Selective detection of azelnidipine in pharmaceuticals via carbon dot mediated spectrofluorimetric method: A green approach.

A spectrofluorimetric method using fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) was developed for the selective detection of azelnidipine (AZEL) pharmaceutical in the presence of other drugs. In this study, N-doped CDs (N-CDs) were synthesized through a single-step hydrothermal process, using citric acid and urea as precursor materials. The prepared N-CDs showed a highly intense blue fluorescence emission at 447 nm, with a photoluminescence quantum yield of ~21.15% and a fluorescence lifetime of 0.47 ns. The N-CDs showed selective fluorescence quenching in the presence of all three antihypertensive drugs, which was used as a successful detection platform for the analysis of AZEL. The photophysical properties, UV-vis light absorbance, fluorescence emission, and lifetime measurements support the interaction between N-CDs and AZEL, leading to fluorescence quenching of N-CDs as a result of ground-state complex formation followed by a static fluorescence quenching phenomenon. The detection platform showed linearity in the range 10-200 µg/ml (R2 = 0.9837). The developed method was effectively utilized for the quantitative analysis of AZEL in commercially available pharmaceutical tablets, yielding results that closely align with those obtained from the standard method (UV spectroscopy). With a score of 0.76 on the 'Analytical GREEnness (AGREE)' scale, the developed analytical method, incorporating 12 distinct green analytical chemistry components, stands out as an important technique for estimating AZEL.

Isolation, characterization, and evaluation of anxiolytic bioactive compounds from the seed of Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek in mice.

Recent therapy for managing anxiety disorders is linked with a wide range of adverse effects. The conventional practice of the use of plant extract may indicate an important and new approach to the anxiolytic agent. Seeds of V. radiata belonging to the family Fabaceae is commonly employed to treat several diseases. However, no data is available to screen its viable neuropharmacological effect regardless of its famous use. Hence, the objective of the present study was to isolate the anxiolytic bioactive compound from seeds of V. radiata. Pure bioactive Compounds SU1 and SU2 were obtained from bioactive fraction F9.3 and fraction F9.5 using the bioactivity-guided fractionation method. The current investigation found that 4 mg/kg (o.p.) of kaempferol and γ-aminobutyric acid exhibit significant anxiolytic action in mice that is statistically comparable to diazepam (2 mg/kg.i.p). This study validates the ethnopharmacological use of V. radiata seeds in the management of anxiety disorders.

AFLP markers based genetic diversity and population structure analysis of Kadaknath: an indigenous black meat poultry breed of India.

The current study is the first worldwide to assess the genetic diversity of Kadaknath poultry using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Out of total 96 accessions, four were outliers and 92 were Kadaknath accessions of which 30 were males, 62 were females. Of these, 74 were jet black, 7 penciled and 11 were golden feather color type of Kadaknath. High level of polymorphism (23.94%) was observed in 387 loci amplified using six AFLP primer combinations. The Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranged from 0.211 to 0.754 with an average dissimilarity of 0.517. Based on the neighbor-joining method of clustering, all accessions were clustered into seven major clusters which were not consistent with their respective geographical locations. The mean values of effective multiplex ratio, polymorphic information content, resolving power and marker index were 15.16, 0.38, 9.87 and 5.85 respectively. Further, the high log-likelihood score was produced when the number of populations (K) was set at 7 while carrying out the population STRUCTURE analysis, which was also congruent with clustering analysis based on genetic diversity. The extent of genetic diversity detected in this study could be used for germplasm selection and developing conservation strategies of pure breed of Kadaknath.

Development and Validation of Stability-indicating RP-HPLC Method for Estimation of Pranlukast Hydrate in its Laboratory Mixture.

