Use of new broad spectrum antibiotics and the occurrence of fungal endocarditis in a centre for cardiovascular surgery in India.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Mehta.
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The effect of 10 variables on the development of postoperative infection in 536 clean elective neurosurgery patients was calculated using correlational, regression and discriminant analyses. The time of shaving the operation site, type of theatre ventilation and duration of operation were found to have a highly significant effect on the infection rate. The influence of season and age of patient was not evident on simple analysis, but both were found to be significant factors using regression analysis. The sex of patient, carriage of Staphylococcus aureus, airborne bacterial count, presence of bacteria in the wound and the use of prophylactic antibiotics did not have a significant effect on infection rates.
1. Clinical and empirical evidence point to distorted negative thinking during depressive episodes. 2. The present study, utilizing the Cognitions Questionnaire, examined the thinking styles in depressed inpatients prior to antidepressant pharmacotherapy and again 3-4 weeks after treatment. 3. Across the 5 dimensions of thinking assessed, only generalization across situation changed significantly in the drug-respondent group. 4. While clinically, short-term antidepressant treatment was shown to be efficacious, it only changed cognitions in a limited way.
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We compared the sensitivity of different types of visual analog scales and of descriptive pain terms in healthy volunteers and in postoperative patients. One hundred and seven volunteers marked visual analog scales according to their perception of the descriptive pain terms--little, mild, some, moderate, severe, agonizing. Individual variation in values and preferences between the five following five different visual analog scales were analyzed: 10-cm linear horizontal and vertical scales, a curvilinear scale, and graded horizontal and curvilinear scales. Significantly more volunteers preferred the horizontal scale with gradations. Scores for the vertical linear scale had the greatest coefficient of variation and were least normally distributed. The majority of volunteers considered the phrase "agonizing pain" the best term defining the extreme limit of pain (X2(12) = 41.8, P less than 0.001). There were significant changes in the values of pain intensity measured on visual analog scales by patients using the same descriptive pain term on successive observations. However, the patients' values for pain terms in the preoperative pain-free state were not significantly different from those during postoperative pain. We conclude that graded linear horizontal scales are both more reliable and preferred by participants and that visual analog scales give a more sensitive and accurate representation of pain intensity than do descriptive pain scales.
Pregnant Swiss albino mice were whole-body exposed to 250, 150 and 50 R gamma-radiation from 60Co in the presence or absence of 2-mercaptopropionylglycine during selective organogenesis and fetal growth periods (days 11.25 and 14.25, 16.25 and 18.25 after conception, respectively). Both the protected and nonprotected pregnant females of 11.25-day gestation showed complete resorption of embryos irradiated with 250 R. With 150 R, in absence of the drug, 11.25-day gestating females showed partial resorption (76.10%). The percentage of parturition improved in the drug-treated females. Non-protected females irradiated with 50 R showed slight resorption, while drug-treated females had normal parturition. Females irradiated during the fetal growth period showed no resorption. Also, no significant alteration in litter size and sex ratio of the newborn animals was noticed when irradiated during this period, both in the control and the experimental groups. Mortality of the young was higher in nonprotected animals as compared to the protected ones.
Pregnant Swiss albino mice were exposed at gestation days 141/4, 161/4 and 181/4 to 1.5 Gy gamma radiation from 60Co in the presence or absence of 2-mercaptopropionylglycine (MPG). Liver was taken from the litters born to these mothers at different post-partum intervals. The maximum sensitivity was found in 4-week-old animals irradiated at gestation day 141/4. In the MPG treated groups, the number of total cells was higher than in the controls but less than in normals. The increase in pyknotic nuclei and necrotic and binucleate cells was significantly lowered by MPG.
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Pregnant Swiss albino mice at different fetal growth periods were exposed to 150 R gamma rays in the presence or absence of 2-mercaptopropionylglycine (MPG), a SH radioprotector. The weights of litters born to these mothers were recorded at different postpartum intervals. There was an initial weight loss at 1 week after birth followed by a second weight loss after 4 weeks in the unprotected control males, whereas females showed continuous gains in weight from initial loss at 1 week. In the MPG-treated groups, the pattern of weight changes remained the same, but the loss was significantly less than in the controls and the second weight loss in the case of males was not obvious.
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Pregnant mice at gestation days 14 1/4, 16 1/4 and 18 1/4 were exposed to 250 R gamma rays in presence and absence of MPG, a -SH radioprotector. There was a biphasic weight loss in post partum animals born to irradiated mothers. In the MPG treated young ones, the second weight loss was remarkably averted. It was also found that 14 1/4 day of gestation was more radiosensitive than 16 1/4 or 18 1/4 days.
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Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and free radicals have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neonatal septicemia and its complications. This case control study was conducted between November 1996 to July 1997 to determine the levels of TNF-alpha and free radical scavengers viz. superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in the serum of 30 septic neonates and 20 healthy controls. Patients with neonatal sepsis registered significantly higher levels of TNF-alpha, SOD and GPX in comparison to controls (p < 0.05). The neonates with septic shock had five fold increase in TNF-alpha levels (2262 +/- 605.8 pg/ml) as compared to those without shock (738.8 +/- 728.8 pg/ml). There was no statistically significant difference in levels of antioxidant enzymes between neonates with shock and without shock. The levels of TNF-alpha and antioxidant enzymes were not affected by the type of organism isolated in blood culture.