Clinicopathological Profile in Patients with Tubercular Cervical Lymphadenitis and Its Treatment Outcome.

Tuberculosis is a common occurrence in developing countries. Drug resistance, co-morbidities, and limited availability of new rapid tests such as the GeneXpert/MTB Rif assay make diagnosis and treatment of extrapulmonary tuberculosis burdensome. A cross-sectional study was carried out at Employees' State Insurance Corporation Medical College and Hospital, Faridabad, Haryana of patients treated for tubercular cervical lymphadenopathy from December 2021 to March 2023 in the department of ENT.

The Effective Inhibitory Concentration of Interferon-β Correlates with Infectivity and Replication Fitness of SARS-CoV-2 Variants.

India saw a spike in COVID-19 cases in early 2023, and this wave of infection was attributed to XBB sublineages of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The impact of XBB wave was significantly shorter with low burden of severe cases or hospitalization as compared with previous SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Although a combination of old and new mutations in the spike region of XBB.

Economic Hardships in Managing COVID-19 Patients in the Intensive Care Unit: A Retrospective Observational Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India.

Background: The information on healthcare expenditure is crucial to know the impact of the pandemic on public health budgets, thereby correctly managing the ongoing crisis and preparing for subsequent waves.

Objective: To estimate the length of stay and cost incurred on COVID-19 patients who died in the ICU.

Methods: It is a record-based descriptive study conducted on 76 deceased COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU of a dedicated COVID-19 hospital (DCH) between April and October 2020.

The Indian Academy of Pediatrics and Directorate General of Health Services, Government of India White Paper on Transition of Care for Youth with Special Health Care Needs.

Over the years, survival of children with chronic diseases has significantly improved and a large proportion of them now are entering into adulthood. Transition of Care (ToC) of such patients with having childhood onset of chronic diseases to the adult health care system is well organized in developed countries, although it is an emerging concept in India. In situations where the systems for ToC are not in place, such cases are fraught with unsatisfactory health outcomes.

Insight Into Neonatal Sepsis: An Overview.

There are approximately 1.3 million cases of neonatal sepsis reported worldwide with deaths occurring more commonly in preterm and low-weight newborns. Neonatal sepsis is the third major cause of neonatal deaths resulting in 203,000 deaths per year.

Biocompatible Human Placental Extracellular Matrix Derived Hydrogels.

Solubilizing extracellular matrix (ECM) materials and transforming them into hydrogels has expanded their potential applications both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, hydrogels are prepared by decellularization of human placental tissue using detergent and enzymes and by the subsequent creation of a homogenized acellular placental tissue powder (P-ECM). A perfusion-based decellularization approach is employed using detergent and enzymes.

BA.1, BA.2 and BA.2.75 variants show comparable replication kinetics, reduced impact on epithelial barrier and elicit cross-neutralizing antibodies.

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting unvaccinated, vaccinated and previously-infected individuals due to its ability to evade neutralization by antibodies. With multiple sub-lineages of Omicron emerging in the last 12 months, there is inadequate information on the quantitative antibody response generated upon natural infection with Omicron variant and whether these antibodies offer cross-protection against other sub-lineages of Omicron variant. In this study, we characterized the growth kinetics of Kappa, Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Calu-3 cells.

Antibiotic point prevalence survey at a tertiary healthcare hospital in India: Identifying strategies to improve the antibiotic stewardship program immediately after a COVID-19 wave.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially affected the antibiotic stewardship activities in most hospitals of India.

Aims: We conducted an antibiotic point prevalence survey (PPS) immediately after the decline of a major COVID-19 wave at a dedicated COVID-19 hospital. By doing so we aimed to identify the antibiotic prescription patterns, identify factors influencing the choice of antibiotics, and identify/develop strategies to improve the antibiotic stewardship program in such setups.

Effect of Practicing Meditation, Pranayama, and Yoga on the Mental Health of Female Undergraduate Medical Students: An Interventional Study.

Background Medical education is a rigorous formal education with a vast syllabus. Burnout and stresses are common among medical students and more prominent in females. Female medical students suffer from a higher level of stress than male medical students.

Pre-existing antibody levels negatively correlate with antibody titers after a single dose of BBV152 vaccination.

