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Byline: Subhro. Sen, Debarup. Das, Uddalak. Chakraborty, Souvik. Dubey, Biman. Ray, Alak. Pandit Sir, A 52-year-old, non-diabetic, non-hypertensive male presented with a history of sudden onset nausea and vomiting 2 [...]

Air-drying of soils for testing can cause fixation/release of potassium (K), showing a K status different from that of the field. We compared different extractants to find one with the least deviation in K-extractability between field-moist and air-dried soils. We chose two treatments (No-K and 150% of recommended K fertilization) of a field experiment (maize-wheat) for the study. Field-moist soil (0–15 cm) was collected at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 23, 24, 25, and 26 days after the irrigation (DAI) from each replicated plot at the flowering stage of the 2018–19 wheat crop. Soil K, before and after air-drying, was extracted with 1 M ammonium acetate (NH4OAc), 0.1 M nitric acid (HNO3), 0.01 M calcium chloride (CaCl2), and 0.01 M organic acid mixture (OAM, mixture of 0.0025 M each of citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, and oxalic acid). Air-drying significantly (P <.05) affected the soil K for all methods except HNO3 in plots without K fertilization. However, air-drying's effect on K release was more pronounced in No-K soils with high initial moisture content (>10%). Averaged over K-fertilization and initial soil moisture, the K-extractability using HNO3 and OAM showed the least deviation (9.6% for both) by air-drying. It was significantly (P <.05) lower than NH4OAc or CaCl2, which showed as high as 21.1–23.0% deviation due to air-drying. Hence, one should use 0.1 M HNO3 or 0.01 M OAM instead of 1 M NH4OAc to get an available K status closer to that in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dengue fever is a grave public health concern in tropical countries. The disease spectrum of dengue fever is multi-systemic, although neurologic complications of dengue fever is relatively uncommon. The pathogenesis of neurologic manifestations in dengue fever is not well understood and may be due to the neurotrophic effect of the virus, or related to the systemic effects of dengue infection, and immune mediated. Here in, we discuss the occurrence of isolated 7th cranial nerve lower motor neuron type palsy in a 23-year-old lady suffering from dengue fever. To date, there are very few case reports citing the involvement of facial nerve in dengue fever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has witnessed rampant use of the repurposed drug, remdesivir, despite its conflicting evidence and rapidly changing guidelines. Methods: A cross-sectional, country-wide, questionnaire-based, electronic survey was conducted among the healthcare professionals involved in COVID-19 management from April 18 to May 18, 2021. Results: Out of 231 responses, 185 were included. Significantly, greater knowledge of trials was reported by the frontline healthcare professionals compared to those who are not involved in COVID-19 care. Medicine practitioners and pulmonologists expressed greater willingness to continue remdesivir (Odds ratio (OR) 5.329, 95% Confidence interval (CI) 2.31–12.291 and 5.063, 95% CI 1.414–18.129, respectively). The rationale attributed was personal experience, current guidelines, non-availability of any alternate antiviral drug, expert recommendations, and local hospital policy either alone (20%, 8.1%, 5.9%, 2.7%, and 2.2%, respectively) or in combination (46.5%, 39.5%, 29.2%, 21.1%, and 15.7%, respectively). Awareness of evidence and knowledge of landmark studies made no statistically significant impact on clinical decision-making. Improved clinical outcomes were reported by 10/22 (45.4%) practitioners who used remdesivir for unconventional indications. Conclusion: The study throws critical insights into the current perspectives of doctors on remdesivir in clinical management and its potential impact on current health planning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]