Search

Background:Cartilage-perichondrial grafts are often used for tympanic membrane and middle-ear reconstructions. Tragal and conchal cartilages are most frequently used for this purpose. Studies have shown that slicing the cartilage to less than 0.5 mm thickness improves acoustic benefit. However, the thickness of the cartilage in a given population may not be uniform.Objective:This descriptive cross-sectional study aimed to determine the average thickness of tragal cartilage (in terms of age and sex) in an Indian population.Method:A prospective study of 61 tragal cartilages harvested during serial tympanoplasty and modified radical mastoidectomy were analysed according to thickness.Results:The total average thickness of tragal cartilage was 1.228 ± 0.204 mm in males and 1.090 ± 0.162 mm in females. The overall thickness was 1.018 ± 0.139 mm in those aged less than 15 years, 1.139 ± 0.238 mm in those aged 15–30, and 1.189 ± 0.155 mm in those aged over 30 years.Conclusion:The findings help us to determine age-related cartilage thickness for slicing techniques in tympanoplasty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective:To compare anatomical and audiological results using sliced tragal cartilage and temporalis fascia in type I tympanoplasty.Method:A retrospective review was undertaken of primary tympanoplasties using sliced tragal cartilage and temporalis fascia from May 2005 to January 2008. In total, 223 ears were operated on using sliced tragal cartilage graft and 167 using temporalis fascia. Statistical analysis of the outcome data was performed.Results:At the two-year and four-year follow ups, successful closure of the tympanic membrane was achieved in 98.20 per cent and 97.75 per cent, respectively, of the cartilage group compared with 87.42 per cent and 82.63 per cent, respectively, of the temporalis fascia group. At the four-year follow up, the average air–bone gap was 7.10 ± 3.01 dB in the cartilage group and 8.05 ± 3.22 dB in the temporalis fascia group.Conclusion:The overall success rate for primary cartilage tympanoplasty is higher when using sliced cartilage than with temporalis fascia grafting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Rapid point-of-care (POC) tests provide an economical alternative for rapid diagnosis and treatment of influenza, especially in public health emergency situations., Objectives: To test the performance of a rapid influenza diagnostic test, QuickVue (Quidel) as a POC test against a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for detection of influenza A and B in a developing country setting., Study Design: In a prospective observational design, 600 patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) or with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) who were referred to the Influenza Clinic of a tertiary care hospital in Srinagar, India from September 2012 to April 2013, were enrolled for diagnostic testing for influenza using QuickVue or RT-PCR. All influenza A-positive patients by RT-PCR were further subtyped using primers and probes for A/H1pdm09 and A/H3., Results: Of the 600 patients, 186 tested positive for influenza A or B by RT-PCR (90 A/H1N1pdm09, 7 A/H3 and 89 influenza B), whereas only 43 tested positive for influenza (influenza A=22 and influenza B=21) by QuickVue. Thus, the sensitivity of the QuickVue was only 23% (95% confidence interval, CI: 17.3-29.8) and specificity was 100% (95% CI: 99.1-100) with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 100% (95% CI 91.8-100) and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 74.3% (95% CI: 70.5-77.9) as compared to RT-PCR., Conclusions: The high specificity of QuickVue suggest that this POC test can be a useful tool for patient management or triaging during a public health crisis but a low sensitivity suggests that a negative test result need to be further tested using RT-PCR.

Zinc status in 186 full term and preterm infants was determined at birth, and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age along with determination of zinc levels in breast or formula milk to find out if routine zinc supplements are needed during infancy. The leukocyte and plasma zinc levels in all breastfed infants were high at birth and gradually declined reaching lowest values by 4-6 months of age, and improved to normal levels by 9 months following weaning. The preterm infants however, had significantly (P < 0.05) higher leukocyte zinc (213.6 +/- 46.91 micrograms/10(10) cells) at birth compared to term infants. Colostrum of all the mothers had higher zinc concentrations which declined to significantly lower levels in breastmilk by 4-6 months of lactation, corresponding to the age when the breastfed infants had lower zinc levels. The improvement of the levels to normal after weaning suggests that the fall in zinc status during early infancy could be a transient phenomenon which could be reversed by proper weaning, thus strengthening the plea for timely food supplements rather than the need for single nutrient supplements. Formula-fed full term infants had significantly lower leukocyte zinc levels (49.3 +/- 2.59 micrograms/10(10) cells) at 3 months of age compared to breastfed infants of the same age (92.8 +/- 14.04 micrograms/10(10) cells). Even these infants improved their zinc status after weaning on par with breastfed infants. The functional significance of their transient, but low zinc values during early infancy needs to be investigated.

The presence of intestinal parasitic infection, malaria and under-nutrition in relation to prevalence of anaemia was evaluated in a cluster of urban population in Hyderabad. Prevalence of anaemia was 25.7 per cent by clinical assessment from pallor as against 80.5 per cent by estimation of haemoglobin concentration. Presence of intestinal parasitic infection (48.4 per cent) and malaria infection (18.3 per cent) had no statistical significant association with anaemic state. Under-nutrition (31.9 per cent of anaemic individuals) and low per capita monthly income of Rs. 100 and below (60.9 per cent of enaemic individuals) had a statistically significant relationship to anaemia. Clinical assessment of anaemia from pallor had a low sensitivity (31.9 per cent) and a high false negative rate (54.9 per cent), though clinical pallor had a strong statistical association to the presence of anaemia. (p less than 10.01), (Q = 1.0).

A total of 380 leprosy patients were studied in four different leprosy hospitals. The involvement of eye was found in 18.95% of cases in which 10.97% in lepromatous leprosy and 8.16% in non-lepromatous leprosy cases. In total cases studied 52.63% were of lepromatous leprosy and 47.37% of non lepromatous leprosy cases. Among them 11.05% were males and 18.95% were females. In 72 cases of ocular involvement, males constituted 80.56% and females 19.44% of cases. Maximum cases (52.78%) of ocular involvement were in leprosy patient with 5 to 10 years of duration. Blindness among the total leprosy patients studied was 1.84% which was mainly due to corneal opacity following exposure keratitis and ulceration, iridocyclitis and its complications.