Status of Foot‐and‐mouth Disease in India

Foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD) is endemic in India and causes severe economic loss. Status of FMD in the country for five fiscal years is presented. Outbreaks were more in number in 2007–2008 than 2010–2011. Three serotypes of FMD virus (O, A and Asia1) are prevalent. Serotype O was responsible for 80% of the confirmed outbreaks/cases, whereas Asia1 and A caused 12% and 8%, respectively. Geographical region‐wise assessment indicated varying prevalence rate in different regions viz; 43% in Eastern region, 31.5% in Southern region, 11.6% in North‐eastern region, 5% Central region, 4.4% Western region and 4% in Northern region. Highest number of outbreaks/cases was recorded in the month of September and lowest in June. Emergence and re‐emergence of different genotypes/lineages within the serotypes were evident in real‐time investigation carried out from time to time. Continues antigenic divergence in serotype A resulted in change in the vaccine strain in 2009. As on date, all genetic diversity within the serotypes is well tolerated by the vaccine strains. Unrestricted animal movements in the country play a major role in the spread of FMD.     

Radiographic study to assess the reliability of the Gillies approach for biopsy of the superficial temporal artery

Biopsy of the superficial temporal artery is often used in the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis, but at traditional sites there is a risk of injury to the facial nerve. Recently the Gillies incision has been suggested as an alternative means of access for the biopsy, but the anatomical basis of this has not been fully elucidated. We therefore undertook a radiographic review of 150 patients, and examining 300 vessels, to find out. Our results indicated that there is considerable variability in the position of the bifurcation of the superficial temporal artery, and so a Gillies approach may not be reliable, particularly if access to the bifurcation is required.     

Coronary Artery Perforation following PCI: An Interesting Finding into the Pericardial Space

Coronary artery perforation is a known complication of percutaneous coronary intervention and potentially life threatening. Normally, these perforations are small and localized. We report the successful surgical management of a coronary artery perforation following stent insertion with extrusion of an 8-cm endarterectomy length of the circumflex coronary artery with a brief review of the recent literature.     

Intracranial interhemispheric osteochondrolipoma: Diagnostic and surgical challenges in an extremely rare entity

Intracranial lipomas are rare developmental lesions, predominantly occurring in the interhemispheric location. Osteochondrolipoma is an extremely rare variant of lipoma with osseous and chondroid differentiation. We present a case of interhemispheric osteochondrolipoma, in a 2.5‐years‐old male child which was detected antenatally, in association with corpus callosum agenesis. The lesion progressively increased in size with resulting compression of surrounding structures, and was subjected to microsurgical decompression. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of intracranial interhemispheric osteochondrolipoma in the existing medical literature. Peculiarities of this case and the diagnostic and surgical challenges are discussed.