Hyposalivation in patients with psoriasis: Association with severity, inflammatory, and anti-inflammatory cytokine biomarkers of the disease.

The aim of the study is to expound the effect of psoriasis on salivary glands by evaluating the secretion of saliva and salivary cytokine biomarkers in patients with psoriasis. This study was conducted by recruiting 120 subjects that included 60 patients diagnosed clinically with active psoriasis and 60 healthy controls who were age and gender matched to psoriatic subjects. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected from all the subjects by spitting method, and levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and IL-10 (IL-10) were determined via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (BT Lab, Shanghai, China). Secretion of saliva in psoriasis patients was considerably reduced than in healthy controls. The concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-2) were significantly increased, whereas level of anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) was markedly decreased in the saliva of psoriasis patients with hyposalivation compared to healthy subjects. Our results demonstrated significant negative correlation of salivary flow rates with the disease severity. No significant correlations were obtained between salivary levels of tested cytokines and salivary flow rates in our study. Findings of the study reflect inflammation of salivary glands with reduced salivary flow rates in psoriasis patients. The inflammatory responses in salivary gland tissues by virtue of increased pro-inflammatory cytokines concentrations together with lower anti-inflammatory cytokine levels may have a role in affecting the saliva secretion in psoriasis patients. Secretion of unstimulated saliva in psoriasis patients decreases with the severity and duration of the disease.

Aluminium Induced Neurodegeneration in Rat Cerebellum in the Presence of Ethanol Coexposure.

INTRODUCTION: Both aluminium and ethanol are pro-oxidants and neurotoxic. Moderately intake of alcohol may favor the body in coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus etc. Being cheaper aluminium and increasing consumption of alcohol in India mixed with each other and may induce neurotoxicity. The present study was planned to identify the level of aluminium induced neurodegeneration in presence of ethanol coexposure in the cerebellum. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An experimental study was carried out at Dr. RP Government Medical College, Kangra, and Government Medical College, Amritsar, India after due approval from the Institute Animal Ethics Committee. Thirty-two Wistar rats were divided into one vehicle control and three experimental groups. Group I received the normal saline water as the vehicle control group. Group II received aluminium chloride 4.2 mg/kg body weight as the experimental group. Group III received ethanol 1 g/kg body weight as the experimental group. Group IV received both aluminium chloride 4.2 mg/kg body weight and ethanol 1 g/kg body weight as the experimental group. After 3 months of treatment, cerebellum was processed for histopathological observation under the microscope. RESULTS: Experimental group treated with aluminium and ethanol separately showed reduction in the number of Purkinje cells, without a prominent nucleolus and well-defined nuclear membrane. Eosinophilic swelling adjacent to Purkinje cell bodies observed. The effects of combined administration of aluminium ethanol treated groups showed with acute neurodegeneration of Purkinje cell layer and granular layer. Pyknosis and neurofibrillary tangle seen in Purkinje cells. CONCLUSIONS: It has been suggested that the ethanol-induced the effects of aluminium on the cerebellum and plays a significant role in neurotoxicity.

Morphological and Morphometric Study of Coronary Sinus in North Indian Population.

INTRODUCTION: Coronary sinus (CS) is the largest vein draining the blood from heart. It is a muscular tube of about 2 cm to 3 cm length and 1 cm in caliber. It has become a clinically important structure through its role in providing access for different cardiac procedures viz., biventricular pacing, arrhythmia ablation and for deployment of an array of cardiac devices. AIM: To study the location, shape, length and width of CS including its left atrial muscular coverage in 50 cadaveric hearts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study comprised of 50 adult human apparently normal formalin fixed cadaveric hearts belonging to either sex obtained from the Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Amritsar, India. Location and shape of CS were noted, external and internal lengths of the CS were measured with the help of a thread and Vernier caliper. Width of CS was measured at three levels; at the beginning, at the point of entry of Middle Cardiac Vein (MCV) and at termination in right atrium. The walls of CS were examined to note whether they were covered by the muscles of left atrium or not. Descriptive analysis was done to calculate range, mean and Standard Deviation (SD) by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 17.0. RESULTS: CS was located in the posterior atrioventricular sulcus in 98%. Two shapes; funnel in 82% and tubular/cylindrical in 18% were observed. External length of coronary sinus ranged from 20.5 mm to 58.78 mm (mean 38.22±8.6 mm) and internal length ranged from 16.28 mm to 49.6 mm (mean 34.48±8.9 mm). Maximum width of coronary sinus was at its termination (9.61±2.6 mm) and it was covered by muscles of left atrium in 96% of hearts. CONCLUSION: CS is a constant structure in cardiac venous anatomy but its location, shape, length and width are variable. Knowing these variations can help cardiac surgeons especially during cardiac resynchronization therapy, ablation and defibrillation.

A two trunked brachial plexus: a case report.

The brachial plexus is a major and a complicated plexus at the root of the neck. It is formed by the ventral primary rami of the C5, C6, C7, C8 and the T1 spinal nerves. During the routine under graduate dissection of the right upper limb of an adult female cadaver, a variant pattern of a two trunked brachial plexus was encountered. The upper trunk was formed by the fusion of the C5 and the C6 roots. The C7 root, instead of continuing as the middle trunk, joined with the roots of C8 and T1 to form the lower trunk. On the left side, the usual pattern of the brachial plexus was seen. The knowledge on such variations are of interest to anatomists, clinicians, anesthesiologists and especially, to surgeons. These are of immense importance during surgical explorations of the axilla and the arm region and also during nerve blocks. It also helps the clinicians in getting a proper understanding of some previously unexplained clinical symptoms. Further, the ontogeny and the phylogeny of this entity have been discussed in detail.