Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S Das

Publications and source records attributed to S Das.

806 records · Page 45Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of Sahaj Yoga on depressive disorders.

Sahaj Yoga is a meditative technique that has been found to have beneficial effects in some psycho-somatic illnesses. The study was carried out on 30 cases (19 Males, 11 females, age 18-45 years) of major depression diagnosed on the basis of DSM IV criteria. The patients were then randomly divided into two groups: Group 1: (10 Males & 5 Females) Patients who were practising Sahaj Yoga and also received conventional anti-depressants. Group 2: (9 Males & 6 Females) Patients who were only receiving conventional anti-depressants. Training in Sahaj yoga was conducted under the supervision of a trained Sahaj Yogi for 8 weeks. At start of the study, all the patients were subjected to Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A). Above scales were again assessed after two months of treatment. There was significant improvement in HAM-D as well as HAM-A scores in both Group 1 and Group 2 patients (P<0.001). However, percentage improvement in HAM-D scores and HAM-A scores in patients receiving Sahaj Yoga was significantly higher than in Group 2 patients. The number of patients who went into remission after two months of intervention were also significantly higher in Group 1 patients (P=0.02). The present study demonstrates that Sahaj Yoga has got a potential role as a component in the management of depressive disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Aspartame and dental caries in the rat.

Aspartame (NutraSweet--The NutraSweet Co., Deerfield, IL) an artificial intense sweetener, was tested for its cariogenicity alone and in the presence of sucrose. Sprague-Dawley rat pups (Charles River Laboratories, Bloomington, MA) inoculated with Streptococcus mutans were fed basal diet 2000 with one of the following added: 50% sucrose; 30% sucrose; 30% sucrose + 0.15% aspartame; 0.30% aspartame; 0.15% aspartame and no addition. The animals were sacrificed after eight weeks. Caries was evaluated using Keyes' technique. It was found that the addition of 0.15% aspartame to 30% sucrose diet significantly reduced caries in comparison to rats fed only 30% sucrose diet. In animals fed aspartame only, there was no caries. The S. mutans counts were high in the animals receiving sucrose diets with and without aspartame. The animals receiving only aspartame had very low S. mutans counts.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cultivation in vitro of acid-fast nocardioform chemoautotrophic bacteria from mouse foot-pads infected with human strains of leprosy bacillus.

Four acid-fast nocardioform bacteria could be isolated and cultivated as pure cultures in vitro from mouse foot-pads (MFP), which were infected with serially passaged strains of human leprosy bacillus; the liquid mineral medium, such as paraffin urea minimal (PUM), paraffin gelatin minimal (PGM), gelatin minimal (GM), and GM agar (GMA) slants containing only simple sources of C and N were used, just like the human and the armadillo isolates of these organisms reported earlier. Morphologically, metabolically and enzymologically, these were closely related to the previous ones and were also chemoautotrophic in nature. Serologically there appears to be a heterogenicity in these isolates, i.e., some of them showing higher affinity to nocardioforms while others showing significant binding to several mycobacteria. Normal (uninfected) mouse foot-pad harvests were not found to harbour such organisms.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Repeated isolation of nocardia like organisms from multibacillary cases of leprosy.

Nocardia like organisms were isolated from all the 22 multibacillary cases of leprosy, on minimal media consisting of only mineral salts and supplemented with simple C-sources (e.g., liquid paraffin, tetradecane etc.) and N-sources (e.g. ammonium salts, urea, asparagine, gelatin etc.). Complex organic substances, e.g., xanthine, tyrosine, casein, peptone, meat extract, egg proteins, serum, blood, yeast extract as well as medium 199, did not support the growth of these organisms at all. Paraffin-urea minimal (PUM), paraffin gelatin minimal (PGM) and gelatin minimal medium, as well as the agar slants of these media, selectively allowed good growth of these organisms on which these could be serially propagated continuously, and isolated as pure cultures; these were acid-fast long slender rods which were seen to arise directly from fragmented or unfragmented long, slender hyphae, forming at places mycelial tufts many of which, on ageing, sporulated abundantly. Their acid-fastness was pyridine susceptible and these were DOPA-Oxidase positive; these grew best under reduced 02 tension, at pH 7.0-8.0 and temperature about 28 degrees C. Serologically, these appeared to be sufficiently related to, each other, 2 nocardiae (N. brasiliensis and N. caviae) and some mycobacteria.

Culture Media↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Spectrophotometric estimation of rifampin-isoniazid mixture in dosage form.

A spectrophotometric method for the simultaneous determination of rifampin and isoniazid in dosage form is described. By using a mixture of methanol and water (2 + 3) as solvent, the absorbance of the mixtures of rifampin and isoniazid is measured at 264 nm and 335 nm. The concentration of each can then be calculated by solving 2 simultaneous equations. The procedure was successfully applied to a number of commercial samples; the results agreed well with those for compendial method.

Dosage Forms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Synchronous bilateral surgery for calculous disease of the upper urinary tract.

