Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Pathak.
Only about 80 cases of pre-duodenal portal vein (PDPV), a rare congenital anomaly of portal vein development that was first described by Knight in 1921, have been reported till date.[1] We report a neonate with duodenal obstruction caused by PDPV and briefly review the available literature.
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Trichosporon asahii is a basidiomycetous yeast which causes white piedra and onychomycosis in immunocompetent hosts as well as various localized and disseminated invasive infections in immunodeficient hosts. Urinary tract infection caused by Trichosporon asahii is rare. One month after posterior urethral valve surgery a seven-month-old male child presented with fever, severe vomiting and crying on micturition for five--to six days. Yeast-like fungus was isolated in pure cultures from three consecutive urine samples. It was identified as Trichosporon asahii using standard techniques. The response to antifungal therapy was dramatic. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of a urinary tract infection caused by Trichosporon asahii from Western India.
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Cruciferous vegetable extracts from freeze-dried cabbage (FDC), freeze-dried fermented cabbage (FDS), and acidified Brussels sprouts (ABS) were prepared by exhaustive extraction with ethyl acetate. Estrogenic and antiestrogenic effects of these extracts were analyzed. To identify whether the extracts are potential estrogen receptor (ER) ligands that can act as agonists or antagonists, the binding affinity of extracts for the ER was measured using a competitive radiometric binding assay. The extracts bound with low affinity to the ER, and the relative binding affinity is estradiol > FDS > FDC > ABS. These extracts were evaluated for their estrogenic and antiestrogenic activities in estrogen-dependent human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells using as endpoints proliferation and induction of estrogen-responsive pS2 gene expression, which was analyzed using Northern blot assay. At low concentrations (5-25 ng/mL) all of the extracts reduced 1 nM estradiol-induced MCF-7 cell proliferation. Extracts at 25 ng/mL also inhibited estradiol-induced pS2 mRNA expression. At higher extract concentrations (50 ng/mL-25 microg/mL), however, increased proliferation in MCF-7 cells was observed. Similarly, expression of the pS2 gene was induced by higher extract concentrations (0.25-25 microg/mL). The pure estrogen antagonist, ICI 182,780, suppressed the cell proliferation induced by the extracts as well as by estradiol and also the induction of pS2 expression by the extracts. The ER subtype-selective activities of FDC and FDS were analyzed using a transfection assay in human endometrial adenocarcinoma (HEC-1) cells. FDS acted as an ERalpha-selective agonist while FDC fully activated both ER-alpha and ER-beta. Growth of the ER-negative MDA-231 cells was not affected by the extracts or by estradiol. This study demonstrates that cruciferous vegetable extracts act bifunctionally, like an antiestrogen at low concentrations and an estrogen agonist at high concentrations.
Ontologies are specifications of the concepts in a given field, and of the relationships among those concepts. The development of ontologies for molecular-biology information and the sharing of those ontologies within the bioinformatics community are central problems in bioinformatics. If the bioinformatics community is to share ontologies effectively, ontologies must be exchanged in a form that uses standardized syntax and semantics. This paper reports on an effort among the authors to evaluate alternative ontology-exchange languages, and to recommend one or more languages for use within the larger bioinformatics community. The study selected a set of candidate languages, and defined a set of capabilities that the ideal ontology-exchange language should satisfy. The study scored the languages according to the degree to which they satisfied each capability. In addition, the authors performed several ontology-exchange experiments with the two languages that received the highest scores: OML and Ontolingua. The result of those experiments, and the main conclusion of this study, was that the frame-based semantic model of Ontolingua is preferable to the conceptual graph model of OML, but that the XML-based syntax of OML is preferable to the Lisp-based syntax of Ontolingua.
