No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Aim: To evaluate and compare the efficacy of liquid-based cytology (LBC) with conventional cytology (CS) as a screening tool for cervical cancer in postmenopausal women. Materials and methods:This was an observational crosssectional study conducted over one year. Subjects were recruited from patients attending the outpatient department of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Pap smear and LBC were taken in all subjects. In cases with suspected lesions, the discrepancy between Pap smear and LBC and colposcopy was found.Results: Pap smear reported 14.3% inadequate smears in women with postmenopausal changes and 5% inadequate smears in women without postmenopausal changes. In contrast, LBC reported no inadequate smear. This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.011). Cervical neoplasia was ruled out in 53.6% cases by Pap smear and 75.8% cases by LBC. The difference was statistically significant (p = 0.002). Conclusion:Liquid-based cytology offers better results in detecting cervical pathology when compared with Pap smear. Liquid-based cytology could be better as a screening method, especially in postmenopausal women in which the screening is challenging due to menopause-induced anatomical and hormonal changes.Clinical significance: Cervical cancer is the most common genital cancer among Indian women. Postmenopausal women are at higher risk for developing cervical cancer. Low estrogenic state poses a challenge for detection of cervical cancer by CS in postmenopausal women. We investigated LBC as a better cervical cancer screening tool in this age group.

The electrochromic behavior of sol-gel-derived Nb 2 O 5 thin films with Mg 2+ intercalants has been reported. Films have been intercalated and deintercalated with Mg 2+ in the galvanostatic mode using the three-electrode configuration. The ratio of the Mg ions to Nb atoms ͑referred to as x͒ has been varied from 0.25 to 0.75. The transmission at 500 nm has changed from 70 to 35% on intercalating to x = 0.75. The infrared investigations reveal the presence of adsorbed water, strong interaction between oxygen of the host material and Mg 2+ , and also formation of Mg͑OH͒ 2 on intercalation. Cyclic voltammetry studies show the existence of irreversible structural changes of lesser magnitudes on cycling. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy images show marginal changes in surface morphology on intercalation.The electrochromism phenomenon is used to realize a wide variety of modern devices such as smart windows to modulate solar energy flow into buildings, smart mirrors to adjust the reflection coefficient of rear-view mirrors of automobiles, and smart surfaces to regulate the emissivity of the surfaces of satellite bodies. 1 The key element in all these devices is an electrochromic ͑EC͒ layer, which manifests significant changes in optical properties when it is intercalated with ions. A large number of transition metal oxides like WO 3 , MoO 3 , V 2 O 5 , Nb 2 O 5 , and NiO have been reported to show EC behavior when these are intercalated with ions like H + , Li + , Na + , K + , etc. 1,2 In the last few years, interest in Nb 2 O 5 has increased because of its promising EC properties. 3 The low refractive index ͑n Ϸ 2͒ of Nb 2 O 5 allows us to get a thick coating with good transmission. The pure Nb 2 O 5 is reported to possess excellent chemical stability and good adhesion to glass substrate. The color of intercalated film depends strongly on the grain/cluster size. 4 Several methods such as sol-gel, 5 reactive dc magnetron sputtering, 6 indirect reactive sputtering, 7 thermal oxidation, 8 pulsed laser deposition, 9 chemical vapor deposition, 10 and the electrochemical method 11 have been used to obtain Nb 2 O 5 thin films.The EC properties of Nb 2 O 5 have so far been investigated, mostly either with H + or Li + . Li + is a widely studied intercalant because of its small ionic size ͑0.59 Å͒ and very low equivalent weight ͑7 g/Faraday͒, 12 but Li salts are highly toxic and react strongly with air/moisture because their handling is a major challenge. The cost of these salts is very high and their natural abundance is very low. These reasons have forced a search for an alternate intercalant ion for large-scale EC applications. Mg 2+ proved to be a good alternative to Li + , at least in the case of MoO 3 -based EC devices. 12 The ionic size of Mg 2+ ͑0.72 Å͒ is close to that of Li + but much less than that of Na + ͑0.95 Å͒, the next higher univalent alkali element to Li in the periodic table. Also, the equivalent weight of Mg 2+ ͑12 g/Faraday͒ is close to that of Li + . It is well known that the magnes...