Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has emerged as a major public health problem in recent times. It is one of the neglected conditions in developing nations like India, due to scarcity of studies on the subject. Study objective was to assess the prevalence of NAFLD among patients undergoing master health checkup in a tertiary care teaching hospital and to analyze the profile of NAFLD cases. Material and materials: The study was a hospital based analytical cross-sectional study. Conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in south India. People attending the master health checkup in the study setting from June 2015 to July 2018 were included. Chi square test was used to test statistical significance. Results: A total of 818 patients were included, out of whom 130(15.89%) had NAFLD. The proportion of grade 1, 2 and 3 fatty liver was 79.23%, 13.84% and 6.92% respectively. The difference in waist circumference and HDL values were statistically significant between male & female (P value <0.001 and 0.007 respectively). No other components of Metabolic syndrome had shown statistically significant difference between males and females. The difference in grade of NAFLD across the age group is found to be significant with a P-value of 0.035. Grade of NAFLD was not associated with any other diet or lifestyle related parameters. Conclusions: Significant proportion of healthy subjects are affected by NAFLD, some of them with severe grades, with key gender differences in some of the factors associated with NAFLD. Patients and clinicians needs to be sensitized regarding NAFLD.
Background: Stress and increase in free radicals levels are known to alter cognition, learning, memory, and emotional responses. There is a marked impairment of hippocampus-dependent memory and suppression of long-term potentiation in the CA1 region of the hippocampus during stress. Aim and Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the hypothesized neuroprotective effect of oral antioxidants and piracetam in chronic restraint stress-induced rats. Materials and Methods: Healthy Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups (n = 6) each. Control group received neither stress nor oral antioxidant. Stress group received chronic restraint stress for 6 h per day for 21 days. Three experimental groups were administered vitamin C (100 mg/kg), beta-carotene (7 mg/kg), and caffeine (8 mg/kg), respectively. Evaluation parameters were measurement of serum nerve growth factor (NGF) using ELISA method. The oxidative stress markers, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase, and malondialdehyde were measured. Histological analysis of CA1 region of the hippocampus was done to evaluate the structural changes of pyramidal neurons. Results: Vitamin C caused statistically significant (P < 0.001) increase in serum NGF. The results revealed that vitamin C caused statistically significant (P < 0.05) increase in antioxidant enzymes GPx, glutathione reductase. Vitamin C caused increase in neuronal cell size and volume in CA1 pyramidal layer of hippocampus. Conclusion: The findings of study are suggestive of neuroprotection, offered by administration of vitamin C compared to other antioxidants against chronic restraint stress-induced rats. These naturally available dietary vitamins might serve as an adjuvant therapy to avoid progression of brain damage during stress.
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