Study of neurocognitive endophenotypes in drug-naïve obsessive-compulsive disorder patients, their first-degree relatives and healthy controls.

OBJECTIVE: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating heritable neuropsychiatric condition. Attempts to delineate genetic contributions in OCD have met with limited success, with an ongoing search for neurocognitive endophenotypes. In this study, an attempt has been made to study and compare the neurocognitive functioning of patients with OCD, their first-degree relatives (FDRs) and healthy controls. METHOD: A cross-sectional design study was carried out with thirty dyads of patients with OCD, their FDRs and thirty matched healthy controls and screened using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Verbal Adult Intelligence Scale, Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, International Personality Disorder Examination (Anankastic personality scale).Tests of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Neuropsychological Battery were used to assess domains of attention, verbal memory, visual memory, set-shifting, response inhibition, planning and visuoconstructive abilities. spss version 14.0 was used for descriptive and analytical data analysis. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between patients with OCD and their FDRs on neurocognitive domains of delayed verbal recall, set-shifting, response inhibition and visuoconstructive abilities (P > 0.05) which were impaired compared with healthy controls. Significant differences (P < 0.05) on domains of attention, planning time and visual memory were noted between FDRs and patients. CONCLUSION: The present study supports set-shifting and inhibitory control and proposes visuoconstructive abilities and delayed verbal recall as potential endophenotypes for OCD.

Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of Sirolimus coated drug eluting nano porous carbon stents.

Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method has proved to powerful research tool due to its sensitivity, high selectivity, and high throughput efficiency..Sirolimus was extracted from plasma by two-step extraction procedure using chloroform as extracting solvent. Signal intensity was high using ESI(+) source provided for the quantitation of samples. Chromatographic separation was performed on phenomenax C-18 column (250 x 4.60 mm 5microns).Mobile phase contains acetonitrile, water (80; 20 v/v) + 0.1% acetic acid, flow rate 1 mL/min.The retention time of Sirolimus 8.4 min, the total run time10 min. Linearity correlation coefficients (r(2)) curve was 0.997183.calibraction range 10-1000 ng/mL. The UV detection of Sirolimus was at 278(277.78) nm. Sirolimus coated drug eluting stents, MRM (Multiple reaction monitoring) transition of Sirolimus m/z 936.83-208.84 was selected to obtain maximum sensitivity. LC/MS/MS results exhibited consistency in drug content on the stent surface. In-vitro release kinetic indicated the release of Sirolimus in 41 days from the date of implanted. Drug release was found at the first day, burst release was observed at 7(th) day of implantation. This study involved pharmacological coating of stents, based on the notion that sustained systemic local delivery of anti-proliferative agents. LC-MS/MS method has been successfully used in the pharmacokinetic analysis of Sirolimus coated drug eluting stents.