Electrocardiographic changes in craniocerebral trauma--could they serve as prognostic indicators?

Electrocardiographic (ECG) changes were analysed in one hundred patients of craniocerebral injuries irrespective of age and sex. Males comprised 82% of patients and most vulnerable age group was 15-40 years (66%). Although the overall mortality was 17%, the maximum mortality (44.44%) was observed in the age group of 41-60 years. Computed tomographic scan proved lesions in intracerebral haemorrhage, subdural haematoma, mixed lesions and extradural haematoma were associated with mortality rates in 66.66, 33.33, 20 and 11.11 per cent respectively. ECG changes of some or the other type were present in almost all patients (99%) but ST-segment shift, sinus tachycardia/bradycardia, T-wave changes and prolonged QTc-interval (> 440 msec) carried high mortality rates of 60, 34.6/27.3, 19.6 and 17.3 per cent respectively, especially if these changes persisted for long duration. Occurrence of supraventricular tachycardia and nodal arrhythmia, although associated with high (50%) mortality rates, were probably terminal events rather than the cause of increased mortality. There was, however, no direct correlation between the type of craniocerebral injury and specific ECG changes.

Mesenteric leiomyoma in infancy

Leiomyoma of the mesentery is an uncommon tumor. This has been documented in adults and children. However, there is no such case reported in an infant, which is being presented in this report.

Cystic hygroma of the gluteal region

Cystic hygromas occur most commonly in the neck. Rarely are they known to involve the axilla, groin, mediastinum, retroperitoneum, pelvis, mesentery, omentum and spleen. We successfully managed a case of cystic hygroma of gluteal region in a one and half year old child who presented with a cystic, non transilluminant swelling in this region since birth. The diagnosis of cystic hygroma was made by surgery and subsequently confirmed after histopathological examination. Because of rarity of cystic hygroma in gluteal region this case in being reported.

Rapunzel syndrome--a case report

The gastric trichobezoars usually occur in young girls, often those with psychiatric disorders. Rarely these are known to extend from the stomach to the small intestine as a tail, when they are termed the Rapunzel syndrome. Until 1997, only 10 such cases have been reported in the literature. We report another case in which we could extract the trichobezoar by gastrotomy and enterotomy.

Distribution patterns of 104 kDa stress-associated protein in rice

A 104 kDa protein (SAP 104) accumulates in rice seedlings in response to several abiotic stress conditions and immunological homologues of rice SAP 104 have been detected in several monocot and dicot species, as also Neurospora crassa, a fungus. In this report, we show that the amino acid sequence of a tryptic peptide generated from purified SAP 104 bears significant homology with an ATP-binding domain of the HSP 100 family proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana and Glycine max. It is further shown that differential uninduced and induced (by high-temperature stress) levels of this protein are accumulated in various organs of the mature rice plant grown under field conditions. Significant uninduced levels of this protein were in particular found in developing and mature rice grains. Seeds/grains of several other plant genera (i.e. Triticum aestivum, Zea mays, Brassica juncea) were also found to contain high uninduced levels of SAP 104. Importantly, the levels of uninduced SAP 104 in rice grains were found to decline during the seed germination phase: after two days of germination, this protein was undetectable in tissues representing pooled sample of seeds and just-emerged seedlings. Tissue print-immunoblotting analysis has indicated that in seeds high levels of this protein are specifically present in the embryo portion.

Gall bladder carcinoma presenting as liver abscess

Perforation of malignant gall bladder resulting in liver abscess and presenting as pyrexia of unknown origin is rare. We report a patient who was diagnosed at surgery, which was undertaken with a diagnosis of liver abscess on CT scan.

Dorsal penile frenulum

A dorsal frenulum with a normal penis lacks description in the available English literature. We report 1 such case and its genesis is also postulated.

Mesenteric lipoma: an unusual cause of small intestinal volvulus

Mesenteric lipoma as a cause of small intestinal volvulus has not been reported before. We report a middle-aged man with this entity.

Daughter diverticula from Meckel's diverticulum

Daughter diverticula arising from the body of Meckel's diverticulum are rare. We detected such an occurrence in a 35-year-old man at appendectomy. These are probably primary and not pulsion or traction diverticula, as they do not have a muscle wall.

Monkey bites: a public health problem in urban setting

Animal bites constitute an important public health problem. Monkey bites accounted for 8.8% of total animal bites (1987-1991) treated in Postgraduate institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak. It was noted that monkeys are becoming the second most common animal to inflict bites. The hospital data revealed that 63.5% of the total animal bites belonged to class-III type. The article also details two case studies of monkey bites.

Immunological evidence for accumulation of two high-molecular-weight (104 and 90 kDa) HSPs in response to different stresses in rice and in response to high temperature stress in diverse plant genera

Rice seedlings accumulate stainable amounts of the 104 and 90 kDa polypeptides in response to high temperature stress. We have purified and raised highly specific polyclonal antisera against both of these polypeptides. In western blotting experiments, we find that these proteins are accumulated to different extents in rice seedlings subjected to salinity (NaCl), water stress, low-temperature stress and exogenous abscisic acid application. These proteins also accumulated when rice seedlings grown in pots under natural conditions were subjected to water stress by withholding watering. Seedlings of Triticum aestivum, Sorghum bicolor, Pisum sativum, Zea mays, Brassica juncea and mycelium of Neurospora crassa showed accumulation of the immunological homologues of both the 104 and the 90 kDa polypeptides, in response to high-temperature stress. We have earlier shown that shoots of rice seedlings exposed to heat shock accumulate a 110 kDa polypeptide which is an immunological homologue of the yeast HSP 104 (Singla and Grover, Plant Mol Biol 22: 1177-1180, 1993). Employing anti-rice HSP 104 antibodies and anti-yeast HSP 104 antibodies together, we provide evidence that rice HSP 104 is different from the earlier characterized rice HSP 110.

Antibodies raised against yeast HSP 104 cross-react with a heat- and abscisic acid-regulated polypeptide in rice

Antibodies raised against yeast heat shock protein (HSP) 104 recognized a heat-inducible polypeptide with a molecular mass of 110 kDa in shoot tissue of young rice seedlings. Root tissue of the same age showed no immuno-reaction with yeast HSP 104 antibodies. The 110 kDa polypeptide of rice was also shown to be abscisic acid-inducible in young seedlings. Though this polypeptide was seen to be constitutively present in the flag leaf of 90-day-old field-grown plant, it was not much affected by either heat shock or abscisic acid in this case.