Intravenous Vitamin C for Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: Two Harmonized Randomized Clinical Trials.

Importance: The efficacy of vitamin C for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is uncertain.

Objective: To determine whether vitamin C improves outcomes for patients with COVID-19.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Two prospectively harmonized randomized clinical trials enrolled critically ill patients receiving organ support in intensive care units (90 sites) and patients who were not critically ill (40 sites) between July 23, 2020, and July 15, 2022, on 4 continents.

Correlation of Liver Elastography as a Predictor of Esophageal Varices and Its Comparison With Ultrasound Abdomen and Liver Function Tests in Patients With Chronic Liver Disease.

Introduction: Variceal haemorrhage is a life-threatening complication that occurs in up to 40% of patients with chronic liver disease including cirrhosis. It is associated with a mortality rate of 20% with each episode of variceal bleeding. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is the gold standard for the detection of esophageal varices but is an invasive procedure and not very cost-effective.

The first case of transcatheter device closure of perimembranous ventricular septal defect in Nigeria: a case report.

Ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common congenital cardiac anomaly with a prevalence of 1.17 per 1000 live births. Haemodynamically significant VSDs require closure either surgical or transcatheter.

Myxedema crisis and ovarian hyperstimulation in a child with Down syndrome.

Objectives: Myxedema crisis, a fatal complication of severe hypothyroidism, is extremely rare in children and treatment guidelines are lacking. Since availability of intravenous levothyroxine is limited in resource poor settings, myxedema crisis can be treated with oral levothyroxine and/or oral liothyronine (if necessary), in the absence of cardiac risk factors, thus hastening the recovery and significantly decreasing the associated morbidity and mortality. In the background of untreated hypothyroidism, a possible association of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and reactive pituitary hyperplasia should be kept in mind, thus preventing unnecessary interventions.

Correction to: Diet and inflammatory bowel disease: The Asian Working Group guidelines.

The recommendations 31 which recommend "VSL#3®", refer only to the product used in the cited literature and equivalent products independent from the present product labelings. This product is now known by the generic name "De Simone Formulation".

Indian Brachytherapy Society Guidelines for radiotherapeutic management of cervical cancer with special emphasis on high-dose-rate brachytherapy.

Brachytherapy (BT) for locally advanced cervical cancer is vital for optimal outcomes. There is heterogeneity in brachytherapy treatment practice for cervical cancer across India. In an attempt to standardize various processes involved in cervical cancer brachytherapy, the expert members of the Indian Brachytherapy Society (IBS) developed a document related to radiation therapy treatment of cervical cancer with special emphasis on brachytherapy.

Diet and inflammatory bowel disease: The Asian Working Group guidelines.

Introduction: These Asian Working Group guidelines on diet in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) present a multidisciplinary focus on clinical nutrition in IBD in Asian countries.

Methodology: The guidelines are based on evidence from existing published literature; however, if objective data were lacking or inconclusive, expert opinion was considered. The conclusions and 38 recommendations have been subject to full peer review and a Delphi process in which uniformly positive responses (agree or strongly agree) were required.

Rapid molecular diagnostics for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in India.

Rapid molecular diagnostic methods help in the detection of TB and Rifampicin resistance. These methods detect TB early, are accurate and play a crucial role in reducing the burden of drug resistant tuberculosis. Areas covered: This review analyses rapid molecular diagnostic tools used in the diagnosis of MDR-TB in India, such as the Line Probe Assay and GeneXpert.

A comparison of estimates of doses to radiotherapy patients obtained with the dicentric chromosome analysis and the γ-H2AX assay: Relevance to radiation triage.

The γ-H2AX assay was investigated as an alternative to the time-consuming dicentric chromosome assay (DCA). Radiation doses to 25 radiotherapy patients were estimated in parallel by DCA and the γ-H2AX assay. The γ-H2AX assay yielded doses in line with the calculated equivalent whole body doses in 92% of the patients, whereas the success rate of DCA was only 76%.

