation (p < 0.05) and after balloon dilatation before discharge (p < 0.001), compared with patients with unilateral renal artery stenosis. Three to 70 months (mean 26.4 +/- 10.3 months) after successful angioplasty, blood pressure was reduced to normal or was improved in 93% of patients. Angiographic restudy an average of 14.2 +/- 7.8 months after angioplasty showed restenosis at the same site in 7 of 52 (13.5%) lesions and fresh stenosis in one artery. All these eight lesions were successfully dilated. Further improvement in the luminal diameter was observed in 11 (21.2%) lesions. Late angiographic restudy in seven patients an average of 56.1 +/- 6.3 months after angioplasty showed no restenosis. Our results suggest that balloon angioplasty is safe and highly effective in relieving renal artery stenosis caused by Takayasu's arteritis and should be the treatment of choice for renovascular hypertension in this disease.
Purkinje cell evoked unit activity was studied in developing normal and undernourished postnatal rats from 5 to 30 days. Ipsilateral electrical stimulation of the sciatic nerve, induced mossy fiber (MF) mediated simple spike activity or climbing fiber (CF) mediated complex multiple discharge activity. MF mediated response exhibited the phenomenon of electrical fatigue, while CF mediated response was augmented on repeated peripheral stimulation. Undernourished rats exhibited irregular and reduced spike amplitudes, spike frequencies, significantly increased stimulus thresholds and increased biological variabilities in their response on repeated electrical stimulation as compared to normal animals which exhibited a typical graded response at increasing stimulus frequencies and stimulus intensities. The after-hyperpolarization duration was also significantly increased in the undernourished as compared to normal rats. These data suggests that undernutrition, imposed during the lactation period can induce impairments in the Purkinje cell membrane dynamics and delays MF as well as CF mediated functional maturation in the developing cerebellum, which may induce delayed motor learning in young undernourished individuals.
In this study, the oxidative effect of the commonly used phenothiazine, thioridazine, on brain tissue has been investigated. Thioridazine (0.1 and 0.5%) supplemented in pellet diet (w/w), produced a significant increase (P < 0.001) in levels of myelin lipid peroxide, after 3 weeks of treatment. Besides myelin, there was a 2-fold increase in the mitochondrial lipid peroxides, as a result of treatment with thioridazine. However, these elevated levels of lipid peroxides returned to normal after withdrawal of thioridazine for 2 weeks. Myelin-associated enzyme activities of Na+,K(+)-ATPase and 5'-nucleotidase became inhibited by 20-25%, but CNPase activity was unaffected. Studies of in vitro lipid peroxidation on purified myelin from untreated rats suggested that extensive lipid peroxidation of myelin in thioridazine-treated rats could underlie inhibition of the myelin enzymes. Morphological studies revealed little or no structural alterations in myelin, produced by thioridazine. These studies suggest that thioridazine induces a reversible lipid peroxidation in myelin, that could result in functional alterations of the myelin-associated enzymes, during use of this drug.
The role of alpha 2-adrenergic receptor sensitivity in schizophrenia was examined by measuring growth hormone (GH) response after the intravenous administration of clonidine (1.3 micrograms/kg) in 26 healthy control subjects and 26 neuroleptic-free, acutely psychotic patients with at least 1 out of 11 possible diagnoses of schizophrenia derived from a multidiagnostic psychopathological assessment. GH responses were significantly (0.01) lower than control values in schizophrenias defined by E. Bleuler, M. Bleuler, Schneider, Langfeldt, Taylor and Abrams, and Cloninger, but not in DSM-III, World Health Organization, Feighner, Kraepelian, and Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) schizophrenias. Eight patients with RDC schizoaffective disorder also had a blunted response. However, there were no correlations with any symptom measures. There were no differences between paranoid and nonparanoid patients, although there was a significant difference between nonparanoid patients and control subjects. These findings support the presence of noradrenergic dysfunction in some patients within the schizophrenia syndrome, possibly those whose illnesses have an affective component. The study also illustrates the need for simultaneous investigation of several different sets of diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia in neurobiological research.
A 1-year survey was undertaken to determine the incidence of Trypanosoma evansi in dogs at Ludhiana, India. Of 64 dogs examined by wet film, thin smear, thick smear and mouse inoculation, three (4.68%) were found to be positive for T. evansi. All the positive animals were detected during the rainy and post-rainy seasons. The treatment of three infected dogs with a combination of quinpyramine sulphate and chloride (3:2 w/w) resulted in complete recovery of two dogs; another dog died on the day therapy was initiated.
