Objective To study oxidative stress in placental tissue as well as in serum in pre-eclamptic women. Methods Fifty pre-eclamptic cases and fifty normal pregnant women were selected in the study. Thio barbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) was measured as oxidative stress marker and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and GSH (reduced glutathione) were measured for assessment of antioxidant status in placental tissue extract and serum. Results TBARS and SOD activity were increased significantly (P \ 0.001) in both placental homogenate and serum in pre-eclamptic women. Level of GSH was not altered much. Conclusion Placental oxidative stress can be assessed by measuring serum oxidative stress markers and this may help in prevention of further progress of this condition.

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Context:For any given body mass, Asian Indians have higher central obesity than Europeans. A periodic measurement of body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) is practically more feasible than other parameters of metabolic syndrome by repeated blood collection. However, few studies are available on the relative importance of BMI and WHR as markers of dyslipidemia and insulin resistance in schizophrenia patients stabilized on second generation antipsychotics in Indian population.Aim:We conducted the present study on such patients to examine whether BMI or WHR can better predict dyslipidemia and insulin resistance in these patients in a rural area.Settings and Design:The study was a hospital based case control study under rural settings on 38 schizophrenia patients stabilized on olanzapine and 30 matched controls.Materials and Methods:Fasting concentrations of blood glucose, lipid parameters and serum insulin were assessed. Data for Homeostatic model for assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), BMI, and WHR were obtained to assess the insulin resistance, overall body fat distribution and abdominal fat dispensation respectively.Statistical analysis used:‘t’ test was performed to assay any difference in corresponding mean values between cases and controls. Dependence of HOMA-IR on key parameters was assessed by analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) study.Results:Cases exhibited significantly higher values for HOMA-IR, serum triglyceride and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) with a significantly lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc) level. ANCOVA study reflected that irrespective of age and sex, HOMA-IR was dependent on serum triglyceride level and WHR (F=8.3 and 5.7 respectively, P<0.05), but not on BMI (F<0.001, P=0.997).Conclusions:Central obesity could be more closely associated with the pathogenesis of prediabetic state in our case group. So, WHR is a better anthropometric parameter than BMI for an early assessment of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia in schizophrenia patients stabilized on olanzapine in our region.

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an expanding global health problem. Type 2 DM (T2DM) patients account about 90% of total DM patients. Magnesium is important for different physiological mechanism. Hypomagnesemia is common in T2DM patient. Magnitude of hypomagnesemia is related with glycemic control and is associated with complications of T2DM. Aims and Objectives: Our aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of hypomagnesemia in patients of T2DM patients and to find their correlation with glycemic control and complications of T2DM patients in rural population of eastern zone of India. Materials and Methods: The hospital-based cross-sectional study includes 99 male and female DM patients between 15 and 60 years age. Fasting blood sugar, postprandial blood sugar, HbA1c, serum total magnesium, and urine albumin creatinine ratio were measured. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then analyzed by SPSS (version 25.0; SPSS Inc.) and GraphPad Prism (version 5.0). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: From our study, we observed that hypomagnesemia is common in T2DM patients. The magnitude of hypomagnesemia is correlated with glycemic control (P < 0.0001). Moreover, hypomagnesemia is associated with diabetic kidney diseases (P < 0.05). Conclusion: It can be concluded that serum magnesium should be monitored in all T2DM patients and should be managed appropriately because hypomagnesemia may induce complications in T2DM patients.

HbE/β-thalassemia is the most common severe form of thalassemia which is very prominent in South East Asian countries. It is responsible for nearly one-half of all the severe types of β-thalassemia all over the world. It is also known to represent a wide range of phenotypic diversity which varies from asymptomatic to transfusion-dependent severe phenotype. The most important predictive factor is mutations within the beta-globin gene (HBB). Apart from the primary genetic modifiers, there are certain other determinants regulating the phenotypic heterogeneity including, co-inheritance of alpha thalassemia mutations and other secondary modifiers including Xmn1 polymorphism, HBS1L-MYB, GATA-1, BCL11A polymorphism, and presence of HPFH mutations. Although the degree of severity is also determined by other tertiary genetic modifiers like increase in serum erythropoietin due to anemia, previous infection with malaria, environmental factors, splenectomy, etc. This review aimed to reveal the potential genetic predictors of HbE/β-thalassemia patients and the probable management strategy. This also enhances the generation of “personalized medicine” for better patient care. The instability of clinical phenotype and remarkable variation indicate careful monitoring of treatment for each patient and the therapeutic approaches should be monitored over time.