Right non recurrent laryngeal nerve associated with anomalous origin of right subclavian artery and a bicarotid trunk

Non recurrent laryngeal nerve is a rare anatomical variation with an incidence in literature of 0.3 % to 1.6 % on the right side. This variation places the nerve at risk of inadvertent injury during head and neck surgeries. Awareness about this abnormality and meticulous dissection of the nerve in every case is the only way to stay safeguarded. Here we present a case of right non recurrent laryngeal nerve in a 32 years old female patient who underwent near total thyroidectomy for nontoxic multi nodular goitre. During surgery, the right recurrent laryngeal nerve could not be identified in its normal location. Further dissection revealed a non recurrent laryngeal nerve arising from the vagal trunk. A CT angiogram was done post operatively and showed an anomalous origin of the right subclavian artery as the last branch of the aortic arch and a bi-carotid trunk. Every surgeon operating on the neck should be aware of and anticipate this variation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve especially when the nerve cannot be identified in the normal location.Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.15(3) 2016 p.485-487

Anamolous course of right common carotid artery in a case of papillary carcinoma thyroid

Anamolous Course of Carotid Artery is one of the rarest of the rare anamoly, we describe one such case of anamolous Course of Right Common Carotid Artery.

Paget's disease of the mandible

Paget's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive disease of the bone characterized by abnormal bone resorption and deposition affecting either single bone (monostotic) or many bones (polyostotic) with uncertain etiology. We report a case of isolated mandibular involvement in a 65-year-old female patient, clinically asymptomatic with abnormally increased alkaline phosphatase level (1 368.1 U/l). Although prevalence of PD is common in western countries, but rare in Asian chapter, that too isolated mandibular involvement, considering this fact, we report this case of PD for documentation.

Removal of Ni (II) from aqueous solutions by adsorption onto Ricinus communis seed shell activated carbons

The adsorption studies on the removal of Ni(II) from aqueous solution using Ricinus communis seed shells activated carbon and polypyrrole coated Ricinus communis seed shells activated carbon were carried out under various experimental conditions. The effects of various process parameters have been investigated by following the batch adsorption technique. Adsorption data was modeled with Freundlich, Langmuir and tempkin adsorption isotherms. Thermodynamics parameters such as DeltaH0, DeltaS0, and DeltaG0 were calculated indicating that the adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic nature. A mechanism, involving intra particle diffusion and surface adsorption, has been proposed for the adsorption of Ni(II) onto the adsorbent. Adsorbent used in this study is characterized by FTIR and SEM before and after the adsorption of metal ions.

Mortality of tuberculosis patients in Chennai, India

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to measure the mortality rate and excess general mortality as well as identify groups at high risk for mortality among a cohort of tuberculosis patients treated in Chennai Corporation clinics in south India.

METHODS

In this retrospective cohort study we followed up 2674 patients (1800 males and 874 females) who were registered and treated under the DOTS strategy in Chennai Corporation clinics in 2000. The follow-up period from the date of start of treatment to either the date of interview, or death was 600 days.

FINDINGS

The mortality rate among this cohort of tuberculosis patients was 60/1000 person-years. The excess general mortality expressed as standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was 6.1 (95% confidence interval (CI)=5.4-6.9). Younger patients, men, patients with Category II disease, patients who defaulted on, or failed courses of treatment, and male smokers who were alcoholics, all had higher mortality ratios when compared to the rest of the cohort.

CONCLUSION

The excess mortality in this cohort was six times more than that in the general population. Young age, male sex, smear-positivity, treatment default, treatment failure and the combination of smoking and alcoholism were identified as risk factors for tuberculosis mortality. We suggest that mortality rate and excess mortality be routinely used as a monitoring tool for evaluating the efficiency of the national control programme.

Seroprevalence of infectious bursal disease (IBD) in parts of Tamil Nadu, India

Sera samples of 400 apparently healthy broiler poultry from 23 commercial farms and 120 sera samples from commercial layer poultry [with specific lesions of infectious bursal disease (IBD) in the internal organs] were screened for the presence of IBD serotypes I, II and the variant strain by the agar gel immuno diffusion (AGID) test, employing standard antigens. Likewise the bursae, spleen and kidney specimen from 96 layer poultry with lesions suggestive of IBD were screened for the presence of IBD antigens employing standard antisera by the AGID test. The study revealed that antibodies to all three strains of IBD virus existed in 73.75% of sera from 400 broilers, while only serotype II antigen was detectable in tissues of the 96 layer birds that exhibited characteristic lesions of IBD. It was concluded that the serotype I vaccine did not protect the layer poultry against serotype II infection and the totally unvaccinated broiler poultry had suffered subclinical infection from all the three serotypes of IBD virus.