The hepatoprotective effect of the ethanol/water (1:1) extract of Eclipta alba (Ea) has been studied at subcellular levels in rats against CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity. Ea significantly counteracted CCl4-induced inhibition of the hepatic microsomal drug metabolising enzyme amidopyrine N-demethylase and membrane bound glucose 6-phosphatase, but failed to reverse the very high degree of inhibition of another drug metabolising enzyme aniline hydroxylase. The loss of hepatic lysosomal acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase by CCl4 was significantly restored by Ea. Its effect on mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase and adenosine 5'-triphosphatase was not significant. The study shows that hepatoprotective activity of Ea is by regulating the levels of hepatic microsomal drug metabolising enzymes.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Malignant fibrous histiocytomas are now recognized as the most common soft tissue sarcomas in adults. These tumors involve the head and neck region in 1 to 3% of cases. In this report we describe our experience with two typical and one unusual case of malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the head and neck region. In addition we review the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of these tumors.
The standard recommended treatment for lateral sinus thrombosis is intravenous antibiotics. For those that fail, some authors recommend anticoagulant therapy, others internal jugular vein ligation. Despite these recommendations, there is still a significant mortality in all reported large series and the main reason this is that the cause of the failure has not been found or investigated. Over a six-year-period, from January 1985 to December 1990, 36 patients were admitted with lateral sinus thrombosis. The initial treatment consisted of intravenous antibiotics and surgery. The surgery included cortical mastoidectomy for non-cholesteatomatous ears and modified radical mastoidectomy for cholesteatomatous ears and drainage of the intracranial collection of pus in patients with subdural empyema and brain abscess. There were nine failures (25 per cent) with this treatment regimen. Blood cultures and pus swab of the ears were taken from these patients. The blood cultures were positive in four patients and the organisms isolated included beta-haemolytic Streptococcus sp. in two, Proteus mirabilis and Streptococcus pneumoniae in one each. From the ear swab mixed cultures were found in eight and a single organism in one. Gram-negative organisms were isolated in nine (100 per cent), Proteus mirabilis in eight (89 per cent) and Enterobacter sp. in two. Both these organisms were resistant to ampicillin and penicillin but were sensitive to amikacin. Amikacin was then added to the treatment regimen and a dramatic response with a fall in the temperature, and improvement in the patients' general condition was noted within 24 hours, in all patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Standard recommended treatment for patients with intracranial complications from otitis media, has been radical mastoidectomy, whether cholesteatoma is present or not. This was established in the pre-antibiotic era to improve survival. Over a six-year period, from January 1985 to December 1990, 268 patients were admitted with intracranial and extracranial complications of otitis media. The prospective treatment consisted of antibiotics and surgery. Surgery entailed mastoidectomy and drainage of intracranial collections of pus in all patients. However, prospectively in these patients the ear pathology and not the complication dictated the type of mastoidectomy performed. Cortical mastoidectomy was performed in non-cholesteatomatous ears and radical mastoidectomy in cholesteatomatous ears. Recurrence of intracranial complications occurred in only four patients (two per cent), a temporal lobe cerebritis in the non-cholesteatomatous ear group, and, a temporal lobe abscess, posterior fossa abscess and subdural empyema in the cholesteatomatous ear group. The temporal lobe cerebritis settled on intravenous antibiotics whilst the temporal lobe abscess, posterior fossa abscess and subdural empyema required redrainage. In none of these was the ear surgery revised. There were 15 deaths (eight per cent), all occurring in patients with intracranial complications, 12 associated with brain abscess, two with subdural empyema and one with meningitis. Eight were from the non-cholesteatomatous group and seven from the cholesteatomatous group. The mortality was directly related to the patients consciousness level on admission and not to the type of ear pathology. It can therefore be concluded that radical mastoidectomy is unwarranted in the non-cholesteatomatous ear, even with an otogenic intracranial complication.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Informal caregivers are the families and other unpaid caregivers in the home who support people of all ages with severe and chronic mental or physical disabilities. Home care of this sort has been increasing over the past 30 years because of the reduced number of beds in hospitals and nursing homes and increased outpatient and community care. Moreover, with an aging population and increasing rates of disability, the demand for family caregiving will continue to rise. This has important implications for the development of health, community service and social policy. At the same time, however, very little is known about the impact such changes are having on the caregivers of various ages and in various circumstances. The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation is funding a research and intervention program in Melbourne to promote wellbeing and prevent ill-health in caregivers.