All Articles in march, 2020

According to the World Health Organization definition, palliative care is an approach aimed at increasing the quality of life of patients and their relatives by addressing physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs and treating conditions early, such as pain while they are coming to terms with a life-threatening disease [1]. Palliative care services have started a rapid progress in developed countries such as Scandinavian countries, England and Canada since the beginning of 1990 [2]. Although palliative care cares for any patient who is in need of care, whether bed-bound or unable to look after themselves, one of the main area of interest is of course oncological patients and their relatives. Patients with advanced cancer, frequent sufferings from physical and psychological symptoms - primarily pain, reduced functional capacity, and reduced quality of life are in the scope of palliative care protocol [3]. The most common end-of-life symptoms and signs in palliative cancer patients are pain, anorexia, nausea, cachexia, weakness, dyspnea, ascites, anxiety, agitation, delirium, confusion and pressure sores. In order to achieve quality and continuous care in case management, a family doctor, specific branch specialist, nurse, dietician, psychologist, cleric, etc. should work together in a multidisciplinary approach and clinical guidelines and care protocols should be implemented [4]. However, it should be kept in mind that increasing the medication dose may not always be beneficial to the oncological patients in palliative services. The goal should always be maximum benefit with minimal tests and treatment. Palliative care does not aim to accelerate or postpone death; but it has many benefits in cancer patients and their relatives including the integration of the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of patient care into physical care, providing support for patients to live as active as possible until the last moment, improving the quality of life and the disease process, providing help and support in the grieving process [1,5]. Providing good care to advanced cancer patients requires that caregivers are educated and supported about their patients’ physical, psychological and social care needs. Balancing the physical and emotional needs of the caregivers will reduce the stress they experience, as well as increase the quality of life of their patients [6,7]. Professionalism in palliative care comes into play right at this point. There is no consensus in the medical world about by whom, when and to whom palliative care should be given. In this regard, the conflicts of opinion between specific branches such as anesthesia, internal medicine and neurology are inevitable. We think that the team leader should be a family physician or a palliative care specialist. The reason for this is the family medicine’s principles of core competencies including biopsycosocial, holistic, comprehensive approach and equal distance to specific branches. Of course when the palliative care specialist is the team leader the patient’s own family doctor still provides invaluable service because of his intimate and long-term knowledge about the patients. One key difference in some countries is that no distinction is being made between palliative and hospice care. Neither the insurance companies nor the state demands such classification because it doesn’t serve any practical purpose at the moment. However, in due time such distinction will be inevitable as one of the cost-cutting measure. Medical oncology will have to report about the expected survival of the cancer patients and it will further increase their workload given the exponential increase in cancer cases.

Botulism is the disease caused by botulinum neurotoxins. It is produced by an obligate anaerobic bacteria called Clostridium botulinum. There is no immuno-detection system available in the world for the detection of C. botulinum. Secretory proteins of cooked meat media grown C. botulinum type B were extracted by TCA precipitation method. Polyclonal antibodies were generated against secretory proteins. Cytokine profiling of secretory proteins were done. An immunodetection system was developed to detect the C. botulinum type B using Secretory proteins of C. botulinum type B.

The childhood obesity is increased more than three folds in last two decades in developed world. There is nutritional transition seen in the developing world including India. The westernization in diet of the Indian population along with prosperity brings the brunt of overweight and obesity. This has future implications of liver diseases, heart diseases, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, insulin resistance; malignancies. Mumbai is the prosperous city and an economical capital of India. Also, the rampant use junk food, common outdoor eating’s, no grounds to play for children make the high likelihood that the prevalence of obesity to be higher than rest of the country. It can profoundly affect children’s physical health, social, and emotional well-being and self-esteem. It is also associated with poor academic performance and a lower quality of life experienced by the child. One of the best strategies to reduce childhood obesity is to improve the eating and exercise habits of the entire family. Treating and preventing childhood obesity helps protect the child’s health and has tremendous impact on child’s Physical and academic performance. And hence we at Aastha Bariatrics took initiative and launched ECHO... for a change (‘E’radicating ‘C’Hild ‘H’ood ‘O’besity), a pan Mumbai campaign against childhood obesity. This campaign was done in 15 high schools across Mumbai, which covered in total of 9000 students.

