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Biomedical subjects

S Balasubramanian

Publications and source records attributed to S Balasubramanian.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

The 2001 dengue epidemic in Chennai.

UNLABELLED: Dengue is emerging as a serious public health problem in Tamil Nadu. The present surveillance system is unlikely to generate proper information on the epidemiology of the disease, which is essential for planning and development of relevant control/preventive measures against dengue. OBJECTIVE: Between November 2001 and January 2002, a descriptive study was undertaken on children with clinical dengue attending Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital (KKCTH, a major private referral pediatric hospital in Tamil Nadu, India) to define the magnitude of dengue burden, the natural history of this disease in terms of clinical presentation, and outcome of the infections in hospitalized children (< 15) with clinical dengue. METHODS: The sera collected from patients analyzed for dengue specific IgM and IgG antibodies by IgM, IgG antibody capture enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using alternatively two commercial kits. World Health Organization clinical case definition was adopted to categorize the dengue confirmed children. RESULTS: Dengue was diagnosed in 74.5% (143) of the 192 hospitalized children with clinical dengue. A considerable proportion (20%) of the total dengue infections were constituted by infants less than 1 yr of age. DF [dengue fever], DHF [dengue hemorrhagic fever] and DSS [dengue shock syndrome] were diagnosed in 65%, 11.2% and 23.8% of 143 dengue confirmed patients respectively. Though severe dengue (DSS + DHF) was present in 35% of the patients, the mortality rate was low during the study period due to timely diagnosis and clinical management of the patients. CONCLUSION: In developing countries like India, building of laboratory capacity for diagnosis and combat-mode ready preparedness for the management of dengue cases in emergency situation may reduce dengue-related mortality. This can be achieved in a wider scale through an integrated approach through the community, professionals and the public health departments.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Synthesis and study of antibacterial and antifungal activities of novel 8-methyl-7,9-diaryl-1,2,4,8-tetraazaspiro[4.5]decan-3-thiones.

Some novel spiropiperidinyl-1,2,4-triazolidin-3-thiones have been synthesized and studied for their antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Candida-6, Candida-51, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. Compounds 30-32 exhibited potent in vitro antibacterial activity against E. coli and P. aeruginosa whereas the same set of compounds exerted potent in vitro antifungal activity against Candida-6, A. niger and A. flavus.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2005

Peripheral blood gene expression profiling in rheumatoid arthritis.

We carried out gene expression profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in 29 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 21 control subjects using Affymetrix U95Av2 arrays. Using cluster analysis, we observed a significant alteration in the expression pattern of 81 genes (P<0.001) in the PBMCs of RA patients compared with controls. Many of these genes correlated with differences in monocyte counts between the two study populations, and we show that a large fraction of these genes are specifically expressed at high levels in monocytes. In addition, a logistic regression analysis was performed to identify genes that performed best in the categorization of RA and control samples. Glutaminyl cyclase, IL1RA, S100A12 (also known as calgranulin or EN-RAGE) and Grb2-associated binding protein (GAB2) were among the top discriminators. Along with previous data, the overexpression of S100A12 in RA patients emphasizes the likely importance of RAGE pathways in disease pathogenesis. The altered expression of GAB2, an intracellular adaptor molecule involved in regulating phosphatase function, is of particular interest given the recent identification of the intracellular phosphatase PTPN22 as a risk gene for RA. These data suggest that a detailed study of gene expression patterns in peripheral blood can provide insight into disease pathogenesis. However, it is also clear that substantially larger sample sizes will be required in order to evaluate fully gene expression profiling as a means of identifying disease subsets, or defining biomarkers of outcome and response to therapy in RA.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Myelofibrosis and vitamin D deficient rickets--a rare association.

Myelofibrosis is a rare hematological condition in infancy. We report a case of a 6-month-old infant who was diagnosed to have myelofibrosis due to Vitamin D deficient rickets. This rare association of myelofibrosis and rickets is discussed here with a review of relevant literature.

