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Background:Nitric oxide (NO) turnover is vital for proper endothelial function to maintain a healthy vascular system. Various risk factors responsible for hypertension and diabetes may disrupt this homeostasis, leading to decreased bioavailability and/or bioactivity of NO, which potentiates endothelial dysfunction. Plasma NO is a useful indicator of NO homeostasis and vascular endothelial function. Since endothelial function plays a key role in the development and progression of diseases like diabetes and hypertension, we sought to investigate the NO profile in patients having diabetes and hypertension and determine the relationship of NO turnover with the disease.Materials and Methods:For this purpose, three groups were studied for the NO production. The first group consisted of 74 hypertensive patients, the second group consisted of 72 diabetic patients and the third group consisted of 60 healthy controls. Nitrate synthase activity was evaluated by measuring nitrate level using an automated sample injector connected to an automated NO detector – Ion liquid chromatograph.Results:The plasma concentration of NO was found to be significantly lower in both essential hypertensive patients and diabetic patients without complications as compared to the healthy controls (P < 0.05).Conclusion:This data confirms that different factors like hyperglycemia and blood pressure are seen to have immense influence on NO production.

Background: Multidrug resistant tuberculosis is a significant public health problem with serious repercussions. Since Tuberculosis is a social problem, an attempt was made to explore the issue in Kashmir region. Methods: A total of 33 "on treatment" Multi drug resistant tuberculosis cases were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire. Results: More than 2/3 rd of cases interviewed were females, belonging to reproductive age group. None of them was HIV positive, however 27% had other comorbidities. Around 60% cases perceived Tuberculosis as stigma. Important to note was that 65% cases were happy with the behaviour of Health care worker (HCW) towards them. Conclusion:The perception of tuberculosis as a stigma or curse is still prevalent in our setting. Much needs to be done to dispel the stigma associated with Tuberculosis as the fear of being ostracized forces persons with TB to hide their disease status. It was concluded that there is a need of strengthening the ways of tackling tuberculosis as a Clinico-social entity as such.

Breast cancer demonstrates geographical and ethnic variation in its incidence reflecting the effect of local environmental conditions and lifestyle. The genesis of the disease has further been complexed by the involvement of a number of genes with small effects and above all by population heterogeneity. Accordingly, variations in genes, including breast cancer 1, early onset (BRCA1)/breast cancer 2, early onset (BRCA2), that have been markedly associated with the breast cancer phenotype exhibit a scattered mutational pattern in different populations. The present study was aimed to analyze the sequence variations in BRCA2 gene in a case control manner in ethnically pure Kashmiri population using PCR. Sequencing of BRCA2 exons revealed the presence of five sequence variations, four of which present in exon 11 alone were somatic and one was germline located in the U-terminal region (UTR) of exon 2. Out of these, the two somatic mutations comprised of substitutions, one representing a missense mutation leading to an amino-acid substitution at codon 991 and the other was a silent mutation at codon 1131, whereas the other two mutations located in exon 11 represented a loss of polymorphism. Codons for amino acid position 846 and 868 were demonstrated to be heterozygous polymorphic variants in 66% of the normal breast tissue samples, whereas the heterozygous polymorphic variant codons at the two loci were replaced by a homozygous genotype in associated tumor tissue in 88% of cases. These two mutations were always linked. Germline variation observed in exon 2 was located in the UTR region at contig position 13870572 (rs1799943). Other screened exons of BRCA2 did not demonstrate any sequence variation. These variations may contribute to breast cancer susceptibility along with variations in other low penetrating genes in sporadic types of breast cancer in this cohort of the population.

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Background: Gynaecological disorders are quite frequent in the community but still mortality is an indicator of maternal health. Treatment seeking behaviour depends upon the individual perceptions and attitudes towards health care. Methods: A community based cross sectional study in which 419 eligible women in the age group of 15-45 were enrolled and interviewed for the study. A semi structured pretested questionnaire was used. The questionnaire included information about the socio demographic characteristics of the students. Data was analysed using percentages. Results: The prevalence came out to be 20.28% which was percentage of women reporting one or more gynaecological disorders. 52.94% did not seek anywhere care or visited any health care facility. Conclusions: The study found a good percentage of women who self-reported one or more gynaecological disorder, which prompts one to find out various factors associated with this problem.

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Background: More and more children are being pushed on the street for various reasons. Children "on" and "of the street" continue to languish at the fringes of society. They will continue to do so unless we wake up to the harsh reality that the phenomenon of street children does not exist only in numbers; it is evident in myriad colors of deprivation and poor physical and psychological health. Programs and strategies to address their condition are not effectively implemented due to lack of information in Jammu region.Objective: To explore and understand the psychosocial, demographic, educational and health characteristics of street children in an urban area.Material and Methods: 80 street children were observed and interviewed in-depth employing an open-ended questionnaire supplemented with probes wherever necessary. The participants were chosen after mapping potential sites in urban Jammu using purposive and snowball sampling.Result: More than half (52.5%) of all children studied were females. The street children were aged between 7 and 18 years and majority of them (81.25%) were not attending school and were engaged in petty jobs. Almost all of them suffered from common morbidities such as respiratory problems, gastrointestinal problems, fever, injuries, and dental problems. Content analysis of the transcripts yielded five major themes: poverty, family disharmony, civil unrest, unplanned migration and discontinuation of schooling with number of major and minor categories. Conclusion:The study substantiates that multiple factors are responsible for them being on street. There was an apparent lack of organised health and social services for street children in Jammu. Near absence of non-governmental organizations was noticeable.