Predictors of deranged SPO2 and hypoglycaemia in neonates to assess neonatal survival and outcome by Rewa scoring system

Background: Early referral to proper level of neonatal care is vital for neonatal survival. Deranged physiological status studied at the time of admission can be predictive of neonatal outcome. The present study was done in an attempt to discover statistically significant, more objective and feasible variables easily assessable by simple low cost devices for identification of sick newborns in need of stabilization and referral to tertiary facility based care. Primary objective was to study predictors of deranged neonatal percentage saturation of oxygen in blood as well as for neonatal hypoglycemia. Secondary objective was to develop a scoring system comprising of both subjective and objective variables to assess neonatal outcome.Methods: It was a prospective cohort observational study conducted at outborn neonatal intensive care unit in a tertiary level care hospital in Central India. Participants were all outborn neonates of age less than or equal to 28 days from March 2013 to May 2013 admitted in NICU.Results: A significant association was found between percentage saturation of oxygen in blood (SpO2) and other deranged neonatal pathophysiological variables i.e. hypothermia (p=0.001); delayed CRT (p=0.001); gestational age (p=0.002); cyanosis (p=0.003); respiratory distress (p=0.001). On applying multivariate binary logistic regression, hypothermia was found to be an important predictor of hypoglycaemia. The survival percentage was 91.5%, 87.7%, 76.5% and 20% with the scores of less than 5, score 6-10, score 11-16 and score >16 respectively.Conclusions: The scoring system based on both subjective and objective predictors is useful for timely identification and early referral of high risk neonates from primary and secondary level care to higher level. A high score predicts a poor outcome.

Study of Glycation of Transferrin and its Effect on Biomarkers of Iron Status in Uncontrolled Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic condition linked by the inability to produce enough insulin and/or to respond to insulin. This can lead to a number of acute and chronic health problems. In erythrocytes, transferrin is the main source of iron. Alterations in transferrin glycation affect transferrin saturation because the affinity of transferrin for Fe3+ is extremely high but it decreases progressively with increasing glycation. Aim: To investigate the influence of uncontrolled diabetes on transferrin glycation and iron metabolism. Materials and Methods: A total of 136 samples from 3 groups of HbA1c levels (<6.0% non-diabetic, 6.4-8% diabetic, >8.0%-uncontrolled DM) were studied for the correlation pattern of iron with other variables. Chi square test and student’s t-test were performed to reveal the association between serum free iron levels and other variables with DM. Results: Serum iron has shown to be depleted significantly (p=0.02) along with percentage saturation (p=0.0006) with increase in diabetic severity. No significant differences were observed in serum ferritin in controlled DM and uncontrolled samples. Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC) was found to be significantly increased in uncontrolled DM samples (p=0.01). Abnormal transferrin was observed uncontrolled diabetes with subsequent depletion in transferrin, which in turn results in low serum iron, lower percentage saturation and high TIBC. Conclusion: Uncontrolled diabetes affects the glycation of transferrin also thus perturbating iron metabolism. The present study emphasises the need to monitor transferrin glycation status and iron deficiency anaemia in subjects with uncontrolled diabetes.

The noninvasive simultaneous measurement of tissue oxygenation and microvascular hemodynamics during incremental handgrip exercise

Limb blood flow increases linearly with exercise intensity; however, invasive measurements of muscle microvascular blood flow during incremental exercise have demonstrated submaximal plateaus. We tested the hypotheses that 1) brachial artery blood flow (Q̇BA) would increase with increasing exercise intensity until task failure, 2) blood flow index of the flexor digitorum superficialis (BFIFDS) measured noninvasively via diffuse correlation spectroscopy would plateau at a submaximal work rate, and 3) muscle oxygenation characteristics (total-[heme], deoxy-[heme], and percentage saturation) measured noninvasively with near-infrared spectroscopy would demonstrate a plateau at a similar work rate as BFIFDS. Sixteen subjects (23.3 ± 3.9 yr, 170.8 ± 1.9 cm, 72.8 ± 3.4 kg) participated in this study. Peak power (Ppeak) was determined for each subject (1.8 ± 0.4 W) via an incremental handgrip exercise test. Q̇BA, BFIFDS, total-[heme], deoxy-[heme], and percentage saturation were measured during each stage of the exercise test. On a subsequent testing day, muscle activation measurements of the FDS (RMSFDS) were collected during each stage of an identical incremental handgrip exercise test via electromyography from a subset of subjects ( n = 7). Q̇BA increased with exercise intensity until the final work rate transition ( P < 0.05). No increases in BFIFDS or muscle oxygenation characteristics were observed at exercise intensities greater than 51.5 ± 22.9% of Ppeak. No submaximal plateau in RMSFDS was observed. Whereas muscle activation of the FDS increased until task failure, noninvasively measured indices of perfusive and diffusive muscle microvascular oxygen delivery demonstrated submaximal plateaus. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Invasive measurements of muscle microvascular blood flow during incremental exercise have demonstrated submaximal plateaus. We demonstrate that indices of perfusive and diffusive microvascular oxygen transport to skeletal muscle, measured completely noninvasively, plateau at submaximal work rates during incremental exercise, even though limb blood flow and muscle recruitment continued to increase.