Pranlukast hydrate is an anti-asthmatic drug and used in the treatment of acute asthma. Stability-indicating RP-HPLC method for pranlukast hydrate has been developed and validated. The reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed using Shimadzu Column: Kromosil 100 C18 (150 mm × 4.6 mm × 5 µm) and mobile phase Acetonitrile: 0.1% Glacial acetic acid (85: 15% v/v). Eluent was monitored with UV-detector at 262 nm with a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, temperature maintained at 30°C. Stress testing was carried out in acidic, alkaline, oxidative, photolytic and dry heat degradation conditions. The method was validated as per the International Conference for Harmonization guidelines and includes specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity and limit of quantitation and detection parameters. A relative standard deviation <2% indicates the developed method was precise. The accuracy of the method was represented by recovery studies ranging between 99.41 and 99.72%. In acid, alkaline, oxidative stress conditions, pranlukast hydrate degrades significantly and in photolytic, dry heat, hydrolytic conditions remain stable. This proposed method is suitable for the analysis of pranlukast hydrate in its laboratory mixture.

Influence of Graphene Nanoplatelets on the Performance of Axial Suspension Plasma-Sprayed Hydroxyapatite Coatings.

Axial suspension plasma spraying (ASPS) is an alternative technique to atmospheric plasma spraying (APS), which uses a suspension of much finer powders (<5-micron particle size) as the feedstock. It can produce more refined microstructures than APS for biomedical implants. This paper highlights the influence of incorporated graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) on the behavior of ASPS hydroxyapatite (HAp) coatings. The characterization of the ASPS coatings (HAp + varying GNP contents) was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), confocal Raman microscopy (CRM), white light interferometry (WLI), and contact angle measurements. The evaluation of the mechanical properties such as the hardness, roughness, adhesion strength, and porosity was carried out, along with a fretting wear performance. Additionally, the biocompatibility of the Hap + GNP coatings was evaluated using cytotoxicity testing which revealed a decrease in the cell viability from 92.7% to 85.4%, with an increase in the GNP wt.%. The visualization of the cell's components was carried out using SEM and Laser Scanning Microscopy. Furthermore, the changes in the genetic expression of the various cellular markers were assessed to analyze the epigenetic changes in human mesenchymal stem cells. The gene expression changes suggested that GNPs upregulated the proliferation marker and downregulated the pluripotent markers by a minimum of three folds.

Microstructure and Corrosion Properties of AlCrFeCoNi High-Entropy Alloy Coatings Prepared by HVAF and HVOF.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) represent an innovative development approach for new alloy systems. These materials have been found to yield promising properties, such as high strength in combination with sufficient ductility as well as high wear and corrosion resistance. Especially for alloys with a body-centered cubic (bcc) structure, advantageous surface properties have been revealed. However, typical HEA systems contain high contents of expensive or scarce elements. Consequently, applying them as coatings where their use is limited to the surface represents an exciting pathway enabling economical exploitation of their superior properties. Nevertheless, processing conditions strongly influence the resulting microstructure and phase formation, which in turn has a considerable effect on the functional properties of HEAs. In the presented study, microstructural differences between high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) and high-velocity air fuel (HVAF) sprayed coatings of the alloy AlCrFeCoNi are investigated. A metastable bcc structure is formed in both coating processes. Precipitation reactions are suppressed by the rapid solidification during atomization and by the relatively low thermal input during spraying. The coating resistance to corrosive media was investigated in detail, and an improved passivation behavior was observed in the HVAF coatings.

Influence of Test Conditions on Sliding Wear Performance of High Velocity Air Fuel-Sprayed WC-CoCr Coatings.

Sliding wear performance of thermal spray WC-based coatings has been widely studied. However, there is no systematic investigation on the influence of test conditions on wear behaviour of these coatings. In order to have a good understanding of the effect of test parameters on sliding wear test performance of HVAF-sprayed WC-CoCr coatings, ball-on-disc tests were conducted under varying test conditions, including different angular velocities, loads and sliding distances. Under normal load of 20 N and sliding distance of 5 km (used as 'reference' conditions), it was shown that, despite changes in angular velocity (from 1333 rpm up to 2400 rpm), specific wear rate values experienced no major variation. No major change was observed in specific wear rate values even upon increasing the load from 20 N to 40 N and sliding distance from 5 km to 10 km, and no significant change was noted in the prevailing wear mechanism, either. Results suggest that no dramatic changes in applicable wear regime occur over the window of test parameters investigated. Consequently, the findings of this study inspire confidence in utilizing test conditions within the above range to rank different WC-based coatings.

Special Issue: Advances in Thermal Spray Technology.

Coatings deposited utilizing different thermal spray variants have been widely used for diverse industrial applications [...].

