Iron Deficiency Anemia Associated With Acid-Modifying Medications: Two Cases and Literature Review

Iron deficiency anemia is often listed among potential adverse effects of gastric acid-suppressive medications, given that gastric acidity promotes intestinal absorption of nonheme iron. Additionally, the antacid calcium carbonate can inhibit iron absorption. However, there is little direct clinical evidence that proton-pump inhibitors, histamine-2 receptor antagonists, or calcium carbonate cause iron deficiency anemia. Most case reports have had substantial limitations (e.g., minimal follow-up and presence of other causes of iron deficiency), and retrospective cohort studies have lacked sufficient patient-specific detail to make strong causal inferences. We present 2 cases—both with detailed, prospective 10-year follow-up—in which combinations of proton-pump inhibitors, histamine-2 receptor antagonists and calcium carbonate were clearly associated with development of iron deficiency anemia. Overt iron-deficiency anemia is probably uncommon in patients who use acid-modifying medications and who have no other conditions that predispose to iron deficiency. Nevertheless, clinicians should be aware of this potential complication, given widespread use of these agents.     

Anticoagulation Strategies in Patients With Cancer: JACC Review Topic of the Week

Patients with active cancer are at an increased risk of arterial and venous thromboembolism (VTE) and bleeding events. Historically, in patients with cancer, low molecular weight heparins have been preferred for treatment of VTE, whereas warfarin has been the standard anticoagulant for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). More recently, direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of venous and arterial thromboembolism in large randomized clinical trials of patients with VTE and AF, respectively, thus providing an attractive oral dosing option that does not require routine laboratory monitoring. In this review, we summarize available clinical trial data and guideline recommendations, and outline a practical approach to anticoagulation management of VTE and AF in cancer.     

Effects of fentanyl on the response of plasma beta-endorphin immunoreactivity to surgery

Beta-endorphin appears to play a definite role in the biologic response to stress and in the endogenous mechanism of pain perception. Opiates exogenously administered during surgery decrease or even suppress the activation of "stress hormones" such as ACTH and cortisol. In the present study, the authors tried to assess the effects of fentanyl administration on plasma beta-endorphin immunoreactivity PBE(ir) during surgical stress. In one group of nine patients, a standard enflurane-based general anesthetic technique without opiates was used for a staging laparotomy. A second group of ten patients undergoing the same type of surgery received fentanyl (10-20 micrograms/kg) as the primary anesthetic drug. In both groups, multiple blood samples were collected prior to, during, and after surgery, following the same time protocol. PBE(ir), plasma cortisol and, in five patients, plasma ACTH were determined by radioimmunoassay. There was no significant change in PBE(ir) in either group after anesthetic induction. Unlike the enflurane group, the fentanyl group did not demonstrate any significant increase from baseline in PBE(ir) during surgery. There was a significant group difference between enflurane and fentanyl in PBE(ir) levels for both "early" and "late" surgery values, but not for the "awake" values (recovery period) where both groups had elevated PBE(ir) levels. Plasma cortisol and plasma ACTH changes followed a trend similar to those of PBE(ir). The suppression of both cortisol and PBE(ir) responses during surgery after administration of fentanyl provides further evidence for the involvement of the endorphin system in the stress response and for its physiologic association with the hypothalamo pituitary axis.     

Plasmepsin inhibitors: design,synthesis, inhibitory studies and crystal structure analysis

Abstract: Plasmepsin group of enzymes are key enzymes in the life cycle of malarial parasites. As inhibition of plasmepsins leads to the parasite's death, these enzymes can be utilized as potential drug targets. Although many drugs are available, it has been observed that Plasmodium falciparum, the species that causes most of the malarial infections and subsequent death, has developed resistance against most of the drugs. Based on the cleavage sites of hemglobin, the substrate for plasmepsins, we have designed two compounds (p‐nitrobenzoyl‐leucine‐β‐alanine and p‐nitrobenzoyl‐leucine‐isonipecotic acid), synthesized them, solved their crystal structures and studied their inhibitory effect using experimental and theoretical (docking) methods. In this paper, we discuss the synthesis, crystal structures and inhibitory nature of these two compounds which have a potential to inhibit plasmepsins.     

