Sepsis is a common cause of death in infants and children. Haemostatic abnormalities have been reported in such patients. There is scant information on the nature and frequency of these abnormalities in children especially from India. Our aim was to evaluate the nature and frequency of haematological and haemostatic abnormalities in children with sepsis. Fifty children between 1-10 years of age admitted with sepsis and 50 age-matched, healthy controls were included in the study. Complete blood counts, examination of stained peripheral blood film, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), plasma fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, liver function tests and serum creatinine were done in all patients and controls. Prolonged PT and APTT were seen in 9 (18%) and 24 (48%) patients respectively. Plasma fibrinogen was decreased in 6% and increased in 8% patients. One or more haemostatic parameter was abnormal in 35 (70%) patients and in all patients who died.

The use of medicinal plants to cure human illness has been practiced from time immemorial. Nowadays, the vast majority of people still rely on their traditional materia medica for their daily health care needs. The use of plant species for treatment of various human ailments has been mentioned in Ayurveda and other Indian literature. Some of these drugs are believed to enhance the natural resistance of body to infection. So there are many plants having immunostimulatory activity. This paper reviews plants which have shown reported immunostimulatory activity.

Osteoid osteomas are benign skeletal neoplasms that are commonly encountered in the bones of the lower extremities, but are exceedingly rare in jaw bones with a prevalence of less than 1%. This unique clinical entity is usually seen in younger individuals, with nocturnal pain and swelling as its characteristic clinical manifestations. The size of the lesion is rarely found to be more than 2 cm. We hereby report a rare case of osteoid osteoma originating from the neck of the mandibular condyle that grew to large enough proportions to result in conductive hearing loss in addition to pain, swelling and restricted mouth opening. In addition, an effort has been made to review all the documented cases of osteoid osteomas of the jaws that have been published in the literature thus far.
Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Conductive* ; Jaw ; Lower Extremity ; Mandibular Condyle* ; Mouth ; Neck ; Osteoma ; Osteoma, Osteoid* ; Prevalence

Background: The Friends and Family Test (FFT) developed by the UK National Health Service evaluates whether patients are satisfied with a service provided, where improvements are needed, and how likely patients are to recommend the intervention. Calculated from the FFT, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) creates a recommendation metric for treatment. The primary aim of this prospective study is to evaluate NPS for arthroscopic subacromial decompression (ASD) and rotator cuff repair (RCR). Secondary aims are to postoperatively evaluate 1-year changes in patients’ Oxford Shoulder Scores (OSSs) in terms of the proportion of patients satisfied with their surgery and correlation with FFT. Methods: During a 2-year period, all patients undergoing ASD or RCR completed questionnaires prospectively. Collected preoperatively and postoperatively at 1 year. Results: : NPSs were 31 for ASD (n=32) and 52 for RCR (n=39). OSSs increased by 4.3 and 6.9 for ASD and RCR, respectively (P<0.001). Overall, 75% of ASD and 77% of RCR patients were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied,” respectively, with procedure outcomes. Scores from FFT had a positive correlation with improvement in OSS and satisfaction scores among patients undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgeries (P<0.001). Conclusions The current study shows positive NPS outcomes in patients with ASD and RCR. Scores from FFT correlate well with both satisfaction and OSS among patients. NPS can be an adjunct to traditional patient-reported outcome measures to provide global evaluation of patient experiences to aid in determining the clinical value of common procedures in shoulder orthopaedics.

PURPOSE: This study was designed to characterize the pharmacokinetic profile and to assess bioequivalence of the sponsor's test formulation (imatinib mesylate 400 mg tablets) with an innovator product (Gleevec 400 mg tablets, Novartis Pharmaceuticals) under fed conditions, in adult patients of Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+ CML) stabilized on imatinib mesylate 400 mg. In addition, the aim of this study was to monitor the safety profile of investigational medicinal products (IMPs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A multicenter, randomized, open label, two-period, crossover, single dose bioequivalence study was designed for conduct under fed conditions in 42 adult Ph+ CML patients already stabilized on imatinib 400 mg tablets. Pharmacokinetic parameters Tmax, Cmax, and AUC0-24 were calculated using a non-compartmental model on validated WinNonlin software. Validated SAS software was used for statistical evaluation of data. The safety profile of investigational products was monitored during the course of study by applying a clinical process for recording observed untoward effects postadministration of investigational products. RESULTS: The 90% confidence intervals for the test/reference mean ratios of the ln-transformed PK variables Cmax (99.0%) and AUC0-24 (99.2%) were within an acceptable range of 80%-125%, as per bioequivalence assumptions. Both formulations were well tolerated after oral administration of IMPs. CONCLUSION: The test product was found to be bioequivalent and safe, and thus can be used interchangeably in clinical practice.
Administration, Oral ; Adult ; Humans ; Imatinib Mesylate* ; Leukemia ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive* ; Mesylates ; Pharmacokinetics ; Philadelphia Chromosome ; Tablets* ; Therapeutic Equivalency*

Human bite injury to the eyelid is extremely rare and poses a significant challenge in surgical reconstruction. We report an extremely rare case of human bite injury to the eyelid in a 43-year-old male with approximately 60% full thickness loss of the upper eyelid and 80% to 90% full thickness loss of the lower eyelid and its successful reconstruction using the local advancement cheek flap.
Adult ; Bites, Human* ; Cheek ; Eyelids* ; Humans ; Humans* ; Male

