Gender differences in the associations between past-year gambling problems and psychiatric disorders

Background Psychiatric disorders frequently co-occur with pathological gambling. The extent to which co-occurence extends to subsyndromal levels of gambling or differs between women and men is incompletely understood. Aim To examine whether the association between psychiatric disorders and past-year gambling problems is stronger in women than men. Methods Data from the national epidemiological survey of alcoholism and related disorders (NESARC) (n = 43,093) were analyzed. Results Increasing severity of past-year gambling problems was associated with increasing odds of most past-year Axis I and lifetime Axis II disorders, regardless of gender. Associations between gambling problems and major depression, dysthymia, panic disorder, and nicotine dependence were statistically stronger in women than in men. Conclusions A severity-related association exists between past-year gambling problems and psychiatric disorders. The stronger associations in women suggest that gambling research, prevention and treatment efforts consider gender differences.     

Relapsed and late-onset Nipah encephalitis

An outbreak of infection with the Nipah virus, a novel paramyxovirus, occurred among pig farmers between September 1998 and June 1999 in Malaysia, involving 265 patients with 105 fatalities. This is a follow-up study 24 months after the outbreak. Twelve survivors (7.5%) of acute encephalitis had recurrent neurological disease (relapsed encephalitis). Of those who initially had acute nonencephalitic or asymptomatic infection, 10 patients (3.4%) had late-onset encephalitis. The mean interval between the first neurological episode and the time of initial infection was 8.4 months. Three patients had a second neurological episode. The onset of the relapsed or late-onset encephalitis was usually acute. Common clinical features were fever, headache, seizures, and focal neurological signs. Four of the 22 relapsed and late-onset encephalitis patients (18%) died. Magnetic resonance imaging typically showed patchy areas of confluent cortical lesions. Serial single-photon emission computed tomography showed the evolution of focal hyperperfusion to hypoperfusion in the corresponding areas. Necropsy of 2 patients showed changes of focal encephalitis with positive immunolocalization for Nipah virus antigens but no evidence of perivenous demyelination. We concluded that a unique relapsing and remitting encephalitis or late-onset encephalitis may result as a complication of persistent Nipah virus infection in the central nervous system.     

Evaluation of cosmetic tattooing in localised stable vitiligo

Thirty patients with localised stable vitiligo were selected from the Out Patient Department for cosmetic tattooing. Of them, 19 cases (63.3%) had skin patches, 9 cases (30%) had mucosal patches, and 2 cases (6.7%) had both skin and mucosal involvement. After complete clinical evaluation, cosmetic tattooing was performed on these patients, and they were followed up for 6 months. As results, 23 cases (76.7%) had excellent color matching, 2 cases (6.7%) had good color matching, and 5 cases (16.6%) had pigment shedding. Excellent results were seen in all mucosal patches. Dark complexion cases showed better results than fair complexion ones.     

Molecular epidemiology of human picobirnaviruses among children of a slum community in Kolkata, India

Picobirnaviruses are a group of unclassified, non-enveloped, small spherical viruses, 35-41 nm in diameter without any apparent surface morphology. They have characteristic bisegmented double stranded RNA genome of two types namely large profile (2.3-2.6 kbp for the larger and 1.5-1.9 kbp for the smaller segment, respectively) or small profile (1.75 and 1.55 kbp for segments 1 and 2, respectively). Human picobirnaviruses (n=12 positives; 2/56 diarrhoeic children and 10/607 non-diarrhoeic children) with large (n=11) or small (n=1) genome pattern were observed in faecal specimens of children from a slum community by silver stained PAGE gels. Faecal specimen from four asymptomatic cases (P597_02_IND, K135_02_IND, A373_03_IND, A356_03_IND) and one diarrhoeic case (K135_03_IND) had genogroup I picobirnaviruses (1-CHN-97 like) showing amplicons within the 201 bp region, with primers PicoB25-PicoB43, targeting the conserved domain of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene. It was interesting to note that only the PBV strain P597_02_IND from Kolkata with large genome was closely related to a reported strain (similarity with 2-GA-91 from USA was 87% at the nucleotide level and 90% at the amino acid level). Sequence analysis showed three conserved amino acid domains as well as a highly conserved D-S-D motif, characteristic of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene of bisegmented, double stranded RNA viruses. Sequence data of the picobirnavirus A356_03_IND indicated strong heterogeneity with all other picobirnavirus strains sequenced till date. After nearly a decade a genogroup II picobirnavirus strain (R227_03_IND) was isolated from a diarrhoea case in the community, with small genome profile and amplified with specific primers PicoB23-PicoB24; but the sequence data showed that it was divergent from the hitherto reported prototype strain 4-GA-91 of genogroup II human picobirnaviruses.     

Kikuchi — Fujimoto disease

Kikuchi — fujimoto disease also known as histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis is an idiopathic benign self limiting condition with a favourable outcome, usually affecting young women. The following cases have burn reported for clinical interest and for the rarity of the reports about this condition in ENT literature. In our series, we had 2 female patients aged 18 years and 25 years respectively and a male patient aged 45 years, presenting with fever, bilateral tender multiple cervical adenopathy including posterior triangle nodes not responding to routine antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drug treatment. ENT findings were within normal limits. Routine clinical investigations were within normal limits except for the raised ESR. Biopsy from one of the enlarged glands revealed necrotizing lymphadenitis. All the patients subsequently showed significant improvement locally in the neck and systemically without any further active treatment.     

Marrow Histomorphology and Clinical Staging of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia-A Rare Disease in India: Experience with 26 Cases

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is a relatively uncommon hemopoietic malignancy in the Indian subcontinent. We have made an attempt to correlate the morphology of the marrow with staging and clinical course of the disease in 26 cases. Four out of 6 cases in Stage A showed a nodular/interstitial marrow pattern, while 18 out of 20 cases of stage B and C demonstrated a mixed/diffuse involvement of marrow. Cases showing a nodular/interstitial pattern had a relatively benign clinical course even without chemotherapy, while patients with diffuse/mixed marrow pattern required chemotherapy. Trephine histological pattern was found to be a good prognosticator and was useful in segregating cases requiring chemotherapy from those which do not.