Awareness of probiotics among dental practitioners of Puducherry-A cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Background: The efficiency of probiotics in prevention and also treatment of oral infections including dental caries, periodontitis, halitosis is found to be appealing in the recent literature. Their antagonistic role in oral infections is mainly through formation of biofilm which needs documentation. Though the emergence and practice of oral probiotics is visualized for the past two decades, the consumption and knowledge level is found to be less among the community. Stronger source to spread scientific evidence to the community would be health professionals. Aim: The current study is aimed at assessing the level of awareness of probiotics among dental practitioners of Puducherry thereby aid and assist in the beneficial practice of the same in the community. Methods: The knowledge level was assessed through a cross sectional survey using closed ended questionnaire. Involves practicing dentists of Puducherry (n-173). A prevalidated questionnaire with 17 closed ended and one open ended question was employed as the research tool. Results: The results revealed an acceptable knowledge in 77.4% and a greater level of knowledge in 20.8% of dentists. More number of studies are expected to fulfill the lacunae in the field of safety of usage and long term effects of probiotics. Conclusion: Responses of the current study which was focused on dental practitioners revealed that the knowledge level is well above the acceptable level. There is no profound difference in the awareness level noticed among BDS and MDS practitioners..

Severe headache presenting as an early sign of retroperitoneal para aortic paraganglioma.

BACKGROUND: Paraganglioma is a rare type of neuroendocrine tumor with the ability to secrete neuropeptide and catecholamines in excess. Sympathetic hyperactivity, severe persistent headache and hypertension is the most common clinical presentation of paraganglioma similar to pheocromocytoma. Case report We reported a case of 19 year old girl with severe headache and hypertension, from past 6 month. On further imaging evaluation for the headache, the computed tomography of the abdomen plus pelvis was suggestive of left pre para aortic paraganglioma measuring of 3.4 cm in diameter. Surgical excision of mass was done. Histopathological examination of surgical specimen was consistent with the diagnosis of paraganglioma. Patient is on regular follow up without any subjective or objective evidence of the disease. CONCLUSION: Retroperitoneal paraganglioma may be one of the causes for commonly occurring symptomatic headache, which is benign in nature, but possibility of transformation of malignant paraganglioma can occur. The surgical excision of mass is the treatment of choice.

Oncoplastic Breast Reconstruction in Breast Conservation Surgery: Improving the Oncological and Aesthetic Outcomes.

Breast conservation surgery (BCS) is now the standard of care for patients with early breast cancer. The main contraindications for BCS besides the presence of multicentricity and diffuse microcalcifications are inadequate tumour size to breast size ratio. With the advent of oncoplastic techniques, the indications of BCS may be further extended to patient with larger tumour size and or small volume breast. We prospectively assessed 42 patients undergoing oncoplastic breast conservation surgery for cosmetic and oncologic outcomes. Cosmetic outcome assessment was done by comparison of operated breast to contralateral breast by an independent surgeon, nurse and patient's attendant at 6 months post-surgery. Risk factors for compromised oncologic outcomes included grades II/III tumours and non-ductal histology. Intraoperative margin assessment with frozen section analysis proved to be important in order to achieve negative surgical margins on final histopathology. By univariate analysis, tumours located in central quadrant and medial half of the breast had similar cosmetic outcomes comparable to tumours located in other quadrants. Majority of our patients (90%) had overall good to excellent cosmetic outcomes on Harvard scale. Oncoplastic breast conservation surgery techniques allow for larger parenchymal resections without compromising oncologic and cosmetic results. It further allows extension of BCS to patients otherwise denied for the same based on earlier recommendations for mastectomy. Oncoplastic techniques and intraoperative margin assessment with frozen section are vital in attaining adequate margins and also decrease chance of local recurrence and revision surgery for positive margins.

Effect of medium composition and kinetic studies on extracellular and intracellular production of L-asparaginase from Pectobacterium carotovorum.

Microbial L-asparaginase occupies a prominent place among biocatalysts owing to their ability to catalyze the reaction that hydrolyze the asparagine molecule. Effect of various medium components on the production of L-asparaginase in submerged fermentation by Pectobacterium carotovorum was studied for optimal nutrient requirements. Six different media compositions were tested for the L-asparaginase production keeping fermentation conditions constant at temperature 30 °C, initial pH 7.0 and agitation speed of 120 rpm. Maximum intracellular and extracellular L-asparaginase activity was obtained in the medium containing tryptone, yeast extract, monosodium glutamate, K2HPO4 and L-asparagine. These medium components were further optimized by central composite experimental design using response surface methodology. Maximum intracellular and extracellular L-asparaginase activity of 2.282 U/mL and 0.587 U/mL were obtained respectively at the late logarithmic phase in optimized media. Unstructured kinetic models were used to describe the cell growth and product formation kinetics. The unstructured models predicted the cell growth and product formation profile accurately with high coefficient of determination.

Microbial production and biomedical applications of lovastatin.

Lovastatin is a potent hypercholesterolemic drug used for lowering blood cholesterol. Lovastatin acts by competitively inhibiting the enzyme, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase involved in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. Commercially lovastatin is produced by a variety of filamentous fungi including Penicillium species, Monascus ruber and Aspergillus terreus as a secondary metabolite. Production of lovastatin by fermentation decreases the production cost compared to costs of chemical synthesis. In recent years, lovastatin has also been reported as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of various types of tumors and also play a tremendous role in the regulation of the inflammatory and immune response, coagulation process, bone turnover, neovascularization, vascular tone, and arterial pressure. This review deals with the structure, biosynthesis, various modes of fermentation and applications of lovastatin.