00 Purpose The patients coming to AIIMS (All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences) represent 13 Indian states, as found while collecting sample by simple random sampling. Among them, most patients visit from Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) (45) followed by Bihar (25), Haryana (17), and then by Uttaranchal (10). Many older patients do not like to visit the hospitals, because their health conditions and age make it difficult to travel long distance to the hospital's location. The time and travel patients must commit to visiting the hospital suggests that a telemedicine link between hospitals of Bihar and U.P. may help patients by saving their time and money, and provide them with consultations to comparable those received at tertiary care hospitals. However, elderly patients' attitudes toward, and awareness of, telemedicine are unclear and require further study. Method A cross-sectional study was undertaken to find out patients' awareness of, and attitude towards, telemedicine. A total of 121 patients from 13 states participated in the study, which was carried out from 16 th April to 16 th June 2013 through individual structured interviews. Results & Discussion Our research has shown that (Figure 1): (i) the majority of patient have positive attitudes towards telemedicine, and they find it very beneficial for rural patients; (ii) patients agree that telemedicine will save both time and money; (iii) patients find telemedicine to be beneficial for both urban and rural patients, though a few think that urban patients benefit more because of very poor health care facilities in rural villages; (iv) patients find telemedical consultations comfortable, despite the virtual distance from the tertiary care doctors, due to communication between the consulting doctors and tertiary care hospitals; and, (v) even after positive teleconsultations, patients still find telemedicine cannot replace face to face consultation. We conclude the following. (i) Web enabled telemedicine system should be implemented to help ease the flow of information and coordination within institutions, and thereby support better consultations with remote doctors, which can also help to save doctors' valuable time. Physicians are more interested in utilizing telemedicine if available at their desktop. (ii) It order to support better utilization of telemedicine, proper orientation programs should be organized for physicians and patients to improve outlooks and technological understanding in all institutions. (iii) It is suggested that, for the better utilization and promotion of telemedicine, it is important to update remote-end doctors' and patients' knowledge of telemedical technologies. The government should make provisions to make computers available at remote setups, so that they can understand the utilization of computers and internet, which will be helpful for increasing acceptance of new technologies like telemedicine.

Background: Pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) is a multisystem disease of unknown etiology which affects only human beings. It poses several problems to both mother and child. Complications in newborns like intrauterine death (IUD), intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), perinatal asphyxia, neonatal sepsis and bleeding disorders are associated with toxaemia of pregnancy. To decrease the perinatal morbidity and mortality, babies of hypertensive mothers should be carefully monitored and managed. Aim of this study was to establish the changes in total platelet count, reticulocyte count and absolute neutrophil count of umbilical cord blood in pregnancy induced hypertension as compared to normotensive mothers.Methods: This case-control study was conducted among 60 subjects including 30 case (diagnosed cases of pregnancy induced hypertension) and 30 control (normotensive pregnant women). The case group was again categorized into three subgroups – gestational hypertension (06), pre-eclampsia (16) and eclampsia (08). In all the subjects, 2 ml of umbilical cord blood anticoagulated with EDTA was collected and haematological tests for reticulocyte count, total platelet count (TPC) and absolute neutrophil count was done.Results: There was significant decrease in TPC (p<0.01) and absolute neutrophil count (p<0.01), but significant rise in reticulocyte count (p<0.05) in umbilical cord blood of babies born to hypertensive mothers compared to normotensive mothersConclusions: From this study, it can be concluded that newborns of hypertensive mothers carry risks for infection and bleeding complications. So, these simple haematological tests can be done at early stage in neonates to reduce possible perinatal morbidities and mortality.

Background: Empyema thoracis (ET) is a life-threatening disease often encountered in pediatric patients. In spite of all modern sophistication of medical sciences, this disease is chargeable for a high proportion of hospital admission and continues to require an important tool against them. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the age-sex profile, predisposing factors, etiology, seasonal variation, and clinical manifestations of ET in children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the department of pediatrics in Western Odisha. A total of 80 children, aged 0–14 years and diagnosed as ET, were enrolled in the study. After inclusion, a detailed history including demographical data, clinical examinations, and thorough investigations (hematological, biochemical, and radiological) was done as per pro forma prepared for the study. Pleural fluid was collected by thoracocentesis and examined for cultural sensitivity. Results: Most of the cases belonged to the age group of 0–5 years (60%), and male-female ratio was 3:2. Of 80, 50 (72.5%) patients were malnourished. The most common symptoms in all patients were fever (100%) and cough (90%). Intercostal tenderness (100%) was the most common clinical sign. Staphylococcus aureus (60%) was the predominant causative organism. Conclusions: The prognosis of childhood empyema depends on the age, nutritional status of the child, and bacterial agent causing empyema. Earlier diagnosis and adequate treatment of potential predisposing factors favor the good prognosis.

Background: Breast milk is natural, economical and biological fluid considered as ideal nutrition for infants. World Health Organization (WHO) also recommends exclusive breast feeding (breast milk only, no water or other fluids or solids) for six months. Yet the effective and successful breast feeding rates have been low for decades. In developing countries like India, several factors like religion, educational status of mother, residence, customs, economical status of the family etc affect the breast feeding patterns and practices. Aim & Objectives: The aim of this work was to compare and evaluate the role of maternal knowledge, demographic, cultural and social factors in breast feeding pattern and practices among rural and urban mothers. This may help the policy makers and health service providers in future. Materials & Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in convenient places of western Odisha. The period of the study was from March 2017 to February 2018. Total of 930 mothers were included in the study, out of which 480 were from rural and 450 from urban communities. Mothers were included in the study groups after interview. They were provided to fillup a pretested questionnaire. Datas were collected regarding demographic, socio-economical factors which may affect the breast feeding patterns and practices among mothers in rural and urban communities. Result: In the present study, 45.8% of rural mothers and 16.8% of urban mothers were fully employed, although most of the mothers in both the communities were housewives and belonged to Hindu religion. About 56% (252) of mothers in urban area had given colostrums to their infants as compared to that of 40.6% (195) in rural area. Conclusion: Infant feeding practices are better in urban area than the rural area. However the rate of effective and successful breastfeeding are low in both the communities.

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