Aspergillus terreus postoperative endophthalmitis.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Sharma.
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Ganglioneuroblastoma in the spinal region is rare, the treatment of choice being surgical excision. We present a 21 year old male who was diagnosed to have this condition in the dorsolumbar spinal region. The tumour was extending intraspinally and was unresectable. Combination chemotherapy with Adriamycin (doxorubicin hydrochloride), vincristine, cyclophosphamide, etoposide, ifosfamide and cisplatin resulted in histologically proven complete remission. No radiotherapy or curative resection was done. The patient is alive without evidence of disease 24 months later. Never before has chemotherapy been successfully used as the sole modality of treatment in this condition. Our report raises important questions about the management of this rare condition, particularly in a situation of unresectability.
A case of mediastinal paraganglioma presenting with superior vena caval obstruction is reported. The tumour extended into the right atrium and ventricle. Tru-Cut biopsy under ultrasonographic guidance was performed safely to provide a diagnosis before death.
We grafted autogenous bone marrow percutaneously to stimulate healing in 20 ununited long bone fractures. 15-20 mL of bone marrow was injected twice, with an interval of 3 weeks. All cases were immobilized in a plaster cast. 17 cases united in 5 (3-7) months.
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One hundred mothers undergoing cesarean section and their infants were studied regarding various factors affecting the establishment of breastfeeding during their stay in hospital (mean = 11 +/- 3.6 days). Nearly two-thirds (65.7%) of mothers who underwent elective cesarean section, and 62.8% of mothers who received spinal anesthesia were breastfeeding exclusively; while only 53.8% mothers who had undergone an emergency cesarean section and 28.6% who received general anesthesia were exclusively breastfeeding their neonates. All 9 mothers who initiated breastfeeding within 12 h of the surgery were practicing total breastfeeding. In contrast only 5.8% of mothers who initiated breastfeeding after 96 hours, were exclusively breastfeeding their neonates. Total breastfeeding was more frequent (86.8%) in newborn infants who received prelacteal feeds by spoon as compared to those who received by feeding bottle (33.3%). Babies separated from the mothers in hospital were less likely (35.5%) to be on total breastfeeding as compared to those (68.1%) who were not separated from their mothers. This study suggests that for proper establishment of breastfeeding in mothers undergoing cesarean section an elective procedure under spinal anesthesia promotes, early initiation of breastfeeding. Early initiation of breastfeeding has highly significant correlation with establishment of breastfeeding while separation of babies from mothers discourages breastfeeding.
Myocardial ischemia during routine daily activities was studied in patients with known coronary artery disease with an ambulatory radionuclide probe and recording device (VEST) and routine rest and exercise gated blood pool imaging. Seventeen patients were monitored for 60 minutes while sitting (baseline), standing in place, walking, eating (6 patients), and urinating (4 patients). Eleven of them (64%) failed to show an augmentation of at least 5% in the LVEF on an exercise gated blood pool imaging study (Group I) and 6 (36%) showed a normal response (Group II). Three patients (18%) in Group I experienced angina. Transient left ventricular dysfunction was detected by the VEST during walking, urinating or eating in 80% of the patients in Group I and 33% in Group II (p < 0.05). During walking, mean ejection fraction slightly decreased from 45 +/- 12% to 43 +/- 13% in Group I while the ejection fraction increased from 46 +/- 8% to 51 +/- 12% in Group II (p = 0.04 for the difference in responses). Standing in place and eating did not affect the mean ejection fraction. Urination in 4 patients in Group I caused a significant drop in ejection fraction in 3 patients for a mean change from 51 +/- 9% at rest to 42 +/- 15%. By contrast, none of the patients had angina or diagnostic ECG changes during the monitoring period.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
To fully understand immune competence in subjects with precancerous and cancerous lesions of the uterine cervix, various markers of T and B cells in peripheral blood were evaluated. The cellular measures were the absolute numbers of CD2, CD3, CD22, CD25, CD4, CD8 and CD4/CD8 T cell ratio and serologic measures were the levels of cellular products ie interleukin-2 (IL-2) and soluble interleukin-2 receptors (SIL2-R). Eighty-five subjects were analysed, and diagnosed histologically as CIN (n = 33) and invasive cancer (n = 22). Thirty women with normal Pap test results served as controls. Results on cellular markers showed a significant decrease in peripheral blood lymphocyte counts in patients with higher grades of cervical lesions as compared to controls (CIN III P < 0.05 and invasive cancer P < 0.001). Similar trends were observed for CD22 cell counts (P < 0.001). A consistent decrease was observed for CD2 positive T lymphocytes in patients with higher grade cervical lesions only. In addition, a decrease in CD4-T cells with a relative increase in CD8 and CD25 cell count was observed in these groups of patients, leading to a considerable reduction in CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio. Results obtained on soluble cellular products revealed that serum levels of IL-2 and SIL2-R in patient groups were significantly higher than controls (P < 0.001). Preliminary findings indicated a host-vested cellular impairment, evidenced by immune deficit and immune-stimulation, in women with pre-cancer and cancerous lesions of the cervix.
Acetone has been considered a quick, effective and less expensive chemical sterilising agent and continues to be used by ophthalmic surgeons, at least in developing countries. Its utility however has been questioned recently. This study was designed to assess the efficacy of acetone against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus flavus present on ophthalmic surgical instruments (forceps, sutures). The instruments were contaminated by immersion in standard suspensions of the organisms and thereafter were either unwashed (group-I), washed and dried (group-II) or only washed (group-III) before immersion in acetone. The exposure to acetone was kept at 3, 10 and 20 minutes in each group. The results showed that acetone could eliminate Pseudomonas (vegetative bacteria) after 10 minutes exposure in unwashed group and 3 minutes exposure in washed groups. It was ineffective against spore bearing bacteria (B. subtilis) and fungus (Aspergillus flavus) even after 20 minutes of exposure.