Serum vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 as a potential biomarker in psoriasis

To discover novel biomarkers of psoriasis, a target‐specific antibody array screening of serum samples from psoriasis patients was initially performed. The results revealed that vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (VEGFR‐3) was significantly elevated in the sera of psoriasis patients, compared to healthy controls. Next, ELISA validation studies in a larger cohort of psoriasis patients (N = 73) were conducted, which confirmed that serum VEGFR‐3 was indeed significantly increased in patients with psoriasis compared to healthy controls (P < 0.001). Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that serum VEGFR‐3 exhibited potential in distinguishing healthy controls from psoriasis patients: area under the curve = 0.85, P < 0.001. In addition, serum levels of VEGFR‐3 were correlated with Psoriasis Area Severity Index scores (R = 0.32, P = 0.008) in psoriasis patients. Interestingly, serum VEGFR‐3 levels were significantly elevated in psoriatic arthritis compared to non‐psoriatic arthritis (P = 0.026). A pilot longitudinal study demonstrated that serum levels of VEGFR‐3 could reflect disease progression in psoriasis. Collectively, serum VEGFR‐3 may have a clinical value in monitoring disease activity of psoriasis.     

Internet of things for knowledge administrations by wearable gadgets

The novel gadgets are associated constantly at a quick phase for the development of Internet of Things (IoT). Wearable gadgets are another gathering development in those available gadgets. The recent method in gadgets is to coordinate with IoT and idea is implementing the remote sensor systems that convey novel encounters in day by day exercises. Here, I exhibit a regular day to day existence application including a Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for gaming situation. By using this, the physical factors of sports person are estimated and directed by wearable gadgets to Wireless Sensor Networks. The end goal to incorporate diverse equipment stages and to present an administration situated semantic middleware arrangement hooked on a solitary request also utilization of Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is introduced as a scaffold to ensure coordination of the distinctive conditions and interoperability. Through proposed method everyone can procure information by introducing framework to fresh client. Those clients would be able to get to the information through a wide assortment of gadgets (cell phones, tablets, and PCs) and working frameworks (Android, Windows, Linux, iOS, and so on). Finally we introduced one case study of football match for monitoring 11 players and acquiring data’s and to predict the real time situation in football ground.     

Inflammatory pseudotumor of the nasopharynx with spread along the trigeminal nerve

Inflammatory pseudotumor of the nasopharynx is a rare diagnosis that is often misinterpreted as carcinoma or lymphoma. It has been referred to as a tumefactive fibroinflammatory lesion, idiopathic pseudotumor, and fibrosing inflammatory pseudotumor. We present a rare case of a 40-year-old African American female from Kenya with inflammatory pseudotumor of the nasopharynx with perineural spread of disease along the trigeminal nerve to discuss the diagnosis and treatment of such an uncommon entity.     

Clinical and microbiological profile of diabetic foot ulcer patients in a tertiary care hospital

Aim

To evaluate the clinical and microbiological profile of diabetic foot ulcer patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital.

Association of IL‐1β +3954 C/T and IL‐10‐1082 G/A Cytokine Gene Polymorphisms with Susceptibility to Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) constitutes the major cause of death due to infectious diseases. Cytokines play a major role in defence against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Polymorphisms in the genes encoding various cytokines have been associated with tuberculosis susceptibility. Household contacts (HHC) are at increased risk of developing the disease. In this study, we examined the association of IL‐1β and IL‐10 cytokine gene polymorphisms with risk of developing tuberculosis in TB patients, their HHC and healthy controls (HC) using JavaStat and SPSS. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) analyses were performed to explore the potential gene–gene interactions. The genotype and allele frequencies of IL‐1β +3954C/T polymorphism did not vary significantly between TB patients and HC. GG (P < 0.005, OR = 0.219 and 95% CI = 0.059–0.735) and GA (P < 0.0001, OR = 2.938 and 95% CI = 1.526–5.696) genotypes of IL‐10‐1082 G/A polymorphism were found to be significantly associated with patients versus HC. HHC with CC (P < 0.03, OR = 1.833 and 95% CI = 1.1–3.35) genotype in IL‐1β and GA (P < 0.0001, OR = 4.612 and 95% CI = 2.225–9.702) genotype in IL‐10 were at increased risk of developing tuberculosis. MDR tests revealed high‐risk genotypes in IL‐1β and IL‐10 based on the association model. Our results demonstrate that the polymorphisms of IL‐1β and IL‐10 genes may be valuable markers to predict the risk for the development of TB in household contacts.