Publications by authors named "Rajagopal A"

Background: Prescription auditing is a crucial tool for evaluating a range of concerns, including injectable usage, polypharmacy, the use of generic names, and the quality of treatment given to patients in primary care facilities. The objective of the study was to assess, using WHO core drug use indicators, the drug use patterns of general outpatients (OPD) at a rural healthcare facility.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural peripheral health centre in Puducherry for a period of one year from September 2019 to August 2020.

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Background: Dermatophytosis is a major public health concern in India, especially in recent years, with an alarmingly rising trend, particularly in relation to recurrent and chronic infection. The number of studies examining the relationship between an individual's glycemic status and the development of dermatophytosis, and a comparison of the evolving species trend between diabetic and non-diabetic patients infected with dermatophytes, is limited.

Aims And Objectives: To study and compare the clinical and mycological aspects of dermatophytosis among diabetic and non-diabetic patients and to compare the culture isolates in both groups.

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Adult glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive primary brain tumor, accounting for nearly half of all malignant brain tumors, with a median survival rate of only 8 months. Treatment for GBM is largely ineffective due to the highly invasive nature and complex tumor composition of this malignancy. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are short, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by binding to messenger RNAs (mRNA).

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Introduction: Persistent hyperglycemia significantly increases oxidative stress and inflammation resulting in multiple cellular and molecular alterations which further exacerbate the diabetes associated complications. is a medicinal plant used in the Indian system of medicine for treating various disorders including diabetes. However, studies on phytoconstituents and their pharmacological activity of this plant are limited.

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Emergency medical kits (EMK) are provided to clinicians who volunteer on commercial aircraft during a medical emergency. The contents of the EMKs are mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States and, internationally, by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the country of airline origin. The mandatory contents of the kits have not been updated by the Federal Aviation Administration since 2006, and the EMKs continue to lack key equipment such as automated blood pressure cuffs, glucometers, pulse oximeters, and epinephrine autoinjectors.

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Article Synopsis
  • Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) can delay gastric emptying, leading to concerns about their impact during endoscopic procedures, which prompted a meta-analysis comparing outcomes in patients using GLP-1RAs to a control group.
  • The analysis included 23 studies with over 77,000 patients, revealing that those on GLP-1RAs had significantly higher odds of retained gastric contents and aborted procedures, but no differences in aspiration events or bowel preparation quality compared to controls.
  • Overall, although patients on GLP-1RAs showed higher rates of certain complications, these occurrences were rare, suggesting that GLP-1RAs do not significantly increase the risks associated
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Background: In modern positron emission tomography (PET) with multi-modality imaging (e.g., PET/CT and PET/MR), the attenuation correction (AC) is the single largest correction factor for image reconstruction.

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Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Existing methods for continuous, noninvasive blood pressure (BP) monitoring suffer from poor accuracy, uncomfortable form factors, or a need for frequent calibration, limiting their adoption. We introduce a new framework for continuous BP measurement that is noninvasive and calibration-free called resonance sonomanometry.

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Genomic sequencing offers an untargeted, data-driven approach to genetic diagnosis; however, variants of uncertain significance often hinder the diagnostic process. The discovery of rare genomic variants without previously known functional evidence of pathogenicity often results in variants being overlooked as potentially causative, particularly in individuals with undifferentiated phenotypes. Consequently, many neurometabolic conditions, including those in the GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) catabolism pathway, are underdiagnosed.

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Background: The methamphetamine epidemic threatens progress towards ending the HIV epidemic in the United States. Further characterizing the prevalence and impact of methamphetamine use among people with HIV (PWH) is necessary to inform integrated HIV and methamphetamine treatment strategies.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review to characterize methamphetamine use among 3092 PWH at an urban HIV Medicine clinic between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

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Background: The primary aim of this study was to identify and stratify candidate metrics used by anesthesiology residency program directors (PDs) to develop their residency rank lists through the National Resident Matching Program.

Methods: Sixteen PDs comprised the participants, selected for diversity in geography and program size. We used a 3-round iterative survey to identify and stratify candidate metrics.