UNLABELLED: Three myosin isozymes, V1 (alphaalpha MHC = Myosin Heavy Chain gene), V2 (alphabeta MHC) and V3 (betaalpha MHC) that are identified in the cardiac ventricles of most mammals have been shown to shift to a V3 predominance pattern during cardiac growth and in response to left ventricular pressure overload, and to V1 predominance following anti hypertensive treatment. This study examined whether long-term hypertension impairs the ability of the adult heart to restructure myosin isozyme proportions. Using pyrophosphate gel electrophoresis, we studied proportions of cardiac myosin isozymes (V1 and V3) in young (16 weeks) and adult (36 weeks) spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), and following 12 weeks of nifedipine (N) treatment in age-matched SHR rats (SHR-N). The values of V1 and V3 myosin isozymes were derived by adding half of the value of V2 to each isozyme proportion. The V3 proportion in the young SHR control (SHR-C) group (49%) was 34% higher (p < 0.05) than in the young Wistar Kyoto control (WKY-C) group (37%). However, the proportion was similarly high, though not statistically significant, in both the adult SHRC (73%) and WKY-C (71%) groups. The proportion in the young SHR-N group (29%) was 41% lower (p < 0.05) than in the young SHR-C group (49%), and the proportion in the adult SHR-N group (47%) was 34% lower (p < 0.05) than in the adult SHR-C group (73%). The ratio of left ventricular weight to body weight (LVW/BW), which determines left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), was higher in both young and adult SHR-C (26%, p < 0.05, and 42%, p < 0.05, respectively) than in WKY-C groups. The mean LVW/BW was 27% (p < 0.05) greater in adult than in young SHR-C rats. The LVW/BW in both age groups of treated SHR-N was similar to that in age matched WKY-C rats. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that a rise in the V3 level occurs in young hypertensive rats, but no rise occurs in the V3 level in adult hypertensive rats. High blood pressure seems to contribute to the high V3 level in young hypertensive rats, but in adult hypertensive rats, high blood pressure does not accentuate the V3 rise already acquired due to the aging process. Nifedipine treatment in both young and adult hypertensive rats prevented the V3 rise due to hypertension and to the aging process. This effect of nifedipine seems to be through its antihypertensive action.
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To make a dimensional assessment of personality in individuals with pathological anxiety, the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) was administered to 32 patients with panic disorder (PD) and 49 patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The most striking findings were a substantially increased score on the harm avoidance dimension in both groups of patients, and a lack of significant differences between the TPQ scores in patients with PD and GAD. The former finding suggests that higher levels of harm avoidance may be common to (although not necessarily specific for) various types of anxiety disorders. The latter finding is in agreement with the findings that PD and GAD do not differ significantly with respect to the associated personality disorder diagnoses, which may further cast a doubt on the validity of the distinction between PD and GAD.
PURPOSE: To survey graduates in practice from the first four classes of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine's (UNMSOM's) parallel curricular tracks, and compare data about the graduates' practice patterns, learning behaviors, and satisfaction with the profession of medicine. METHOD: Between 1979 and 1993, the UNMSOM had two tracks for the first two years of medical school: a conventional track and the Primary Care Curriculum (PCC), a community-oriented, problem-based track. In 1990, a survey was conducted of the 140 graduates from the first four classes (1983-1986) who had completed their postgraduate training: 40 from the PCC and 100 from the conventional track. Statistical methods included two-way analyses of variance, logistic regression, and chi-square, adjusted by Bonferroni methods. Comparisons between tracks are reported after adjustments were made for specialty effects. RESULTS: Thirty-three graduates (83%) from the PCC and 87 (87%) from the conventional tracks responded. The PCC graduates were much more likely to work in medically underserved areas, practice in publicly funded health care settings, and care for non-paying patients. The PCC graduates more often identified patient problems and curiosity as providing motivation for their learning. They more frequently studied clinical medicine and community health topics and spent time in community activities. The PCC graduates felt better prepared for practice by their undergraduate medical education. There was no difference between the graduates of the two tracks in the sizes of the populations in which they practiced, in the criteria they used for deciding on referrals to other physicians, in the ranges of community resource utilization, or in the degrees of satisfaction within their chosen professions. Large percentages of graduates from both tracks (67% conventional and 79% PCC) considered themselves to be practicing either primary care or a combination of primary care and non-primary care. In addition, 38% of all the graduates practiced in the state of New Mexico. More PCC graduates chose careers in family practice; however, no significant difference was found in a comparison between the proportions of PCC and conventional-track graduates who chose primary care careers. CONCLUSION: Track differences favorable to the PCC were evident in relation to the two major goals established by the program: to attract graduates to careers in primary care in rural and underserved areas and to provide graduates with self-directed, lifelong learning skills. Some expected track effects were not found.
