To find the prevalence and causes of thrombocytopenia during pregnancy. An analytical prospective observational study was conducted in Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, CSMMU, Lucknow. 1079 antenatal women screened for thrombocytopenia and investigated for cause and management strategies and fetomaternal outcome were recorded. Prevalence of thrombocytopenia was 8.8%. Gestational thrombocytopenia was seen in 64.2%, obstetric in 22.1% and medical in 13.68% cases. Mean platelet count in controls was lower with a significant fall (P \ 0.001) in the platelet count as pregnancy advanced. Hypertensive and hepatic disorders were the most common obstetric causes of thrombocytopenia. Mode of delivery was not affected by thrombocytopenia. Maternal morbidity and mortality was seen only in medical and obstetric thrombocytopenia. The low platelet counts and declining trend with increasing gestational age predispose Indian women to risk of thrombocytopenia and a routine platelet count is suggested.

A DNA-dependent RNA polymerase was purified from the Antarctic psychrotrophic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae. The RNA polymerase showed a typical eubacterial subunit composition with L L, L LP P, K K 2 and c c subunits. The subunits cross-reacted with antibodies raised against holoenzyme and the individual subunits of the RNA polymerase of Escherichia coli. However, the enzyme was considered unique, since unlike the RNA polymerase of mesophilic E. coli it exhibited significant and consistent transcriptional activity (10^15%) even at 0³C. But, similar to the enzyme from the mesophilic bacterium, the RNA polymerase from P. syringae exhibited optimum activity at 37³C. The study also demonstrates that the RNA polymerase of P. syringae could preferentially transcribe the cold-inducible gene cspA of E. coli only at lower temperatures (0^22³C). The polymerase was also observed to be relatively more rifampicinresistant during transcription at lower temperature.z 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

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A systematic and selective screening programme to detect disorders of amino acid metabolism was undertaken to gain insight into the incidence and prevalence of such disorders in the southern part of India. This region was selected due to the high incidence of consanguineous marriages. No earlier data were available. We based our study on mentally retarded children. We have attempted dietary therapy in two patients with phenylketonuria; the biochemical response in both cases was satisfactory. The highlight of this survey was the detection of a new metabolic defect, threoninaemia.