STUDY DESIGN: A biomechanical study. PURPOSE: To develop a predictive model for pullout strength. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Spine fusion surgeries are performed to correct joint deformities by restricting motion between two or more unstable vertebrae. The pedicle screw provides a corrective force to the unstable spinal segment and arrests motions at the unit that are being fused. To determine the hold of a screw, surgeons depend on a subjective perioperative feeling of insertion torque. The objective of the paper was to develop a machine learning based model using density of foam, insertion angle, insertion depth, and reinsertion to predict the pullout strength of pedicle screw. METHODS: To predict the pullout strength of pedicle screw, an experimental dataset of 48 data points was used as training data to construct a model based on different machine learning algorithms. A total of five algorithms were tested in the Weka environment and the performance was evaluated based on correlation coefficient and error matrix. A sensitive study of various parameters for obtaining the best combination of parameters for predicting the pullout strength was also preformed using the L9 orthogonal array of Taguchi Design of Experiments. RESULTS: Random forest performed the best with a correlation coefficient of 0.96, relative absolute error of 0.28, and root relative squared error of 0.29. The difference between the experimental and predicted value for the six test cases was not significant (p >0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This model can be used clinically for understanding the failure of pedicle screw pullout and pre-surgical planning for spine surgeon.

BACKGROUND: Aberrant myeloid antigen (MA) co-expression and high expression of CD34 antigen on the blasts of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients are independently reported to have a role in pathogenesis and prognosis. This study was conducted to determine whether these two parameters are related. METHODS: A total of 204 cases of ALL were included in an analysis of blast immunophenotypic data. CD34 expression was categorized as low when less than 50% of blasts were CD34-positive (CD34low) and as high when 50% or more were CD34-positive (CD34high). RESULTS: Of 204 cases of ALL, 163 and 41 were of B-cell origin (B-ALL) and T-cell origin (T-ALL), respectively. Of all cases, 132 (64.7%) showed co-expression of MA and among these, 101 (76.51%) were CD34high, while the remaining 31 (23.48%) were CD34low. Of 72 cases without MA co-expression, 25 (34.72%) were CD34high and 47 (67.25%) were CD34low. Furthermore, of 163 cases of B-ALL, 111 showed co-expression of MA and 84 of these were CD34high. Of 52 cases of B-ALL without MA expression, 22 were CD34high. Among 41 cases of T-ALL, 21 co-expressed MA, 17 of which were CD34high. Moreover, all 20 cases of T-ALL without co-expression of MA were CD34low. These differences were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: We observed a strong correlation between aberrant MA expression and CD34high expression on the blasts of ALL. We hypothesize that these different patient subsets may represent unique prognostic characteristics.
Antigens, CD34 ; B-Lymphocytes ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Immunophenotyping ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma* ; Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; Prognosis ; T-Lymphocytes ; Tertiary Care Centers*

STUDY DESIGN: Analysis of morphometric data obtained from direct measurements of 100 cadaveric thoracic spines in Indian population. PURPOSE: To collect a base line morphometric data and analyze it in reference to the musculoskeletal anatomy and biomechanics of the spine; implants and instrumentations; and to suggest the requisite modification in spinal surgery instrumentations. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Most of the previous studies in the world literature have focused primarily on the parameters of the pedicle and to the authors' knowledge; no study has been published from the Indian subcontinent reporting a detailed morphometry of the thoracic spine. METHODS: One thousand and two hundred thoracic vertebrae were studied by direct measurements for linear and angular dimensions of the vertebral body, spinal canal, pedicle, and spinous and transverse processes in 100 human cadavers. RESULTS: Thirty-five point five percent of all the pedicles; 71% of T5 pedicles; 54.6% of all the female pedicles; and 94.4% of the T5 pedicles in females were smaller than 5 mm in mid-pedicle width dimension. Transverse pedicle angle was more at all levels and pedicles were sagittaly angulated in cephalad direction in comparison to other studies. Minimum value of interpedicular distance was at T5 (15.48 +/- 1.24). Vertebral body width showed slight decrease from T1 to T4. The transverse process length was relatively constant between T2 to T10. The spinous process angle showed increasing trend from T1 to T6 and then gradually decreased to T12. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the trends in changes of the parameters from T1 to T12 can be explained on the basis of local musculoskeletal anatomy and biomechanical stresses. The smallest diameter screw and shortest available screw for adults may not be safe in majority of the Indian population in mid-thoracic region. The results of the present study can help in designing implants and instrumentations; understanding spine pathologies; and management of spinal disorders in this part of the world.
Adult ; Biomechanics ; Cadaver ; Female ; Humans ; Spinal Canal ; Spine ; Thoracic Vertebrae

Background: Platelet aggregation studies using conventional light transmission aggregometry (LTA) have several disadvantages and require strict pre-analytical measures for reliable results.We aimed to examine the utility of flow cytometric platelet aggregation (FCA) assay in detecting platelet function defects (PFDs) in patients with a history of bleeding symptoms. Methods: Sixty-four participants (24 patients and 40 healthy controls) were included in this study.LTA and FCA assay were performed simultaneously in patients and healthy controls. In the FCA assay, two portions of platelets from the same individual were labeled separately with CD31-FITC and CD31-PE. After mixing and stimulation with agonists, the double-colored platelet aggregates were visualized using a flow cytometer. The results generated using the two techniques were compared and correlated. Results: The patients’ median age was 17 years (range, 3‒72 yr) with a male-to-female ratio of 1:1.7. There was substantial agreement between LTA and FCA assay in detecting a PFD (κ=0.792). Four patients showing a Glanzmann thrombasthenia-like pattern on LTA exhibited an abnormal FCA. A functional defect in collagen binding was detected on the FCA assay conducted in two immune thrombocytopenic patients with severe bleeding. Conclusion FCA assay can be used to identify functional defects in platelets, with potential applications in thrombocytopenic individuals. It also facilitates the diagnosis of inherited bleeding disorders with platelet defects.