Effect of Thoracic Correction Exercises in Upper Body Dysfunction of 94-Year-old Male Participant - A Case Report

The case report has been presented to show the effects of thoracic correction exercises on flexed posture in older men with upper body dysfunction using posture analysis software and pectoralis minor muscle length test. The present case is that of a 94-year-old male. He was guided for a specific thoracic correction exercises for 12 weeks. The program included breathing correction, thorax mobility, scapular stability and passive stretching of Pectoralis major and minor, performed thrice a week, 30 min each session, for 12 weeks. Outcome measures included the upper body dysfunction changes by posture analysis software and pectoralis minor muscle length test. The Pre and Post-test of the patient demonstrated significantly greater improvements in hyperkyphosis (forward head posture) and pectoralis minor muscle length. This case study provides a promising exercise intervention that may improve flexed posture in older men with age-related upper body dysfunction.

Bilateral supplemental maxillary central incisors with double-tooth like appearance

BACKGROUND

Supplemental teeth refer to extra teeth that resemble the normal tooth series. Bilateral supplemental central incisors in a healthy individual are rare and bilateral supplemental incisors with double-tooth like appearance are exceptionally rare and has not been previously reported in the dental literature.

CASE REPORT

This clinical report describes an 8-year old healthy Indian boy referred for the management of delayed eruption of his permanent maxillary incisor teeth. Following clinical and radiographic examination the two supplemental incisors closer to the midline were extracted under local analgesia and both of them exhibited double-tooth like appearance.

CONCLUSIONS

The present case refutes the conventional wisdom that "supplemental teeth are usually smaller than the normal tooth type they resemble and occur distal to the normal tooth series", illustrates that the unusual can occur and that the clinician should be aware of such variations.

Identification of shorter length lamin A protein in mouse ear cartilage tissue

Lamin A is an intermediate filament protein which is cleaved by the enzyme, FACE 1 at VTRSY↓L. The cleavage is the final step in the production of the mature lamin A protein. The mature lamin A protein localizes in the inner membrane of the nucleus. The mutation in the lamin A gene causes many diseases, including accelerated aging. It is known that the protein is not expressed in neuronal cells of the brain. Many splicing variants of the lamin A gene have been reported. In this study, the amino acid sequence VTRSY (a penta-peptide repeat) was found in three different sites of the C-terminal end of the lamin A protein, the protein expressed in cells of ear cartilage tissues is shorter than the protein expressed in cells of the skin tissues. Using two lamin A antibodies, it was found that the amino acid sequence between penta-peptide 2 and 3 is missing in lamin A protein that was expressed in the cells of mouse ear cartilage tissue, besides the RT-PCR data confirmed that the corresponding coding sequence between the penta repeat 2 and 3 is intact. Cleavage may occur at the penta-peptide (VTRSY) at site 3 in the lamin A tail of mouse ear cartilage.

Crystal structure of piperazine-1,4-diium bis-(4-amino-benzene-sulfonate)

The asymmetric unit of the title salt, C4H12N2 (2+)·2C6H6NO3S(-), consists of half a piperazindiium dication, located about an inversion centre, and a 4-amino-benzene-sulfonate anion. The piperazine ring adopts a chair conformation. In the crystal, the cations and anions are linked via N-H⋯O and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional framework. Within the framework there are C-H⋯π inter-actions and the N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds result in the formation of R 4 (4)(22) and R 3 (4)(13) ring motifs.

Conserved lamin A protein expression in differentiated cells in the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae

Lamin A is an intermediate filament protein found in most of the differentiated vertebrate cells but absent in stem cells. It shapes the skeletal frame structure beneath the inner nuclear membrane of the cell nucleus. As there are few studies of the expression of lamin A in invertebrates, in the present work, we have analyzed the sequence, immunochemical conservation and expression pattern of lamin A protein in the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae, a model organism for tissue regeneration. The expression of lamin A has been confirmed in E. eugeniae by immunoblot. Its localization in the nuclear membrane has been observed by immunohistochemistry using two different rabbit anti-sera raised against human lamin A peptides, which are located at the C-terminus of the lamin A protein. These two antibodies detected 70 kDa lamin A protein in mice and a single 65 kDa protein in the earthworm. The Oct-4 positive undifferentiated blastemal tissues of regenerating earthworm do not express lamin A, while the Oct-4 negative differentiated cells express lamin A. This pattern was also confirmed in the earthworm prostate gland. The present study is the first evidence for the immunochemical identification of lamin A and Oct-4 in the earthworm. Along with the partial sequence obtained from the earthworm genome, the present results suggest that lamin A protein and its expression pattern is conserved from the earthworm to humans.

Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma on the left maxillary alveolus: a unique presentation

Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMSs) are a group of soft-tissue malignant tumours. They derive from primitive skeletal muscle tissue with head and neck as its principle location. These tumours are extremely rare in adults and it is believed to have a different natural course, treatment response, and prognosis. The invasiveness of tumour, metastasis, lymph node involvement, and the age at diagnosis is a predictor of outcome in patients with RMC. Hence early recognition and histological sub-typing is of critical importance in the therapy of the disease. We report a rare case of RMC in a 50-year-old female patient involving the left maxillary alveolus with a detailed clinical, radiological, histopathological and immunohistochemical findings.

