Challenges in the diagnosis of paediatric pneumonia in intervention field trials: recommendations from a pneumonia field trial working group.

Pneumonia is a leading killer of children younger than 5 years despite high vaccination coverage, improved nutrition, and widespread implementation of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses algorithm. Assessing the effect of interventions on childhood pneumonia is challenging because the choice of case definition and surveillance approach can affect the identification of pneumonia substantially. In anticipation of an intervention trial aimed to reduce childhood pneumonia by lowering household air pollution, we created a working group to provide recommendations regarding study design and implementation.

Exposures to fine particulate matter (PM) and birthweight in a rural-urban, mother-child cohort in Tamil Nadu, India.

Background: Exposure to PM (fine particulate matter View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Back to Basics - 'Must Know' Classical Signs in Thoracic Radiology.

There are a few signs in radiology which are based on many common objects or patterns that we come across in our routine lives. The objective behind the association between such common objects and the corresponding pathologies is to make the reader understand and remember the disease process. These signs do not necessarily indicate a particular disease, but are usually suggestive of a group of similar pathologies which will facilitate in the narrowing down of the differential diagnosis.

Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in rural women of Tamilnadu: implications for refining disease burden assessments attributable to household biomass combustion.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the 13th leading cause of burden of disease worldwide and is expected to become 5th by 2020. Biomass fuel combustion significantly contributes to COPD, although smoking is recognized as the most important risk factor. Rural women in developing countries bear the largest share of this burden resulting from chronic exposures to biomass fuel smoke.

Air pollution from household solid fuel combustion in India: an overview of exposure and health related information to inform health research priorities.

Environmental and occupational risk factors contribute to nearly 40% of the national burden of disease in India, with air pollution in the indoor and outdoor environment ranking amongst leading risk factors. It is now recognized that the health burden from air pollution exposures that primarily occur in the rural indoors, from pollutants released during the incomplete combustion of solid fuels in households, may rival or even exceed the burden attributable to urban outdoor exposures. Few environmental epidemiological efforts have been devoted to this setting, however.

Evaluation of mucociliary clearance among women using biomass and clean fuel in a periurban area of Chennai: A preliminary study.

Background: Nasal mucociliary clearance (NMC) plays a crucial role in the defense of the airways against inhaled substances and is affected by various factors. The effect of particulate matter on NMC in women using biomass fuel has not been well studied.

Aim: This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the NMC time in biomass fuel users and compare it with that of clean fuel users.

Nocardial hydropneumothorax.

Pleural involvement in nocardiosis is rarely reported from India. A case of hydropneumothorax due to Nocardia asteroides in a patient with diabetes mellitus is reported. Tube thoracostomy drainage and therapy with trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole for seven months prevented reaccumulation of pleural fluid and improved the general condition but failed to expand the lung.