Efficacy of lycopene in the management of oral submucous fibrosis.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of oral lycopene therapy in patients with oral submucous fibrosis and to compare these effects with a placebo. STUDY DESIGN: Fifty-eight patients with oral submucous fibrosis formed the population for the study and were randomly divided into 3 groups, evaluated weekly over a 2-month period. Patients of group A (n = 21) received 16 mg of lycopene, those of group B (n = 19) received 16 mg of lycopene along with biweekly intralesional steroid injections, and those of group C (n = 18) were given a placebo. Paired and unpaired t tests were used for statistical evaluation. RESULTS: Mouth-opening values for the patients showed an average increase of 3.4 mm, 4.6 mm, and 0.0 mm for patients in groups A, B, and C, respectively. These values were statistically found to be highly significant. CONCLUSIONS: The observed effects suggest that lycopene can and should be used as a first line of therapy in the initial management of oral submucous fibrosis.     

"Occult" Boerhaave's syndrome

Spontaneous rupture of the esophagus (Boerhaave's syndrome) usually presents in a dramatic fashion. Classically, following repeated episodes of vomiting, patients present with chest pain, dyspnea, cyanosis, shock, and cardiovascular collapse. We present a case of occult Boerhaave's syndrome diagnosed by an upper gastrointestinal series in a 33-year-old man who arrived at the emergency department with a chief complaint of hematemesis. This case report reviews the usual presenting signs and symptoms of Boerhaave's syndrome and concludes with a caution to physicians not to ignore the possibility of this disease entity in relatively stable patients.     

Preserved vision in a case of morning glory syndrome: some pertinent questions

Morning glory syndrome, an unusual developmental anomaly of the optic nerve head, presenting with funnelled enlargement of the disc with a white dot in the centre and a peripheral vascular pattern along the disc margin, with features of typical entry and exit of retinal vessels on the optic nerve head and exceptionally good vision in the involved eye with old traumatic retinal detachment in the other, in a young Indian girl is described here for its rarity and indifferent clinical presentation. Various factors in its pathogenesis are postulated.     

Aminophylline targeting to lung: optimization of the size and drug loading of albumin microspheres.

Aminophylline, a bronchodilator, was considered a suitable drug for targeting to the lung to treat emphysema. Factorial concept was utilized to optimize the size and drug loading of microspheres suitable for targeting. Aminophylline-loaded albumin microspheres were prepared by heat denaturation adjusting the manufacturing variables, namely albumin concentration, drug concentration, water-oil phase ratio and stirring rate at low and high levels. For two levels of the four variables the experimentation was performed in 16 batches. A good yield of well-defined microspheres of the size range, 2-30 microns, were obtained from all the batches. The drug loading was found maximum (36.33 per cent) in batch XV of microspheres prepared with low albumin concentration, high drug concentration, low water-oil phase ratio and low stirring rate. The least number (13 per cent) of microspheres of batch XV were below 7 microns and the remaining 87 per cent were above this size. Considering the payload and size, microspheres of batch XV were found suitable for targeting to the lung.     

Papillary adenoma of type 2 pneumocytes

A case of papillary adenoma of type 2 pneumocytes is reported. A 57-year-old man had an unusual coin lesion in the periphery of the right lung without any symptoms. When detected in a mass survey examination, it was approximately 1.5 cm in diameter, well circumscribed, and located in S4, involving the sixth-order bronchus of B4. Light-microscopic examination revealed cuboidal tumor cells arranged in a papillary pattern. Ultrastructurally, the cells had characteristic osmiophilic lamellar bodies. By immunoperoxidase staining, the tumor cells were shown to have intracytoplasmic surfactant apoproteins. The postoperative course was uneventful, and there is no evidence of disease 8 years later.     

Stressful family life events and nonspecific somatic complaints in school children.

The relationship between stressful family life events and somatic complaints in 477 school children was studied. There was a significant association between life events and somatic complaints, with a general trend for somatic complaints to increase in almost direct proportion to the number of family life events. Overall occurrence of these nonspecific symptoms was more in girls. The somatic complaints were significantly more in children from nuclear families and of illiterate or poorly educated mothers. No significant association was observed between somatic complaints and number of children in the family or socio-economic status. Assessment of psychodevelopmental tasks and family environment during routine check up of children by the school health teams and their appropriate training in this field should be stressed upon.     

Earlobe reconstruction using a Limberg flap in six ears.

Many methods of earlobe reconstruction using one or two stages have been described. These have used (i) the superimposition of two flaps, (ii) a single flap lined with a skin graft or (iii) doubled-over single or bilobed flaps. We present a new method of earlobe reconstruction using a doubled-over Limberg flap, which we have used in six ears. This produces a good-looking earlobe, which needs defatting after 3-4 months and suffered minimal necrosis at the tip of the folded flap in three cases. There was no earlobe shrinkage on long-term follow-up.