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Objective: Anaplastic glioma is a highly aggressive brain tumor that often occurs in young adults. There is a lack of data from India on anaplastic gliomas. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic factors of anaplastic glioma and correlate them with the outcome. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective observational study of 57 patients with anaplastic glioma treated from 1996 to 2015 in a cancer institute in Chennai. We captured data from the cancer institute's hospital-based electronic health record tumor registry and correlated factors including age, sex, histology, site of disease, type of surgery, adjuvant treatment, and radiation treatment technique with outcome. For the calculation of progression-free survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS), we used Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Result: This analysis included fifty-seven patients, with a median follow-up of 34 months. The median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 28 and 41 months, respectively. On univariate analysis, factors associated with improved survival include Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma histology (HR-0.43, CI-0.22-0.80, P=0.006), Frontal lobe location (HR-1.96, CI-1.07-3.58, P=0.025) Gross total resection (HR-1.94, CI-1.03-3.64, P=0.034), and addition of Temozolamide (HR-2.09, CI-1.14-3.84, P=0.014). On multivariate analysis Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma histology, (HR-0.49, CI-0.25-0.95, P=0.037), Frontal lobe (HR-2.14, CI-1.12-4.07, P=0.021), Gross total resection (HR-2.89, CI-1.47-5.69, P=0.002) and addition of Temozolamide (HR-2.02, CI-1.07-3.81, P=0.029) remained significant factors for improved OS. Conclusion: Among the various clinical and treatment-related prognostic factors, our study revealed that anaplastic oligodendroglioma histology, frontal lobe location, gross total resection, and addition of temozolomide chemotherapy to radiation showed improved outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anaemia is a global public health problem affecting 800 million women and children globally. Anaemia is associated with perinatal mortality, child morbidity and mortality, mental development, immune competence, susceptibility to lead poisoning and performance at work. The objective of this article is to identify whether antenatal care-seeking was associated with the uptake of iron supplementation among pregnant women, adjusting for a range of covariates. This article used data from the cross-sectional recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) of 12 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America & the Caribbean regions. The individual- level data from 273,144 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) were analysed from multi-country DHS. Multiple Logistic regression analyses were conducted using Predictive Analytics Software for Windows (PASW), Release 18.0. Receiving at least four antenatal care visits was significantly associated with the consumption of 90 or more iron-containing supplements in 12 low and middle income countries across three regions after adjusting for different household and respondent characteristics, while mass media exposure was found to be a significant predictor in India and Indonesia. Antenatal care seems to be the most important predictor of adherence to iron intake in the selected countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observational studies have revealed phenotypic associations between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and many biomarkers. However, causality between these conditions in East Asians is unclear. We leveraged genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics on T2D (n  = 77,418 cases; n  = 356,122 controls) from the Asian Genetic Epidemiology Network (sample recruited during 2001–2011) and GWAS summary statistics on 42 biomarkers (n  = 12,303–143,658) from BioBank Japan (sample recruited during 2003–2008) to investigate causal relationships between T2D and biomarkers. Applications of Mendelian randomization approaches consistently revealed genetically instrumented associations of T2D with increased serum potassium levels (liability-scale β = 0.04–0.10; P  = 6.41 × 10−17–9.85 × 10−5) and decreased serum chloride levels (liability-scale β = −0.16 to −0.06; P  = 5.22 × 10−27–3.14 × 10−5), whereas these 2 biomarkers showed no causal effects on T2D. Heritability Estimation Using Summary Statistics (ρ-HESS) and summary-data–based Mendelian randomization highlighted 27 genomic regions and 3 genes (α-1,3-mannosyl-glycoprotein 2-β- N -acetylglucosaminyltransferase (MGAT1), transducing-like enhancer (TLE) family member 1, transcriptional corepressor (TLE1), and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR)) that interactively associated with the shared genetics underlying T2D and the 2 biomarkers. Thus, T2D may causally affect serum potassium and chloride levels among East Asians. In contrast, the relationships of potassium and chloride with T2D are not causal, suggesting the importance of monitoring electrolyte disorders for T2D patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent evidence has found widespread reports of women experiencing cultural malpractice during childbirth in Asia and sub-Saharan African countries. Despite an endeavor made to drop maternal and neonatal mortality, Ethiopia remains amongst the highest mortality rate. Thus, strengthening antenatal care (ANC) follow-up is the midst of cultural malpractice reduction during childbirth. This study was aimed to assess the magnitude of cultural malpractice and associated factors during childbirth and postpartum among women who gave birth within one year in Gozamen district, Ethiopia.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from November 1st to December 30th, 2019. A two-stage sampling technique was used to get a total of 600 women who gave birth within the last one year. Data were collected by using a semi-structured and pretested questionnaire. Then, data were entered into Epi info version 7.0 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Both bivariate analysis and a multivariable logistic regression model were fitted. The level of significance was declared based on the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) and a p-value of ≤0.05.Result: The Overall magnitude of cultural malpractices during childbirth and postpartum was found to be 31.2% (95%CI: 27.8, 34.7). Out of 600 women, 203(33.9%) were delivered at home, 67(11.2%) practiced abdominal massage, 31(16.6%) avoided colostrum, 24(12.8%) practiced pre-lacteal feeding and 138 (23%) washed their baby before 24 h after delivery. Mothers who have antenatal follow-up (AOR=0.52 95%CI 0.28, 0.94), married marital relation (AOR=0.24, 95%CI:0.07, 0.89), being farmer husband occupation (AOR=6.25 (95%CI: 1.22, 30.30), parity ≥5 (AOR=5, 95%CI: 2.44, 9.52), had significant association with cultural malpractice during childbirth and postpartum.Conclusions: This study showed there is an improvement in the magnitude of cultural malpractices during childbirth and postpartum, but still it's high as compared to the country's maternal health service utilization aim. A well-enforced health education program by well-trained healthcare personnel besides sufficient number of ANC visits are needed to overcome these cultural practices. Further, intervention modalities health education communication outreach programs would be very important to reduce the prevalence of cultural malpractices in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]