Winter – the Increment of Spontaneous ICH

Background: Spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) is defined as intraparenchymal bleeding in the absence of trauma or surgery. Spontaneous ICH is most disabling and deadly type of stroke. Meteorologic factors and seasons on the incidence of spontaneous ICH with ambiguous results. Objectives: To determine whether different seasons had any relationship with the rate of primary intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods: Total of 209 patients were diagnosed as spontaneous ICH and they have been first time reported & admitted in Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Dhaka, between Jan 2017 and December 2018. Males were 146(69.85%), females were 63(30.15%) and were aged between 18 and 95 years old. Diagnosis was based on history, clinical examination and non-contrast Computed Tomography(CT) scan of brain. Results: 209 admitted patients in CMH Dhaka from Jan 2017- Dec 2018 are included in our study who full-fill the criteria. Intracerebral haemorrhage rate among age group less than 55years old being 55(26.31%) and 55 years and above 154(73.69%).There were a significant relationship between different seasons and intracerebral haemorrhage. Intracerebral haemorrhage incidence in winter season 61(29.18%) and late autumn 19(9.09%), out of 209 patients. Among them hypertensive patients were 137(65.55%) and non-hypertensive patient 72(34.45%), 170 (81.33%) were nondiabetic & 39(18.66%) diabetic of total 209 patients.Out of 61 patients in winter; 54 (88.52%) hypertensive patients had large sized haemorrhage. Conclusion: The highest rate of intracerebral haemorrhage during December-January. There is a seasonal variation in patient’s age, incidence among hypertensive patients, size of hemorrhage and more in number in winter season. Bang. J Neurosurgery 2020; 9(2): 130-134

A multifactorial evaluation for the effects of air pollution and meteorologic factors on asthma exacerbation

Background: Study identify individual effect of single pollutants on asthma acute exacerbation (AE) may overlook the health effect of the mixture overall. In real world, dynamic changes of air pollutants and meteorologic factors coexist simultaneously. A comprehensive study was carried out to examine the influence of air pollution and meteorologic factors on asthma AE. Materials and methods: The asthma AE data from emergency room visits were collected from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database from 2005 to 2013. Complete monitoring data for the air pollutants (sulfur dioxide, SO2; nitrogen dioxide, NO2; ozone, O3; carbon monoxide, CO; PM2.5; and PM10) and meteorologic factors (relative humidity, rainfall, and daily average temperature) were collected from Environmental Protection Agency monitoring stations. A bi-directional case-crossover analysis was used to investigate the effects of air pollution and meteorological factors on asthma exacerbation. Result: Along age group divisions, a 1 ℃ temperature increase was a protective factor for asthma ER visits, with OR = 0.981 (95% CI 0.971–0.991) and 0.985 (95% CI, 0.975–0.994) for pediatric and young adult patients, respectively. Each 1 mg/m3 increase in the 48-h averages of PM2.5 was associated with asthma ER visit for patients older than 65 years of age (OR = 1.008 (95% CI, 1.003–1.014). Conclusion: In Taiwan, asthma AE is closely related to low temperature and certain air pollution. Patients can take appropriate protective strategies to minimize risk of asthma AE related to air pollution/meteorological factors according to relevant gender and age.

The Role of Meteorologic Factors and Air Pollution on the Frequency of Pediatric Epistaxis

Fluctuations in atmospheric temperature, humidity, and air pollution are associated with the incidence of epistaxis. To date, no study in the literature has evaluated the effect of air pollution and meteorologic conditions on the pediatric population. We aimed to evaluate the effect of meteorologic factors and air pollution on the frequency of epistaxis in children. Children presenting to an outpatient clinical setting at a tertiary care hospital during a 5-year period (July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2014) and diagnosed with epistaxis formed the study population. Daily temperature and humidity parameters and average daily atmospheric water vapor pressure, average daily concentration of particulate matter <10 μm in diameter, and sulfur dioxide readings were obtained. The distribution of daily parameters was analyzed. Of the 1,559 children with the primary diagnosis of epistaxis, data from 1,330 children were analyzed after excluding patients with coexisting pathologies. Positive correlations were found between the frequency of epistaxis and both the average daily temperature and the difference between the maximum and minimum daily temperature. There was a negative correlation between the epistaxis frequency and the average daily humidity, the difference between the maximum and minimum daily humidity, the average daily concentration of particulate matter, and the sulfur dioxide levels. Our findings suggest that epistaxis in children is related to high temperatures and low humidity.

Mitigation of ammonia volatilization with application of urease and nitrification inhibitors from summer maize at the Loess Plateau

Field experiments were conducted at three sites: Yangling (YL); Zhouzhi-1 (ZH-1) and Zhouzhi-2 (ZH-2) of the Loess Plateau during summer maize crop, to investigate the effectiveness of N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT) and NBPT + dicyandiamide (DCD) with urea on reducing NH₃ volatilization from different soils under different environmental conditions. Four treatments including control (no N), N-220 kg/ha, N-220 + NBPT and N-220 + NBPT + DCD were applied in two splits through the band placement method. Total NH₃-N loss observed were 65.8, 40.5 and 20.1 NH₃-N kg/ha (accounting for 29.9, 18.4 and 9.2% of N applied) from urea for YL, ZH-1 and ZH-2, respectively. The application of NBPT and NBPT + DCD significantly reduced NH₃ volatilization by 80–93% and 75–90%, respectively. The meteorologic factors such as precipitation, air temperature and wind speed significantly affected NH₃ volatilization. These results suggested that the amendment of urea with NBPT and NBPT + DCD have potential to mitigate NH₃-N losses from alkaline soils in the Loess Plateau.