Encapsulation of Electron Beam Melting Produced Alloy 718 to Reduce Surface Connected Defects by Hot Isostatic Pressing.

Defects in electron beam melting (EBM) manufactured Alloy 718 are inevitable to some extent, and are of concern as they can degrade mechanical properties of the material. Therefore, EBM-manufactured Alloy 718 is typically subjected to post-treatment to improve the properties of the as-built material. Although hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) is usually employed to close the defects, it is widely known that HIPing cannot close open-to-surface defects. Therefore, in this work, a hypothesis is formulated that if the surface of the EBM-manufactured specimen is suitably coated to encapsulate the EBM-manufactured specimen, then HIPing can be effective in healing such surface-connected defects. The EBM-manufactured Alloy 718 specimens were coated by high-velocity air fuel (HVAF) spraying using Alloy 718 powder prior to HIPing to evaluate the above approach. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) analysis of the defects in the same coated sample before and after HIPing showed that some of the defects connected to the EBM specimen surface were effectively encapsulated by the coating, as they were closed after HIPing. However, some of these surface-connected defects were retained. The reason for such remnant defects is attributed to the presence of interconnected pathways between the ambient and the original as-built surface of the EBM specimen, as the specimens were not coated on all sides. These pathways were also exaggerated by the high surface roughness of the EBM material and could have provided an additional path for argon infiltration, apart from the uncoated sides, thereby hindering complete densification of the specimen during HIPing.

Can Appropriate Thermal Post-Treatment Make Defect Content in as-Built Electron Beam Additively Manufactured Alloy 718 Irrelevant?

Electron beam melting (EBM) is gaining rapid popularity for production of complex customized parts. For strategic applications involving materials like superalloys (e.g., Alloy 718), post-treatments including hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) to eliminate defects, and solutionizing and aging to achieve the desired phase constitution are often practiced. The present study specifically explores the ability of the combination of the above post-treatments to render the as-built defect content in EBM Alloy 718 irrelevant. Results show that HIPing can reduce defect content from as high as 17% in as-built samples (intentionally generated employing increased processing speeds in this illustrative proof-of-concept study) to <0.3%, with the small amount of remnant defects being mainly associated with oxide inclusions. The subsequent solution and aging treatments are also found to yield virtually identical phase distribution and hardness values in samples with vastly varying as-built defect contents. This can have considerable implications in contributing to minimizing elaborate process optimization efforts as well as slightly enhancing production speeds to promote industrialization of EBM for applications that demand the above post-treatments.

A solar-responsive zinc oxide photoanode for solar-photon-harvester photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells.

A highly efficient, nanostructured, solar-responsive zinc-oxide (SRZO) photoanode has been achieved by utilization of a versatile solution precursor plasma spray (SPPS) deposition technique. For the first time, it is demonstrated that a front-illumination type SRZO photo-anode fabricated with a ZnO/stainless steel (SS-304) configuration can generate an enhanced photo-electrochemical (PEC) current of 390 µA cm-2, under solar radiation from a solar simulator with an AM1.5 global filter (∼1 sun). The SRZO electrode displayed a solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency of 2.32% when investigated for H2 evolution in a PEC cell. These electrodes exhibited a maximum peak efficiency of 86% using 320 nm photons during incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency measurement. Interestingly, the film lattice of SRZO showed a significant red-shift of 0.37 eV in the ZnO band gap thereby providing solar photon absorptivity to SRZO. Further, an enhanced charge transport property by virtue of increased donor density (∼4.11 × 1017 cm-3) has been observed, which is higher by an order of magnitude than that of its bulk counterpart. Efficient optical absorption of solar photons and higher donor-density of SRZO have been thus attributed to its superior PEC performance.

Effect of Education on Awareness, Knowledge, and Willingness to Be Vaccinated in Females of Western India.

