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Background: Hypertension (HTN) is the leading risk factor for death and disability globally and disproportionately impacts low-and middle-income countries. HTN is present in 25% of urban and 10% of rural subjects in India. Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of pre-HTN and HTN among the attendants of patients at a rural tertiary care institute of Haryana.Methods: This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study. A total of 309 attendants of patients were enrolled for this study. Diagnosis of pre-HTN and HTN was done on the basis of seventh joined national committee guidelines. Data were collected on a semi-structured proforma and were analysed by using R software.Results: The prevalence of pre-HTN and HTN was 18.4% and 21.4% respectively. Both the pre-HTN and HTN were significantly higher in males (p=0.002) and in the age group of 45 to 55 years (p<0.001). The multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that sex, age >55 years and BMI >23 kg/m2 were significantly associated with pre-HTN and HTN.Conclusions: The prevalence of both prehypertension and hypertension is high in rural Haryana. This makes the people of this area vulnerable to several chronic diseases. The findings warrant urgent measures to lower the risk factors in rural communities. So, programs are needed to improve the surveillance systems and implementation of community based screening programs for early detection of hypertension.
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OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the rapid and accurate method for the detection of dengue virus (DENV) by using nicking enzyme assisted strand-displacement amplification (SDA) combined with gold nanoparticles-based lateral flow strip.@*METHODS@#Total RNA of the virus was extracted by using magnetic beads method and transcribed to cDNA for SDA detection system. Nicking enzyme-assisted method was used for detecting DENV, and agarose gel electrophoresis was used for analyzing the sensitivity of SDA amplification products. A gold nanoparticles-based lateral flow strip was developed based on the principle of nucleic acid base complementary pairing to design the test line and control line. The gold particles were prepared by using sodium citrate reduction method for gold nanoparticles-based lateral flow strip construction.@*RESULTS@#The sensitivity of the SDA method was 10 fmol/L, and the sensitivity of gold nanoparticles-based lateral flow strip based on SDA method was also 10 fmol/L. In a linear range from 10 fmol/L to 10 fmol/L, the corresponding linear correlation coefficient () of DENV was 0.98. The specificity of nanoparticles-based lateral flow strip based on SDA for DENV detection was high, which was no crossing with other control groups.@*CONCLUSIONS@#A gold nanoparticles-based lateral flow strip based on SDA method for DENV detection has been established, which is convenient, fast, and the result is visible to naked eyes.
Subject(s)
Humans , Dengue , Diagnosis , Dengue Virus , Gold , Metal Nanoparticles , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
AIM: Isoniazid (INH) and Rifampicin (RIF) are hepatotoxic drugs. Oxidative stress has been reported as one of the mechanisms of INH+RIF induced hepatotoxicity. METHODS: Intragastric administration of INH and RIF (50 mg/kg body weight/day each) for 28 days in Wistar rats is hepatotoxic, indicated by raised transaminases and histology. Carotenoids have antioxidant properties. Therefore, different doses of carotenoids (2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg body weight/day) were administered to study the hepatoprotective effect against INH+RIF. RESULTS: The higher doses of carotenoids i.e.10 and 20 mg/kg body weight/day showed partial hepatoprotection indicated by return to normal of liver transaminase level and of liver histology in 33.3% of rats. There was no further protective effect seen by increasing the dose of carotenoids from 10 to 20 mg/kg body weight/day. Lower doses of carotenoids, i.e., 2.5 and 5 mg/kg body weight/day were not effective. CONCLUSION: Thus, a minimum dose with maximum hepatoprotection (10 mg/kg b.wt/ day) was selected as the optimum dose in the present study. The hepatoprotective nature of carotenoids in INH+RIF treated rats may be attributed to their antioxidative property.