Comparing heart risk scores to identify the most important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

OBJECTIVE: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common non-communicable disease and the leading cause of death worldwide. To reduce the global burden of CVD and related morbidity and mortality, early prediction of CVD risk is essential. Various tools are available to access the risk of cardiovascular disorders. In the present study, we evaluated four risk score calculators associated to CVD for superiority and most reliable CVD prognosis parameters. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the present prospective study, we investigated the probability of CVD in 150 individuals, including both men and women, using four different cardiovascular risk assessment estimators (Framingham Risk Score [FRS] Calculator, Q-RISK calculator, Reynolds score calculator, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk calculator) and evaluated how closely they were related to 16 selected parameters. The four risk estimators shared several common parameters, such as age, smoking status, and blood pressure; however, each of them also used some unique parameters. We used statistical analysis to reduce the number of parameters necessary to predict CVD. RESULTS: Statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between the main factors responsible for CVD risk. The analysis revealed that out of the four risk calculators tested, the FRS calculator was superior to the others because it showed more significant corroboration with statistical tools and could better predict the most important prognostic factors in CVD. CONCLUSIONS: In all four risk estimators, the parameters that affected risk most significantly and conferred the most reliable CVD prognosis were age, weight, total cholesterol, and hemoglobin levels. With that FRS calculator was superior to the others.

Wound Infection with Multi-Drug Resistant Clostridium Perfringens: A Case Study.

Wound infections are among public health problems worldwide. However, progress has been made in improving surgical techniques and antibiotic treatments. Misuse/overuse of antibiotics to prevent and treat bacterial infections eventually leads to increased bacterial resistance with rising incidences of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial strains. The wider dissemination of antibiotics may ultimately result in ineffectiveness to antibiotic therapy, thereby complicating/graving the outcome of a patient. In the present study, a 60-year-old male patient having wound infection with MDR bacterium that ultimately required surgical amputation of the toe was investigated. For the confirmation of MDR bacterium, two culture media viz., MacConkeyAgar and Mueller Hinton Agar media were used. The sensitivity of the isolated strain for various antibiotics was tested using the disc diffusion method. The wound sample was found positive for Gram-positive bacterium that was identified as Clostridium Perfringens. The bacterium was screened for 40 antibiotics, and among all the antibiotics, it was found sensitive for only Piperacillin/Tazobactam antibiotic combination. C. perfringens bacterium caused the gas gangrene in the infected wound part of the patient. Amputation of the gangrene -affected foot part was performed by surgery, and with good medical care, the person recovered fast. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-ever report of MDR C. perfringens single isolate harboring resistance against at least 40 antibiotics tested. More research is needed to develop really new and effective medicines that do not cross-react with antibiotics now in use and have robust activity against MDR organisms.

Histone demethylases and control of gene expression in plants.

Covalent histone modifications, chromatin remodeling and incorporation of histone variants regulate the dynamics of chromatin structure. Among covalent histone modifications, histone methylation mediates by histone methylases that influence the gene expression in heterochromatin silencing, genomic imprinting and transcription. In contrast to methylases, histone demethylases remove the methyl groups from lysine or arginine residues of histones and have enormous impact on gene expression via modified chromatin structures. Two types of histone lysie demethylases have been identified, including lysine specific demethylases 1 (LSD1) and Jmj (Jumonji) domain containing family proteins. The human demethyliminase (PADI4) converts monomethyl arginine residue to citrulline by the arginine demethylimination. In this review we summarize recent advances to understand the mechanism of demethylases in regulation of plant gene expression. In addition we are highlighting the function of four human like LSD1 (LDL) and jmj domain containing genes of Arabidopsis that regulate the defense related, flowering controlling and brassinosteroid response genes.