PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

D Verma

Publications and source records attributed to D Verma.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

Breast-feeding practices in Schedule Caste communities in Haryana state.

A study was conducted to assess exclusive breast-feeding, continued breast-feeding, bottle-feeding, predominant breast-feeding, timely complementary feeding and other breast-feeding practices in 818 children in the age group of 0-3 years belonging to the Schedule Caste communities of Haryana. The exclusive breast-feeding rate was 0.15 and the predominant breast-feeding rate 0.75 in children < 4 months. Timely complementary feeding rate was 0.42. The continued breast-feeding rate at 1 year and 2 years was 0.84 and 0.58, respectively. The bottle-feeding rate, ever breast-fed rate, timely first-suckling rate and exclusive breast-feeding rate by mother were 0.09, 1.0, 0.0 and 0.15, respectively. The median duration of breast-feeding was 16 months.

Bottle Feeding↗
PubMed1993

Pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy--the missing link?

Release of angiogenic factors in response to the ischaemic retina is currently the most favoured hypothesis for the pathogenesis of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Reducing the stimulus for angiogenesis by destroying the ischaemic retina also forms the basis of the most effective treatment of diabetic retinopathy by photocoagulation. Though ischaemia is undoubtedly important for neovascularization, there is recent evidence which cast doubts on ischemia being the sole mechanism for diabetic retinopathy. Many clinical observations viz. the protective effects of glaucoma, myopia, unilateral carotid stenosis on diabetic retinopathy; and its worsening after cataract extraction are not adequately explained by the present hypothesis. Moreover, the recent in vitro culture studies on retinal pigment epithelial cells have suggested an alternative explanation for the effectiveness of photocoagulation in proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Furthermore, hyperglycemia has been strongly correlated with the incidence and progression of diabetic retinopathy, but has only been indirectly indicted in its pathogenesis. These facts can be integrated into a more plausible hypothesis for the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. It is hypothesized that a relative reduction in intra-ocular pressure caused by persistent or intermittent hyperglycemia may be the missing link that induces certain morphological changes in the retinal pigment epithelium. These changes, in addition to the ischaemic retina, may be important for the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. Such a hypothesis also explains most of the hitherto unexplained features of diabetic retinopathy.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Aeromonas trota sp. nov., an ampicillin-susceptible species isolated from clinical specimens.

Previous DNA hybridization studies established 12 Aeromonas genospecies, from which nine phenotypic species have been proposed: Aeromonas hydrophila, A. sobria, A. caviae, A. media, A. veronii, A. schubertii, A. salmonicida, A. eucrenophila, and A. jandaei. We have delineated a new Aeromonas genospecies, A. trota, on the basis of 13 strains isolated primarily from fecal specimens from southern and southeastern Asia. All strains were highly related to the proposed type strain, AH2 (ATCC 49657T): 51 to 100% (60 degrees C) and 49 to 99% (75 degrees C), with 0.2 to 2.2 divergence. AH2 was only 16 to 41% (60 degrees C) related to all other Aeromonas type strains and DNA group definition strains. The unique profile of A. trota includes negative reactions for esculin hydrolysis, arabinose fermentation, and the Voges-Proskauer test, positive reactions for cellobiose fermentation, lysine decarboxylation, and citrate utilization, and susceptibility to ampicillin, as determined by the broth microdilution MIC method and the Bauer-Kirby disk diffusion method (10 micrograms). Nine of the A. trota strains were from a single study of 165 geographically diverse aeromonads. This finding questions the efficacy of screening fecal specimens for Aeromonas spp. with ampicillin-containing media and suggests a previously unrecognized prevalence of this new species.

Aeromonas↗
PubMed1990

Reliability of death certificate diagnoses.

Consistency between death certificates and clinical records from 5 general hospitals in Kuwait was studied for 470 deaths with the following underlying or associated causes: hypertensive (HYP), ischaemic heart diseases (IHD), cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes mellitus (DM). Direct causes were not considered since they are of little interest analytically. Only deaths with definite or most probable ascertainment were included. One cardiologist, who was provided with the WHO criteria and relevant documents on death certification, independently reviewed the records. To test the reviewer's bias and the reliability of his judgement, an adjudication process was effected by having one senior cardiologist re-review a random subsample of 140 records. The two reviewers showed good agreement. Specific diagnoses criteria for deciding the underlying cause of death in multiple morbid conditions by the reviewer were followed. Due to possible reviewer bias, we aimed at measuring the difference between initial certifiers and the reviewer rather than measuring the diagnostic accuracy of initial certifiers in reference to the reviewer. The agreement index kappa showed poor agreement between original and revised certificates. The original certificates under-estimated CVD as an underlying cause of death by 69.2%, DM by 60%, IHD by 33.5% and HYP by 31.8% in our sample. Associated causes were also consistently under-estimated by initial certifiers as compared with the reviewer. This bias calls for basing mortality statistics in Kuwait on hospital death committees' reports rather than on initial certifier death certificates, use of multiple-causes of death instead of one underlying cause and adequate training of the medical profession on the value and process of death certification.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Rat brain endoplasmic reticulum calcium pools are anatomically and functionally segregated.