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Non-invasive prostate cancer classification from MRI has the potential to revolutionize patient care by providing early detection of clinically significant disease, but has thus far shown limited positive predictive value. To address this, we present a image-based deep learning method to predict clinically significant prostate cancer from screening MRI in patients that subsequently underwent biopsy with results ranging from benign pathology to the highest grade tumors. Specifically, we demonstrate that mixed supervision via diverse histopathological ground truth improves classification performance despite the cost of reduced concordance with image-based segmentation.

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Background: Weight gain and associated metabolic complications are increasingly prevalent among people with human immunodeficiency virus (PWH). Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) are incretin-based therapies for diabetes and weight management that have been shown to result in substantial weight loss; however, studies of their effects in PWH are limited.

Methods: A retrospective single-center cohort study was conducted among PWH who were taking GLP-1RAs at the University of California, San Diego Owen Clinic between 1 February 2021 and 1 February 2023.

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Context: With the union of machine learning (ML) and quantum chemistry, amid the debate between machine-learned functionals and human-designed functionals in density functional theory (DFT), this paper aims to demonstrate the generation of potential energy surfaces using computations with machine-learned density functional approximation (ML-DFA). A recent research trend is the application of ML in quantum sciences in the design of density functionals such as DeepMind's Deep Learning model (DeepMind21, DM21). Though science reported the state-of-the-art performance of DM21, the opportunity to utilize DeepMind's pretrained DM21 neural networks in computations in quantum chemistry has not yet been tapped.

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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) encompass various conditions affecting the heart and its blood vessels and are often linked with oral microbes. Our data analysis aimed to identify oral bacteria from other non-oral sites (i.e.

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Enteropathy-associated T cell lymphoma (EATL) is an aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma often associated with coeliac disease (CD). We describe a previously healthy man in his 50 s who presented with a history of abdominal pain, failure to thrive and significant weight loss over a 3-month period. Investigations revealed a positive coeliac serology, diffuse duodenal atrophy with multiple duodenal and jejunal ulcers on endoscopy and mesenteric lymphadenopathy on CT imaging.

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Cells are the building blocks of all living organisms. The presence of cell junctions such as tight junctions, gap junctions, and anchoring junctions between cells play a role in cell-to-cell communication in periodontal health and disease. A literature search was done in Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science to gather information about the effect of cell junctions on periodontal health and disease.

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Objectives:  Periodontal debridement involves conventional scaling and root planing (SRP) along with variant forms of adjunctive therapies. In the present clinical trial, we investigated if the adjunctive use of HybenX gel or diode laser along with SRP could provide a favorable outcome for the treatment of chronic periodontitis.

Materials And Methods:  The present study involved 60 subjects diagnosed with chronic periodontitis who were randomly assigned as test groups (laser or HybenX) or control group (SRP alone).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how metformin affects atherosclerosis in obese/diabetic rats by regulating the Sestrin2-AMPK-mTOR pathway, which is linked to heart health.
  • Obese and diabetic rats not treated with metformin showed low Sestrin2 and AMPK levels, high mTOR activity, and significant atherosclerotic damage, while metformin treatment improved these conditions.
  • The findings suggest metformin may help prevent atherosclerosis by restoring protein levels and reducing harmful changes in heart and blood vessel tissues.
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Coccidioidomycosis is a fungal infection endemic to the southwestern United States and Central/South America, and its range is expanding with the warming climate. People with HIV/AIDS are at increased risk of developing disseminated infection, and furthermore are at risk for developing immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) if they are initiating or re-initiating anti-retroviral therapy (ART). There have been few cases of coccidioidomycosis-related IRIS reported in the literature, and there is no clear guidance on treatment.

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Digital PCR (dPCR) is emerging as an ideal platform for the detection and tracking of genomic variants in cancer due to its high sensitivity and simple workflow. The growing number of clinically actionable cancer biomarkers creates a need for fast, accessible methods that allow for dense information content and high accuracy. Here, we describe a proof-of-concept amplitude modulation-based multiplex dPCR assay capable of detecting 12 single-nucleotide and insertion/deletion (indel) variants in EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, and ERBB2, 14 gene fusions in ALK, RET, ROS1, and NTRK1, and MET exon 14 skipping present in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

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Background: Many patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience action tremor (including postural and kinetic tremors) that impair activities of daily living. Transcutaneous afferent patterned stimulation (TAPS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation therapy that modulates tremorgenic activity at the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM). Most TAPS evidence evaluated relief of action tremor associated with essential tremor (ET).

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