Publications by authors named "Samuel Stephen"

Bungarus (krait) envenomings are well-known for their life-threatening neurotoxic effects. However, their impact on coagulation remains largely unexplored experimentally or clinically. This study, examined the effect of begins to examine venoms from four Bungarus species-B.

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  • Snakebite envenoming (SBE) causes over 500,000 deaths or serious injuries annually, and a phase II clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of varespladib methyl, an oral treatment, in patients bitten by venomous snakes.
  • The trial, which was double-blind and placebo-controlled, enrolled patients in emergency departments in the USA and India, assessing changes in severity of snakebite symptoms using the Snakebite Severity Score (SSS) after treatment.
  • Results indicated no significant difference in SSS improvement between the varespladib and placebo groups overall, but early treatment (within 5 hours of the bite) showed potential benefits in illness severity and recovery outcomes.
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  • The study focuses on creating a reliable model for bone failure under repetitive loading, addressing limitations of previous uniaxial models that overestimate bone durability during physical activity.
  • Using cadaveric tibiae from donors aged 21 to 85, the research tested four engineering failure criteria (Von Mises, Tsai-Wu, Findley critical plane, and maximum shear strain) to better predict fatigue fractures.
  • Results showed that older individuals experience significantly lower fatigue life, with the model accurately predicting fracture occurrences after 5,000 to 200,000 cycles of activity, highlighting age-related risks in bone health.
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Recent studies in mice have indicated that the gut microbiome can regulate bone tissue strength. However, prior work involved modifications to the gut microbiome in growing animals and it is unclear if the same changes in the microbiome, applied later in life, would change matrix strength. Here we changed the composition of the gut microbiome before and/or after skeletal maturity (16 weeks of age) using oral antibiotics (ampicillin + neomycin).

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Background: Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic, progressive lung condition that involves lung tissue scarring and thickening. The effects of home-based pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in post-covid pulmonary fibrosis (PCPF) and other forms of fibrosis together have not been evaluated. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of home-based pulmonary rehabilitation on pulmonary function, functional capacity, and health-related quality of life in people with pulmonary fibrosis (post-COVID pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), pulmonary fibrosis secondary to interstitial lung disease (ILD), pulmonary fibrosis secondary to bronchiectasis).

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Purpose: To describe the beliefs, barriers and promotion practices of Indian nurses' regarding healthy eating (HE) behaviours amongst cancer survivors, and to gain insights into whether their educational qualifications might affect the promotion of HE.

Methods: Data was gathered using a validated questionnaire, 388 of the approached 400 nurses who worked at a tertiary care hospital in India gave informed consent to participate in the study. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Chi square analysis (for continuous and categorical variables respectively) were performed to carry out sub-group comparisons based on the qualification of the nurses i.

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Background: Disrupted circadian rhythm commonly reported in cancer survivors is closely associated with cancer related fatigue, sleep disturbances and compromised quality of life. As more cancer survivors request non-pharmacological treatment strategies for the management of their chronic sleep-related symptoms, there is a need for meta-analyses of various interventions such as exercise on sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances.

Methods: A search for RCT's was conducted in April 2020 and updated in July 2023 using relevant keywords for cancer, sleep, circadian rhythm and exercise interventions on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PEDro and CINAHL.

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Sphingolipids are involved in cell signaling and metabolic pathways, and their metabolites play a critical role in host defense against intracellular pathogens. Here, we review the known mechanisms of sphingolipids in viral infections and discuss the potential implication of the study of sphingolipid metabolism in vaccine and therapeutic development.

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Objectives: The study aims to assess the proportion and magnitude of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) and other common complications reported in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)/ acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL) undergoing chemotherapy.

Material And Methods: The study included children between 5 and 18 years old with ALL/LBL undergoing chemotherapy in Tertiary Care Hospitals, Mangalore. The study was conducted using various instruments, including paediatric-modified total neuropathy scale for CIPN, handheld dynamometer for muscle strength, bioimpedance analyser for muscle mass, timed up-and-go test for physical performance, and national comprehensive cancer network (NCCN) guidelines for scoring cancer-related fatigue at 3-time points.

