Publications by authors named "Bal H"

Whole genome sequencing has been used to investigate the genomic diversity of M. tuberculosis in the northern and southern states of India, but information about the eastern part of the country is still limited. Through a sequencing-based strategy, this study seeks to comprehend the diversity and drug resistance pattern in the eastern region.

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Isthmocele is a myometrial defect in the uterine isthmus, often resulting from previous caesarean sections. With rising cesarean rates globally, including a significant increase in India, the prevalence of isthmocele has become a noteworthy clinical concern. Isthmocele can lead to symptoms such as abnormal uterine bleeding, dysmenorrhea, and secondary infertility, often detected through transvaginal ultrasound or MRI.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Transmesentric hernias involve the bowel looping through a defect in the mesentery and can cause small bowel obstruction, leading to high mortality due to delayed diagnosis.
  • - A case series detailed four patients, including three children and one preterm neonate, all presenting with bowel obstruction symptoms and requiring emergency surgery to address the hernia and remove gangrenous bowel.
  • - Timely surgical intervention is crucial, as traditional diagnostic methods may not clearly identify this rare condition, making it essential to consider transmesentric hernias in differential diagnoses for pediatric bowel obstructions.
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Objective: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in developing countries and remains a serious public health problem. In the subclinical course of carditis, the absence of typical symptoms and the normal range of classical echocardiographic measurements used to evaluate cardiac functions have required new echocardiographic methods and parameters. Previous studies regarding rheumatic heart disease in children and adults have shown that strain patterns obtained by speckle tracking echocardiography, are in fact affected although left ventricular systolic functions are preserved, yet some studies have suggested otherwise.

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After the 2008 World Crisis, there is a view that the economic recovery has not been adequate. In this context, the debate on hysteresis and especially investment hysteresis has increased in the last decade. The aim of this study is to analyze the investment hysteresis and the basic dynamics of hysteresis in the Turkish economy.

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Patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) -positive, hormone receptor-positive (HR-positive) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) usually undergo trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) therapy in subsequent lines. Combining endocrine therapy (ET) with T-DM1 can improve treatment outcomes in this subtype. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the benefits of using T-DM1 with ET in HER2-positive and HR-positive MBC.

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Article Synopsis
  • Tamoxifen is a common treatment for a type of breast cancer, but some patients can become resistant to it, meaning the medicine doesn't work anymore.
  • A long non-coding RNA called LINC00152 stops cells from dying in a specific way when tamoxifen is used, which makes the cancer harder to treat.
  • Researchers discovered that blocking LINC00152 can help make tamoxifen work better by changing how certain proteins and chemicals behave in the cancer cells, leading to more effective treatment.
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Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is the standard treatment for locally advanced, high-risk breast cancer. Pathological complete response (pCR) improves survival. Peripheral blood-derived indices reflecting systemic inflammation and nutritional status have long been used as predictive and prognostic markers in solid malignancies.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the prevalence and impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) and HIV among tuberculosis (TB) cases in Odisha, India, during 2019, highlighting the interconnected health issues in the region.
  • Findings reveal that 7.6% of TB patients had DM, while only 1.2% had HIV, and a very small percentage (0.08%) had both conditions alongside TB.
  • Interestingly, patients with TB and DM generally had better treatment outcomes (88.2% favorable) compared to those with TB and HIV (82.3% favorable), suggesting differing impacts of these comorbidities on TB treatment success.
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Tamoxifen has been the mainstay therapy to treat early, locally advanced, and metastatic estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer, constituting around 75% of all cases. However, emergence of resistance is common, necessitating the identification of novel therapeutic targets. Here, we demonstrated that long-noncoding RNA LINC00152 confers tamoxifen resistance via blocking tamoxifen-induced ferroptosis, an iron-mediated cell death.

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Introduction: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is extensively employed in breast cancer (BC), primarily for aggressive subtypes like triple-negative and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive BC and in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+)/HER2- BC with high-risk features. In ER+/HER2- BC, pathological complete rates are much lower (<10%), while axillary dissection rates are higher. This study focuses on hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/HER2- BC patients undergoing NAC, examining its impact on pathological complete response (pCR) rates, with specific attention to tumor Ki67 and ER status.