Bilateral calculous disease of the upper urinary tract frequently poses great difficulty in therapeutic decisions. Staged or sequential surgery is often recommended, with the side that is more obstructed, infected, or symptomatic operated on first. Despite all the rationalization for sequential surgery, we believe that a simultaneous surgical approach to bilateral calculous disease is feasible and advisable in some situations. On the basis of our experience with nine patients, we have categorized the indications for such surgery. In patients, with bilateral calculous disease for whom surgical intervention on both sides will at some point be necessary, simultaneous single-stage surgery is recommended. This is especially true: (a) with bilateral obstructive calculi; (b) in bilateral calculous disease with acute pyelonephritis when which side is affected is equivocal; (c) when anatomic proximity makes bilateral surgery easier, e.g. in bilateral lower ureteral calculi or bilateral calculi in horseshoe kidneys.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Artificial sperm reservoir on epididymis using pedicled tunica vaginalis for the management of conductive azoospermia.

In persons with azoospermia due to obstructive or anejaculatory causes, implantation of alloplastic silicone reservoirs onto the epididymis for collection of spermatozoa for artificial insemination, with eventual pregnancy, has become technically feasible, although there have been poor results from the procedure. Our experimental study on dogs indicates that such an epididymal reservoir can easily be constructed from a pedicled tunica vaginalis flap. Observations on the qualitative and quantitative changes in the spermatozoa of these reservoirs and conjecture about possible means of improvement of these parameters are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A review of pediatric oral biopsies from a surgical pathology service in a dental school.

This report presents a review of results from 2370 biopsies of patients up to 20 years of age received over 11 years in the biopsy service at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The computerized data were retrieved and compiled for site, age, sex, race, and diagnosis of the biopsies. The lesions were divided into 1) inflammatory and reactive, 2) cystic, 3) neoplastic, and 4) other anomalies. The patients were divided into three racial groups: whites, blacks, and Hispanics. Whites were in the majority (57%), blacks were the next most prevalent (26%), and Hispanics were the smallest group (17%). Private practitioners were the major source of the biopsies. The predominant site of the biopsies was periodontium followed by the lips. Inflammatory and reactive lesions formed the largest group of biopsies (66.1%) followed by neoplasms (11.2%) and cystic lesions (10.7%). Mucus extravasation phenomenon was the most common lesion followed by periapical granuloma, periapical cyst, dentigerous cyst, pyogenic granuloma, and papilloma. Three malignancies and five ameloblastomas also were found.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hemimegalencephaly--morphological and immunocytochemical study.

Hemimegalencephaly (HME), a rare congenital abnormality characterized by unilateral enlargement of the cerebral hemisphere, is one of the less common causes of intractable seizures. We report a 6-month-old infant with uncontrolled seizures who was diagnosed to have a large mass lesion based on a CT scan. Postmortem examination revealed left-sided HME with pachygyria, widened cortex, indistinct grey-white junction, and distorted deep nuclear masses. Histological features included loss of cortical lamination, large atypical neurons with argyrophilic accumulations, ballooned cells, neuronal heterotopia, and astrocytosis with dystrophic calcification. The heterotopic neurons in the white matter were present in a radial pattern suggestive of aberrant neuronal migration. Several large neurons were dystrophic with cytoskeletal abnormalities like phosphorylated high molecular weight neurofilament and ubiquitin in the cytoplasm. However, typical neurofibrillary tangles with Congo red and tau positivity were not observed. Synaptophysin labelling was found to be decreased in the cortex, but some of the abnormal neurons had dense perisomatic label. The majority of the balloon cells were astrocytic in origin, being positive for glial fibrillary acidic protein and negative for the neuronal markers. Although the etiology of HME is not known, it provides an opportunity to study anomalous development of the brain and neuronal developmental abnormalities.

Astrocytes↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Infratentorial dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNT) associated with Arnold-Chiari malformation.

Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNT), a benign neoplasm, is now a well recognized clinicopathological entity. We report the second case of DNT in the cerebellum occurring in a 20-year-old male presenting with ataxia. He also had Arnold-Chiari malformation of the adult type. Histologically the tumor was a "simple" DNT having the specific "glioneuronal" element, namely oligodendrocyte-like cells (OLCs), mucoid change and floating neurons (Purkinje cells). A striking feature was the perpendicular arrangement of the neuropil columns extending from the pial surface to white matter similar to those seen in supratentorial examples. On immunstaining some of the OLCs were positive for synaptophysin and negative for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), glucocerebroside, tau and MAP-2. The neuropil was synaptophysin-positive and focally positive for MAP-2 and GFAP as well. The Purkinje cells were morphologically normal but malaligned and were positive for phosphorylated neurofilament suggesting secondary dysplastic changes. A transition of the lesion into relatively normal cerebellum preserving the folial architecture was observed. The histological and immunochemical features of the DNT in cerebellum suggests its possible origin from the pluripotential external granular layer.

Adult↗