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Reports of pancytopenia in patients with Sheehan's syndrome are rare, because the disorder is not commonly seen in western countries. A case series of pancytopenia in three patients of Sheehan's syndrome is presented. Three women aged 22, 30, and 34 years developed Sheehan's syndrome preceded by post partum hemorrhage. During investigations, they were found to have pancytopenia with hypocellular marrow. Treatment with thyroxine and glucocorticoids resulted in complete recovery after attaining euthyroid and eucortisolemic state. Review of literature revealed the rarity of the disorder, with only four cases reported so far. Multiple anterior pituitary hormone deficiencies in Sheehan's syndrome are responsible for pancytopenia; replacement of thyroid and cortisol hormones results in complete recovery.

Anemia and other hematological abnormalities are common in patients with Sheehan's syndrome. The response of these abnormalities to replacement of thyroxine and glucocorticoids is not clear. The aim of the present study was to document the profile of hematological abnormalities and response to treatment in patients with Sheehan's syndrome. Forty patients of Sheehan's syndrome and an equal number of age and parity matched healthy controls were studied for prevalence of hematological abnormalities. Hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit, red cell, white cell and platelet count were significantly decreased in patients with Sheehan's syndrome compared to controls. Frequency of anemia, leucopenia, thrombocytopenia and pancytopenia was significantly higher in these patients compared to controls. After achieving euthyroid and eucortisol state, there was a complete recovery of these hematological abnormalities. We conclude that anemia and other cytopenias are common in patients with Sheehan's syndrome and replacement with thyroxine and glucocorticoids results in complete recovery of these abnormalities.

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Markers have been used over the years for the classification of plants. Markers are any trait of an organism that can be identified with confidence and relative easy, and can be followed in a mapping population on another hand markers be defined as heritable entities associated with the economically important trait under the control of polygenes. Morphological markers can be detected with naked eye (naked eye polymorphism) or as difference in physical or chemical properties of the macromolecules. In other words, there are two types of genetic markers viz. morphological markers or naked eye polymorphism and non-morphological markers or molecular markers. Morphological markers include traits such as plant height, disease response, photoperiod, sensitivity, shape or colour of flowers, fruits or seeds etc. Molecular markers include biochemical constituents. Morphological markers have many limitations for being used as markers particularly in fruit crops because of long generation time and large size of fruit trees besides being influenced by environment. Consequently, molecular markers could be appropriate choice to study and preserve the diversity in any germplasm. Molecular markers have diverse applications in fruit crop improvement, particularly in the areas of genetic diversity and varietal identification studies, gene tagging, disease diagnostics, pedigree analysis, hybrid detection, sex differentiation and marker assisted selection.

Pollen viability and germination capability in three pear cultivars viz. Pathernakh, Punjab Beauty and Shinseiki were investigated up to 12 weeks (3 months) stored at different temperatures i.e. room temperature, refrigerator (40^oC), freezer (-20^oC) and liquid N (-120^oC). Viability was tested in 2 per cent acetocarmine solution whereas, for in Vitro pollen germination pollen grains were germinated in 10 percent sucrose solution at weekly intervals. The pollen viability and in Vitro germination percentages of the genotypes were significantly affected by storage temperatures. The pooled data for a period of two years revealed that average viability varied from 40.68% (Shinseiki) to 48.75% (Patharnakh) whereas, germination percentage varied from 34.93% (Shinseiki) to 42.81% (Patharnakh) among the cultivars under study. Pollen stored at low temperature (-120^oC and -20^oC) showed better viability and germination percentage as compared to pollen stored at room temperature and 4 ^oC. The cultivar Patharnakh had maximum viability and germination percentage when pollen were stored at -20 (67.40% and 59.62%, rsespectively) and -196? (68.06% and 61.83%, respectively), followed by Punjab Beauty and Shinseiki. The results indicate that pollen collected and stored at sub-zero temperatures from early blooming pear varieties can be stored for very long period without any appreciable loss of viability and germination and can be used along the whole blooming season for hybridization programmes by fruit breeders even at distant places for the development of new strains so as to widen the genetic base and create variability in pear.

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