Autoradiographic imaging can localize 45Ca2+ selectively accumulated via the Ca2+, Mg2(+)-ATPase into endoplasmic reticulum stores in rat brain slices. 45Ca2+ accumulation is markedly stimulated by oxalate and displays a heterogeneous distribution which resembles the mRNA distribution for a sarcoendoplasmic reticulum Ca2+, Mg2(+)-ATPase. Inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate [I(1,4,5)P3] inhibits 45Ca2+ accumulation selectively into regions corresponding to those enriched in I(1,4,5)P3 receptor-binding sites and in Ca2+, -Mg2(+)-ATPase mRNA. Thus rat brain endoplasmic reticulum calcium stores are anatomically and functionally differentiated.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Concordance of occupational and environmental exposure information elicited from patients with Alzheimer's disease and surrogate respondents.

Identification of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease through the use of well designed case-control studies has been described as a research priority. Increasing recognition of the neurotoxic potential of many industrial chemicals such as organic solvents raises the question of the occupational and environmental contribution to the etiology of this high-priority health problem. The intention of this study was to develop and evaluate a methodology that could be used in a large scale case-control study of the occupational and environmental risk factors for dementia or a population-based surveillance system for neurotoxic disorders. The specific objectives of this study were to investigate: 1) the reliability of exposure-eliciting, interviewer-administered questionnaires given to patients with Alzheimer's disease (SDAT); 2) the reliability of exposure-eliciting interviewer-administered questionnaires given to the family of patients with SDAT and the agreement with the responses of the patient or surrogate respondents; 3) the reliability and agreement of responses of age- and sex-matched control patients and their families selected from geriatric care institutions and the community, with respect to the same exposure-eliciting and interviewer-administered questionnaire; and 4) the reliability of agent-based exposure ascertainment by a single, trained rater. The results of the study demonstrate that occupational and environmental histories from which exposure information can be derived is most reliably elicited from job descriptions of cases and control subjects rather than job titles alone or detailed probes for potential neurotoxic exposures. This will necessitate the use of standardized interviewer-administered instruments to derive this information in case-control studies of Alzheimer's disease or population-based surveillance systems for occupational and environmental neurotoxicity.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1986

Anterior segment ischemia following extraocular muscle surgery.

An experimental study was conducted on rhesus monkeys using the technique of anterior segment fluorescein angiography to determine the changes that occur in the iris circulation following surgery on extraocular recti muscles in various combinations and to investigate the safe time limit to perform further surgery on the remaining recti muscles. Based on the results, the probable blood supply to the iris and its clinical significance is discussed. It is concluded that the often quoted clinical safe period of 6 weeks is not enough from the angiographic point of view, as the iris circulation is not fully normalized by that time.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Mobilization of murine hemopoietic stem cells (HSC) by Pyran Copolymer.

Pyran Copolymer, divinyl-ether maleic anhydride increases the concentration of circulating pluripotential stem cells in mice by a factor of 15 to 30. Maximal mobilization occurs five days after Pyran Copolymer injection with synchronous peaks of CFU-S and CFU-C. When Pyran fractions of defined molecular weight from 12,000 to 52,000 are injected into mice, mobilization of CFU-S and CFU-C parallels molecular weight. Hemopoietic stem cells are mobilized from bone marrow into peripheral blood and subsequently trapped in the spleen.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bilateral glaucomatocyclitic crisis in a patient with Holmes Adie syndrome.

A patient with pre-existing bilateral tonic pupils presented with simultaneous bilateral glaucomatocyclitic crisis. Deep tendon reflexes were absent although they were documented to be present 6 years ago. A possibility of a progressive autonomic dysfunction in both these conditions is discussed.

Adie Syndrome↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Analysis of underlying and multiple-cause mortality data.

"A variety of life table models were used for the analysis of the (1984-86) Kuwaiti cause-specific mortality data. These models comprised total mortality, multiple-decrement, cause-elimination, cause-delay and disease dependency. The models were illustrated by application to a set of four chronic diseases: hypertensive, ischaemic heart, cerebrovascular and diabetes mellitus. The life table methods quantify the relative weights of different diseases as hazards to mortality after adjustment for other causes. They can also evaluate the extent of dependency between underlying cause of death and other causes mentioned on [the] death certificate using an extended underlying-cause model." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND ITA)

Asia↗