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Biomedical subjects

S Farooq

Publications and source records attributed to S Farooq.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome using WHO, ATPIII and IDF definitions in Asian Indians: the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES-34).

AIM: To compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) using the World Health Organisation (WHO), Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria of MS in an urban south Indian population, and their ability to identify coronary artery disease (CAD) in males and females. METHODS: Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES) is one of the largest epidemiological studies on diabetes carried out in India, in which 26 001 individuals aged >or=20 years were screened using systematic random sampling method. Every tenth subject recruited in Phase 1 of CURES was requested to participate in Phase 3, and the response rate was 90.4%. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed in all individuals except self-reported diabetic subjects. Anthropometric measurements and lipid estimations were done in all subjects and the prevalence of MS estimated using the three criteria. Diagnosis of CAD, made by resting 12 lead ECG, was compared by the three criteria of MS. RESULTS: MS was identified in 546 subjects (23.2%) by WHO criteria, 430 subjects (18.3%) by ATPIII criteria and 607 subjects (25.8%) by IDF criteria. Only 224 of these subjects were identified by all the three criteria. There was an increased risk of probable CAD in MS subjects diagnosed by WHO criteria (odds ratio (OR) 3.86, 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 2.37-6.29, p < 0.001), compared to ATPIII criteria (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.30-3.67, p < 0.05) and IDF criteria (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.16-3.12, p < 0.05). The WHO criteria marked out a much higher population for CAD risk compared to ATPIII and IDF criteria in males, but not in females. CONCLUSION: In Asian Indians, the WHO, ATPIII and IDF criteria of MS identify different individuals. The WHO criteria identify a greater number of CAD subjects in males, but not in females.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Secular trends in the prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance in urban South India--the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES-17).

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to determine the secular trends in prevalence of diabetes and IGT in urban India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES) screened 26,001 individuals aged > or =20 years using the American Diabetes Association fasting capillary glucose criteria. The study population, which was representative of Chennai, was recruited by systematic random sampling. Every tenth subject from Phase 1 of CURES was invited to participate in Phase 3 for screening by World Health Organization (WHO) plasma glucose criteria. The response rate was 90.4% (2,350 responders from 2,600 potential subjects). The prevalences of diabetes and IGT in CURES were compared with three earlier studies: two conducted on a representative population of Chennai in 1989 and 1995, and the other the National Urban Diabetes Survey (NUDS) completed in 2000. RESULTS: The overall crude prevalence of diabetes using WHO criteria in CURES was 15.5% (age-standardised 14.3%), while that of IGT was 10.6% (age-standardised 10.2%). Prevalence of diabetes increased by 39.8% (8.3-11.6%) from 1989 to 1995; by 16.3% (11.6-13.5%) between 1995 and 2000; and by 6.0% (13.5-14.3%) between 2000 and 2004. Thus within a span of 14 years, the prevalence of diabetes increased by 72.3% (chi (2) trend 22.23, p < 0.0001). The prevalence of IGT increased by 9.6% from 1989 to 1995 and by 84.6% between 1995 and 2000 (chi 2 trend 52.9, p < 0.0001). However, it decreased by 39.3% between 2000 and 2004 (p < 0.0001). There was a shift in the age at diagnosis of diabetes to a younger age in CURES compared with NUDS. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Compared with earlier studies, the prevalence of diabetes in Chennai, representing urban India, has increased while that of IGT has decreased.

Blood Glucose↗
PubMed2006

Mutagenic effect of acridine orange on the expression of penicillin G acylase and beta-lactamase in Escherichia coli.

