Background:In India the incidence of end stage renal disease (ESRD) is increasing day by day and the option for the treatment of ESRD is dialysis or transplantation. In the present scenario, due to the cost of treatment normal people can afford only hemodialysis rather than transplantation. Since the cost of hemodialysis differs across the country, research is needed to evaluate its exact cost.Aim:This study is to analyze the healthcare cost of hemodialysis in a private hospital of South India.Materials and Methods:This is a prospective, observational study carried out in a tertiary care hospital. Patients who are undergoing routine hemodialysis in this hospital were selected for the study. Patient data as well as cost details were collected for a period of six months. Thirty patients were selected for the study and a total of 2160 dialysis sessions were studied. Patient perspective was taken for the analysis of cost. Both direct and indirect costs were analyzed. This includes cost of dialysis, investigations, erythropoietin, food, transportation, lost wages etc. Socioeconomic status of the patient was also studied.Result:The total cost per session was found to be around Rs. 4500. Fifty six percent contributes direct medical cost whereas 20% contributes direct non medical cost. Twenty four percent cost was due to indirect costs. Since the patients are paying from their own pocket, only the upper or upper middle class patient can undergo hemodialysis regularly.Conclusion:These findings are important to find out the impact of cost of hemodialysis on patients suffering from ESRD. Further studies related to costs and outcome, otherwise known as pharmacoeconomic studies, are needed to analyze the pros and cons of renal replacement therapy and to improve the quality of life of ESRD patients. Thus pharmacoeconomical studies are needed to realize that government has to take initiative to provide insurance or reimbursement for the common people.

Diabetes, a comprehensive genetic disease, is principally due to the deregulation of glucose levels in the blood. In addition to contemporary epidemiological studies, systematic substantiation suggests that long-term diabetes leads to cancers due to a variety of reasons. In this study, blood samples were collected with informed consent from confirmed type I diabetic (T1DM, n=25) and type II Diabetic patients (T2DM, n=25) with equal numbers of controls. Further depending on the lifestyle habits they were subdivided into smokers/non-smokers and alcoholics/non-alcoholics. Chromosomal assays were performed for these cases and it was found that there was a significant increase in chromosomal aberration frequency in diabetic patient groups who are exposed to smoking and alcohol than that of normal diabetic groups (T1DM and T2DM). On the other hand, patient groups who were non-smoking and non-alcoholics also showed higher chromosomal aberrations when compared to that of controls. While the mechanisms for these increased chromosomal aberrations in diabetic groups are not clear, they may be due to increased oxidative stress leading to oxidative damage and resulting in genomic instability, which in turn may contribute to an increased risk for cancer.

The overall lethality/morbidity of ionizing radiation exposure involves multiple forms of inhibitory or cytotoxic effects that may manifest in different tissues with a varying dose and time response. One of the major systemic effects leading to lethality of radiation includes its suppressive effect on hematopoiesis, which could be observed even at doses as low as 1–2 Gy, whereas effects on gastrointestinal and nervous systems appear at relatively higher doses in the same order. This article reviews the effects of radiation on the three distinct stages of erythropoiesis—formation of erythroid progenitor cells, differentiation of erythroid precursor cells, and terminal maturation. During these stepwise developmental processes, erythroid progenitor cells undergo rapid expansion to form terminally differentiated red blood cells that are continuously replenished from bone marrow into the circulating peripheral blood stream. Cellular radiation response depends upon many factors such as cell lineage, rate of proliferation, and differentiation status. Therefore, we discuss radiation-induced alterations during the progenitor, precursor, and terminal maturation stages and the implications thereof. Since biomarkers of ionizing radiation exposure in human populations are of great interest for assessing normal tissue injury as well as for biodosimetry in the event of accidental or incidental radiation exposures, we also highlight blood-based biomarkers that have potential utility for medical management.

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Introduction The association of Vitamin D and children with asthma is known and there are several individual studies on Vitamin D polymorphisms. However, systematic reviews on all vitamin D associated gene polymorphisms have not been done in children with asthma. Objective To investigate the association of Vitamin D associated gene polymorphisms and asthma in children (0–18 years) by systematic review and meta-analytic approach. Methods Our search included 20 full text articles of which 15 were case control studies and 5 used family based linkage disequilibrium method. Total of 2491cases and 3682 controls were included in case control studies, with mean age of 9.58 years and 10.16 years respectively. Quantitative and qualitative analysis were done. Results Quantitative analysis revealed significant association with protective effect of Apa1 polymorphism in allele (OR 0.81 (0.71,0.91) and homozygous major form (OR 0.83 (0.70,0.98) and Taq 1 minor allele in homozygous form (OR 0.73 (0.58,0.92) in children with asthma. However, the minor allele of Apa1(OR 1.21 (1.07,1.37), Bsm 1 in heterozygous (OR 1.35 (1.07,1.71) and homozygous minor form (OR 1.95 (1.59,2.39), major allele of Fok1(OR1.34 (1.17,1.52) and Taq1 (OR 1.22 (1.08,1.38) were found to be increasing the odds of asthma. Ethnic variations were noted in subgroup analysis. Qualitative analysis of the polymorphisms of the Vitamin D associated metabolic genes also showed significant associations. Conclusion Our review shows significant associations with VDR polymorphisms - Apa1, Bsm1, Fok 1, Taq 1, polymorphisms of Vitamin D metabolic genes – CYP27A1, CYP 2R1, CYP 24A1, GC and genes related to Vitamin D response element (VDRE) in children with asthma. Conducting large studies involving various ethnic regions will strengthen our knowledge on the association and aid in targeted interventions for control of asthma in children.