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The present study was conducted to investigate the oxidant-antioxidant status in iron deficient pregnant anemic women. One hundred thirty pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) were divided into three groups, namely mild (50), moderate (50) and severe (30) anemic along with pregnant healthy women as controls (50). The complete blood count, plasma lipid peroxidation products, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants were measured according to respective protocols. The levels of complete blood count, iron, ferritin along with antioxidant enzymes namely catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and reduced glutathione were significantly reduced in all IDA groups. However, the level of oxidized glutathione, lipid peroxides, protein carbonyls, conjugated dienes were found significantly increased in all anemic patients. Antioxidant vitamins, namely C, E and A were also found significantly decreased in IDA patients. On the basis of our results, it may be concluded that IDA tends to increase the pro-oxidant components, which may result in various complications including peroxidation of vital body molecules resulting in increased risk for pregnant women as well as fetus.

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Pulmonary tuberculosis is probably as old as mankind itself, still it remains the major health problem globally and specially in developing nations. It is estimated that about 40% of the Indian population is infected with Tubercle Bacillus bacteria, the vast majority of whom have latent rather than active TB.As pulmonary tuberculosis is infectious in nature, early initiation of treatment to render it noninfectious is necessary. Several laboratory investigation techniques have been devised for early and accurate detection of TB, but either they are time consuming or very expensive. Radiodiagnosis is playing an important role in the management of tuberculosis since the discovery of X-rays in 1895. With advent of newer imaging modalities such as USG, CT and MRI and their widespread availability the contribution of radiodiagnosis in management of tuberculosis has been significantly increased. Chest radiographs play a major role in the screening, diagnosis, and follow-up of the patients with TB. However, the radiographs may be normal or show only mild or nonspecific findings in patients with active disease. CT is more sensitive than chest radiography in the detection and characterization of both subtle localized or disseminated parenchymal disease and mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Familiarity with the patterns of imaging characteristics of pulmonary tuberculosis is needed for its early detection and further management. INTRODUCTION: The Pulmonary tuberculosis is probably as old as mankind itself. But it took several centuries to discover Mycobacterium tuberculosis as a causative agent by Robert Koch in 1882. The discovery of streptomycin in 1944, para-amino salicylic acid in 1946 and isoniazid in1952 led to the first effective cure for TB. And the descriptions of airborne transmission of infection and of reactivation of dormant infection in the 1960s by Riley and Stead and Colleagues respectively, furthered our understanding of the spread and pathogenesis of this disease. 1 But TB still remains the major health problem globally and specially in developing nations. It is estimated that about 40% of the Indian population is infected with TB bacteria, the vast majority of whom have latent rather than active TB. India is the highest TB burden country with World Health Organization (WHO) statistics for 2011 giving an estimated incidence figure of 2.2 million cases of TB for India out of a global incidence of 8.7 million cases. The estimated TB prevalence figure for 2011 is given as 3.1 million. 2

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