AIMS: The present work aimed to improve the production of penicillin G acylase (PGA) and reduce the beta-lactamase activity through acridine orange (AO) induced mutation in Escherichia coli. METHODS AND RESULTS: Three wild E. coli strains BDCS-N-FMu10, BDCS-N-S21 and BDCS-N-W50, producing both the enzymes PGA and beta-lactamase were treated by AO. Minimum inhibitory concentration of AO was 10 microg ml(-1) and it was noted that bacterial growth was gradually suppressed by increasing the concentration of AO from 10 to 100 microg ml(-1). The highest concentration that gave permissible growth rate was 50 microg ml(-1). The isolated survivals were screened on the bases of PGA and beta-lactamase activities. Among the retained mutants, the occurrence of beta-lactamase deficient ones (91%) was significantly higher than penicillin acylase deficient ones (27%). CONCLUSIONS: In seven of the mutants, PGA activity was enhanced with considerable decrease in beta-lactamase activity. One of the mutant strains (BDCS-N-M36) exhibited very negligible expression of beta-lactamase activity and twofold increase in PGA activity [12.7 mg 6-amino-penicillanic acid (6-APA) h(-1) mg(-1) wet cells] compared with that in the wild-type strain (6.3 mg 6-APA h(-1) mg(-1) wet cells). SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The treatment of E. coli cells with AO resulted in mutants with enhanced production of PGA and inactivation of beta-lactamase. These mutants could be used for industrial production of PGA.

Acridine Orange↗
PubMed2005

Modeling gas adsorption and transport in small-pore titanium silicates.

Engelhard titanium silicate, ETS-4, is a promising new adsorbent for size-selective separation of mixtures of small gases, a leading industrially important example of which is methane-nitrogen separation. Single component equilibrium and kinetics of oxygen, nitrogen, and methane adsorption in Na-ETS-4 and cation-exchanged Sr-ETS-4, measured in an earlier study over a wide range of temperatures and pressures, are analyzed in this study. The adsorbent crystals were synthesized and pelletized under pressure (without any binder), thus giving rise to a bidispersed pore structure with controlling resistance in the micropores. Change in equilibrium and kinetics of adsorption of the aforementioned gases in Sr-ETS-4 due to pore shrinkage with progressively increasing dehydration temperature has also been investigated. Differential uptakes have been measured at various levels of adsorbate loading, which has allowed the elucidation of the nature of concentration dependence of micropore diffusivity. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous models are examined on the equilibrium data, while a bidispersed pore diffusion model is able to capture the differential uptakes very well. On the basis of chemical potential gradient as the driving force for diffusion, the impact of isotherm models on the concentration dependence of micropore diffusivity is also analyzed. It is shown that pore tailoring at the molecular scale by dehydration can improve the kinetic selectivity of nitrogen over methane in Sr-ETS-4 to a promising level. The models investigated are evaluated to identify essential details necessary to reliably simulate a methane-nitrogen separation process using the promising new Sr-ETS-4 adsorbent.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Effects of site occupancy, cation relocation, and pore geometry on adsorption kinetics in ETS-4.

Strontium-exchanged titanium silicate, Sr-ETS-4, is a new molecular sieve with promises for exciting applications in gas separation. The literature mentions poor thermal stability and low adsorption capacity as the drawbacks of the as-synthesized Na-ETS-4 and therefore the need for cation exchange. Upon ion exchange, Sr-ETS-4 shows appreciable kinetic selectivity between methane and nitrogen, which can be improved further by controlled dehydration. In this study, we trace the changes at the molecular level behind this improvement. By combining distributed information in the literature, it is shown that the governing factors are changes in pore geometry with progressive dehydration, changes in ion occupancy, and relocation of cations due to Sr exchange.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

A heterogeneous model for gas transport in carbon molecular sieves.

