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A single female juvenile specimen of Stethojulis bandanensis (Bleeker, 1851) was collected from Kavaratti Island. The species showed a circumglobal distribution with a gap from the Bay of Bengal to the Western Indian Ocean. The present report fills a wide gap in the distributional record of the species to confirmation with reference voucher specimen and barcode. We generated the partial COI sequence of S. bandanensis to develop Neighbor-Joining and Maximum Likelihood trees to assess the phylogenetic relationship with other allied species and to understand the genetic uniqueness of this fish. Genetically S. bandanensis clade is closer with S. balteata and less with S. terina. The present article provides morphological features, distributional records, and phylogenetic affinity of the species to elucidate its occurrence along the coast of Lakshadweep in light of its ecology.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin disease. Hanifin and Rajka's criteria is the most common diagnostic criteria used for the clinical diagnosis of this condition. However, many find that it is too exhaustive to be used in routine practice, and the specificity of many of the minor criteria poses challenges, particularly from Asian countries with type III, IV, and V skin.The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the minor features of the Hanifin and Rajka criteria for AD in comparison to the UK working party's diagnostic criteria in pediatric populations of India.A hospital-based cross-sectional study of 100 patients in the pediatric age group (3 months-12 years) with AD was conducted based on history, clinical, and laboratory evaluation. An age-matched control group of 100 pediatric patients who did not have a personal or family history of atopic dermatitis was included after obtaining informed consent to find out the prevalence of minor criteria among the control group.Mean of the number of minor clinical criteria found positive in our study population in the infantile and toddler (below 2 years) and childhood groups (2-12 years) was (4.72 ± 1.75) and (5.67 ± 1.78), respectively. Early-onset of disease was the most consistent feature among the minor criteria found in 83% of patients, followed by xerosis (71%), hyperlinearity of palm (56%), pityriasis alba (54%), Denny Morgan fold (52%), elevated serum IgE (47%), perifollicular accentuation (37%), and tendency toward cutaneous infections (37%).We found that though some of the minor criteria are highly sensitive and specific to the diagnosis of AD (xerosis, ichthyosis, palmar hyperlinearity, tendency of cutaneous infections, Dennie-Morgan infraorbital fold, pityriasis alba, and perifollicular accentuation), some other criteria were either very rare or nonspecific for AD. We suggest that many of the minor criteria of Hanifin and Rajka may not have much significance for Indian patients and a multicentric nationwide study with a larger patient pool is required to create a trimmed and improved version of Hanifin and Rajka criteria.

Background: A variety of cutaneous disorders have been found in neonatal period. These disorders may be physiological or pathological, temporary or permanent, congenital or acquired. Most of the skin lesions are benign, transient and physiological. Aims and Objectives: To study the incidence of pathological cutaneous disorders of neonates in the neonatal care unit and compare these with other studies in India and also the world. Materials and Methods: It was a hospital based observational, descriptive study. Study duration was one year. Study population was the all admitted neonates in neonatal care unit in peripheral tertiary institution. The study sample size was 108 neonates. We used Chi-square test to evaluate the P value. P value of less than 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: We found 47 neonates (43.52%) as infective skin disorders, 21 cases (19.44%) as naevi and other developmental disorders, 10 cases each (9.26%) as keratinization disorder and eczematous conditions. 19 neonates (17.59%) were put into miscellaneous group. Among the infective disorders, we found 21 cases of bacterial infections, 18 cases of fungal infections, 6 cases of viral infections. Other important findings were of six aplasia cutis congenita cases, five cases of collodion babies, one harlequin baby, two cases of unilateral digital gangrene of upper limb etc. None of the neonatal dermatosis had shown significance (P > 0.05). Inadequate sample size was the possible cause for these results. Conclusion: The pattern of pathological dermatoses was evaluated. An effective knowledge about these dermatoses will be helpful to the Dermatologists and also Pediatricians for proper treatment and to assure the worried parents.