Preliminary Purification and Distribution of Lipoxygenase in Grass Carp

The lipoxygenase (LOX) in grass carp can catalyze the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids even their esters, resulting in rancidity deterioration of grass carp and its products during the process and storage. Preliminary purification, quantitative determination and distribution of grass carp muscular LOX were investigated in the present study. LOX activity of the grass carp muscle was measured to be 35.17 KU/g and its molecular weight was 95.71 kDa identified by SDS-PAGE. Using previously reported extraction methods such as twice salting-out and once dialysis, the LOX protein content in the crude muscular LOX extraction is about 28%. When salted with graded saturation of ammonium sulfate, we found once salting-out was enough for LOX extraction and the effective percentage saturation of ammonium sulfate for LOX extraction was 40%. Under this condition, the LOX protein content in the crude muscular LOX extract was doubled. The LOX distribution in fish was gradually increased from skin and muscle, gill, viscera to blood, which indicates that it is very important to remove the viscera and bleed fish completely during fish product processing to decrease the risk of lipid oxidation caused by LOX.

Evaluation of the adsorption capacity of alkali-treated waste materials for the adsorption of sulphamethoxazole

The present work is to develop potential adsorbents from waste material and employ them for the removal of a hazardous antibacterial, sulphamethoxazole, from the wastewater by the Adsorption technique. The Adsorption technique was used to impound the dangerous antibiotics from wastewater using Deoiled Soya (DOS), an agricultural waste, and Water Hyacinth (WH), a prolific colonizer. The adsorption capacity of these adsorbents was further enhanced by treating them with sodium hydroxide solution and it was seen that the adsorption capacity increases by 10 to 25%. Hence a comparative account of the adsorption studies of all the four adsorbents, i.e. DOS, Alkali-treated DOS, WH and Alkali-treated Water Hyacinth has been discussed in this paper. Different isotherms like Freundlich, Langmuir and Dubinin–Radushkevich were also deduced from the adsorption data. Isotherm studies were in turn used in estimating the thermodynamic parameters. DOS showed sorption capacity of 0.0007 mol g−1 while Alkali-treated Deoiled Soya exhibited 0.0011 mol g−1 of sorption capacity, which reveals that the adsorption is higher in case of alkali-treated adsorbent. The mean sorption energy (E) was obtained between 9 and 12 kJ mol, which shows that the reaction proceeds by ion exchange reaction. Kinetic study reveals that the reaction follows pseudo-second-order rate equation. Moreover, mass transfer studies performed for the ongoing processes show that the mass transfer coefficient obtained for alkali-treated moieties was higher than the parent moieties. The breakthrough curves plotted from the column studies show percentage saturation of 90–98%. About 87–97% of sulphamethoxazole was recovered from column by desorption.

A comparison of ASCAT and modelled soil moisture over South Africa, using TOPKAPI in land surface mode

In this paper we compare two independent soil moisture estimates over South Africa. The first estimate is a Soil Saturation Index (SSI) provided by automated real-time computations of the TOPKAPI hydrological model, adapted to run as a collection of independent 1 km cells with centres on a grid with a spatial resolution of 0.125°, at 3 h intervals. The second set of estimates is the remotely sensed ASCAT Surface Soil Moisture product, temporally filtered to yield a Soil Wetness Index (SWI). For the TOPKAPI cells, the rainfall forcing used is the TRMM 3B42RT product, while the evapotranspiration forcing is based on a modification of the FAO56 reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0). ET0 is computed using forecast fields of meteorological variables from the Unified Model (UM) runs done by the South African Weather Service (SAWS); the UM forecast fields were used, because reanalysis is not done by SAWS. To validate these ET0 estimates we compare them with those computed using observed meteorological data at a network of weather stations; they were found to be unbiased with acceptable scatter. Using the rainfall and evapotranspiration forcing data, the percentage saturation of the TOPKAPI soil store is computed as a Soil Saturation Index (SSI), for each of 6984 unconnected uncalibrated TOPKAPI cells at 3 h time-steps. These SSI estimates are then compared with the SWI estimates obtained from ASCAT. The comparisons indicate a good correspondence in the dynamic behaviour of SWI and SSI for a significant proportion of South Africa.

