Dietary Protein Requirement of Giant Snakehead, Channa marulius (Ham., 1822) Fry and Impact on Growth Indices

Six semi-purified diets (energy 17.97?C18.47?kJ?g^?1) containing protein levels of 300?g?kg^?1(diet-A), 360?g?kg^?1(diet-B), 420?g?kg^?1(diet-C), 480?g?kg^?1(diet-D), 540?g?kg^?1 (diet-E) and 600?g?kg^?1(diet-F) were estimated for the protein requirement of Channa marulius fry (length 4.11?±?0.59?cm) in a completely randomized experiment design in triplicate set. The fry were reared in 18 FRP tanks at a stocking density of 40 fry m³ and fed @ 8?C5?% bw. The diets A, B, C and D showed significantly (p?<?0.05) low survival levels of 46.6, 46.6, 46.6 and 53.3 in comparison to diets E (88.3?%) and F (85.0?%) after 28th day of rearing. The net biomass, SGR and per day weight gain were found significantly (p?<?0.05) higher and FCR low with diets E and F in comparison to diets A, B, C and D. The proximate analysis of carcass showed that the fish fed diets E and F had significantly (p?<?0.5) higher deposition of protein and lipids in the tissue. The study revealed that the protein requirement of C. marulius fry is around 540?C600?g?kg^?1 and the fry could be reared to fingerling size on formulated diets.     

Probability of Finding Marrow Unrelated Donor (MUD) for an Indian patient in a Multi-national Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Registry

With an increase in the number of transplants happening globally, hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) transplantation from matched unrelated donor (MUD) has begun. The increasing trend of MUD transplants across countries has been largely facilitated with the conspicuous growth of volunteer HSC donor noted in the last decade i.e. 8 million HSC donors in 2002 to more than 22 million in 2013 registered in 71 member registries of the Bone Marrow Donor Worldwide (BMDW). Some populations of the world are still very poorly represented in these registries. Since, the chances of successful engraftment and disease free survival are directly proportional to the HLA compatibility between the recipient and the prospective donor, the diversity of the HLA system at the antigenic and allelic level and the heterogeneity of HLA data of the registered donors has a bearing on the probability of finding a volunteer unrelated HSC donor for patients from such populations. In the present study 126 patients were identified suffering from hematological diseases requiring MUD transplant. Their HLA typing was performed and search was done using BMDW database. The search results for these Indian patients in the multinational registry as well as in the Indian Registries were analyzed using mean, range, standard deviation and finally evaluated in terms of probability for finding matched donor (MUD). Total Asian population is only 11 % in the BMDW making it difficult to find a MUD for an Asian patient. The current study supports this, experimentally; revealing that the probability of finding an allele match for an Indian patient in the multinational Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) registries is 16 % and a dismal 0.008 % in the Indian registries (donors in Indian registries is just 33,678 as compared to 22.5 million in BMDW). This greatly, emphasizes on enhancing the number of Indian donors in Indian and multi-national registries.     

Prognostic factors in node-positive carcinoma of the penis

BACKGROUND: Lymph node metastasis is the most important prognostic factor in patients with carcinoma of the penis. In this article, we have reviewed the outcome of the patients with pathologic node-positive carcinoma of the penis after groin dissection performed at the Cancer Institute (WIA) between 1987 and 1998. METHODS: The case records of all patients who underwent groin dissection for carcinoma of the penis between 1987 and 1998 were analyzed. RESULTS: Between 1987 and 1998, 128 patients underwent groin dissections for carcinoma of the penis at Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai. Out of them, 102 patients had pathologic node-positive disease. The 5-year overall survival (OS) for these patients was 51.1%. Patients with metastasis only to inguinal nodes had a 5-year OS of 64.6% whereas none of the patients with pelvic nodal metastasis survived for 5 years. Among the pathologically node-positive patients, the factors adversely influencing survival on multivariate analysis were bilateral nodal metastases, number of positive inguinal nodes, pelvic nodal metastasis, and extranodal extension. CONCLUSIONS: Groin dissection is an effective treatment for nodal metastasis from carcinoma of the penis. However, innovative approaches are needed for the subset of patients with dismal outlook.