Cervical Cancer is the second most leading cause of death among Indian women. Infection by human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the major causes of cervical cancer. Two prophylactic HPV vaccines approved and recommended for adolescents and young women in India. However, due to lack of appropriate knowledge, education, resources, and proper communication, these tools have little impact on disease burden. It is important to understand attitude, knowledge, and beliefs of females about HPV, cervical cancer, and HPV vaccine. Hence, the present study aimed to check awareness, educate females about cervical cancer and HPV vaccine, and evaluate the major hurdles in acceptability of HPV vaccine. Total 693 females of age 16 to 40 years of diverse background were enrolled in the study. Questionnaires were prepared to assess knowledge about cervical cancer and HPV vaccine before and after education and impact of knowledge on willingness to administer the vaccine. Education was given with the help of concern physicians. Final follow-up was done after 1 month to assess the attitude towards vaccination. The overall awareness before education was found to be 20.63%; maximum in females of medical (51.37%), and paramedical background (33.33%). Improvement after education was observed in terms of improved information about etiology, symptoms, precautions, and vaccination for cervical cancer. Acceptability of HPV vaccine was found to be poor (40.11% refused to undergo vaccination and 32.17% were in dilemma/unable to decide). Besides religious beliefs, high cost of the vaccine and unavailability of proper and convincing information about the vaccine would be the chief reasons for poor acceptability of HPV vaccine.

Cyclosporine laden tailored microemulsion-gel depot for effective treatment of psoriasis: In vitro and in vivo studies.

Psoriasis is a widespread chronic disease affecting 1-3 % of total population. In major cases (>80 %), it is treated by topical application of corticosteroids. However, the topical route is very challenging due to physico-chemical nature of diseased stratum corneum and so no single treatment works for every patient. The oral route showed severe side effects due to systemic immunosuppression, which can be avoided by topical route. The aim of the research work was to investigate cyclosporine loaded microemulsion based gel for effective cyclosporine permeation and retention in the skin tissue for psoriasis treatment. The pseudo ternary phase diagram at three Smix ratios (2:1, 1:1, and 1:2; Tween 80: isopropyl alcohol) were constructed using isopropyl myristate as oil phase. The Smix at 2:1 ratio showed large microemulsion area. The transmission electron microscope images showed spherical non-aggregated oil globules with the size < 50 nm. The selected microemulsion (Cy-2-ME12O55SM) was incorporated in Carbopol 940 gel for topical application. The ex vivo diffusion study showed improved permeation (>24 h) with microemulsion-gel in comparison to cyclosporine suspension. The microemulsion-gel was non-irritating on the rabbit skin. In drug retention studies, microemulsion-gel showed high drug retention (trapping, 38.92 %) in the skin tissue, which was due to destabilization of microemulsion after penetration in the skin layer causing precipitation of cyclosporine. The depot effect due to cyclosporine precipitates could be helpful for sustained effect of cyclosporine for the effective treatment of psoriasis.

Repurposing of Iloperidone: Antihypertensive and ocular hypotensive activity in animals.

PURPOSE: Iloperidone, second generation antipsychotic drug, reported in clinical trial to produce orthostatic hypotension as side effect. It was claimed to be antagonistic at alpha adrenergic receptor in central nervous system. We evaluated effect of Iloperidone on peripheral alpha 1 adrenoreceptor by in silico and in vitro methods while in vivo hypotensive, antihypertensive and ocular hypotensive activity was evaluated in animals. METHODS: Pharmacological activity prediction of Iloperidone was done using PASSOnline and SwissTargetPrediction softwares and molecular docking with Alpha 1A adrenoreceptor using AutoDock Vina. Hypotensive activity in normotensive and antihypertensive activity against DOCA-salt induced hypertension in rats were evaluated at doses 0.03 mg/Kg and 0.1 mg/Kg, i.p of Iloperidone. Blood pressure was measured by invasive blood pressure measurement technique using PowerLab 4/30 and intraocular pressure was measured using digital tonometer. RESULTS: Iloperidone (0.1 mg/Kg) showed significant decrease in blood pressure (38.96 ± 1.1%) in normotensive rats, while in DOCA salt induced hypertensive rats, systolic blood pressure was found to be decreased by 29.04 ± 1.45% and 31.43 ± 1.21% in 0.03 mg/Kg and 0.1 mg/Kg treated rats respectively. Iloperidone prevented rise in systolic BP with adrenaline. Intraocular pressure was found to be decreased by 36.66 ± 3.15% in rabbits after 1 h of instillation of 0.1% Iloperidone. CONCLUSION: Iloperidone exerted hypotensive and/or anti-hypertensive activity in rats and ocular hypotensive activity in rabbits.

