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Introduction: Dyslipidaemia is an important risk factor for coronary artery disease. Oxidative damage to plasma lipoproteins ultimately results in the development of atherosclerosis. Since Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) is a cytoprotective molecule in oxidative stress, decreased H2S levels may be a cause of dyslipidaemia. Aim: To determine the relationship between the serum levels of H2S with serum Triglycerides (TG), Total Cholesterol (TC), and High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) in cases of dyslipidaemia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2022 and June 2023 in the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine at KPC Medical College, Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Serum lipid profile {TC, TGs, HDL-C, and Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-C) (calculated by Friedewald’s equation)} and serum H2S were measured in 70 cases of dyslipidaemia {according to National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) criteria} aged between 30 to 80 years and compared with an equal number of healthy volunteers as controls. The means of continuous variables were compared by independent t-tests and Mann-Whitney U tests. The Chi-square test was applied to compare gender distribution. Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficients were calculated for normal and non normal distributions, respectively. Results: The mean age of dyslipidaemic patients (54.54 years±11.19) was significantly (p=0.0017) higher than that of the controls (47.02 years±16.18). Among the 70 cases of dyslipidaemia, 38 participants were male and 32 were female, while among the healthy controls (n=70), 42 participants were male and 28 were female. The serum H2S levels in cases of dyslipidaemia (37.91±6.28 μmol/L) were significantly lower than in the healthy controls (58.52±12.92, p<0.01 μmol/L). A significant positive correlation was found between serum H2S levels and HDL-cholesterol (r=0.81, p<0.001), whereas a negative correlation was found between serum H2S and TG levels (r=-0.55, p<0.001). Conclusion: In the present study, dyslipidaemia was associated with decreased levels of serum H2S . Serum H2S was positively correlated with serum HDL and negatively correlated with serum TG levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive nutritional assessment is the basis of nutritional diagnosis and necessary to identify the individual or the population at a risk of dietary deficiencies. However, there is no specific and confirmatory method to measure nutritional status. Present study tried to find out the efficacy of two nutritional assessment method (1) biochemical test like Total serum protein (TSP) and (2) anthropological measurements like body mass index (BMI) and mid-upper-arm-circumference (MUAC). Later, three methods were tested and compared for the strength of assessing the nutritional status. Study was conducted among 198 adult Oraon, 84 male, 114 female individuals of Madarihat and Falakata police station area, Alipurduar district, West Bengal. Selected blood parameters such as total serum protein (TSP), serum albumin and haemoglobin and anthropometric measurements (height, weight, mid-upper arm circumference, waist circumference, hip circumference, calf circumference, biceps skinfold, triceps skinfold, and calf skinfold) were obtained following standard instruments and protocols. Nutritional status of all individuals was assessed by TSP, BMI and MUAC classification methods. Comparison between/among three classification methods (TSP, BMI and MUAC) was done and discriminant function analysis was adopted to find out the percentage of correct classification by each methods. It was found that prevalence of undernutrition using TSP classification was 38.1% male and 43.0% female; using BMI was 34.5% male and 53.5% female; using MUAC was 45.2% male and 64.9% female. Discriminant function analysis showed that BMI (97.0%) had the highest capability of correct classification followed by MUAC (84.80%) and TSP (63.60%). Results indicate that however, TSP is an objective way of nutritional assessment, but BMI had the highest capability of correct classification of nutritional status. It may be pointed out that the evaluation with TSP was expensive and invasive whereas BMI is non-expensive and completely a non-invasive way of evaluation. Therefore, BMI may widely be used for nutritional assessment.

Somatotype is used to explore spatial and temporal variations of body physique in relation to varying degrees of environmental and cultural changes. Empirical studies on spatial and temporal variations of somatotype in similar groups living in different time points are scanty. The present study tries to find the similarities/difference in somatotype within occupational group having same ethnicity, same environment in two time points and between two occupational groups in two time points. For this study, data on anthropometric traits and somatotype components were collected from 182 tea garden (TG) and 222 agricultural (AG) Oraon labourers in 1990 and again on 207 TG and 216 AG Oraon labourers in 2016 from Alipurduar district, West Bengal, India on the same group and region. The study showed the mean values of anthropometric traits were higher in both TG and AG labourers of 2016 than that of 1990, irrespective of sex. Endomorphic component significantly increased and mesomorphic and ectomorphic components decreased in both TG and AG labourers of 2016. TG and AG labourers in either time point show occupational differences only in males. Male AG labourers have high ectomorphic and endomorphic components than male TG labourers in either time points. However, female TG labourers of 2016 show high endomorphic component than AG labourers, indicative of less physical activity by the TG females. The findings show that both the occupational groups (TG and AG) converted towards endomorph over time. Spatial differences in somatotype exist between TG and AG even in different time points, indicative of occupational differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Undernutrition is a serious health problem and highly prevalent in developing countries. There is no as such confirmatory test to measure undernutrition. The objective of the present study is to determine a new Composite Score using anthropometric measurements. Composite Score was then compared with other methods like body mass index (BMI) and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) classification, to test the significance of the method.Methods: Anthropometric data were collected from 780 adult Oraon (Male = 387, Female = 393) labourers of Alipurduar district of West Bengal, India, following standard instruments, and protocols. Nutritional status of the study participants were assessed by conventional methods, BMI and MUAC. Confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to reduce 12 anthropometric variables into a single Composite Score (C) and classification of nutritional status was done on the basis of the score. Furthermore, all the methods (BMI, MUAC and C) were compared and discriminant function analysis was adopted to find out the percentage of correctly classified individuals by each of the three methods.Result: The frequency of undernutrition was 45.9% according to BMI category, 56.7% according to MUAC category and 51.8% according to newly computed Composite Score. Further analysis showed that Composite Score has a higher strength of correct classification (98.7%), compared to BMI (95.9%) and MUAC (96.2%).Conclusion: Therefore, anthropometric measurements can be used to identify nutritional status in the population more correctly by calculating Composite Score of the measurements and it is a non-invasive and relatively correct way of identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]