Background The future health of individuals depends on the well being of the children of today. Proper nutrition for children is very important. The most commonly used index of obesity and over weight is Body Mass Index. The growth of children should be monitored using the Body Mass Index (BMI) and risk factors assessed through a dietary and physical activity history. The increase in obesity is attributed to increased carbohydrate consumption among children. Obesity and caries are both diet-based conditions that share a cause that is, excessive ingestion of fermentable carbohydrates.Objective This study was undertaken to determine the association of nutritional status with dental caries in 8 to 12 year old children of Udaipur city.Method The present study was conducted on a random sample of 1000 boys and girls, aged 8-12 years. The children were selected from schools located in the Udaipur City, Rajasthan. The schools examined were of government and private sector schools in Udaipur city. The children from schools of Udaipur city was taken in the study with male, female and age group ratio as per distribution in population. A proforma was used to record children’s age, gender, school, year, height, weight, parental income and dental caries status. Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS Version 15; Chicago Inc., USA).Result It was found that caries free individuals were more from normal nutritional status group with 134 (13.4 %) subjects where as only 11 (1.1 %) of subjects obese children were found caries free.Conclusion Study shows that the children with normal BMI for age had more caries in their primary teeth, as well as in their permanent teeth, than the overweight children.Kathmandu University Medical Journal Vol.12(1) 2014: 26-31

Objective Despite the significant advancement in the understanding of the pathophysiology of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) variable clinical response to newer therapies remain a major concern, especially for patients with lupus nephritis and neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). We performed this study with an objective to comprehensively characterize Indian SLE patients with renal and neuropsychiatric manifestation with respect to their gene signature, cytokine profile and immune cell phenotypes. Methods We characterized 68 Indian SLE subjects with diverse clinical profiles and disease activity and tried to identify differentially expressed genes and enriched pathways. To understand the temporal profile, same patients were followed at 6 and 12-months intervals. Additionally, auto-antibody profile, levels of various chemokines, cytokines and the proportion of different immune cells and their activation status were captured in these subjects. Results Multiple IFN-related pathways were enriched with significant increase in IFN-I gene signature in SLE patients as compared to normal healthy volunteers (NHV). We identified two transcriptionally distinct clusters within the same cohort of SLE patients with differential immune cell activation status, auto-antibody as well as plasma chemokines and cytokines profile. Conclusions Identification of two distinct clusters of patients based on IFN-I signature provided new insights into the heterogeneity of underlying disease pathogenesis of Indian SLE cohort. Importantly, patient within those clusters retain their distinct expression dynamics of IFN-I signature over the time course of one year despite change in disease activity. This study will guide clinicians and researchers while designing future clinical trials on Indian SLE cohort.

Antithyroid drugs (ATD’s) are widely used as the first line treatment option for the management of hyperthyroidism, especially for patients with Graves’ disease. They are classified into thionamide (Methimazole, Carbimazole and Propylthiouracil) and Non-thionamide (Iodine containing compounds) ATD’s. These drugs are associated with various types of adverse effects ranging from mild to potentially life threatening. Antithyroid arthritis syndome (AAS) is one of the major and uncommon side effects of ATD therapy requiring immediate drug discontinuation and hospitalization presents itself with myalgia, arthralgia and arthritis along with fever and rash of varying severity and non-specific laboratory findings, making its diagnosis and management clinically challenging. Here we report the case of 32 year old female with Graves’ disease who experienced severe migratory polyarthritis after the initiation of methimazole therapy. Her symptoms started to disappear after the prompt withdrawal of methimazole. We also concluded that this adverse effect of ATD’s might not be dose dependent by comparing our case with 6 other case reports of AAS. Here our objective is to raise awareness among the clinicians regarding the differential diagnosis and management of this major, uncommon and potentially life threatening adverse effect of ATD therapy.

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