In silico evaluation of apoptogenic potential and toxicological profile of triterpenoids.

AIM: Caspases-3 and 8 are key mediators of intrinsic and extrinsic pathway of apoptosis, respectively. Triterpenoids of natural and synthetic origin reported as anticancer agents with apoptotic potential and hence may prove to be good candidates for in silico testing against caspases-3 and 8. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Various naturally-occurring and synthetic triterpenoids were subjected to activity prediction using PASS Online software, and among them, 67 compounds were selected for further processing. Protein structure of caspase-3 (3DEI) and caspase-8 (3KJQ) was obtained from the protein data bank and docked with selected triterpenoids using AutoDock Tools and AutoDock Vina. Toxicological profile was predicted based on clinical manifestations using PASS online software. RESULTS: The high docking score of -10.0, -9.9, -9.8, and -9.5 were shown by friedelin, tingenone, albiziasaponin A, and albiziasaponin C, respectively, for caspase-3, and -11.0, -9.6, -9.6, and -9.4 by ß-boswellic acid, bryonolic acid, canophyllic acid, and CDDO, respectively, for caspase-8. Possible adverse events were predicted with varying degree of probability and major relevant effects were reported. Hydrostatic interactions along with formation of hydrogen bonds with specific amino acids in the binding pocket were identified with each triterpenoid. CONCLUSION: Lead molecules identified through this in silico study such as friedelin, tingenone, albiziasaponin, bryonolic acid, and canophyllic acid may be utilized for further in vitro/in vivo studies as apoptotic agents targeting caspases-3 and 8.

Durability of Gadolinium Zirconate/YSZ Double-Layered Thermal Barrier Coatings under Different Thermal Cyclic Test Conditions.

Higher durability in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is constantly sought to enhance the service life of gas turbine engine components such as blades and vanes. In this study, three double layered gadolinium zirconate (GZ)-on-yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) TBC variants with varying individual layer thickness but identical total thickness produced by suspension plasma spray (SPS) process were evaluated. The objective was to investigate the role of YSZ layer thickness on the durability of GZ/YSZ double-layered TBCs under different thermal cyclic test conditions i.e., thermal cyclic fatigue (TCF) at 1100 °C and a burner rig test (BRT) at a surface temperature of 1400 °C, respectively. Microstructural characterization was performed using SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and porosity content was measured using image analysis technique. Results reveal that the durability of double-layered TBCs decreased with YSZ thickness under both TCF and BRT test conditions. The TBCs were analyzed by SEM to investigate microstructural evolution as well as failure modes during TCF and BRT test conditions. It was observed that the failure modes varied with test conditions, with all the three double-layered TBC variants showing failure in the TGO (thermally grown oxide) during the TCF test and in the ceramic GZ top coat close to the GZ/YSZ interface during BRT. Furthermore, porosity analysis of the as-sprayed and TCF failed TBCs revealed differences in sintering behavior for GZ and YSZ. The findings from this work provide new insights into the mechanisms responsible for failure of SPS processed double-layered TBCs under different thermal cyclic test conditions.

Exploiting Suspension Plasma Spraying to Deposit Wear-Resistant Carbide Coatings.

Titanium- and chromium-based carbides are attractive coating materials to impart wear resistance. Suspension plasma spraying (SPS) is a relatively new thermal spray process which has shown a facile ability to use sub-micron and nano-sized feedstock to deposit high-performance coatings. The specific novelty of this work lies in the processing of fine-sized titanium and chromium carbides (TiC and Cr3C2) in the form of aqueous suspensions to fabricate wear-resistant coatings by SPS. The resulting coatings were characterized by surface morphology, microstructure, phase constitution, and micro-hardness. The abrasive, erosive, and sliding wear performance of the SPS-processed TiC and Cr3C2 coatings was also evaluated. The results amply demonstrate that SPS is a promising route to manufacture superior wear-resistant carbide-based coatings with minimal in situ oxidation during their processing.

Performance of Hybrid Powder-Suspension Axial Plasma Sprayed Al2O3-YSZ Coatings in Bovine Serum Solution.