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Introduction: The placenta with the umbilical cord is a vital link between the mother and fetus. Umbilical cord supplies water, nutrients and oxygen from the mother to the fetus. The most unique character of the umbilical cord is its coiling, where the contents of the cord course in a coiled helical fashion.

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Background: Compared to conventional microscopy, the cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT, Xpert MTB/RIF, Cepheid, USA) has the dual advantage of higher sensitivity to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), and the ability to detect rifampicin resistance.

Aim: To evaluate the impact of the CBNAAT on the detection of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis from private and public healthcare facilities in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

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We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the burden of tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance in patients with pleural effusion in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, during February 2016, to December 2022, using cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT, Xpert MTB/RIF). Of the 1370 pleural fluid samples tested at the National Reference Laboratory for tuberculosis, 3.8% (52/1370) were positive for M.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Found a prevalence of isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis (Hr-TB) at 1.53%, with variations from 0% to 3.4% across the districts.
  • * Identified that 74% of Hr-TB strains had katG mutations, while 26% had inhA mutations, which have important implications for treatment effectiveness due to varying levels of resistance.
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Increasing industrial activities trigger the intense use of fossil fuels and increase the number of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Countries with a high share in current carbon emissions need to expand their use of renewable energy sources. Canada is an important energy producer and consumer globally.

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European anchovy, a small pelagic fish, plays a significant role in the blue economy, with remarkable commercial, ecological and culinary values. In this study, the variability in the shapes of the body and sagitta otoliths was examined to identify the different anchovy stocks in the Black Sea (26.5°E-39.

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Background: The effectiveness of different energy levels used in extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) has been investigated in previous studies, but controversy remains regarding which energy levels should be used in the treatment of plantar fasciitis. We compared the efficacy of different energy levels used in ESWT in the treatment of plantar fasciitis using plantar fascia thickness and pressure distribution.

Methods: Between July 2021 and September 2021, a total of 51 patients (71 feet) with plantar fasciitis were randomized into three treatment groups using the sealed envelope method.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has clinical manifestations ranging from mild symptoms to respiratory failure, septic shock, and multi-organ failure. Lymphocytes are divided into different subtypes based on their cytokine production pattern. In this study, we investigated the role of cytokine expressions of CD4 T (T helper [Th]1, Th2, Th17, Th22) and CD8 T cell subtypes (T cytotoxic [Tc]1, Tc2, Tc17, Tc22) in the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

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Purpose: We aim to quantify differences between a new maximum likelihood (ML) background scaling (MLBS) algorithm and two conventional scatter scaling methods for clinical PET/CT. A common source of reduced image quantification with conventional scatter corrections is attributed to erroneous scaling of the initial scatter estimate to match acquired scattered events in the sinogram. MLBS may have performance advantages over conventional methods by using all available data intersecting the subject.

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Osteoclast-like giant cell tumours of the kidney are extremely rare and usually accompanied by a conventional urothelial neoplasm such as papillary, transitional renal cell, or sarcomatoid carcinoma. Although they have morphological features similar to those of the giant cell tumours in the skeletal system, their counterparts in the urinary system show highly malignant features. Our case is the third primer malignant giant cell tumour of the kidney in the literature.

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Bluetooth (BT) data has been extensively used for recognizing social patterns and inferring social networks, as BT is widely present in everyday technological devices. However, even though collecting BT data is subject to random noise and may result in substantial measurement errors, there is an absence of rigorous procedures for validating the quality of the inferred BT social networks. This paper presents a methodology for inferring and validating BT-based social networks based on parameter optimization algorithm and social network analysis (SNA).

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Background: Newborns have limited specific immune capability at birth, owing to delayed and constrained development of adaptive immunity. To supplement this period the mother passively transfers antibodies to the child either transplacentally or through breast milk. When maternal alloimmunisation occurs through foreign or fetal red cell surface antigens, stimulating the production of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, these IgG antibodies can cross the placenta and cause haemolytic disease of the fetus and the newborn.

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Introduction: Crossed fused renal ectopia is a rare congenital malformation, wherein both kidneys are present unilaterally, with the ureter of the crossed kidney opening into the bladder on the contralateral side. It has varied presentation from incidental detection to renal impairment. In this largest series of crossed fused renal ectopia, the authors assessed the clinical profile of these children and also attempted to shed light on the challenges in the surgical management.

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