A dual resistance model with distribution of either barrier or pore diffusional activation energy is proposed in this work for gas transport in carbon molecular sieve (CMS) micropores. This is a novel approach in which the equilibrium is homogeneous, but the kinetics is heterogeneous. The model seems to provide a possible explanation for the concentration dependence of the thermodynamically corrected barrier and pore diffusion coefficients observed in previous studies from this laboratory on gas diffusion in CMS. The energy distribution is assumed to follow the gamma distribution function. It is shown that the energy distribution model can fully capture the behavior described by the empirical model established in earlier studies to account for the concentration dependence of thermodynamically corrected barrier and pore diffusion coefficients. A methodology is proposed for extracting energy distribution parameters, and it is further shown that the extracted energy distribution parameters can effectively predict integral uptake and column breakthrough profiles over a wide range of operating pressures.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Validation of body fat measurement by skinfolds and two bioelectric impedance methods with DEXA--the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study [CURES-3].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Although Asian Indians have been shown to have increased body fat compared to Europeans, there have been very few studies in Asian Indians validating the various methods available for body fat measurement. The aim of this study was to test the validity of body fat measured by two commercial impedance analyzers (leg-to-leg and hand-held) as well as by skinfolds with Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) as the reference method in a population based study in southern India. METHODS: Body fat percentage (BF%) was measured in 162 South Indian urban men (n=76) and women (n=86) randomly selected from the "Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study" (CURES), an ongoing population based study of a representative population of Chennai. The mean age of the subjects was 45.1 +/- 9.0 years and the body mass index ranged from 16.4 - 34.4 kg/m2. Percentage body fat was measured using DEXA, segmental impedance (leg-to-leg: BF%IMP-LEG; and hand-held BF%IMP-HAND) using the manufacturer's software and skinfolds using the prediction equation from the literature (BF%SKFD). RESULTS: Body fat (%) determined by the leg-to-leg method (BF%IMP-LEG 35.10 +/- 7.26) and the skinfolds (BF%SKFD 35.77 +/- 6.06) did not differ significantly from the reference method DEXA (BF%DEXA 35.82 +/- 8.33), but the hand-held impedance method (BF%IMP-HAND 31.38 +/- 6.24) showed significant difference (p < 0.001). The bias for estimation of body fat (%) for the bioimpedance leg-to-leg, hand-held and skinfolds were 0.73 +/- 5.70, 4.45 +/- 4.83 and 0.06 +/- 5.86 respectively. All the three methods showed a fairly good correlation with DEXA (BF%IMP-LEG: r = 0.741, p<0.001; BF%IMP-HAND: r = 0.817, p< 0.001; BF%SKFD: r 0.710, p< 0.001). CONCLUSION: The study shows that in urban south Indians, measurement of body fat by the leg-to-leg impedance and the skinfold method have better agreement (lower bias) with DEXA than the hand-held impedance. However, all three methods (skinfolds, the leg-to-leg bioelectric impedance and hand-held impedance) show a fairly good correlation with DEXA.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗
PubMed2001

Co-existence of salt and drought tolerance in Triticeae.

Cell membrane stability (CMS) technique was used to screen for drought tolerance, salt tolerant accessions of three Aegilops species, Ae. tauschii, Ae. cylindrica, Ae. geniculata and two hexaploid wheat (Tricitum aestivum L.) cultivars comprising salt tolerant LU-26 and drought tolerant Chakwal-86. The objectives were to see how valid it is for a salt tolerant plant to be drought tolerant as well and to identify the character(s) that may contribute to drought tolerance. Three moisture levels equal to 100, 50 and 25% saturation capacity of the soil were used for plant cultivation. Injury percentage (IP) based on in-vitro desiccation induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG) in leaf tissue was measured through the conductivity of the electrolyte leakage. Injury percentage decreased in all the test material with decrease in soil moisture contents. Ae. cylindrica exhibited minimum injury at 100% soil moisture level followed by Ae. tauschii and Ae. geniculata while drought tolerant wheat cultivars exhibited the maximum. The wheat cultivar Chakwal-86 has been developed for dry areas, with low soil moisture levels, and high water potential enhances the injury percentage. Aegilops cylindrica is a salt tolerant species and can thus tolerate water deficit conditions created due to low osmotic potential. Potassium appeared to play an important role in drought tolerance which was evident from high K+ contents and low K+ leakage from Aegilops cylindrica and drought tolerant wheat cultivar Chakwal-86. It was inferred from the study that salt tolerant species might prove drought tolerant in the areas where water deficit prevails due to the ability to create low intracellular osmotic potentials.