Many adults in India have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine with or without a prior history SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, there is limited information on the effect of prior immunity on antibody response upon vaccination in India. As immunization of individuals continues, we aimed to assess whether pre-existing antibodies are further boosted by a single dose of BBV152, an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and, if these antibodies can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants.

A Cross-Sectional Study on the Agreement of Perfusion Indexes Measured on Different Fingers by a Portable Pulse Oximeter in Healthy Adults.

Background Pulse oximeters measure oxygen saturation, heart rate, and perfusion index (PI) by analyzing photoplethysmographic signals. PI is an indirect measure of peripheral perfusion expressed as a percentage of pulsatile signals to non-pulsatile signals. PI measured from different sites may show variation.

Repurposing of FDA Approved Drugs Against SARS-CoV-2 Papain-Like Protease: Computational, Biochemical, and Studies.

The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (SCoV-2) has impacted the world in many ways and the virus continues to evolve and produce novel variants with the ability to cause frequent global outbreaks. Although the advent of the vaccines abated the global burden, they were not effective against all the variants of SCoV-2. This trend warrants shifting the focus on the development of small molecules targeting the crucial proteins of the viral replication machinery as effective therapeutic solutions.

Sudden loss of smell and taste: clinical predictors of coronavirus disease 2019 infection.

Objectives: This study aimed: to evaluate the association between coronavirus disease 2019 infection and olfactory and taste dysfunction in patients presenting to the out-patient department with influenza-like illness, who underwent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing for coronavirus; and to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of olfactory and taste dysfunction and other symptoms in these patients.

Methods: Patients presenting with influenza-like illness to the study centre in September 2020 were included in the study. The symptoms of patients who tested positive for coronavirus on reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing were compared to those with negative test results.

Morphologic Variation of Liver Associated With Hourglass Stomach: Case Report and Literature Review.

Ectopic liver tissue is a rare developmental abnormality, and its association with hourglass constriction of the stomach is undocumented to date. This case report describes the discovery of morphologic variations in the liver of an adult female cadaver during routine dissection. The variations include a small, pedunculated, club-shaped accessory lobe covered by a glistening fibrous capsule connecting it to the gallbladder wall, with vessels radiating into the lobe.

Relevance of Subcutaneous Fat Thickness as a Risk Factor for Surgical Site Infections in Abdominal Surgeries.

Introduction Incisional surgical site infection is an important cause of postoperative morbidity which results in extended hospital stay and may result in future incisional hernia. We intended to evaluate the thickness of subcutaneous fat with a cut-off value of 2.5cm as a risk factor in causing surgical site infection using a simple, cost-effective, and direct intraoperative method for measuring subcutaneous fat thickness.

Resolution of viral load in mild COVID-19 patients is associated with both innate and adaptive immune responses.

Over 90% of the COVID-19 patients manifest mild/moderate symptoms or are asymptomatic. Although comorbidities and dysregulation of immune response have been implicated in severe COVID-19, the host factors that associate with asymptomatic or mild infections have not been characterized. We have collected serial samples from 23 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms and measured the kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 viral load in respiratory samples and markers of inflammation in serum samples.

Immunohistochemical Markers in Breast Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in a Rural Tertiary Care Hospital.

Introduction The incidence of breast cancer in India is on the rise, and it is now the most common cancer affecting women in India. The main objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in our study population and compare the various clinicopathological characteristics of TNBC with those of non-TNBC in these patients. Methods A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted among 249 cases of female breast cancer who reported to a tertiary care hospital in Southern India from September 2017 to September 2021.

A case with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection from India.

A healthcare worker presented with fever, cough, headache and tested positive by SARS-CoV-2 real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). He got admitted to hospital and recovered after 14 days. After 2 months, as a screening protocol considering the high risk setup he got tested and again found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 by qRT-PCR.

Endoscopic Retrieval of Ingested Foreign Bodies: A Single Surgeon Experience.

Introduction Foreign body (FB) ingestion either accidental or intentional is a common clinical scenario encountered by general surgeons. This article reports a single surgeon's experience of endoscopic retrieval of foreign bodies from the upper gastrointestinal (UGI) tract. Methods A retrospective analysis of data of all the patients who underwent endoscopic management for foreign body removal by a single surgeon in a tertiary care hospital in southern India between 2015 and 2020 was conducted.