Adsorption of As(III) from Aqueous Solution onto Iron Oxide Impregnated Activated Alumina

The optimal parameters affecting the adsorption of arsenic ions As(III) on iron oxide impregnated activated alumina (IOIAA) were determined by conducting batch and column experiments. The adsorption of As(III) was strongly dependent on pH, temperature and initial adsorbate concentration. The adsorption process satisfied the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Equilibrium studies were conducted to obtain the thermodynamic parameters and data showed the endothermic nature of adsorption. Kinetics studies showed that a pseudo first-order rate equation successfully described the adsorption process. Equilibrium was attained within 10 h and the time taken to attain equilibrium was independent of initial arsenite concentration. Column studies showed that adsorption was strongly dependent on empty bed contact time. Column design parameters such as the time taken for the establishment of primary adsorption zone, fractional capacity, length of primary adsorption zone and the percentage saturation at breakpoint were calculated to be in the range of 18.3 to 70.4 h, 0.39 to 0.63, 3.0 to 3.85 cm and 69.6 to 81.5%, respectively. The observations mentioned above provide a direct relationship between the length of the adsorption zone (δ) and percent saturation at break point.

Nutrient Intake and Psychological and Physiological Assessment in Eumenorrheic and Amenorrheic Female Athletes: A Preliminary Study

The present study showed that amenorrheic athletes (AAs) scored higher on the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) (p< .05) than eumenorrheic athletes (EAs), indicating more aberrant eating patterns in the first group. Scores on the EAT were inversely correlated with fat intake (p< .05), simple carbohydrate intake (p< .01), and percentage saturation of iron (p< .05) and were positively correlated with total iron binding capacity (p< .01) for the total sample. Physiological assessment of athletes revealed that there were no significant differences between groups in serum lipoproteins, with both EAs and AAs having serum lipid profiles indicative of low cardiovascular risk. Furthermore, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was the only lipoprotein significantly and positively correlated with serum estradiol levels for the entire sample (p =.01). The present study was in agreement with previous work showing that scores on the EAT represent a primary difference between EAs and AAs; the present study was somewhat different than previous work in that serum lipoproteins were not significantly related to menstrual status.

Relationship Between Iron Status and Chronic Akathisia in an In-patient Population with Chronic Schizophrenia

Iron status and akathisia were assessed in 105 long-stay in-patients who fulfilled DSM–III–R criteria for schizophrenia, all but three of whom were receiving antipsychotic medication. Chronic akathisia was diagnosed in 23% and pseudoakathisia in 20%. No significant correlation was found between serum iron concentration and the severity of akathisia. There was no significant difference in serum iron concentration between patients with chronic akathisia and those without. However, serum iron and percentage saturation were significantly raised in patients with pseudoakathisia compared with patients with chronic akathisia, and tended to be higher than in patients with akathisia. These findings do not support an association between low serum iron and chronic akathisia.

Anemia of a Mild Viral Infection: The Measles Vaccine as a Model

To define the hematologic changes during a mild viral infection, 93 infants were immunized with live attenuated measles virus and studied prospectively at 0, 4, 9, 14, 21, and 30 days. Hemoglobin concentration decreased significantly by days 9 and 14. The decrease was &gt;1.0 g/dL in 8.6% and &gt;0.6 in 24.3% of the infants. of the nonanemic infants, 22% became anemic. Serum iron and percentage saturation of transferrin decreased, whereas serum ferritin increased significantly. Mean cell volume, iron-binding capacity, protoporphyrin, and haptoglobin did not show changes. Reticulocyte index and erythropoietin increased significantly at 30 days. Leukocyte counts, Zetacrit, and C-reactive protein did not help to predict the hemoglobin decrease. These results suggest that a mild viral infection in infants induces a significant decrease in hemoglobin that may persist for 14 to 30 days and may be difficult to distinguish from iron deficiency.