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Calcium channel blockers verapamil (2, 10nM), diltiazem (11, 22nM), nifedipine (2.9, 14nM) and salbutamol (21, 42nM) produced concentration dependent inhibition of oxytocin induced contractions in non-pregnant rats. With verapamil and nifedipine the effect was more marked at both low and high doses. Verapamil (1,2nM), diltiazem (2.2, 11nM), nifedipine (1.4, 2.9nM) and salbutamol (2.1, 4.2nM) produced significant inhibitory effect on PGF2 alpha (0.3 microgram) induced phasic tension. However, basal tension was significantly reduced by salbutamol and nifedipine only.
The purpose of screening for cervical cancer is to prevent the appearance of invasive disease by the detection and treatment of precancerous lesions. Based on data from the developed countries, recommendations have been made regarding the age at which cytology screening should begin and the interval with which rescreening should be performed. However, these recommendations may not be applicable for a developing country like India due to human and financial resource constraints. WHO has recommended that for countries where resources are limited the aim should be to screen every woman at least once in her life-time at an appropriate age. Hence, it is essential to determine the age at which screening may be offered to derive maximum gains. With this in background, based on the data of national cancer registries, an attempt has been made for Indian population to estimate the reduction in the cumulative incidence rate of cervical carcinoma which can be achieved in a cohort of women aged 20-64 years by screening once in her life-time at an appropriate age. Our findings revealed that the first screening offered at 45 years of age could produce gains to the extent of 20-27%, while the screening offered at 50 or 55 years produced the maximum gains to the extent of 25-29%. However, keeping in view the produce years of lives lost in younger women, it may be reasonable to offer once in life-time screening to women aged 45 years.
We have analyzed the antiproliferative activity of the p53 tumor suppressor gene in human tumor cell lines harboring activated ras genes. The levels of p53 protein and incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine in transiently transfected cells were determined simultaneously by flow cytometry. The human HT1080 fibrosarcoma, EJ bladder carcinoma, and SW480 colon carcinoma cell lines were equally sensitive toward wild-type p53-mediated inhibition of DNA synthesis, independent of the state of the endogenous p53 protein. Overexpression of p53 genes mutated at amino acid codon 143 resulted in increased proliferation of SW480 cells, which have two mutated endogenous p53 alleles. To mimic the genetic constitution of an evolving tumor cell that has sustained a mutation in one p53 allele, we coexpressed both wild-type and mutant p53 genes controlled by strong viral promoters in HT1080 cells. Transiently transfected cells showed a reduced bromodeoxyuridine uptake similar to cells into which only wild-type p53 had been introduced. The wild-type p53 gene is a dominant growth suppressor over the mutant in all three different cell lines analyzed. By immunoprecipitation with antibodies PAb 122, PAb 420, and PAb 1620, we demonstrate the presence of both the mutant and wild-type conformations of the p53 protein in the transfected cells.
Cervical cancer is one of the leading malignancies seen in Indian women. It has been well established that organized cervical cytology screening program is the mainstay for control of cervical cancer. It is not possible to carry out cervical cytology screening for masses in India due to paucity of human and financial resources. Hence there is a need for development of an alternate strategy to concentrate on women with high risk. In the present communication attempt was made to define a high risk group based on sociodemographic factors, viz. age, parity, education and clinical features. A total of 67,000 women were screened of which in 250 malignancy was detected. The rate of malignancy was observed to be high in women above 40 years (10.5/1000) with more than two children (6.1/1000) and in illiterate group (4.9/1000) as compared to women below 40 years, more than 3 children and illiterate group. Similarly, the rates were higher in women with clinical diagnosis of cervical erosion which bled on touch, unhealthy cervix and suspicious looking cervix, malignancy rates were 17.1, 24.7, 263.2 (per 1000), respectively. An attempt was made to study the combined effect of all the six factors (sociodemographic and clinical) by employing the technique of linear discriminant analysis to find out the discrimination power between the normal and malignant women. Discriminant score thus obtained would help to classify the case for subjecting to cervical cytology. It was observed that the model containing sociodemographic and clinical variables was able to classify 69% of malignant cases correctly. When the clinical variables were dropped from the model, the sensitivity dropped to 65%. The above exercise indicated that based on the discriminant score even in the absence of facilities for clinical examination of women, it may be possible to identify women of high risk group for subjecting them to cervical cytology screening.
The clinical profile of systemic sclerosis with screening for cardiac involvement and the effect of cold stimulation on myocardium are described in 17 patients. Besides routine investigations, echocardiography, radionuclide ventriculography and computerized stress test, both before and after cold pressor test were done. Ten patients had abnormal ECG findings, two patients had mild pericardial effusion and five patients had moderate grade pulmonary hypertension. Echocardiography and radionuclide ventriculography did not reveal wall motion abnormality either before or after cold stimulation. Computerized stress test was positive for ischaemia following cold stimulation in one patient.
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The records of five patients who received local irradiation for incompletely excised or inoperable glomus tumour were retrospectively reviewed. Age ranged from 25 to 46 years. There were two female and three male patients. Two patients who were solely treated by radiation therapy remain clinically disease free at 30 and 42 months respectively. Of the remaining three patients, where radiotherapy was delivered post operatively, one achieved complete remission and is well and alive at 60 months, whereas the other two patients were lost to follow up at 22 and 26 months respectively after showing an early clinical improvement. We advocate the efficiency of radiation therapy as primary treatment in the management of primary glomus tumour.