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Background: The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block and local anesthetic wound infiltration have been used to relieve pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This study investigated whether the subcostal transversus abdominis block was superior to traditional port-site infiltration of local anesthetic in reducing post-operative pain, opioid consumption, and time for recovery. Aim and Objectives: To investigated whether the subcostal transversus abdominis block is superior to traditional port-site infiltration of local anesthetic in reducing post-operative pain, opioid consumption, and time for recovery. Materials and Methods: All patients were randomly assigned to two equal groups (n=30) using computer-generated randomization. Patients in Group 1 (TAP group) received a TAP block by administration of 10 mL of 0.5% bupivacaine on each side just before completion of surgery, and patients in Group 2 (local wound infiltration [LWI] group) received 10 mL of 0.5% bupivacaine as a local infiltrate at the local site just before completion of surgery. The pain was measured using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at intervals of 30 min to 24 h after the procedure. Results: The mean VAS score was significantly lower in group 1 as compared to group 2 at 2 h and 4 h. Whereas the VAS score was not significantly different post-operative 30 min, 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h. The mean first rescue analgesia was significantly more in Group 1 than in Group 2 (P<0.001). Conclusion: The TAP block patients had significant VAS scores at 2 and 4 h postoperatively compared to the LWI patients. The TAP group had a significantly longer median time to first emergency analgesia compared to the LWI group, with a higher proportion of patients requiring only one dose of emergency analgesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endophytic fungi (EF) reside within plants without causing harm and provide benefits such as enhancing nutrients and producing bioactive compounds, which improve the medicinal properties of host plants. Selecting plants with established medicinal properties for studying EF is important, as it allows a deeper understanding of their influence. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the impact of EF after inoculating the medicinal plant Perilla frutescens, specifically focusing on their role in enhancing medicinal properties. Results: In the current study, the impact of two EF i.e., Irpex lenis and Schizophyllum commune isolated from A. bracteosa was observed on plant Perilla frutescens leaves after inoculation. Plants were divided into four groups i.e., group A: the control group, group B: inoculated with I. lenis; group C: inoculated with S. commune and group D: inoculated with both the EF. Inoculation impact of I. lenis showed an increase in the concentration of chlorophyll a (5.32 mg/g), chlorophyll b (4.46 mg/g), total chlorophyll content (9.78 mg/g), protein (68.517 ± 0.77 mg/g), carbohydrates (137.886 ± 13.71 mg/g), and crude fiber (3.333 ± 0.37%). Furthermore, the plants inoculated with I. lenis showed the highest concentrations of P (14605 mg/kg), Mg (4964.320 mg/kg), Ca (27389.400 mg/kg), and Mn (86.883 mg/kg). The results of the phytochemical analysis also indicated an increased content of total flavonoids (2.347 mg/g), phenols (3.086 mg/g), tannins (3.902 mg/g), and alkaloids (1.037 mg/g) in the leaf extract of P. frutescens inoculated with I. lenis. Thus, overall the best results of inoculation were observed in Group B i.e. inoculated with I. lenis. GC-MS analysis of methanol leaf extract showed ten bioactive constituents, including 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z)-, methyl ester, and hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester as major constituents found in all the groups of P. frutescens leaves. The phenol (gallic acid) and flavonoids (rutin, kaempferol, and quercetin) were also observed to increase after inoculation by HPTLC analysis. The enhancement in the phytochemical content was co-related with improved anti-oxidant potential which was analyzed by DPPH (% Inhibition: 83.45 µg/ml) and FRAP (2.980 µM Fe (II) equivalent) assay as compared with the control group. Conclusion: Inoculation with I. lenis significantly enhances the uptake of nutritional constituents, phytochemicals, and antioxidant properties in P. frutescens, suggesting its potential to boost the therapeutic properties of host plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Succinylcholine is a commonly used muscle relaxant in anaesthesia that is associated with significant side effects, including muscle fasciculations and postoperative myalgia. Succinylcholine is used to facilitate tracheal intubation, especially in emergency situations when the risk of aspiration of gastric contents is present. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: This research paper investigates the effect of administering magnesium sulfate in conjunction with propofol induction on succinylcholine-induced fasciculations and myalgia. MATERIAL & METHODS: A total of 80 adult patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anaesthesia were divided into two groups (group I and II). The group I patients were treated with magnesium sulphate (40 mg/kg weight) in 10 ml volume while Group II patients were pretreated with normal saline (0.9% in 10 ml volume). They were given slowly intravenously over a period of 10 mim. Then Anesthesia was induced with fentanyl 1.5 mcg/kg and propofol 2 mg/kg, followed by administration of succinylcholine 2 mg/kg intravenously. Muscle fasciculation and Myalgia were observed after 24 hours of surgery. They were graded as nil, mild, moderate and severe. RESULTS: The overall incidence of muscle fasciculation in group I was 52.5% while it was 100% in group II. In group I, 22.5%,12 % mild and moderate muscle fasciculation were developed and no severe cases of fasciculation were observed. While in group II, 52.5% moderate, 40 % mild and 7.5% severe muscle fasciculation were observed. Postoperative myalgia was observed after 24 hrs, and it was observed that patients of Group I were not showing any sign and symptoms of myalgia while in group II, 12.5% were mild, 7.5% were moderate and 80% were negative for myalgia. CONCLUSION: The study found that the administration of magnesium sulfate significantly reduced both the incidence and severity of succinylcholine-induced fasciculations and myalgia, suggesting a beneficial role for magnesium sulfate in anesthesia protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Ageing is a complex, natural process. Due to structural and physiological changes that occur as a consequence of intrinsic and extrinsic aging, the elderly population is highly susceptible to dermatological disorders. These changes are associated with significant morbidity and stress. Hence, it is important to have a better understanding of the dermatological needs of elderly patients. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern and frequency of geriatric dermatoses in patients attending the Skin Outpatient Department (OPD) at a tertiary care centre. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted at the Department of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprosy at BPS Government Medical College for Women, Khanpur Kalan (Sonepat), Haryana, India, from September 2022 to February 2023. A total of 300 patients aged 60 years and above, of either sex, who consented to participate were enrolled. Detailed history taking and dermatological examinations were performed, and relevant investigations were carried out. Data was collected, entered into a Microsoft Excel sheet, and analysed for frequency, percentage, and mean of variables. Results: Out of the total 300 patients, 155 (51.66%) were males and 145 (48.33%) were females. The majority of patients belonged to the age group of 60-69 years (n=171, 57%). Wrinkling (n=287, 95.66%) was the most common physiological skin finding, followed by dry skin (n=157, 52.33%). Among pathological dermatoses, infectious dermatoses were present in (n=134, 44.66%) patients, followed by eczemas (n=92, 30.66%). Papulosquamous disorders were seen in (n=17, 5.66%) patients. Hypertension was the most common systemic illness present in (n=53, 17.66%) patients. Conclusion: Physiological and pathological skin changes in the elderly are a common cause of consultation in dermatology OPD. Physiological changes were seen in all patients. Among pathological changes, infections were the leading dermatoses, followed by eczemas and papulosquamous disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Niharika. Lal, Debabrata. Bandyopadhyay, Rachna. Verma, Anjani. Shukla Sir, Perforating calcific elastosis (PCE), also known as periumbilical perforating pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PPPXE), is an acquired, localized cutaneous disorder, frequently found [...]