Introduction: Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a cutaneous complication of treated or subclinical visceral leishmaniasis. For confirmation, detection of Leishman-Donovan body (LDB) in slit skin smear (SSS) is needed. But it reveals a very low positivity. Since other confirmatory investigations are very costly, we studied the histopathological method as one of the accurate in the diagnosis of PKDL. Materials and Methods: We enrolled all suspected PKDL cases (n-24) of different forms within the specified period of one year. Clinically, 5 patients had hypopigmented macular lesions, 7 patients had papules, nodules or plaque lesions and 12 patients had combination lesions. All the patients were investigated with ELISA for rK39 antibody test and SSS for LDB. We had done skin biopsy from the lesions of all cases and stained with Haematoxillin and Eosin for histopathological examination. The tissues were also stained with Geimsa and Fite Faracco stain for better accuracy. Results: We collected 36 biopsy materials from 24 patients. Among 36 samples, 17 samples were of macular lesions and 19 samples were from papule, nodule or plaque. There were sparse lymphohistiocytic infiltrate with a few plasma cells in superficial perivascular locations in macular lesions. In papule, nodule or plaque lesions, the lymphohistiocytic and lymphoplasmacytic infiltrates were in perivascular and periappendegeal locations and extended upto mid dermis. The infiltrates were moderate to heavy according to type of elevated lesion. In some cases, the infiltrates were found in whole dermis and some formed nodular aggregate. Presence of plasma cells and hyalinization of dermal collagen were the important features in PKDL histopathology. Conclusion: The different histopathological patterns of PKDL cases have an immense value to diagnose the case correctly. Keywords: Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis, Leishman-Donovan body, Histopathology. Introduct

The purpose of this study is to relate the distribution and diversity of organisms found in association with plastic debris from South Andaman intertidal ecosystem using several statistical functions. In this study, ten different sites at South Andaman Island were examined for six months for plastic debris of various shape, size and colour along with the concerned organism. A total of 34 species of fauna and 17 species of flora are found associated with the plastic debris from this study. The most common ones are Arthropods, Bryozoans, Annelids and Rhodophyta. Few rare ones are sea anemones- Anthopleura handi and Actinia equina which were also seen attached on hard plastic objects. Diversity analysis highlighted the species evenness and diversity of Mazar Pahad to be maximum and species richness of Brookshabad to be the highest. No correlation was seen between the colour of plastic and the associated organism. Barnacle, Spirorbis and Sea Anemone prefer hard-rigid plastic fragments, whereas Bryozoans prefer a flexible, smooth surface. Lepas, on the other hand, preferred bottle caps, rubber material, and ropes. Many polychaetes were found in almost all the stations indicating that the coast and the water are quite polluted. Correlation between debris size and the number of taxa group showed stochastic phenomenon. Positive correlation was seen among the colony size of taxa group in relation with the exposed area of the debris. In terms of the distribution of plastic debris across the various zones of the intertidal region and the preference of the specific flora or fauna groups, no general trends or pattern was observed. Through this study, it is understood that plastic in one way provides shelter to certain organisms but at the same time harms other organisms through invasion as well as by providing an unnatural habitat.

Juvenile xanthogranuloma (JXG) is the most common form of non-Langerhans cell histiocytic lesion, characterized by benign, usually asymptomatic, self-healing yellowish brown papulonodular lesions of skin and other organs in the absence of metabolic disorder. The cells of origin of JXG are dermal dendrocytic cells. Histopathologically there is dermal infiltration of foamy or non-foamy histiocytes with or without giant cell. Immunohistochemistry shows CD68 positivity with CD1a and S-100 negativity of lesional cells although S-100-positive JXG have been reported. JXG may be associated with neurofibromatosis type one (NF 1) with increased risk of juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia and other hematological malignancies. Our case was S-100 immunoreactive multiple, cutaneous JXGs with NF 1 without any visceral involvement or malignant complication. We are presenting this case due to its rarity.

Background: There are very little elaborative studies in India about various patterns of skin diseases and various factors those influence the diseases in a tertiary institution. Aims: To find out the various patterns of skin diseases in relation to age, sex, occupation, and socio-economic status. To find out the magnitude of skin diseases and compare with other similar studies . Materials and Methods: Collection of data of all new skin cases in a specified period of one year and put on proforma for diagnosis. Few investigations were done for correct diagnosis. Results: It was found that skin OPD patients (new) were 4.16% of total new OPD patients, and male female ratio was 1.1:1. Among all patients (12910), infection was commonest (39.54%), followed by allergic skin disorder (29.20%). 25.05% patients were housewives, followed by students (23.21%). Study showed that 33.28% patients had per capita income of ` 361-720/month, and 22.35% patients were educated and/or studied up to class V. Conclusion: Pattern of skin diseases are mostly depend not only on environmental factors but also on occupation, socio-economic status, literacy, and age of the patients.