Acclimatization↗
PubMed2001

Production of low input and stress tolerant wheat germplasm through the use of biodiversity residing in the wild relatives.

Agricultural biodiversity adds value to crop, induces resistance, contributes enormously to human foodstuff, removes fear of genetic uniformity and ensure food security of the world. For these reasons, NIAB initiated a programme on collection, evaluation, and utilisation of agro-biodiversity related with wheat and wheat wild relatives. The focus of the programme was on the addition of stress tolerance from wild species to cultivated wheat. The objectives were i) to have a permanent source of stress tolerant germplasm, ii) to facilitate availability of such germplasm for environment friendly, profitable and sustainable agriculture on stressed lands and iii) to ensure safety of biodiversity (through gene conservation) for the stability of future agriculture. During 1998-2001, we tested wheat lines developed by using biodiversity residing in the Aegilops species. The material was tested in an area that required stress tolerant germplasm. Planting was done in fields where cotton was already growing up to the stage of second picking. The inputs included only half the amount of recommended dose of fertiliser, approximately half of the normal irrigation, no herbicide and two applications of compost. Two of the lines tested in these trials out-yielded all existing wheat cultivars traditionally grown in this area and convinced the farmers that biodiversity does play a role in adding value to the existing material, making it suitable for specific requirement. This paper describes, in detail, the significance of the plant material for the area, practical achievements, acceptance by the farmers and economic feasibility of the stress tolerant material developed at NIAB.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed2001

Psychiatric comorbidity in substance abuse (opioids).

OBJECTIVE: To find the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among the opioids dependents and to assess the severity of their addiction profile. METHOD: Sample comprised of fifty patients admitted in drug treatment and rehabilitation center at Psychiatry Department of Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, between March to August 1997. DSM-IV diagnostic criteria were applied to diagnose substance dependence and associated psychiatric morbidity, while Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and Addiction Severity Index were used to assess severity of anxiety, depression and dependence respectively. RESULTS: The major co-morbid psychiatric conditions were major depression (30%), personality disorder (6%), generalized anxiety disorder (4%), phobic disorder (4%), panic disorder (2%), dysthymic disorder (2%). CONCLUSION: The overall findings in this study lends support to the hypothesis, that there is substantial psychiatric co-morbidity amongst the opioid abusers and dependents in our population, as is found in studies from the West.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Identification of a novel zinc finger gene, zf5-3, as a potential mediator of neuroblastoma differentiation.

We established a unique parental neuroblastoma cell line, NUB-7, which mimics the bipotentiality of neuroblastoma in vivo along neuronal and Schwann cell lineages following dibutyryl cAMP and retinoic acid treatments, respectively. Differential display identified a putative novel zinc finger gene as a potential differentiation-responsive gene coincident with retinoic acid treatment of NUB-7. This cDNA clone, now designated zf5-3, was mapped to chromosome 19 using somatic cell hybrids, and a larger cDNA clone further localized this gene to band 13.1-13.2 by fluorescent in situ hybridization. zf5-3 possesses 4 characteristic zinc finger DNA-binding motifs as determined by its nucleic acid and proposed amino acid sequence. Expression of zf5-3 is restricted to fetal neuronal, hepatic and renal tissues and their tumor-derived cell lines, including 8/9 neuroblastomas and 2/2 malignant rhabdoid tumors of kidney. The restricted expression in the kidney of zf5-3 to collecting tubules and ureter epithelium is suggestive of an ectodermal histogenesis of malignant rhabdoid tumors of kidney. During development of the fetal human brain, high levels of zf5-3 mRNA are restricted to the mitotically active, undifferentiated neuroblasts. Morphological evidence of overt differentiation was generally accompanied by a marked loss in zf5-3 expression. Therefore, the neuronal tissue expression profile and the down-regulation coincident with retinoic acid-induced neuroblastoma maturation implicate zf5-3 as a potential mediator of their differentiation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