Fatal Outcome↗
PubMed2005

Physico-chemical characteristics of paper industry effluents--a case study.

This paper presents the characteristics of wastewater from a small paper mill which is using wastepaper as a raw material. After analysis it was found that the raw wastewater consisted of 202-294 mg/l and 2010-3200 mg/l of suspended and dissolved solids respectively while pH varied from 6.7-7.3. The BOD and COD values ranged from 210-310, 1680-2340 mg/l respectively. Due to the treatment of raw effluent, the SS and TDS of treated effluent were significantly decreased and the values ranged in between 118 mg L(-1) to 154 mg L(-1) and 645 mg L(-1) to 925 mg L(-1), respectively. The pH values of the treated effluent were higher than the raw effluent. The nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium content of treated effluent were found to be higher after the treatment of paper mill raw effluent. The low amount of nutrient content may be because of the use of chemicals in process section which do not contain such elements. The sodium, calcium and magnesium were found higher in treated effluent, which may be due to addition of chemicals during the pulping and production section.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed2004

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection of frozen-thawed bovine oocytes and subsequent embryo development.

Oocyte cryopreservation and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) are advantageous to expand their usefulness in genetic engineering. Oocytes matured for 22 hr were vitrified in droplets of cryoprotectants (3.2 M ethylene glycol (EG), 2.36 M dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 0.6 M sucrose) on copper electron microscope (EM) grids. After being warmed, the oocytes were cultured in IVM medium for an additional 2 hr. Sperm treated with dithiothreitol were utilized for ICSI. Oocytes injected with sperm were activated by combination of ionomycin with cycloheximide (CHX). The ICSI oocytes were compared for the rates of pronuclear formation, development, cell number, and the ratio of ICM to those of fresh ICSI and IVF control. The proportion of 2PN formation was significantly higher in IVF control (Group 1) than those in other treated groups. Among the treated groups a significant lower 2PN formation was observed in IVF-frozen-thawed than in ICSI-fresh and frozen-thawed groups. Cleavage rates in IVF-frozen-thawed and ICSI-frozen-thawed groups were significantly lower than those of IVF control and ICSI-fresh groups. In ICSI groups, the rates of cleavage and blastocyst in fresh oocytes were significantly higher than in frozen-thawed. Development rates into blastocysts in the ICSI-fresh and frozen-thawed groups were significantly lower than that of IVF control. Total cell number was significantly lower in both frozen-thawed IVF and ICSI groups than those in IVF-control and ICSI-fresh groups. However, the rates of the remaining cells that were found in the ICM were significantly higher in both frozen-thawed IVF and ICSI than in the IVF-control and ICSI-fresh groups. The results indicated that frozen-thawed bovine oocytes were suitable for ICSI procedure.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

MURCS association.

The MURCS association i.e. MUllerian duct aplasia, Renal aplasia, Cervicothoracic Somite dysplasia is a rare developmental disorder. The authors report a case of MURCS association with supernumerary ribs in a 7-month-old infant who presented with failure to thrive.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed2004

Predictors of spontaneous bleeding in Dengue.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the predictive factors for spontaneous bleeding manifestations in Dengue illness in infants and children. METHODS: 60 cases of Dengue viral infection with spontaneous skin and or mucosal bleed were compared with 72 cases without spontaneous bleed. The protean bleeding manifestations in dengue infection were recorded. Various clinical and laboratory parameters were analyzed using univariate and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Prothombin time was abnormal only in cases with spontancous bleed. A combination of (a) biphasic pattern of fever, (b) hemoconcentration, (c) platelet count less than 50,000/mm3 and (d) elevated ALT had a sensitivity of 79.2%, specificity of 64.7% with a positive predictive value of 70% and a negative predictive value of 75% in predicting spontaneous bleeding in dengue.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed2004

Spinal arteriovenous malformation.

