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Biomedical subjects

N K Menon

Publications and source records attributed to N K Menon.

67 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1969

A 5-year study of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis treated at home in a controlled comparison of isoniazid plus PAS with 3 regimens of isoniazid alone.

This report from the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras, describes the progress, over a 5-year period, of 341 patients with newly diagnosed, sputum-positive tuberculosis. All the patients were treated on a domiciliary basis. In the first year, the patients received, on the basis of random allocation, a standard regimen of isoniazid plus PAS or 1 of 3 regimens of isoniazid alone. Previous reports have shown that the response in the first year was substantially superior with the standard regimen, and that the bacteriological relapse rates in the second year were fairly similar for the 4 regimens. The findings in the present report extend the latter conclusion to the end of 5 years. Further, when considered together with the findings in an earlier study, they have shown that isoniazid, given as maintenance chemotherapy in the second year, was highly effective in preventing bacteriological relapse in patients who, at 1 year, had bacteriologically quiescent disease and no residual cavitation; the effect was, however, less marked in patients with residual cavitation at 1 year.Patients who were clear-cut failures of the allocated chemotherapy and those who had a bacteriological relapse in the second or subsequent years were usually re-treated with streptomycin plus PAS or streptomycin plus pyrazinamide, and if this was ineffective, with cycloserine plus thioacetazone or cycloserine plus ethionamide.Considering the findings over the 5-year period for all patients, 16 died from non-tuberculous causes and 1 took his discharge prematurely. Of the remainder, 86% had bacteriologically quiescent disease at 5 years, 6% had bacteriologically active disease and 8% had died of tuberculosis. These findings confirm the value of well-organized domiciliary chemotherapy, which was established by an earlier report from the Centre, and are particularly encouraging for developing countries such as India, where tuberculosis is a major problem and resources are limited.

Aminosalicylic Acids↗
PubMed1969

Advances in techniques of testing mycobacterial drug sensitivity, and the use of sensitivity tests in tuberculosis control programmes.

In a paper arising out of an informal international consultation of specialists in the bacteriology of tuberculosis held in 1961, an attempt was made to formulate criteria, and specify technical procedures, for reliable tests of sensitivity (the absolute-concentration method, the resistance-ratio method and the proportion method) to the 3 main antituberculosis drugs (isoniazid, streptomycin and p-aminosalicylic acid). Seven years later, a further consultation was held to review the latest developments in the field and to suggest how sensitivity tests might be put to practical use in tuberculosis control programmes. The participants reached agreement on how to define drug sensitivity and resistance, and stressed the importance of using a discrimination approach to the calibration of sensitivity tests. Their views are contained in the present paper, which also includes descriptions of the sensitivity tests used by the Medical Research Council of Great Britain for first- and second-line drugs (minimal inhibitory concentration and resistance-ratio methods), the two main variants of the proportion method developed by the Institut Pasteur, Paris, and a method for calibrating sensitivity tests.

Antitubercular Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Metabolic responses to intracerebroventricular leptin and restricted feeding.

Leptin is a hormone secreted by adipocytes, which plays an important role in the control of food intake and metabolic processes. In the current study, a dose-dependent relationship was shown between a bolus intracerebroventricular rat recombinant leptin administration and reductions in food intake and body weight in Sprague-Dawley rats. During the 24 h postinjection period, food intake was decreased by 24, 26, and 52% with 0.625, 2.5, and 10 microg of leptin, respectively. Body weight was reduced by 2, 3, and 5% at 24 h after leptin administration at the doses of 0.156, 2.5, and 10 microg, respectively. Furthermore, indirect calorimetry demonstrated that five daily i.c.v. injections of leptin resulted in an increase in heat production per unit of metabolic body size and fat oxidation by approximately 10 and 48%, respectively. In contrast, food-restricted rats that consumed the equivalent amount of food as leptin-treated rats for 5 days decreased their energy expenditure by 10%. Food restriction was found to decrease respiratory quotient in a similar pattern as the leptin administration. When ad lib feeding was resumed, food-restricted rats quickly recovered their normal food intakes, body weights, and metabolism. Conversely, leptin treatment has prolonged effects on body weight resulting from different metabolic responses than food restriction. Leptin not only suppresses food intake, but also enhances energy expenditure to reduce fat depots.

Animals↗