Aims and Objective:The aim of this study was to assess crown angulations, crown inclinations, and tooth size discrepancy in a sample population from Davangere, South India.Materials and Methods:One hundred adults (50 male and 50 female) of age 18–30 years, with Angle's class I ideal occlusion and balanced profiles, were selected for the study. Study models were prepared and crown angulations and crown inclinations were measured using a customized protractor device. Bolton's analysis was used to measure the tooth size discrepancies.Results:Maxillary and mandibular teeth had less crown angulations. Maxillary and mandibular incisors and maxillary molars showed increased crown inclinations, whereas mandibular molars and premolars had less crown inclinations than the original Andrews sample. The mean maxillary and mandibular tooth size ratios, overall and anterior, were similar to Bolton's ratios.Conclusions:The finding of this study indicates that there are possible racial and ethnic factors contributing to variations in crown angulations and crown inclinations.

Introduction: Asthma is a common chronic disease that affects persons of all ages. People with asthma report impact on the physical, psychological and social domains of quality of life. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures have been developed to complement traditional health measures such as prevalence, mortality and hospitalization as indicators of the impact of disease. Objective and Study Design: The objective of this study was to assess HRQoL in Bronchial asthma patients and to relate the severity of asthma with their quality of life. About 85 asthma patients were evaluated for HRQoL and their pulmonary function tests values were correlated with HRQoL scores. Results and Conclusion: It was found that asthma patients had poor quality of life. There was greater impairment in quality of life in females, obese and middle age patients indicating that sex, body mass index and age are determinants of HRQoL in asthma patients.

AbstractKlebsiella pneumoniae is one of the leading causes of nosocomial infections. Carbapenem-resistant (CR) K. pneumoniae are on the rise in India. The biofilm forming ability of K. pneumoniae further complicates patient management. There is still a knowledge gap on the association of biofilm formation with patient outcome and carbapenem susceptibility, which is investigated in the present study.K. pneumoniae isolates from patients admitted in critical care units with catheters and ventilators were included. K. pneumoniae (n = 72) were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility as recommended by CLSI 2019 and subjected to 96-well microtitre plate biofilm formation assay. Based on optical density at 570 nm isolates were graded as strong, moderate and weak biofilm formers. Subset of strong biofilm formers were subjected to whole genome sequencing and a core genome phylogenetic analysis in comparison with global isolates were performed. Biofilm formation was compared for an association with the carbapenem susceptibility and with patient outcome. Statistical significance, correlations and graphical representation were performed using SPSS v23.0.Phenotypic analyses showed a positive correlation between biofilm formation and carbapenem resistance. Planktonic cells observed to be susceptible in vitro exhibited higher MICs in biofilm structure. The biofilm forming ability had a significant association with the morbidity/mortality. Infections by stronger biofilm forming pathogens significantly (P<0.05) resulted in fewer ‘average days alive’ for the patient (3.33) in comparison to those negative for biofilms (11.33). Phylogenetic analysis including global isolates revealed the clear association of sequence types with genes for biofilm mechanism and carbapenem resistance. Carbapenemase genes were found specific to each clade. The known hypervirulent clone-ST23 with wcaG, magA, rmpA, rmpA2 and wzc with a lack of mutation for hyper-capsulation might be poor biofilm formers. Interestingly, ST15, ST16, ST307 and ST258 – reported global high-risk clones were wcaJ negative indicating the high potential of biofilm forming capacity. Genes wabG and treC for CPS, bcsA and pgaC for adhesins, luxS for quorum sensing were common in all clades in addition to genes for aerobactin (iutA), allantoin (allS), type I and III fimbriae (fimA, fimH, mrkD) and pili (pilQ, ecpA).This study is the first of its kind to compare genetic features of antimicrobial resistance with a spectrum covering most of the genetic factors for K. pneumoniae biofilm. These results highlight the importance of biofilm screening to effectively manage nosocomial infections by K. pneumoniae. Further, data obtained on epidemiology and associations of biofilm and antimicrobial resistance genetic factors will serve to enhance our understanding on biofilm mechanisms in K. pneumoniae.

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Tamilnad Kidney Research Foundation (TANKER Foundation) which was established in 1993 to support kidney disease related care to underprivileged people. It has now eleven dialysis units in the state of Tamilnadu, India. COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous challenges for the dialysis staff. Here we describe how we face the challenges from March 2020 till now without interrupting or closing down the dialysis units. The no of dialysis staff who have got infected are 21% which required only home quarantine and symptomatic remedies. Our experience can be emulated by other charity organization which provide kidney care.