Postoperative intussusception following repair of eventration of diaphragm--two case reports

Two patients of postoperative intestinal obstruction following repair of eventration of diaphragm, subsequently diagnosed as postoperative intussusception managed successfully, are reported. Absence of common features of intussusception led to delay in the diagnosis. Rarity of this phenomenon and incidentally two consecutive cases of postoperative intussusception occurring after repair of eventration of diaphragm prompted to report these two cases.

Variation in, and causes of, toxicity of cigarette butts to a cladoceran and microtox

Cigarette butts are the most numerically frequent form of litter in the world. In Australia alone, 24-32 billion cigarette butts are littered annually. Despite this littering, few studies have been undertaken to explore the toxicity of cigarette butts in aquatic ecosystems. The acute toxicity of 19 filtered cigarette types to Ceriodaphnia cf. dubia (48-hr EC50 (immobilization)) and Vibrio fischeri (30-min EC50 (bioluminescence)) was determined using leachates from artificially smoked cigarette butts. There was a 2.9- and 8-fold difference in toxicity between the least and most toxic cigarette butts to C. cf. dubia and V. fischeri, respectively. Overall, C. cf. dubia was more inherently sensitive than V. fischeri by a factor of approximately 15.4, and the interspecies relationship between C. cf. dubia and V. fischeri was poor (R(2) = 0.07). This poor relationship indicates that toxicity data for cigarette butts for one species could not predict or model the toxicity of cigarette butts to the other species. However, the order of the toxicity of leachates can be predicted. It was determined that organic compounds caused the majority of toxicity in the cigarette butt leachates. Of the 14 organic compounds identified, nicotine and ethylphenol were suspected to be the main causative toxicants. There was a strong relationship between toxicity and tar content and between toxicity and nicotine content for two of the three brands of cigarettes (R(2 )> 0.70) for C. cf. dubia and one brand for V. fischeri. However, when the cigarettes were pooled, the relationship was weak (R(2) < 0.40) for both test species. Brand affected the toxicity to both species but more so for V. fischeri.

Most Helicobacter pylori strains of Kolkata in India are resistant to metronidazole but susceptible to other drugs commonly used for eradication and ulcer therapy

BACKGROUND

Helicobacter pylori infection is very common in India, as in other developing countries, but few data exist on the susceptibility of H. pylori to antimicrobial agents commonly used for eradication here.

AIM

To determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of H. pylori strains from Kolkata, in eastern India.

METHODS

A total of 67 H. pylori strains isolated from gastritis and peptic ulcer patients of Kolkata were examined in the study. Minimum inhibitory concentration to the antibiotics was determined by the agar dilution method.

RESULTS

Most of the strains (85%) were resistant to at least 8 microg/mL of metronidazole and 7.5% strains were resistant to tetracycline, which was high when compared with other reports in India. All Kolkata strains were highly sensitive to clarithromycin, furazolidone and amoxicillin.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results differed significantly from the few available reports on drug sensitivity profile of H. pylori from other parts of India, namely, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Lucknow. This finding supports the need for rigorous susceptibility testing as a guide to empirical treatment and more generally, to define the resistance patterns of H. pylori in particular geographical areas.