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Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is commonly comorbid with opioid dependence (OD). We wanted to compare the neurocognitive functions of OD subjects with or without HCV [HCV (+), HCV (–)] and healthy controls (HC).Methods: We recruited 40 adult subjects (age 18–55 years) in each group. HCV(+) group had a detectable viral load. Subjects with HIV or hepatitis B infection, head injury, epilepsy, or comorbid mental illness were excluded. We administered Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), trail-making tests A and B, and verbal and visual N-back tests (NBT) one week after opioid abstinence. The group differences in cognitive performance were adjusted for age and years of education. Effect size (ES) is expressed as Cohen’s D.Results: The HCV(+) and HCV(–) groups did not differ in potential effect modifiers (age and years of education) or confounders (age of opioid initiation, duration of use, dependence severity, tobacco use, and cannabis use) of neuropsychological functioning. HCV(+) showed significantly poorer performance than HCV(–) in SPM (P = 0.006; ES = 0.72). Both HCV(+) and HCV(–) performed worse than controls in IGT(P < 0.001; ES = 0.8) and visual NBT[P < 0.01 and ES > 1 for total errors]; HCV(+) had a larger ES of group difference than HCV(–). HCV(+) had higher error scores in verbal NBT than control.Conclusion: HCV(+) has poorer general intellectual ability and reasoning than HCV(–) persons and controls. Chronic HCV infection causes a higher magnitude of dysfunction in decision-making and visual working memory in opioid-dependent individuals.

Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is the commonest congenital anomaly of urinary tract in children. It is mostly diagnosed after a urinary tract infection or during evaluation for congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract. High-grade VUR, recurrent pyelonephritis, and delayed initiation of antibiotic treatment are important risk factors for renal scarring. The management of VUR depends on multiple factors and may include surveillance only or antimicrobial prophylaxis; very few patients with VUR need surgical correction. Patients with renal scarring should be monitored for hypertension and those with significant scarring should also be monitored for proteinuria and chronic kidney disease.

Nephrotic syndrome in children is mostly idiopathic in origin. About 90% of patients respond to corticosteroids; 80-90% have at least one relapse and 3-10% become corticosteroid resistant after the initial response. A kidney biopsy is seldom indicated for diagnosis except in patients with atypical presentation or corticosteroid resistance. For those in remission, the risk of relapse is reduced by the administration of daily low dose corticosteroids for 5-7 days at the onset of an upper respiratory infection. Some patients may continue having relapses through adult life. Many country-specific practice guidelines have been published, which are very similar with clinically insignificant differences.

With the advent of targeted therapy in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), biomarker detection has become standard practice. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a few companion diagnostics as single gene assays to find these driver mutations. We report a case of NSCLC where initial molecular tests to detect epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-sensitizingmutations by an FDA-approved assay (Cobas® EGFRMutation Test v2) failed to identify the common EGFRmutation L858R. However, the latter was picked up on subsequent next-generation sequencing (NGS). Interestingly an additional single nucleotide variant K860I was also observed in the cis configuration. The false-negative result for L858R was assumed to be caused by the abrogation of complementarity for the probe binding site on the amplicon generated. The concurrent occurrence of L858R and K860I will not be detectable by Cobas® EGFRMutation Test v2 (FDA-approved companion diagnostic) despite its real-world intra and inter-laboratory studies demonstrating high accuracy.

Present paper deals with an interesting species of Gloeophyllum collected from an angiospermous fencing pole in Bhaderwah region, District Doda of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Based on morphological features and phylogenetic analysis of the combined Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) and nuclear Large Subunit (nLSU) sequence data, it has been found different from the already described taxa within genus Gloeophyllum, hence described and illustrated as Gloeophyllum longisporum, a species new to science. The holotype specimen is deposited at the Herbarium, Department of Botany, Punjabi University, Patiala (PUN 10722).

To compare the safety and efficacy of valsartan/sacubitril (angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor [ARNI]) against enalapril (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor [ACEI]) in patients with acute heart failure at 6-month follow-up.

Background: Individuals with opioid dependence experience stigma and discrimination. Stigma can potentially reduce treatment-seeking and negatively affect treatment outcomes. We aimed to study the course of stigma and its correlates among patients receiving opioid agonist treatment (OAT).Methods: We recruited 51 subjects (aged between 18 and 45 years) registered in the OAT clinic from February to September 2019. We excluded subjects dependent on alcohol and other drugs (except for cannabis and tobacco), with severe mental illness, intellectual disability, and organic brain disease. We assessed the internalized and enacted stigma and quality of life at the treatment entry and after 3 months. Relationship of stigma with quality of life, socio-demographic, and other clinical variables were examined at the treatment entry.Results: Mean age of the subjects was 26.7 (± 5) years. At the end of three months, 33 (64.7%) patients were retained in the treatment. Internalized stigma correlated negatively with the social and environmental domains of quality of life. The strength of the correlations was modest. No significant correlation was found between demographic and clinical variables and internalized stigma and enacted stigma scores. Both internalized and enacted stigma scores reduced significantly at 3 months follow-up. The significance levels were retained even after controlling for the baseline quality of life scores. Stigma at the treatment entry did not predict early dropout.Conclusion: Despite higher severity at the treatment entry, the level of internalized and enacted stigma reduced significantly within three months of an outpatient-based OAT program.