Echis sochureki causes severe bites in Rajasthan. Work needs to be done to alter the first aid practices used for snakebites in this area, to encourage more rapid presentation to hospital, and to develop antivenom that is more effective against E sochureki.

Malaria is a rare cause of splenic infarction. Only a few cases have been reported worldwide, mostly associated with Plasmodium falciparum infection. Here we report a series of four acute malaria patients with splenic infarction, two with P. vivax infection, one with P. falciparum and one with a mixed infection (P. vivax and P. falciparum). This small case series suggests that if a patient with malaria is complaining of left upper quadrant abdominal pain, pleuritic left lower chest pain and/or enlarging tender splenomegaly during treatment, splenic infarct should be suspected and managed accordingly to avoid further life-threatening complications.

It was observed that adolescents received less energy from carbohydrates and more from fats in comparison to the recommended standard. Sodium intake was found to be very high whereas fibre intake was low. The prevalence of hypertension was 1.5% and hypercholesterolemia 50%. The high prevalence of hypercholesterolemia was related mainly to dietary habits of these children. Thus our study shows that for the prevention of adult atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in Indian population measures are urgently needed towards behavioral and life style modification including change in dietary habits.

Evaluation of sterol contents from three selected medicinal plant species of Fabaceae family growing in Rajasthan Desert was carried out. The roots, shoots and fruits of Clitoria ternatea, Sesbania bispinosa and Tephrosia purpurea were analysed for sterol contents. - Sitosterol and Stigmasterol were isolated and identified. Maximum sterol contents were observed in shoots of Sesbania bispinosa (0.29 mg/g.d.w.), whereas minimum in roots of Tephrosia purpurea(0.15mg/g.d.w.

Background Systemic fluoropyrimidines, both oral and intravenous, are an integral part of colorectal cancer (CRC) management. They can be administered either with curative or palliative intent. Objectives This article examines the literature to analyze the efficacy and safety of the oral fixed-dose combination of uracil and tegafur (UFT)/leucovorin (LV) compared with other fluoropyrimidine agents, with an intention to implement the findings into the current treatment algorithms for CRC. Methods An exhaustive systematic literature search was performed for prospective studies using PUBMED, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE database. Studies which met eligibility criteria were shortlisted and grouped into chemotherapy given for curative or palliative intent. Results Eight trials were shortlisted involving 4,486 patients for the analysis. There was no difference between UFT/LV and other fluoropyrimidines in the primary endpoints—disease-free survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.90–.15; p = 0.81) and progression-free survival (HR 0.87; 95% CI 0.66–.66; p = 0.35) for curative and palliative intent CRC patients, respectively. In secondary analyses, there was no significant difference observed between UFT and other fluoropyrimidines in overall survival in CRC patients with curative intent (HR 1.04; 95% CI 0.88–1.23; p = 0.63) and palliative intent (HR 1.02; 95% CI 0.97–1.06; p = 0.42) . In the safety analysis, we found significantly lesser patients on UFT/LV had stomatitis/mucositis (odds ratio [OR] 0.20; 95% CI 0.05–0.85; p = 0.03), fever (OR 0.46; 95% CI 0.29–0.71; p < 0.001), infection (OR 0.42; 95% CI 0.24–0.74; p < 0.01), leukopenia (OR 0.04; 95% CI 0.00–0.95; p = 0.05), febrile neutropenia (OR 0.03; 95% CI 0.00–0.24; p = 0.001), and thrombocytopenia (OR 0.14; 95% CI 0.02–0.79; p = 0.03) compared with other fluoropyrimidines. Conclusion Oral UFT/LV is equally efficacious to other fluoropyrimidines, especially intravenous 5-fluorouracil, in the management of early as well as advanced CRC patients. Importantly, UFT/LV has a superior safety profile compared with other fluoropyrimidines in terms of both hematological and nonhematological adverse events.