Changing Trend in the Prevalence and Emergence of Leptospira Serogroup-Specific Antibodies in Livestock in Gujarat,India

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences - The study was undertaken to investigate the frequency distribution of predominant...     

Thrombotic microangiopathy in sickle cell disease crisis

Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) is a rare complication. These patients manifest microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (MAHA) with laboratory evidence of hemolytic anemia, schistocytosis, and thrombocytopenia. This is the first report of the syndrome in a group of these patients. A retrospective chart analysis of 10 consecutively diagnosed patients in SCD crisis who were referred for therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) after developing MAHA was done. Patients had chest pain, respiratory distress, fever, pulmonary infiltrates, jaundice, and neurological dysfunction with abnormal liver function and coagulation tests. MAHA was diagnosed after a median hospital stay of 5 days. Nine patients recovered completely following TPE with fluid replacement by fresh frozen plasma with or without cryo-poor plasma. Incomplete response to TPE in one case was due to the development of fresh complications. During a median follow-up period of 77 months, there was one recurrent episode and one death in SCD crisis but without evidence of MAHA. TMA is not a very rare complication among Bahraini SCD patients in crisis. Characteristic features of this disorder are acute chest syndrome, organ failure, leuco-erythroblastosis, and a combination of thrombocytopenia, LDH level >1,000 U/l, and schistocytes in blood smears. Management with TPE usually leads to complete recovery with little chance of short-term recurrence. Multiple pathogenetic mechanisms leading to increased von Willebrand factor and its multimers may form the basis of this syndrome.     

Exhaled Nitric Oxide in Asthma: Variability,Relation to Asthma Severity,and Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Cytokine Expression

Exhaled nitric oxide has been used as a means of indirectly measuring the underlying inflammation in asthma. The objectives of the study were to measure exhaled nitric oxide levels in asthma patients and healthy volunteers, to study peripheral blood lymphocyte cytokine expression, and to study the relationship between exhaled nitric oxide and intracellular cytokine expression. Exhaled nitric oxide was elevated in patients with moderate to severe asthma and with treatment decreased in the first week reaching to a near normal level by 4 weeks. Elevated exhaled nitric oxide was associated with decreased IL-4 and IL-13 cytokine expression by CD8 lymphocytes.     

Comparative Pharmacognostic Studies on the Leaves of Abies spectabilis and Taxus wallichiana

Pharmacognostic studies on the leaves of Abies spectabilis (D. Don) Spach. and Taxus wallichiana Zucc., implicated as ‘Talispatra’ – an important herbal drug of indigenous systems of medicine, have been performed. Epidermal characters, scanning electron microscopical features along with the fluorescence characters of powder and thin layer chromatography of the hexane extract have been found to be valuable parameters for the identification of these species and for the authentication of marketed drug ‘Talispatra’.     

Lewandowsky and lutz dysplasia: report of two cases in a family

Lewandowsky and Lutz dysplasia, also known as epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV), is an inherited disorder in which there is widespread and persistent infection with human papilloma virus, defect in cell-mediated immunity and propensity for malignant transformation. Differential clinical and histopathologic evolutions of lesions in two cases of familial EV are compared and discussed in detail. Cases were followed up for 7 years. Detailed history, clinical features and investigations, including skin biopsy from different sites at different times, were examined. Generalized pityriasis versicolor like hypopigmented lesions in both the cases, together with variable pigmented nodular actinic keratosis like lesions on sun-exposed areas, were present. Multiple skin biopsies done from various sites on different occasions revealed features typical of EV along with lesions, i.e., actinic keratosis, Bowen's disease, basal and squamous cell carcinoma, in the elder sibling. However, skin biopsy of the other sibling showed features of EV and seborrheic keratosis only till date. This study reveals that the disease progression is variable among two individuals of the same family. Malignant lesions were seen only on sun-exposed areas and may be associated with other skin lesions or infections such as angiokeratoma of Fordyce and tinea cruris, as seen in this report.