An 11-year-old girl presented with acute onset of paraplegia with bowel and bladder incontinence. She had spinal tenderness and a sensory level at mid thoracic region. MRI spine revealed an intradural extramedullary arterio-venous malformation with hemorrhage into the intramedullary region. Hence a diagnosis of spinal arterio-venous malformation was entertained.

Arteriovenous Malformations↗
PubMed2004

Synthesis and study of antibacterial and antifungal activities of novel 1-[2-(benzoxazol-2-yl)ethoxy]- 2,6-diarylpiperidin-4-ones.

Some novel benzoxazolylethoxypiperidones have been synthesized and their antibacterial activity against streptococcus faecalis, bacillus subtilis, escherichia coli, staphylococcus aureus aand pseudomonas aeruginosa and antifungal activity against Candida-6, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Candida-51 and Aspergillus flavus were evaluated. Compounds 37, 38 and 39 exerted potent in vitro antibacterial activity against Streptococcus faecalis while compounds 40 and 41 exhibited potent in vitro antifungal activity against Candida-51.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2004

Antidermatophytic activity of extracts from Psoralea corylifolia (Fabaceae) correlated with the presence of a flavonoid compound.

Extracts obtained from seeds of Psoralea corylifolia showed several degrees of antifungal activity against Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Epidermophyton floccosum and Microsporum gypseum by the disc diffusion method on a Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) medium. Methanol extract of the seeds at 250 microg exhibited the maximum inhibition with a halo of 28 mm diameter. Six different bands were obtained when the methanol extract was subjected to TLC. 13C NMR and Mass spectra revealed that the active compound would be a flavonoid, 4'-methoxy flavone. MIC of the active compound along with standard miconazole was carried out using tube dilution technique.

Antifungal Agents↗
PubMed2004

Tracking operator state fluctuations in gene expression in single cells.

We report the results of operator state fluctuations in gene expression for the entire bacterial growth cycle, using single-cell analysis and synthetic unregulated and negative-feedback transcription regulatory gene circuits. In the unregulated circuit, during the cell cycle, we observe a crossover from log-normal-to-normal distribution of expressed proteins and an unusual linear dependence of their standard deviation on the mean gene expression levels. With negative-feedback circuits we find the existence of bimodality as the cell cycle progresses. We suggest that such long-tail and bimodal distributions may be used as selection mechanisms in developmental switches and for assigning cell identity.

Anisotropy↗
PubMed2004

Expression levels for many genes in human peripheral blood cells are highly sensitive to ex vivo incubation.

Monitoring of gene and protein expression in peripheral blood cells has significant potential for improving the diagnosis and therapy of many human diseases. As genomic-scale microarray and proteomic technologies are applied to peripheral blood, it is important to consider the variables that may affect interpretation of data. Here we report experiments performed to identify genes that are particularly sensitive to ex vivo handling prior to RNA extraction for gene expression microarrays or quantitative real-time RT-PCR assays. We examined Affymetrix gene expression in samples from eight normal individuals where blood was processed for RNA either immediately after blood draw or the next day following overnight incubation. These studies identified hundreds of genes that are sensitive to ex vivo handling of blood, and suggest that this is an important variable to consider when designing and interpreting human PBMC experiments.

Blood Specimen Collection↗
PubMed2004

Fluorescence studies of single biomolecules.

Single-molecule fluorescence has the capability to detect properties buried in ensemble measurements and, hence, provides new insights about biological processes. Ratiometric methods are normally used to reduce the effects of excitation beam inhomogeneity. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer is widely used but there are problems in inserting the fluorophores in the correct position on the biomolecule, particularly if the structure is not known. We have recently developed two-colour coincidence single-molecule fluorescence that addresses this problem. This method can be used to determine quantitatively the multimerization states of biomolecules, in solution without separation. The future prospects of single-molecule fluorescence as applied to biological molecules are discussed.

Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer↗