Action-oriented colour-coded foot length calliper for primary healthcare workers as a proxy for birth weight & gestational period.

Background & Objectives: Foot length of the newborn has a good correlation with the birth weight and is recommended to be used as a proxy measure. There can be variations in the measurement of foot length. A study was, therefore, carried out to develop a foot length calliper for accurate foot length measurement and to find cut-off values for birth weight and gestational age groups to be used by primary healthcare workers.

Clinical profile of snake bite in children in rural India.

Objective: A high incidence of snake bite envenomation has been reported from rural India. Due to inadequate epidemiological data, the incidence is underestimated. This study analyses the pattern of snake bite and their management in children in rural areas of Maharashtra, India.

Motor aphasia: A rare complication of scorpion sting.

Scorpion sting is common in villages, and is an important public health problem in India. The clinical symptoms of envenomation by scorpion sting are by sympathetic and parasympathetic stimulation, causing a variety of symptoms. The leading causes of death are cardiac dysfunction and pulmonary edema.

Ichthyosis vulgaris and pycnodysostosis: an unusual occurrence.

Pycnodysostosis is a rare autosomal recessive disorder whose gene responsible for this phenotype (CTSK), mapped to human chromosome 1q21, code for the enzyme cathepsin K, a lysosomal cysteine protease; with an estimated incidence of 1.7 per 1 million births. This clinical entity includes micromelic dwarfism, increased radiological bone density, dysplasia of the skull, acro-osteolysis, straightening of the mandibular angle and in some cases, dysplasia of the acromial end of the clavicle.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of ester prodrugs of Benzafibrate as orally active hypolipidemic agents.

A series of bezafibrate ester prodrugs 1-7 were synthesized and evaluated for hypolipidemic activity in Swiss Albino mice (SAM). Bezafibrate (1a), a hypolipidemic drug was used as a reference compound for data comparison. Among the synthesized compounds, prodrug 7 showed superior activities in decreasing triglyceride up to 30% in mice plasma after oral administration of 50mg/kg/day for 8 days.

Sirenomelia apus: a rare deformity.

Sirenomelia also known as the mermaid syndrome, is a rare congenital malformation of uncertain etiology. It is characterized by fusion of the lower limbs and commonly associated with severe urogenital and gastrointestinal malformations. There are approximately 300 cases reported in the literature, 15% of which are associated with twinning, most often monozygotic.