Ceramic coatings on metallic implants are a promising alternative to conventional implants due to their ability to offer superior wear resistance. The present work investigates the sliding wear behavior under bovine serum solution and indentation crack growth resistance of four coatings, namely (1) conventional powder-derived alumina coating (Ap), (2) suspension-derived alumina coating (As), (3) composite Al2O3-20wt % Yittria stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) coating (AsYs) deposited using a mixed suspension, and (4) powder Al2O3-suspension YSZ hybrid composite coating ApYs developed by axial feeding plasma spraying, respectively. The indentation crack growth resistance of the hybrid coating was superior due to the inclusion of distributed fine YSZ particles along with coarser alumina splats. Enhanced wear resistance was observed for the powder derived Ap and the hybrid ApYs coatings, whereas the suspension sprayed As and AsYs coatings significantly deteriorated due to extensive pitting.

Anticancer activity of saponin isolated from Albizia lebbeck using various in vitro models.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth. (Family: Mimosaceae) is commonly known as Sirisha in Sanskrit. The leaves and pods of A. lebbeck were claimed to be used against cancer in traditional medicine. Previous studies using bark, leaves, seeds and pods of A. lebbeck showed cytotoxic activity against hepatic, colon, larynx, cervical and breast cancer cell lines. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the anticancer activity of saponin rich fraction of Albizia lebbeck by using various in vitro models. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Albiziasaponins (A-E) are oleanene triterpene presents in Albizia lebbeck were used for in silico studies. In silico testing of albiziasaponins for structure based pharmacological activity prediction using PASS Online software and docking with Autodock tool and Autodock Vina revels it's anticancer and apoptogenic potential. Antiproliferative activity of saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck was performed using MCF-7 human breast cancer cells by MTT assay methods. Anti-angiogenic property of saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck was evaluated in in vitro shell less chick embryo cultures with different concentrations (0.1 µg/ml, 0.5 µg/ml, and 1 µg/ml) by using ImageJ software. In vitro cultured lymphocytes chromosomal aberration assay was performed to determine the physical integrity of chromosomes in cells and effect of saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck on cell cycle. Apoptogenic potential was evaluated using Caspases-3 and Caspase-8 ELISA assay in MCF-7 cells. RESULTS: Result of MTT assay showed IC50 of saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck at 1 µg/ml in MCF-7 cells. Treatment with saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck significantly (p < 0.05) reduced angiogenic parameters. Significant chromosomal aberrations (hypodiploid, hyperdiploid, ring, premature separation, Dicentric fragments, Acentric fragment, chromatid break, and chromosomal gap) were observed in saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck treated groups. Treatment with saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck increased levels of Caspases-3 (optical density of 0.24 at 450 nm) and Caspase-8 (optical density of 0.31 at 450 nm) as compared to staurosporine (optical density of 2.47 and 2.65 for caspases-3 and -8 respectively at 450 nm). CONCLUSION: In our study, saponin rich fraction of A. lebbeck showed antiproliferative, antiangiogenic and apoptogenic potential using various in-vitro models. It also found to increase chromosomal aberration and thereby may affect cell cycle.

Coagulase-negative staphylococci: Emerging pathogen in central nervous system shunt infection.

Central nervous system (CNS) shunts are commonly used to treat patients with hydrocephalus. Its placement is associated with increased risk of infection. The study was intended to evaluate infection rate associated with CNS shunt surgeries and identify risk factors for shunt infection. The frequency and characterisation of aetiological agents along with their antibiotic resistance pattern were also studied. A prospective study of 86 patients who underwent 97 surgeries over a period of 18 months was conducted. One hundred seventy-six cerebrospinal fluid samples and 44 shunt tips obtained were processed using standard microbiological techniques. Of 86 patients, 39 (45.35%) operated for shunt revision were infected while 47 patients operated for shunt insertion were not found to be infected. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis was the predominant isolate. 57.58% isolates of Staphylococci were found to be biofilm producers. Mortality of 15% was observed among infected patients. Shunt infection remains a serious issue in the patients undergoing shunt surgery. Accurate diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infection are essential in such patients.