Early neonatal mortality in an intramural birth cohort at a tertiary care hospital

Early neonatal mortality (ENM) occurring among 12,283 consecutive live birthsover a period of 3 years were analysed. The early neonatal mortality rate (ENMR) was 26.6/1000 live births. Birth weight less than 2,000 gm, lack of antenatal care, male sex, operative vaginal delivery, prematurity and multiple pregnancy were significantly associated with early neonatal deaths. Birth asphyxia was found to be the most important cause of death, followed by hyaline membrane disease and congenital malformations. Majority of the asphyxia related deaths were due to late intrapartum referral of the mothers. Forty-two per cent of early neonatal deaths occurred in babies weighing less than 1,500 gm. Early identification and referral of high risk mothers and health education would significantly reduce the early neonatal deaths.     

Perinatal autopsy—A seven-year study

A retrospective analysis of autopsies conducted on perinatal deaths during 7 years period (Oct 1983 to Sept 1990) was done. There were 650 neonatal deaths and 944 still births during the study period. Autopsy rates among neonates and still births were 33% and 4.9% respectively. There ware significant findings in 97.2% of neonatal deaths and in all still births. Pulmonary lesions followed by congenital malformations were the major pathological findings. Infection was observed among smaller number of babies compared to other Indian studies. Autopsy revealed many internal congenital malformations which were not diagnosed clinically. Autopsy changed or added to clinical diagnosis in 59.5% of cases. Perinatal autopsy is highly productive in our set up.     

Low birth weight: an outcome of poor socio-obstetric interaction

Factors contributing to low birth weight (LBW) include poverty, ignorance, and inability to use health care services. Early marriage and low family income lead to poor maternal nutrition reserves, which lead to reduced fetal nutrition. Poor maternal nutrition is also the result of ignorance, short birth intervals, multi-parity, and lack of prenatal care. Both heavy manual labor and smoking contribute to placental ischemia, which, along with reduced fetal nutrition, leads to intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). In developing countries, IUGR accounts for over 66% of all LBW neonates. About 7 million Indian babies annually are LBW. This study examined the incidence of LBW among 178 mothers delivering single births at the maternity hospital associated with the Department of Community Medicine of SKIMS, Srinagar, Kashmir, India, during 1989-90. 26.40% (47) of the 178 births were LBW (2500 g). Among 71 first-borns, marriage age was found to be statistically significantly associated with LBW. 31.82% of mothers younger than 20 years had LBW babies, compared to only 6.12% of mothers older than 20 years. The impact ratio, which measured excess LBW, was 4.20. Birth interval was statistically significantly associated with LBW outcome. 55.81% of women with a birth interval of less than 18 months had LBW babies, compared to 20.31% of mothers with longer birth intervals. The impact ratio was 1.75. Gravidity was also statistically associated with LBW babies. 34.58% of multigravida mothers had LBW babies, compared to 14.08% of primigravidae. The impact ratio was 1.46. Presence of prenatal care was statistically associated; the impact ratio was 1.42. 31.30% of illiterate women had LBW babies, compared to only 17.46% among literate women, which indicated significant associations with LBW. Other significant factors were manual labor, maternal smoking, and monthly family income. Reduction of LBW by 10-30% nationally by the year 2000 will be difficult and best accomplished by a high risk approach supplemented by health and nutrition education.     

Should patients with asymmetrical noise‐induced hearing loss be screened for vestibular schwannomas?

Should patients with asymmetrical noise‐induced hearing loss be screened for vestibular schwannomas? The Peterborough ENT department receives many referrals for MoD personnel who have suffered hearing loss from occupational noise exposure. Those patients with asymmetrical sensorineural hearing loss are routinely screened for vestibular schwannomas by MRI scanning. Scan reports from the past 5 years have been reviewed and out of 152 scans, four revealed vestibular schwannomas giving a pick‐up rate of 2.5%, which compares favourably with other published pick‐up rates. Review of the audiograms in these cases suggests that they can be misleading in this context. The conclusion is that patients with noise‐induced asymmetrical hearing loss should be screened for acoustic neuromas.     

Bladder pheochromocytoma encountered on sonography

Pheochromocytomas of the bladder are rare neoplasms, constituting <0.06% of all vesical tumours. Common presenting features of this tumour include episodes of sweating, hypertension, haematuria and postmicturition syncope. We describe a case of bladder pheochromocytoma in a 66‐year‐old man whose only symptom of macroscopic haematuria was initially assessed with ultrasonography. Clinical presentation highlights the need for a high index of suspicion during sonographic evaluation of bladder neoplasms because such tumours might present without symptoms of adrenergic excess.     

