Background: Hypertension, a global public health issue, is a major risk factor for NCDs like stroke, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. If Hypertension is detected early it is possible to minimize the risk of cardiovascular diseases, stroke and kidney failure. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of hypertension among the age group of >18 years in a rural community of Salem iii. To determine the association between hypertension and selected variables like age, sex, tobacco intake, alcohol intake, physical activity, Body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio iv. To assess the level of awareness, treatment and control of hypertensionMethods: A Cross-sectional study was done in a rural community of Salem, Tamil Nadu during March-December 2016 among individuals aged ≥18 years. The final calculated sample size was 256. Convenience sampling method was used. Participants were interviewed using a structured interview schedule, their BP was measured and anthropometric measurements were taken. Hypertension was defined according to JNC VIII criteria. Data entry and analysis was done using IBM SPSS version-21 software. Results: Out of the 442 eligible persons approached 420 persons consented to participate. Prevalence of hypertension was 34%. About 16% of the respondents had never measured their BP in their life time. Increase in age, male gender, increase in BMI levels, tobacco and alcohol were found to be significant independent predictors of hypertension. Awareness, treatment and control of hypertension were found to be 31%, 23.2% and 11.2% respectively. Conclusions: Prevalence of hypertension was high but awareness was poor. It is recommended to advice the community about the risk factors of hypertension and regular BP check-up should be done among the community for early detection of hypertension and also for preventing complications.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent epidemic. The true prevalence of CKD with in a population are very difficult to estimate, since early to moderate CKD were usually asymptomatic. ESRD in the consequence of CKD is one of the most expensive diseases to treat.Only way is to prevent it and Hence this was conducted to estimate the prevalence of CKD and its associated risk factors among adults in selected slums of Chennai.Methods: This is a cross sectional study done from May 2013 to June 2014 in selected slums of Chennai. The study population includes adult males and females. Multi stage sampling method used. Sample size covered was 400. A semi structured questionnaire used as tool. Based on the serum creatinine eGFR calculated using modified MDRD study equation and CKD prevalence was identified. The data was entered in MS excel and analyzed using SPSS version 21.Results: Total of 400 participants involved. Females were predominant in the study. Among them, 67 (16.8%) were diagnosed as CKD patients and Stage 1, 4.0% had stage 2, 3.6% had stage 3, 1.3% had stage 4 and 0.5% had stage 5 at the time of diagnosis.Conclusions: This study revealed prevalence of CKD among slum population was 16.8%. This study showed that old age, uncontrolled hypertension, uneducated, Diabetes with poor control, overuse of analgesics, H/o smoking, obesity, alcoholism, passive smoking, family H/o CKD and proteinuria were significant risk factor for CKD among study subjects. Slum population with risk factors should be regularly screened for CKD.

BACKGROUND Non neoplastic lesions of appendix outnumber the neoplastic counterparts and appendicitis is the frequently encountered lesion in day to day clinical practice. Both non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions of appendix present with abdominal pain and thus imaging & histopathological examination of the specimen play an important role in diagnosing the specific entities. In this study, we analysed the macroscopic and microscopic features of the appendicectomy specimen during the study period and ascertained the frequency of non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions of the appendix. METHODS During the study period i.e. from January 2017 to December 2017, patients who underwent appendicectomy either as an emergency, or an elective procedure, in Madras Medical College & Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai, were included in the study population. The patient particulars and the histopathological diagnosis were retrieved from the surgical pathology records. RESULTS We received 1100 appendicectomy specimens and all were subjected to routine histopathological examination. The histopathological spectrum of appendiceal lesions ranged from non-neoplastic to neoplastic lesions. Non-neoplastic lesions accounted for 99.4% of cases (1093 cases) and remaining 0.6% of cases (7 cases) were neoplasms. Various non-neoplastic conditions like acute appendicitis, acute suppurative appendicitis, chronic appendicitis, eosinophilic appendicitis, fibrosing appendicitis, granulomatous lesion, appendicitis with worm infestation were reported. In this study, primary appendiceal neoplasms like carcinoid tumour, low grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasm (LAMN) and mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix were encountered. CONCLUSIONS All appendicectomy specimens should be subjected to routine histopathological examination as certain incidental findings might be missed if histopathological examination of the specimens was not performed.

BACKGROUNDThe incidence of adnexal and non-adnexal masses in pregnancy appears to be increasing in line with the expanding use of antenatal ultrasound. Majority of such masses do not cause problems and persisting masses can lead to complications and may require emergency or elective surgical resection.

Background: In India, non-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) technique was introduced in 1992 to improve the male participation in family planning, though it has failed to achieve its goal. Hence this study was planned to know the real concern about this condition. This study was carried out to assess the knowledge and attitude about non- scalpel vasectomy (NSV) and practices of any contraceptive methods among married females in reproductive age in an urban slum.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study done in urban field practice area of Institute of Community Medicine, Madras Medical College, Chennai-03, Tamil Nadu in the period July 2014 to August 2014 among Married females of reproductive age group (15-49 years).Specific questions on knowledge, attitude regarding NSV were asked. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel sheet and analysed in SPSS version 20. Results: This is a questionnaire based study. All (106 participants) were aware of vasectomy. Among them 50% knew that vasectomy is an option for permanent sterilization. About 36% of them knew that cash incentive is given for vasectomy & 30% knew that insurance given for pregnancy and other complications followed by vasectomy. Around 31% of the respondents knew that vasectomy does not affect sexual performance. About 29% knew that vasectomy does not need prolonged bed rest. Only 19% of the participants knew that vasectomy is done free of cost and as an OP procedure and 11.3% knew that vasectomy is done without any incision. Among the participants 81% agreed that limiting family size stabilizes the financial condition of the family. About 48% of the participants agreed that family planning is also a responsibility of males and 56% were willing to recommend vasectomy for others. Only 35% of the females agreed to adopt vasectomy for their spouse. Among the respondents 73.6% were practicing some form of contraception currently. Conclusions: We conclude that there is a need to design and develop a need based behavioural change communication strategy to bridge the existing information gap among the eligible couples about NSV & to improve the male participation in family planning. Involvement of media, community participation and successful stories of males who have adopted NSV would enhance the effectiveness of all the interventions.