Search

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament is the key structure of the knee joint. Quadriceps weakness in the involved leg is frequently seen in the rehabilitation setting even when an individual returns to their functional activity. Objectives: To measure the quadriceps strength following an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and evaluate the functional activity level. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 30 anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction patients visiting physiotherapy outpatient department of Dhulikhel hospital between 2nd May 2019 to 4th May 2020. Nonprobability purposive sampling was used for the study. Participants with a history of primary unilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction no less than six months were recruited for the study. Study excluded other lower limb surgeries, anterior cruciate ligament reinjury, multiligament injury, and pregnant women. Quadriceps muscle strength was assessed by using a handheld dynamometer, MicroFET2 and functional activity level with Lysholm scale. Independent sample t-test was done to assess the association between quadriceps strength and different variables. Results: Quadriceps strength deficit in an involved limb was 17.5% and mean length physiotherapy follow up was 11.7 ± 5.9 days in six months. Quadriceps strength was significantly different between genders. There was no statistical significance between quadriceps strength and body mass index. Higher quadriceps strength had greater levels of function. Conclusion: Quadriceps strength deficit was found after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Functional activity was affected even after an individual returned to their normal daily activities.

Background The status of adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Nepal is alarming. Adolescent-friendly services (AFS) were introduced to cater the health needs of adolescents. Optimal utilization of the services with wider accessibility is required to prevent adolescents from adopting life-threatening behaviors that result in poor SRH-related outcomes. Despite the upgrading of health facilities to adolescent-friendly sites, studies reveal low utilization of the service. However, these studies failed to explore the factors influencing the low levels of service utilization in these adolescent-friendly facilities. This study quantified the utilization of AFS and identified factors associated with its utilization among adolescents of Bhaktapur district. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 362 systematic randomly selected adolescents from four village development committees of Bhaktapur district was conducted, using a self-administered questionnaire. Relationships between utilization of AFS and associated factors were determined by multivariate logistic regression at a level of significance with a p value of less than 0.05 and adjusted odds ratio. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions with adolescents were used to collect qualitative data which were then described using thematic analysis. Result About a quarter (24.7%) of the respondents had utilized the adolescent-friendly services. Factors positively associated with the utilization of services included adolescents aged 15-19 years, female, heard about AFS, lack of fear of being seen while getting SRH services, lack of shyness about receiving SRH services, and the perceived need for SRH services as soon as illness became apparent. The qualitative findings revealed lack of awareness about the services, socio-cultural barriers, confidentiality, feasible service hours, and the preference for of same-sex service providers as the factors affecting utilization. Conclusion The utilization of adolescent-friendly services was very low in Bhaktapur district. Most of the adolescents were unaware of the existence of the AFS which emphasizes the need to focus on the increasing awareness of SRH and AFS by the government in coordination with local schools, clubs, etc. Creating an enabling environment in the service delivery sites, and ensuring privacy and confidentiality, as well as ensuring same-sex service providers and feasible service hours to adolescents, could increase the service utilization.

Laboratories working with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) must maintain a high level of biocontainment. However, if infectious virus is reliably inactivated during sample processing, molecular and serological testing can be performed at a lower level of containment. In this study, three commercial lysis buffers (AL, AVL, and MagMAX CORE) were tested in two laboratories for their ability to inactivate FMDV A/IRN/8/2015 in different sample matrices (cell culture supernatant, epithelial tissue suspension and milk). Residual infectivity after the addition of lysis buffer was evaluated by inoculating susceptible cell cultures. No cytopathic effect was observed for all three lysis buffers, indicating that the buffers are capable of reducing viral infectivity (estimated range 3.1 to >5.1 Log10). These results highlight the capacity of lysis buffers to decrease FMDV infectivity; however, additional validation experiments should be conducted, particularly if different sample matrices and/or lysis buffers are used.

Multiple limitations for cardiac pharmacologic therapies like intolerance, individual variation in effectiveness, side effects, and high cost still remain, despite the recent progress in diagnosis and health support. Gene therapy is poised to be an attractive alternative in various ways for the future, refractory cardiac diseases being one aspect of it. As a novel therapy to deliver the objective gene to organs of living animals, ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) has therapeutic potential in cardiovascular disorders. UTMD, which binds microbubbles with DNA or RNA carriers into the shell and destroys the located microbubbles with low frequency and high mechanical index ultrasound can release target agents to specific organs. UTMD has the ability to transfect markedly through sonoporation, cavitation and other effects by way of intravenous injection that is minimally invasive and highly specific for gene deliverance. Here, we have summarized the present role of UTMD in pre-clinical studies of cardiac gene therapy which covers myocardial infarction, regeneration, ischaemia/reperfusion injury, hypertension, diabetic cardiomyopathy, adriamycin cardiomyopathy and some discussion for further studies.

Newton’s third law of motion states that whenever a force is applied an equal and opposite force occurs in the opposite direction of applied force. Orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) being a biological phenomenon; sound knowledge of biomechanics is required. Sliding mechanics is a common approach in orthodontics to achieve tooth movement for closure and gaining of space.1,2 Sliding mechanics involves sliding of archwire along the bracket slots during the tooth movement. Bracket and archwire combination systems are basically one couple and two couple systems.3 The practitioner can apply orthodontic force systems in three principal orthogonal directions: labio-lingual (LL), mesio-distal (MD), and occluso-gingival (OG). Sum-total of the forces is the vectorial sum of all these forces. Opposing to it are the resistance forces acting along the force and couple in these three principal directions and planes. To achieve better treatment outcome and patient comfort the resistance forces must be controlled by the clinician.

Background: As Nepal witnesses high burden of both acute respiratory infection and passive smoking among under-five children, studies on effect modification of exclusive breast feeding on passive smoking and acute respiratory infection carry huge significance. With Nepal holding no evidence in this regard, findings would be useful to promote a cost-effective intervention: exclusive breastfeeding. This study was therefore conceived as an effort to bring to light the modifying effect that exclusive breastfeeding may have on the association between passive smoking and acute respiratory infection among under-five children. Methods: One hundred and ninety eight parents of under-five children from Kanti Children's Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal participated in this descriptive, cross-sectional study carried out in October, 2012. Data collected from a semi-structured questionnaire were subjected to univariate, bivariate, and multivariable analysis in R version 3.1.2. Results: Non-exclusively breastfed children with presence of anyone smoking at their house (aOR=4.8, 95% CI: 1.7-13.2) and smoking in presence of children (aOR=6.4, 95% CI: 1.1-38.3) had higher chances of acute respiratory infection, nevertheless this remained insignificant among the exclusively breastfed ones. Having a separate kitchen in the house showed protective effect against acute respiratory infection among exclusively breastfed children (aOR=0.2, 95% CI: 0.1-0.6). Children whose mothers spent at least two hours per day in the kitchen had a higher chance of developing acute respiratory infection, regardless of being exclusively breastfed (aOR= 4.5, 95% CI: 1.5-13.1) or non-exclusively breastfed (aOR= 4.5, 95% CI: 1.4-14.2) compared to those who spent less than two hours per day. Conclusions: Non-exclusive breastfeeding may increase the chances of deleterious effects of household passive smoking like acute respiratory infection among under-five children. As these findings are not conclusive, studies with better design and larger samples are warranted to confirm the effect. Keywords: Acute respiratory infection; Cross-sectional study; Exclusive breastfeeding; Household passive smoking; Nepal; Under-five children

The complete genome of a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) type A virus isolated from cattle in Saudi Arabia in 2015 is described here. This virus belongs to an FMD virus lineage named genotype VII, which is normally endemic on the Indian subcontinent.