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Background: The unappealing appearance of skin in macular amyloidosis (MA) interferes with the patient's quality of life, and treating the condition has been challenging. Aims and Objectives: To compare the efficacy and safety of 15% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) peel, 35% glycolic acid (GA) peel, and Q-switched Nd-YAG Laser in MA. Materials and Methods: Open, prospective study was conducted over 2 years, where after fulfilling the criteria, randomization was done into three groups. Group A: 15% TCA peel; Group B: 35% GA peel; Group C: Q-switched Nd-YAG Laser. Procedures were repeated at monthly intervals for six sittings. On each visit, patients were scored on the following parameters: color score, visual analog score (VAS), physician global assessment (PGA) scale, subjective improvement, and adverse effects. Results: A total of 75 patients (25 patients in each group) completed the treatment. The mean age of study-population was 35.68 ± 9.8 years, with female to male ratio of 11.5:1. The mean change in color score (1.68) was more by Group A, followed by Group C (1.4), followed by Group B (1.16). Similar results were noted by subjective improvement, VAS, and PGA. Adverse events were more in Group A, followed by Group C, followed by Group B. No patient showed permanent adverse events. Conclusion: TCA-peel showed superior results over Nd-YAG laser and glycolic-acid peel. TCA-peel being cost-effective with excellent acceptability should be considered a treatment modality.
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Background: Syphilis was brought under control with the advent of penicillin. However, in recent times, a rise in the incidence of syphilis has been reported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Aim: To study the clinical and epidemiological profile of patients with syphilis attending sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic at tertiary care center. Materials and Methods: Observational, cross-sectional analysis of sociodemographic, clinical, and investigational data of all syphilis patients visiting STI clinic from August 2019 to July 2021 was done and analyzed. Results: Out of 1330 STI patients that attended the clinic, 15.04% (n = 200) were diagnosed with syphilis, among them 72% (n = 144) were males, and 28% (n = 56) were females, with male-to-female ratio of 2.5:1. Of these 24.5% (n = 49) had primary, 44.5% (n = 89) had secondary, 30.5% (n = 61) had latent, and 0.50% (n = 1) had congenital syphilis. Among secondary syphilis patients, rash was the most common presentation seen in 43 patients, followed by condyloma lata in 30, palmoplantar syphilis in 17, oral mucous patch in 3, and iridocyclitis in 3 patients. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was positive in 16.5% (n = 33). Herpes genitalis was the most common coinfection among 25 patients who were diagnosed with mixed venereal disease. RPR titer was positive in all 200 patients, with 1:16 titer being most common. Conclusion: India is experiencing a new trend in the prevalence of syphilis, mainly due to the changes in risk behavior, misconceptions, and social stigma associated with STIs, improved laboratory diagnosis, and increased public awareness. Particularly secondary and latent stages have shown a rising trend over the past few years. Awareness about safe sexual practices and contraception is very important to control the current resurgence.
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This paper reports the rotational spectrum and structure of the Ar2-H2S complex and its HDS and D2S isotopomers. The ground state structure has heavy-atom C2v symmetry with the two Ar atoms indistinguishable and H2S freely rotating as evinced by the fact that asymmetric top energy levels with Kp=odd levels are missing. The rotational constants for the parent isotopomer are: A=1733.115(1) MHz, B=1617.6160(5) MHz and C=830.2951(2) MHz. Unlike the Ar-H2S complex, the Ar2-H2S does not show an anomalous isotopic shift in rotational constants on deuterium substitution. However, the intermolecular potential is still quite floppy, leading to very different centrifugal distortion constants for the three isotopomers. The Ar-Ar and Ar-c.m.(H2S) distances are determined to be 3.820 A and 4.105 A, respectively. The A rotational constants for Ar2-H2S/HDS/D2S isotopomers are very close to each other and to the B constant of free Ar2, indicating that H2S does not contribute to the moment of inertia about the a-axis. Ab initio calculations at MP2 level with aug-cc-pVQZ basis set lead to an equilibrium C2v minimum structure with the Ar-Ar line perpendicular to the H-H line and the S away from Ar2. The centrifugal distortion constants, calculated using the ab initio force field, are in reasonable agreement with the experimental values. However, they do not show the variation observed for different isotopmers. The binding energy of Ar2-H2S has been determined to be 507 cm-1(6.0 kJ mol-1) by CBS extrapolation after correcting for basis set superposition error. Potential energy scans point out that the barrier for internal rotation of H2S about its b axis is only 10 cm-1 and it is below the zero point energy (13.5 cm-1) in this torsional degree of freedom. Internal rotation of H2S about its a- and c-axes also have small barriers of about 50 cm-1 only, suggesting that H2S is extremely floppy within the complex.
