Kikuchi's disease

An 11-year-old girl presented with high grade, intermittent fever and cervical lymphadenopathy. She had multiple enlarged left cervical lymph nodes. The examination of other systems was normal. Workup for sepsis, malignancy and autoimmune disease were negative. VA-IgM for EBV was positive and histopathology of the lymph node was consistent with Kikuchi's disease.     

Neural synchronization deficits to auditory stimulation in bipolar disorder

Patients with bipolar disorder show cognitive deficits and disorganized behavior, which may reflect a disturbance in neural synchronization. We tested whether EEG measures of auditory neural synchronization were abnormal in bipolar disorder. Nineteen symptomatic patients with bipolar disorder and 32 non-psychiatric control subjects were evaluated. Click trains (500 ms duration) presented at 20, 30, 40 and 50 Hz were used to evoke EEG synchronization. Patients with bipolar disorder showed reduced power across the frequencies of stimulation. Phase-locking across trials was also disturbed in bipolar disorder, consistent with poor phase synchronization between the stimulus and EEG. Abnormal high frequency neural synchronization may contribute to cognitive deficits in bipolar disorder.     

Rhabdomyolysis and compartment syndrome with coadministration of risperidone and simvastatin

We report a case of rhabdomyolysis and acute compartment syndrome of the lower extremity in a schizophrenic patient taking risperidone following the addition of simvastatin to treat hyperlipidemia. We suspect that disrupted drug metabolism, resulting from interactions with cytochrome P450 enzymes, rapidly elevated drug plasma levels, which then led to muscle toxicity. Clinicians who pharmacologically treat medical comorbidities in patients receiving atypical antipsychotics must be proactive in anticipating potential drug-drug interactions.     

Impact of vitamin A supplementation through different dosages of red palm oil and retinol palmitate on preschool children

Red palm oil (5 ml and 10 ml), ground nut oil fortified with 400 and 800 retinol equivalent retinol palmitate, and ground nut oil (5 and 10 ml), were administered to six groups of preschool children (four experimental and two control groups) in randomly assigned balwadis of Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu for a period of 7 months, to monitor the difference in the efficacy of the mode of supplementation and the optimum dose for improving vitamin A status. Results show that red palm oil groups recorded more gain in retinol and beta-carotene levels compared to other dosage groups, and that administration of 10 ml did not offer any substantial improvement over the 5-ml daily dose.     

Lung cancer in humans is not associated with lifetime total alcohol consumption or with genetic variation in alcohol dehydrogenase 3 (ADH3)

Although there is clear evidence that smoking is the primary risk factor for lung cancer, not all variation in disease risk is understood. There is some evidence that alcohol may contribute to risk. We examined lifetime and recent (12-24 mo previous) alcohol consumption in relation to risk of lung cancer in a case-control study in western New York. In addition we examined the alcohol dehydrogenase 3 (ADH3) genotype in relation to lung cancer risk; ADH3 is rate limiting in alcohol metabolism and has a functional polymorphism. We interviewed incident, primary, histologically confirmed lung cancer cases (n = 111) in two counties. Controls were randomly selected from among those residing in the counties, frequency-matched to cases for age and race (n = 1546). Lifetime and recent total alcohol and beverage-specific alcohol consumption as well as relevant confounders were assessed by interview. ADH3 genotype was evaluated by a PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. Because of the small sample size, power was limited and CI were wide. Residual confounding by smoking remains a concern. Although we found a significant trend for increased risk for beer consumption in the recent period (odds ratio 1.67, 95% CI 0.96-2.92, P for trend = 0.05), chance cannot be ruled out as an explanation. We found no evidence of risk related to lifetime alcohol consumption nor evidence that alcohol dehydrogenase genotype modifies risk related to alcohol and lung cancer.     

Impact of Rainfall Pattern on Native Arbuscular-Mycorrhizal Activity Influencing Phosphorus Utilization by Direct Seeded Rainfed Upland Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Efficacy of native arbuscular mycorrhiza to support phosphorus nutrition of rainfed upland rice was assessed under various rainfall patterns. Native arbuscular-mycorrhiza aided phosphorus acquisition by rainfed upland rice (Oryza sativa L.), over the period of 6 years (in alternate year’s between 1999 and 2009) having variable rainfall pattern, under rice mono-cropping and potential arbuscular-mycorrhiza-supportive rice based rotations were compared. Among these, the 2 years rotation of maize (Zea mays L.) relay cropped by horse gram (Dolichos biflorus L.) in the first year and followed by upland rice in the second year was most mycorrhiza-supportive. While phosphorus uptake in rice was positively correlated (r = 0.6301–0.7821) with the extent of mycorrhizal colonization under various crop rotations, the extent of influence of arbuscular-mycorrhizal colonization was greater in less rainfall year of 2009 (R ² = 0.5450) than normal rainfall year of 2007 (R ² = 0.3971). The mycorrhizal advantage to rice under most mycorrhiza supportive crop rotation (maize-horse gram-rice), in terms of mycorrhiza-aided phosphorus acquisition efficiency, on the other hand, was negatively correlated (r = ?0.684 to ?0.799) with the amount of rainfall received over a period under study (6 years), confirming higher mycorrhizal efficacy under moisture stress. The analysis emphasized the potential of exploiting native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as climate resilient agricultural technology component in rainfed ecology under the present climate change scenario leading to reducing moisture availability.