Forecasting Japanese encephalitis incidence from historical morbidity patterns: Statistical analysis with 27 years of observation in Assam, India

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is one of the dreaded mosquito-borne viral diseases mostly prevalent in south Asian countries including India. Early warning of the disease in terms of disease intensity is crucial for taking adequate and appropriate intervention measures. The present study was carried out in Dibrugarh district in the state of Assam located in the northeastern region of India to assess the accuracy of selected forecasting methods based on historical morbidity patterns of JE incidence during the past 22 years (1985-2006).

METHODS

Four selected forecasting methods, viz. seasonal average (SA), seasonal adjustment with last three observations (SAT), modified method adjusting long-term and cyclic trend (MSAT), and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) have been employed to assess the accuracy of each of the forecasting methods. The forecasting methods were validated for five consecutive years from 2007-2012 and accuracy of each method has been assessed.

RESULTS

The forecasting method utilising seasonal adjustment with long-term and cyclic trend emerged as best forecasting method among the four selected forecasting methods and outperformed the even statistically more advanced ARIMA method. Peak of the disease incidence could effectively be predicted with all the methods, but there are significant variations in magnitude of forecast errors among the selected methods. As expected, variation in forecasts at primary health centre (PHC) level is wide as compared to that of district level forecasts.

INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION

The study showed that adopted forecasting techniques could reasonably forecast the intensity of JE cases at PHC level without considering the external variables. The results indicate that the understanding of long-term and cyclic trend of the disease intensity will improve the accuracy of the forecasts, but there is a need for making the forecast models more robust to explain sudden variation in the disease intensity with detail analysis of parasite and host population dynamics.

Acute ischemic stroke in aortic dissection: case report and review of literature

The estimated incidence of aortic dissection ranges from 5 to 30 cases per million per year. Nearly 38% of cases are missed at an initial presentation due to the wide range of clinical symptoms. We report a survivor of an inadvertent thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke, secondary to aortic dissection.

Sclerostin: a candidate biomarker of SCI-induced osteoporosis

We assessed several circulating proteins as candidate biomarkers of bone status in men with chronic spinal cord injury. We report that sclerostin is significantly associated with bone mineral content and bone density at all skeletal sites tested. We found no association between bone and any other tested biomarker.

INTRODUCTION

Spinal cord injury results in severe osteoporosis. To date, no circulating biomarker of spinal cord injury (SCI)-induced osteoporosis has been identified. We recently reported that circulating sclerostin is associated with bone density in chronic SCI. In this study, we assessed several circulating proteins as candidate biomarkers of bone in men with chronic SCI.

METHODS

We assessed the relationship between bone mineral content or bone density and the following circulating bone-related proteins: sclerostin, DKK-1, soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand, osteoprotegerin, osteocalcin, and c-telopeptide in 39 men with chronic SCI and 10 men with no SCI.

RESULTS

After adjusting for age, lower sclerostin levels were significantly associated with lower bone mineral content and bone density at all skeletal sites tested (p = 0.0002-0.03). No other circulating protein was associated with bone mineral content or bone mineral density (p = 0.18-0.99).

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that circulating sclerostin reflects the severity of bone loss and is a candidate biomarker of osteoporosis severity in chronic SCI.

Diffusion weighted MR imaging versus F18 FDG PETC CT in identifying small hepatic metastases

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Background: This exploratory study assessed the ability of diffusion weighted MRI imaging in identifying small liver metastases as compared to F18- FDG PETCT. Methods: Patients with diagnosis of carcinoma of breast, lung, colorectal, pancreas, neuroendocrine and HCC who were staged for their disease using PET CT and MRI were included in the study. We randomly analyzed and compared PETCT and MRI images of 40 patients with hepatic metastases for sensitivity in detection of metastatic lesions in the liver on PETCT and MRI. Where possible, biopsy was performed if MRI/PET CT showed one or two small lesions in the liver. We performed ANCOVA to detect differences between PETCT and MRI controlling for primary sites of disease as a covariate. Results: The mean number of small lesions detected on PETCT was 0.92 where as it was 3.96 in MRI. There was a significant increase in small (p=0.02) and total number of lesions (p=0.01) seen on MRI compared to PET CT but not in large lesions. MRI was able to detect subcentimeter lesions more accurately than PET CT. Random biopsies done on small lesions found on MRI were positive for disease. MRI was able to detect small subcentimeter lesions three times more accurately than PET CT. Conclusions: MR diffusion is more sensitive in indentifying subcentimeter metastatic deposits in the liver that could help in accurate staging when PET CT is negative for liver metastases or when locoregional treatment for oligometastases is contemplated. However, pixels of DWI MRI (like reduced Signal to noise ratio at high b value, artefacts at liver edges and left lobe due to exaggerated susceptibility weighting and spin dephasing) need to be addressed by using other morphological images.