Byline: Seema. Sood, Rachna. Verma, Anjan. Mukherjee, Neeraj. Mahajan, Bimal. Das, Arti. Kapil, Somesh. Gupta, Vinod. Sharma Sir, Sexual abuse in children is associated with not only physical but also [...]

The paper presents a new Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture, called stacked stereo CNN, for computing disparity map from stereo images. In stacked stereo CNN, left and right image patches are stacked back-to-back and fed to a single tower CNN. This is in contrast to Siamese network where two towers are used, one for the left patch and other for the right patch. The proposed network is trained on a large set of similar and dissimilar image patches, which are generated from stereo images and their ground truth images from Middlebury stereo datasets. The network returns a dissimilarity score for a pair of image patch which is used to compute the cost volume. The cost volume is further refined using post processing steps before generating the final disparity map. The proposed network is evaluated on Middlebury datasets and achieves comparable results to the state-of-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

S100 proteins are calcium (Ca2+)-binding proteins and these have an important function in progression, manifestation and therapeutic aspects of various inflammatory, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders. Based on their involvement in intracellular or extracellular regulatory effects, S100 proteins are classified into three subgroups: one subgroup is specialized in exerting only intracellular effects, other performs both intracellular and extracellular functions and the third subgroup members only display extracellular regulatory effects. S100 proteins are expressed particularly in vertebrates and have cell-specific expression. Functionally, S100 proteins act through their surface receptors and regulate cell functions in autocrine or paracrine mode. Receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGEs) and toll-like receptor 4 are the main surface receptors. S100 proteins participate in the regulation of cellular differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis and inflammation along with Ca2+ homeostasis, energy metabolism and cellular migration, and perform the respective functions through their interaction with transcription factors, nucleic acids, enzymes, receptors, cytoskeleton system, etc. Currently, their role in adverse pregnancy outcomes and compromised reproductive health is being explored. These proteins are present in amniotic fluid, endometrium tissue and foetal brain; therefore, it is quite likely that alterations in the expression levels of S100 family members will be affecting the particular function they are involved in and ultimately affecting the pregnancy in adverse manner. The current review discusses about an association of S100 proteins in pregnancy disorders such as endometriosis, intrauterine growth retardation and miscarriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]