The present study aimed to investigate and identify the association between the intake of allium vegetables and colorectal cancer (CRC) in population. A hospital‐based matched case‐control study was conducted between June 2009 and November 2011 in three hospitals. Eight hundred thirty three consecutively recruited cases of CRC were frequency matched to 833 controls by age (within 2.5 years of difference), sex, and residence area (rural/urban). Demographic and dietary information were collected via face‐to‐face interviews using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by using unconditional logistic regression.

Introduction: The incidence of STI-HIV/AIDS is on the rise, making adolescents a vulnerable group at risk. Objective: To increase the knowledge and perception of risk about STI-HIV/AIDS, through Educational Intervention in students of the Polytechnic Institute ¨Hermanos Gómez¨ of the Municipality San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque Province. Method: Quasi-experimental study, intervention at the ¨Hermanos Gómez Polytechnic Institute, of the Municipality of San José de la Lajas, through affective, participatory, animation and reflection techniques, the universe being made up of 17 students aged 16-17 years of specialty in Industrial Chemistry, during the period from December 2014 to November 2015. The variables used were: knowledge about STI-HIV/AIDS and perception of risk towards said diseases. Results: after the intervention, an increase in the level of knowledge of the main STIs in the study was evident: Syphilis, Condylomas, HIV/AIDS, Gonorrhea, Trichomonas, Candida Albicans and Herpes simplex, which were adequately identified by 60%; 71% recognized the routes of sexual transmission, 60% the typical clinical manifestations, an increase in the levels of knowledge about the use of condoms to prevent STIs, and in the same way the perception of risk in an 83% after the intervention. Conclusion: After the intervention, there was an increase in knowledge of STIs, transmission routes, clinical manifestations, condom use, and risk perception.

Background: Herbal essential oil contains pharmacological benefits for intervention treatment of various diseases. Studies have demonstrated its antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effect involving in vitro cell culture and preclinical animal models. It has been also traditionally used to reduce anxiety and hypertension in human. However, scientific studies elucidating its mechanism of action and pharmacological targets, as well as its effectiveness and safety as phytotherapeutic compounds are still progressing. Recent studies showed its promising effect in depression-cardiovascular disease intervention. However, comprehensive evaluations to enlighten latest advancement and potential of herbal essential oil are still lacking. Objective: In this systematic review, the depression-cardiovascular effects of herbal essential oil on lipid profile, biochemical and physiological parameters (e.g haemodynamic) are presented. The route of delivery and mechanism of action as well as main bioactive compounds present in respective essential oil are discussed. Methods: Article searches are made using NCBI PubMed, PubMed Health, SCOPUS, Wiley Online, tandfonline, ScienceDirect and Espacenet for relevant studies and intellectual properties related to essential oil, depression and cardiovascular disease. Results: In experimentation involving in vitro, in vivo and clinical trials, herbal essential oil showed its effectiveness in reducing coronary artery disease (narrowing of the arteries), heart attack, abnormal heart rhythms, or arrhythmias, heart failure, heart valve disease, congenital heart disease, heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy), pericardial disease, aorta disease, Marfan syndrome and vascular (blood vessel) disease. Conclusion: This review gives a valuable insight on the potential of essential oil in the intervention of depression associated with cardiovascular diseases. Studies showed that herbal essential oil could act as vasodepressor, calcium channel blocker, antihyperlipidemia, anticoagulant, antiatherogenesis and antithrombotic. It can be proposed as an interventional therapy for depression-cardiovascular disease to reduce doses and long-term side-effect of current pharmacological approach.

With increasing awareness of the mental health issues among the clergy and seminary students, it is important to explore possible interventions to help address their mental health concerns. This pilot study examined the impact of Christian meditation and biofeedback on levels of stress, anxiety, and depression of seminary students. Participants of this study included 20 theology students from two seminary campuses. Participants were of various ethnic backgrounds and had an average age of 31. At the beginning of the study, participants were randomly assigned to practice either Christian meditation or biofeedback for 4 weeks, three times per day, and to keep a log of their practice times. The results from the paired samples t-tests indicated that both Christian meditation and biofeedback significantly reduced the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression experienced by the participants. ANCOVA indicated that neither intervention was more effective than the other. Seminaries, churches, and pastoral care groups should look into these interventions as a good source to help their clergy cope with stress, anxiety and depression.