Fifty-eight chronic nightmare sufferers were randomly assigned to two groups: treatment (n = 39) and wait-list control (n = 19). Treated Ss were taught a cognitive-behavioral technique called imagery rehearsal in which they learned in a waking state to change a nightmare and then to visualize the new set of images. Subjects were assessed pre-treatment and 3 months followup for nightmare frequency, self-rated distress and subjective sleep quality. Compared to controls, the treatment group showed significant and clinically meaningful decreases in nightmares. Treated Ss decreased nightmares as measured in nights/week (mean = -2.0, SD = 1.7, P = 0.0001) and actual number of nightmares (mean = -4.2, SD = 4.5, P = 0.0001). Significant improvement in self-rated sleep quality occurred in those treated compared with controls (P = 0.004); and, reduction in nightmares was a significant predictor of improvement in sleep (r = 0.55, P = 0.0001). These preliminary results lend support to the theory that, for some chronic sufferers, nightmares may be conceptualized as a primary sleep disorder which can be effectively and inexpensively treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy.
The present investigation was undertaken to determine whether nifedipine could modulate the age-related relative decline in V1 myosin isozyme. Adult rats at age 24 weeks were treated with nifedipine. Myosin isozyme levels (V1, V2, and V3) at age 36 weeks, after 12 weeks of treatment with nifedipine, were compared with age-matched controls without nifedipine. As a natural effect of aging, the V1 percent was reduced from 63 +/- 6 at 16 wks to 29 +/- 3 at 36 wks (P < 0.001). In the 36 week treated Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, the V1 level was 62 +/- 4, which was 47% higher than the age-matched untreated WKY. The V1 content of 36-week treated rats was the same as that of 16-week untreated rats. We conclude that the myosin isozyme changes occurring with aging can be prevented with nifedipine begun in the young adult rat.
All unexpected deaths in New Mexico from 1977 to 1988 were reviewed. By statute each such death must be reported to the Office of the Medical Examiner (OMI) and according to institutional policy autopsied even when death is presumed to be from natural causes. From this group the 650 index cases that form the basis of this report were obtained. The crude rate of sudden, unexpected death among New Mexico residents 5 to 39 years old during the study period was 6.6/100,000 persons at risk. As documented by autopsy, the underlying cause of death in a majority of these cases (53.4%) was related to cardiovascular disease and alcoholism. Male persons in general are at increased risk for sudden, unexpected death, and American Indian and black male persons are at greater risk than their Anglo and Hispanic counterparts. American Indians account for a disproportionate share of the unexpected deaths resulting from alcoholism, and black male persons are at particular risk for unexpected death resulting from cardiovascular diseases. This report emphasizes the importance of life style and diet in the well-being of persons 5 to 39 years old.
Groups of patients with principal diagnosis of panic disorder (n = 54) and generalized anxiety disorder (n = 49) were compared on the basis of their comorbidity with other mental disorders. The rates and patterns of comorbidity were similar, except for comorbid simple phobia and past drug abuse. This finding was interpreted as failing to support a notion that there is essential distinction between panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
In order to compare hypochondriacal phenomena in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD), and in order to examine the relationship between worries about illness on one hand, and disease fears/phobias and hypochondriacal beliefs on the other, the authors administered the Illness Attitudes Scales to patients with both GAD and PD, and determined the spheres of worry in patients with GAD. Patients with GAD were significantly less hypochondriacal than PD patients. A specific relationship between GAD and hypochondriasis was not found because worries about illness, which characterize some GAD patients, were largely independent from disease fears/phobias and hypochondriacal beliefs, which are a hallmark of hypochondriasis.
Nightmare frequency and self-rated distress were assessed retrospectively in two groups of chronic nightmare sufferers 30 months after treatment. In the initial phase, the image group (N = 9) learned a cognitive-behavioral technique (imagery rehearsal) for the treatment of nightmares. They were taught in one group session to: (1) record a nightmare; (2) change it (usually to something positive); and (3) rehearse the new images daily. The record group (N = 10) recorded nightmares during the first month only and learned imagery rehearsal subsequent to 3-month follow-up measurements. At 3 months and at 30 months, both groups had significantly fewer nightmares, but only the rehearsal group had less total distress. The results support the theory that nightmares are a primary sleep disorder rather than a symptom of an underlying psychiatric problem.