Hydrogen peroxide inhibits gap junctional intercellular communication in glutathione sufficient but not glutathione deficient cells

Cell to cell communication via gap junctions is essential in the maintenance of the homeostatic balance of multicellular organisms. Aberrant intercellular gap junctional communication (GJIC) has been implicated in tumor promotion, neuropathy and teratogenesis. Oxidative stress has also been implicated in similar pathologies such as cancer. We report a potential link between oxidative stress and GJIC. Hydrogen peroxide, a known tumor promoter, inhibited GJIC in WB-F344 rat liver epithelial cells with an I50 value of 200 microM. Inhibition of GJIC by H2O2 was reversible as indicated by the complete recovery of GJIC with the removal of H2O2 via a change of fresh media. Free radical scavengers, such as t-butyl alcohol, propylgallate, and Trolox, did not prevent the inhibition of GJIC by H2O2, which indicated that the effects of H2O2 on GJIC was probably not a consequence of aqueous free radical damage. The depletion of intracellular GSH reversed the inhibitory effect of H2O2 on GJIC. The treatment of glutathione- sufficient cells with H2O2 resulted in the hyperphosphorylation of connexin43, which is the basic subunit of the hexameric gap junction protein, as determined by Western blot analysis. TPA, a well-known tumor promoter, also inhibits GJIC via hyperphosphorylation of GJIC, which is a result of protein kinase-C activation. However, H2O2 also induced hyperphosphorylation in GSH-deficient cells that had normal rates of GJIC. Therefore, the mechanism of GJIC inhibition must be different from the TPA-pathway and involves GSH.      

Quality of life (QOL) assessment of MIP (mitomycin, ifosfamide and cisplatin) chemotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC)

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QOL) assessment has emerged to measure and quantify the balance between treatment benefit and toxicity, and has a value in predicting response and overall survival in cancer patients. METHODS: From July 1995 to February 1997, 38 symptomatic patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were treated with MIP chemotherapy (mitomycin 6 mg/m2, ifosfamide 3000 mg/m2 and cisplatin 50 mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks). Patients were assessed for QOL including physical well-being, general symptoms and lung cancer-specific symptoms, as well as objective response. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 38.9% (14/36, all were partial response) and the median duration of response was 3.5 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.0-4.0]. The median duration of overall survival was 7 months (95% CI 5.9-8.5). The overall improvement of QOL was 58.3% with 21 patients feeling better on treatment. The toxicity of chemotherapy was mild, mainly nausea/vomiting and minimal alopecia. Using multiple clinical predictors of survival (age, histology, stage, performance status), only change of QOL emerged significantly (P = 0.0007). CONCLUSIONS: MIP had an endurable response and low toxicity profile, and provided good QOL. Integral QOL data in our study provided the strong prediction of survival in advanced NSCLC. Further experienced QOL study will provide greatly enhanced outcome data in clinical trials.      

Absence of inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery compensated by dorsal pancreatic artery: A case report

Consideration of new aspects of vascular anatomy of the pancreaticoduodenal region is required for further improvement of surgical procedures. Awareness of variations in arteries supplying the duodenum and pancreas can help in minimizing the blood loss during surgery. We report the absence of inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery, which was compensated by a large dorsal pancreatic artery arising from proximal part of the splenic artery. This artery replaced inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery and formed a large loop of anastomosis with the gastroduodenal artery. Key words: Variation, Splenic artery, Dorsal pancreatic artery, Inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery, Pancreas.     

Conduit over conduit reconstruction of retracted and fibrosed ileal conduit in severe abdominal adhesions

We report a unique case of a patient who underwent cystectomy with ileal conduit for nonmalignant bladder disease. Patient postoperatively developed stomal necrosis which was managed conservatively but after few months there was severe stomal stenosis and retraction and patient ended up with bilateral nephrostomies. On planned open abdominal exploration with intention to refashion stoma, after resection of distal stenosed segment we found that it was impossible to mobilize proximal portion of conduit due to severe small bowel adhesions. We used a unique approach of creating one more ileal conduit, bringing it as a new stoma on one side and anastomosing its other side with proximal one (ileal conduit over conduit) to augment deficient portion. This technique is not mentioned in the literature and as such we are reporting same as it can help many urologists who may encounter such problems.