The well baby certificate for puerperal sterilization — A critical appraisal

From August 2004 to July 2005 at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, Tamilnadu, the process of issuing well baby certificate to 1668 babies of 1658 mothers electing to undergo puerperal sterilization within a week of delivery was analyzed. 1553 babies (93.1%) were issued well baby certificates. Certificates were deferred in 88 babies (5.3%) and it was refused in 27 (1.6%). Reasons are analyzed and discussed.     

HPTLC method development, validation, and stress degradation studies for atorvastatin and ezetimibe in multicomponent tablet dosage form

A simple, precise, rapid, selective, and economic high performance thin-layer chromatography method has been established for simultaneous analysis of atorvastatin (ATV) and ezetimibe (EZE) in tablet dosage forms. The chromatography separation was performed on precoated silica gel 60 GF₂₅₄ plates with toluene–ethyl acetate–methanol 12:5:3 (v/v/v) as mobile phase. The plate was developed to a distance of 8.0?cm at ambient temperature. The retention factors for ATV and EZE were 0.31 and 0.57, respectively. The detection band was carried out at 254?nm. The calibration curve was linear in the concentration range of 200–1200?ng/spot for both ATV and EZE. For ATV, the recovery study results ranged from 99.44 to 99.54% with RSD value ranging from 0.067 to 0.107%. For EZE, the recovery results ranged from 98.88 to 99.00% with RSD value ranging from 0.154 to 1.756%. The assay was 99.89% for ATV and 99.84% for EZE. The calibration plots revealed a good linear relationship with r ²?=?0.9991 for ATV and 0.9992 for EZE. Both ATV and EZE were subjected to different stress conditions—acid, alkaline hydrolysis, oxidation, photo degradation, dry, and wet heat treatment—as prescribed by ICH. The degradation products were well resolved from the pure drug with significantly different R _f values. The method was validated for precision, accuracy, specificity, ruggedness, and robustness.     

Vaccine-elicited Human T Cells Recognizing Conserved Protein Regions Inhibit HIV-1

Virus diversity and escape from immune responses are the biggest challenges to the development of an effective vaccine against HIV-1. We hypothesized that T-cell vaccines targeting the most conserved regions of the HIV-1 proteome, which are common to most variants and bear fitness costs when mutated, will generate effectors that efficiently recognize and kill virus-infected cells early enough after transmission to potentially impact on HIV-1 replication and will do so more efficiently than whole protein-based T-cell vaccines. Here, we describe the first-ever administration of conserved immunogen vaccines vectored using prime-boost regimens of DNA, simian adenovirus and modified vaccinia virus Ankara to uninfected UK volunteers. The vaccine induced high levels of effector T cells that recognized virus-infected autologous CD4⁺ cells and inhibited HIV-1 replication by up to 5.79 log₁₀. The virus inhibition was mediated by both Gag- and Pol- specific effector CD8⁺ T cells targeting epitopes that are typically subdominant in natural infection. These results provide proof of concept for using a vaccine to target T cells at conserved epitopes, showing that these T cells can control HIV-1 replication in vitro.     

Rubidium-82 cardiac positron emission tomography imaging: an overview for the general cardiologist

Cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has been used for more than 3 decades to study myocardial perfusion and metabolism, but for a majority of those years, confined to large academic and research centers with access to a cyclotron. With the advent of the generator-produced PET radionuclide Rubidium-82, PET myocardial perfusion imaging has become far more accessible in daily practice, and is backed by a strong evidence-base for the diagnosis and prognosis of coronary artery disease and myocardial viability. Intended to describe basic principles for the general cardiologist, this review highlights the role of Rb-82 in PET myocardial perfusion imaging and provides an overview of its properties, its diagnostic accuracy for diagnosing coronary artery disease and myocardial viability, and some unique applications.