The study was conducted in Ilu and Waliso districs of South West Shoa Zone to investigate the perception of dairy cattle producers on oestrus synchronization and mass artificial insemination services. A total of 122 respondents (38 from Ilu and 84 from Waliso districts) owning at least one lactating cow and participated in synchronization program were randomly selected and interviewed individually by using semi- structured questionnaire. Both primary and secondary data were used to generate reliable information on the intended topic. All collected data were analyzed using SPSS statistical package version 20 and the output was presented by descriptive statistics such as percentage and mean values in inform of graphs. Most of the respondents (67.15%) indicated that their satisfaction level towards synchronization and mass artificial insemination was low. Only few of them reported being satisfied as (medium-13.45%, good - 12.35% and very good - 7.05%). This might be because of shortage of feed, silent heat, poor performance of the inseminator and low awareness of farmers on the technology. From the study it was also noted that the overall percentage (26.22%) of calving rate to oestrus synchronization and mass artificial insemination was low. This might be due to heat detection problem (36%); A.I technician efficiency (29.25%), absence of A.I technician (23.9%) and distance of A.I center (10.25%). Therefore, the skill and knowledge based training should be given for both the farmers and implementers to enhance perception and adoption of the technology.

The present study was conducted to examine the relationship between work-stress, depression and anxiety among six major professionals (doctors, engineers, bankers, nurses, teachers, and lawyers). The inquiry included 260 professionals from different private and governmental sector organizations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. Job Stress Scale and the subscales of Depression, Anxiety & Stress Scale for depression and anxiety were administered. Based on the hypotheses, a strong positive correlation was found between work stress and depression & anxiety. The current study revealed that stress at work not only prevailed among different Pakistani professionals on severely alarming levels but significantly contributed in developing depression and anxiety. 

The problems of reproduction in the camel are not extensively investigated as in the bovine, caprine and ovine species. There is need to elucidate the problem in detailed in order to overcome the problem of production and genetic multiplication. The information collected on these problems is derived mainly from questioning the camel owners, slaughterhouse material and very limited clinical and farm observations.

This study is aimed at investigating the age related changes in postnatal development of red Sokoto goat stomach. In this study, a total of ten red Sokoto goat digestive tract samples were used and they were grouped into five (5) age categories (group A to E). The goat ages were estimated using dentition eruption and wearing. The stomach was identified and separated from the other part of digestive tract. The gross study revealed that the stomach was composed of four (4) segments that named; rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum with anatomical demarcations between them. The biometric study of weight, length, width, thickness, and volume was found to be increasing with advancement in postnatal ages with the following valves shows the mean value of weight, length, width, thickness and volume were to be 29 to 58.0 (g), 23.5, to 52.1 (cm), 15.4 to 29.0 (cm), 0.48 to 1.0 (mm) and102 to 432 (cm3) from group A to group E respectively. Based on the above findings it was suggested that more research should be conducted using histological techniques and electron microscopy in order to finalize on the findings.

Depression is currently one of the main barriers to further civilizational development. Despite intensive efforts, it is a growing health, social and economic problem. We still lack clarity regarding the ethology of depression and treatment is still mainly symptomatic. The authors postulate that depression has similarities with anxiety and from an evolutionary perspective is an archaic defence mechanism. Formerly, through the agency of complex psychological, biological and social mechanisms, healing was facilitated in conditions of an intense, short-term nature. Adverse civilizational and environmental changes have caused pathological changes in both the mechanism of depression and corresponding defence mechanisms such as the induction of an anxiety state. Related to depression is the mechanism of thanatosis, concerning chronic biological and psychosocial dysfunctions. It is a mechanism for activating self-eliminating processes to free the community from the burden of a dysfunctional individual.