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  • * In a study with juvenile pigs, varespladib was tested against venom from the Australian and Papuan taipan, showing effectiveness in improving survival rates when administered, particularly when given early.
  • * Findings indicate that early treatment is crucial and suggest that varespladib can reverse neurotoxic effects even when given after a delay, supporting ongoing clinical trials for snakebite therapies.
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Hyaluronan, a glycosaminoglycan synthesized by three isoenzymes (Has1, Has2, Has3), is known to play a role in regulating bone turnover, remodeling, and mineralization, which in turn can affect bone quality and strength. The goal of this study is to characterize how the loss of Has1 or Has3 affects the morphology, matrix properties, and overall strength of murine bone. Femora were isolated from Has1, Has3, and wildtype (WT) C57Bl/6 J female mice and were analyzed using microcomputed-tomography, confocal Raman spectroscopy, three-point bending, and nanoindentation.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Snakebite poses a serious global health crisis with high rates of sickness and death, and varespladib has been identified as a potential oral treatment to combat snakebite envenoming (SBE) through its mechanism of blocking venom enzymes.
  • - The BRAVO study aims to assess the safety and effectiveness of oral varespladib-methyl compared to a placebo, using a randomized, double-blind approach involving patients aged 5 and up with acute SBE.
  • - Regulatory approval has been secured for the study in both India and the US, ensuring ethical standards and good clinical practices are followed throughout the trial process.
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Context: Thirty-day readmissions are used to gauge health care accountability, which occurs as part of the natural course of the illness or due to avoidable fallacies during the index admission. The utility of this metric is unknown in older adults from developing countries.

Aim: To ascertain the unplanned 30-day readmission rate and enumerate predictors of avoidable hospital readmission among early (0-7 days) and late (8-30 days) readmissions.

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The availability of effective, reliably accessible, and affordable treatments for snakebite envenoming is a critical and long unmet medical need. Recently, small, synthetic toxin-specific inhibitors with oral bioavailability used in conjunction with antivenom have been identified as having the potential to greatly improve outcomes after snakebite. Varespladib, a small, synthetic molecule that broadly and potently inhibits secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2s) venom toxins has renewed interest in this class of inhibitors due to its potential utility in the treatment of snakebite envenoming.

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Purpose Of Review: Multiple biochemical and biophysical approaches have been broadly used for detection and quantitation of posttranslational protein modifications associated with diabetic bone, yet these techniques present a variety of challenges. In this review, we discuss recent advancements and complementary roles of analytical (UPLC/UPLC-MS/MS and ELISA) and biophysical (Raman and FTIR) techniques used for characterization of glycation products, measured from bone matrix and serum, and provide recommendations regarding the selection of a technique for specific study of diabetic bone.

Recent Findings: Hyperglycemia and oxidative stress in diabetes contribute to the formation of a large subgroup of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) known as glycoxidation end products (AGOEs).

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Overweightness and obesity in adolescents are epidemics linked to chronic low-grade inflammation and elevated fracture risk. The increased fracture risk observed in overweight/obese adolescence contrasts the traditional concept that high body mass is protective against fracture, and thus highlights the need to determine why weight gain becomes detrimental to fracture during growth and maturity. The Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products (RAGE) is a central inflammatory regulator that can influence bone metabolism.

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Purpose: To describe the physical activity (PA) promotion practices, beliefs, and barriers of Indian nurses working with cancer survivors, and to gain preliminary insights into how their educational qualification might affect PA promotion practices.

Methods: A validated questionnaire was used to obtain the data ( = 388). Sub-group comparisons were performed based on nursing qualification , Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSc) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) using Mann-Whitney U test and chi square analysis for continuous and categorical variables, respectively.

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Prehabilitation is a therapeutic strategy involving preoperative physical exercises, nutritional support, and stress and anxiety reduction. This approach has been gaining popularity and has been seeing effective results in adults in terms of improving pre and postoperative outcomes. The purpose of this review was to summarise the evidence about the effects of exercise-based prehabilitation programs on various outcome measures in children post elective surgeries.

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A 54-year-old male farmer with a history of long-standing uncontrolled type 2 diabetes mellitus (HbA1c 10.8) presented with a 3-week history of fever, intermittent vomiting, malaise and left flank pain for which he was treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics and oral antifungals for isolated from urine culture. CT of the abdomen revealed predominant involvement of the left kidney and retroperitoneal structures.

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Objectives: Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) undergoing concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) often experience pulmonary symptoms. This study evaluated if a 7-week inspiratory muscle training (IMT) program during CCRT is feasible, adherent, and safe in patients with HNC. This study also evaluated the effect of IMT on diaphragm thickness, mobility, and cardiorespiratory parameters in patients with HNC receiving CCRT.

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Objectives: This study was developed to assess the relationship between physical activity, sleep and circadian rhythm using accelerometer and urine melatonin levels in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Also, this study evaluated the changes in physical activity, sleep, and circadian rhythm during the seven-week course of chemoradiotherapy.

Methods: This longitudinal study recruited 27 participants diagnosed with HNC who were planning to undergo chemoradiotherapy.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent responsible for the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has infected over 185 million individuals across 200 countries since December 2019 resulting in 4.0 million deaths. While COVID-19 is primarily associated with respiratory illnesses, an increasing number of clinical reports indicate that severely ill patients often develop thrombotic complications that are associated with increased mortality.

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