Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H Kumar.
Two patients, one with Hodgkin's disease and the other with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, presented with bilateral diminution of vision. Examination showed bilateral serous detachment of the macula. To our knowledge, this is only the second report in the literature of serous detachment of the macula in lymphomatous disorders.
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Fifty mothers of high risk infants admitted to the Neonatal Special Care Unit were followed up to the postnatal age of 2.5 mo +/- 15 days. Twenty five mothers (Group I) had stayed in the nursery with the infant for a period of 4.8 +/- 4.6 days until the discharge of the infant, providing expressed milk and participating in the non-specialised care of the infant. The other 25 mothers (Group II) remained separate from their babies for the duration of the latter's stay in the hospital although some of the mothers did come off and on to give expressed human milk and at times handle their infants. Family features such as parental age, educational and occupational status, and presence of residential elder women, were similar in the two groups. Infant characteristics too, such as sex, birth weight, and early neonatal morbidity were also comparable. Operative deliveries and maternal problems were as expected more in the separated group. The duration of the infants' hospital stay was also more in the latter (9.5 +/- 3.5 vs 6.3 +/- 3.9 days; p greater than 0.05). Subsequent to their discharge, mothers who had stayed with the infant identified the following benefits of their stay--acquiring of knowledge relevant to infant care especially hygiene (19) and their personal involvement in the care of their infant (12), both of which they said increased their self confidence in looking after the babies after discharge, and provision of breast milk round the clock (17).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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We prospectively studied 40 eyes with intraocular lenses and astigmatism of 4 or more diopters to evaluate the efficacy and safety of argon laser suture ablation as contrasted with surgical suture removal. Two groups of 10 eyes underwent argon laser suturotomy (ALS) 4 and 6 weeks, respectively, after surgery. Sutures were removed surgically in a third group of 10 eyes 6 weeks after surgery. The final group of 10 eyes served as controls. Serial keratometry and refraction demonstrated that ALS was as effective as surgical suture removal in reducing postoperative astigmatism, and complications associated with the procedure were negligible.
The present study deals with the preliminary results of two assays, standard ELISA and dot ELISA compared for their sensitivity in measuring humoral immune responses in filarial patients and normals residing in an area of bancroftian filariasis using a heterologous antigen. Responses were more vigorous in filarial patients than in endemic normals by both assays. Higher percentage of positivity and reciprocal titre of antibody were observed in dot ELISA showing more sensitivity than the standard ELISA. The dot ELISA method required only nanogram amounts of antigen.
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Only a little is known about the studies done with filariasis in relation to blood groups. The present communication reports the results of a preliminary study carried out to investigate any relationship of ABO and Rho(D) blood groups in persons with circulating microfilariae (mf) in blood and with disease manifestations compared with healthy normal controls within a population in similar epidemiological and ecological conditions. Blood groups ABO and Rho(D) were investigated among 271 persons with filarial disease and 172 normal subjects from an endemic area of bancroftian filariasis. No relationship was observed between infection and blood groups. It appeared that blood groups and filarial infection were independent of each other. Also the sex of the individual and stage of the infection, i.e. persons with circulating mf only without manifestations and persons with established manifestation without mf, has no bearing on blood group inheritance. There were 95.05% of Rh-positive and 4.95% of Rh-negative persons in the whole studied population. The observations are similar to other studies.
We have recently reported that a monoclonal antibody-based enzyme immunoassay for detection of filarial antigen in human serum is sensitive and specific for active infection with Wuchereria bancrofti. The present studies were undertaken to assess the feasibility of testing whole blood collected by finger prick in this assay. A preliminary study was performed to compare antigen test results obtained with whole blood, blood dried on filter paper, and serum. Results obtained with anticoagulated whole blood specimens agrees with serum results in 94 of 97 cases. All whole blood and serum specimens from 28 people with positive microfilaria smears were positive in the test. Filter paper blood specimens were less satisfactory because of decreased sensitivity and specificity. A population-based survey of 1009 persons was conducted in a village near Calicut, India, to evaluate the use of finger prick blood specimens for filarial antigen detection in field studies. Thirty-eight of 39 microfilaria carriers had positive antigen tests. In addition, 10.7% of amicrofilaremic endemic controls had positive tests. Additional studies are needed to test the hypothesis that filarial antigenemia in endemic controls indicates the presence of subclinical infection.
Fifty infants under the age of six months who were on artificial milk and who had attended the hospital for diarrhea, were taken up for study. They were divided into two groups. In Group I (n = 25) infants were given milk by spoon and in Group II (n = 25) by bottle. Mothers were given education relevant to the method of feeding on an individual basis. Follow up over a period of 3 months showed a fall in the number of diarrheal episodes which was similar in the two groups. Maternal compliance was significantly better in the bottle-fed group where only one mother expressed a desire to change over to the use of cup and spoon. The weight gain was better in the bottle-fed group, the difference being statistically significant relevant to the weight gain in the second and third month and to the total weight gain in the three months period (t = 3.24, p less than 0.01; t = 2.03 p less than 0.05; and t = 2.24, p less than 0.05, respectively).
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The octamer-binding proteins present in HeLa cells, B-cells and malignant melanoma cells were compared by a gel-electrophoresis DNA-binding assay. Using an extract from the malignant melanoma cells a complex was formed using a variety of octamer containing probes that was distinct from those found using either a HeLa or B-cell extract. DNAase 1 footprints and methylation interference patterns of the melanoma-specific octamer-binding protein were indistinguishable from those obtained with the HeLa factor NF-A1, except for preferential binding of the melanoma-specific factor to DNA methylated at two G residues 16 base-pairs 3' to the octamer motif. Competition analyses using a variety of wild-type and mutant probes showed that mutations affecting binding of NF-A1 similarly affected binding of the melanoma octamer-binding factor. These data also revealed the extreme flexibility of the octamer-binding site, with one probe sharing only 4 bases with the 8 base consensus sequence binding efficiently.
A few key papers which have recently been published on the characterization of amoeba antigens are reviewed. Immunofluorescence tests and immunoelectron microscopy have demonstrated the localization of certain surface antigens on axenically cultured trophozoites. Most of the surface antigens have largely been shown to elicit a humoral response. The elicitation of cellular response has not been well illustrated. The localization of a large number of antigens in cytoplasmic vacuoles and plasma membrane indicates that a greater stimulus to the host would be provided by intracellular antigens than by those located on the surface of amoeba trophozoites. In a few inoculation studies, amoeba antigens, in combination with several adjuvants, have been successfully employed for inducing protective immunity in various animal model systems. These and other results clearly demonstrate that amoeba antigens are fully capable of generating humoral and as well as CMI responses. A combination of these two effector limbs of immunity can be fully exploited through effective use of future vaccines.
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