Indian J Med Res
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Anaemia is a severe public health problem amongst all vulnerable age groups in India. The National Nutritional Anaemia Prophylaxis Programme initiated in 1970, was revised and expanded to include beneficiaries from all age groups namely children aged 6-59 months, 5-10 yr, adolescents aged 10-19 yr, pregnant and lactating women and women in reproductive age group under the National Iron Plus Initiative (NIPI) programme in 2011. ⋯ The prevalence of anaemia has continued to remain high during the last 60 years, and there has been no significant change in the scenario due to various reasons. The constraints in implementation and measures to improve the NIPI programme are discussed in the current article.
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Food is the primary source of nutrients to keep us nourished and healthy. Poor and unhealthy diets implicated with the increase of several non-communicable diseases (NCDs) require a food-based approach to reduce the ongoing rise. Traditional knowledge and science behind food-related health benefits became evident in the last three decades. ⋯ The data generated on the nutritional and health benefit of a supplement should be reproducible, outcomes measurable and disease risk reduction shown by well-designed research studies. Regulatory challenges occur at several levels, namely, harmonization of law, fair trade practice, population exposures to chemicals and contaminants, food borne illness, rise in NCD's, novel ingredients, new technologies and a legacy of regulatory practice. While regulatory and legal challenges will always exist, reliance on the role of scientific research in the regulatory context becomes significant.>.
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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae are considered common cause of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in children. The present study was conducted to detect M. pneumoniae and RSV in paediatric LRTIs employing serology, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) analysis. ⋯ Our study showed the presence of RSV and M. pneumoniae infection in 44 and 35 per cent children, respectively with community-acquired LRTIs and aged less than five years.
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Multicenter Study
Development & cross-validation of anthropometric predictive models to estimate the appendicular skeletal muscle mass in middle-aged women in Sri Lanka.
Attempts have been made to estimate appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASMM) using anthropometric indices and most of these are country specific. This study was designed to develop and cross-validate simple predictive models to estimate the ASMM based on anthropometry in a group of healthy middle-aged women in Sri Lanka. ⋯ The four models (ASMM 1-ASMM 4) developed based on height, weight, TSFT, age and MS showed a high accuracy in estimating the ASMM in middle-aged women.
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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder and is caused mainly by deletion, duplication and point mutations in the DMD gene. Diagnosis of DMD has been a challenge as the mutations in the. ⋯ Our findings showed the importance of NGS in the routine diagnostic practice in the identification of DMD mutations over sequential testing. It may be used as a single-point diagnostic strategy irrespective of the mutation type, thereby reducing the turnaround time and cost for multiple diagnostic tests such as MLPA and Sanger sequencing. Though MLPA is a sensitive technique and is the first line of a diagnostic test, the targeted NGS of the DMD gene may have an advantage of having a single diagnostic test. A study on a larger number of patients is needed to highlight NGS as a single, comprehensive platform for the diagnosis of DMD.