Dilemmas in the diagnosis and treatment of intracranial tuberculomas.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health problem across the globe. A common form of extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) with high mortality and morbidity is neuro TB or tuberculosis of the nervous system. The management of brain TB remains a big challenge due to the lack of specific diagnostic tools and appropriate treatment guidelines.

Cell-based immunotherapy in stage IIIA inflammatory breast cancer with declining innate immunity following successive chemotherapies: A case report.

Cancer stem cells in breast cancer migrating to the bone marrow may cause future metastasis, particularly during periods of decreased immunity. Natural killer (NK) cells have a role in immune surveillance and are able to target cancer stem cells. The present study reported a case in which NK cell-based autologous immune enhancement therapy was used combined with conventional treatments in a patient with stage IIIA breast cancer, yielding >28 months of disease-free survival.

Predictors of Outcome in Children with Status Epilepticus during Resuscitation in Pediatric Emergency Department: A Retrospective Observational Study.

Objectives: To study the clinical profile and predictors of outcome in children with status epilepticus (SE) during resuscitation in pediatric emergency department.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Admission and resuscitation data of children, aged between 1 month and 12 years, treated for SE, between September 2013 and August 2014, were extracted using a standard data collection form.

Endoscopic Tympanoplasty Using Nasal Septal Cartilage Allograft.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the morphological and functional outcomes in a series of 60 patients for whom Type I tympanoplasty was done using alcohol preserved nasal septal cartilage allograft through endoscopic permeatal route. The study was a prospective, interventional (surgical) study of 60 patients between October 2012 and September 2014. Patients were operated using 0°, 4 mm, 18 cm long Hopkin's rod endoscope through permeatal route.

Radioprotective Effect of Carvacrol Against X-Radiation-Induced Cellular Damage in Cultured Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes.

In the present study, we evaluated the radioprotective effect of carvacrol (CVC) against X-radiation-induced cellular damage in cultured human blood lymphocytes. By MTT assay, the LD50 doses of CVC and X-radiation to lymphocytes were determined to be 100 μg/ml and 4 Gy, respectively. To explore the radioprotective effect of CVC, the cultured lymphocytes were treated with 100 μg/mL of CVC 30 min prior to 4 Gy irradiation.

Combined therapeutic efficacy of carvacrol and X-radiation against 1,2-dimethyl hydrazine-induced experimental rat colon carcinogenesis.

Colon cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers, and is a major cause of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the combined therapeutic efficacy of carvacrol (CVC) and X-radiation against 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced colon cancer. Male albino Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups.

Brief histories of medical physics in Asia-Oceania.

The history of medical physics in Asia-Oceania goes back to the late nineteenth century when X-ray imaging was introduced, although medical physicists were not appointed until much later. Medical physics developed very quickly in some countries, but in others the socio-economic situation as such prevented it being established for many years. In others, the political situation and war has impeded its development.

Cell Based Autologous Immune Enhancement Therapy (AIET) after Radiotherapy in a Locally Advanced Carcinoma of the Cervix.

Radiotherapy is the primary form of treatment in patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma. However for residual disease in the form of the persistent lymph nodes, surgery or chemotherapy is recommended. As surgery is not acceptable by every patient and chemotherapy has associated side effects, we hereby report the positive outcome of in vitro expanded natural killer cell and activated T lymphocyte based autologous immune enhancement therapy (AIET) for the residual lymphadenopathy in a patient with locally advanced cervical cancer after radiation.

Study of head scatter factor in 4MV photon beam used in radiotherapy.

The 4 MV photon beam offers equal build-up region behavior like Co-60 beam and it plays a major role in head and neck and pediatric radiotherapy. In this study an attempt is made to study the head scatter factor (SC) for 4 MV photon beam using locally designed PMMA and Brass miniphantoms. The SC is measured in combination of PMMA miniphantom with 0.