Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
SELF MONITORING (MEASUREMENT) OF BLOOD GLUCOSE (SMBG)
_______ SELF MONITORING (MEASUREMENT) OF BLOOD GLUCOSE (SMBG): _______ _______ Prologue: Way back in 1991, on a Sunday afternoon, a young Parsi lady from Mumbai who was holidaying in a nearby village came to me with sudden breathlessness at my nursing home at Vapi, 160 km north of Mumbai. Clinical examination was normal except severe breathlessness. I suspected diabetic ketoacidosis and asked about history of diabetes. Patient and her relatives flatly denied any history of diabetes and told me that she was investigated in Mumbai for weakness recently and there is no diabetes. In those days, glucometer was not available in India. We used to blood sugar by Folin-Wu method. Being Sunday, laboratory was closed, so I could not do blood and urine sugar. I believed the story of relatives, ignored my gut feeling of diabetes, did ECG and X-ray chest which were normal, gave some primary care and sent […]
GENE THERAPY
_______ GENE THERAPY: ______ ______ Caveat: Medicine is an ever-changing science. As new research and clinical experience broaden our knowledge, changes in treatment and drug therapy are required. I have checked with sources believed to be reliable in their efforts to provide information that is complete and generally in accord with the standards accepted at the time of publishing this article. However, in view of the possibility of human error or changes in medical sciences, I do not assure that the information contained herein is in every respect accurate or complete, and I disclaim all responsibility for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from use of the information contained in this work. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information contained herein with other sources. I have taken some information from articles that were published few years ago. The facts and conclusions presented may have since changed and […]
THE ATOM
___________ THE ATOM: ___________ The figure above is an animation of the nuclear force (or residual strong force) interaction between a proton and a neutron. The small colored double circles are gluons, which can be seen binding the proton and neutron together. These gluons also hold the quark-antiquark combination called the pion (meson) together, and thus help transmit a residual part of the strong force even between colorless hadrons. Quarks each carry a single color charge, while gluons carry both a color and an anticolor charge. The combinations of three quarks e.g. proton/neutron (or three antiquarks e.g. antiproton/antineutron) or of quark-antiquark pairs (mesons) are the only combinations that the strong force seems to allow. ________ Prologue: Since childhood I was curious about breaking down any matter (table/chair) into smaller pieces continually till I reach a point where it cannot be broken down. What is that point? Is matter infinitely divisible? […]
DRINKING WATER
Drinking Water: ____________ _ For last 8 years, I lived in a small town Daman and drank purified bottled water because water supplied by local municipality is suspected of unhygienic quality and water from private bore-well may well be contaminated as many areas of town have poor sewer drainage resulting in seepage of sewage in the soil itself and sewage tanks are in the vicinity of bore-wells. Assuming you’re in reasonable shape and in ideal conditions — that is, not in the heat or cold and not exerting, a human can probably live for about 3 to 5 days without drinking water. Healthier humans can live another day or so longer. Water is believed to be elixir of life. Humanity highly depends on water and its proper utilization and management. Although, water has various uses, perhaps its use as thirst quenching fluid is the most significant one. The life-supporting […]
CELL DEATH
______________ CELL DEATH: ____________ _ The image shows webbed hand due to apoptosis abnormalities. It is important that inter-digital cell death happens otherwise a webbed limb will develop rather than a five digit limb. _ The image shows paw of a mouse embryo that has been stained with a dye that specifically labels cells that have undergone apoptosis. The apoptotic cells appear as bright green dots between the developing digits. _ As a tadpole changes into a frog, the cells in the tadpole tail are induced to undergo apoptosis; as a consequence, the tail is lost. All the changes that occur during metamorphosis, including the induction of apoptosis in the tail, are stimulated by an increase in thyroid hormone in the blood of a frog. _ The figure shows light micrograph of normal and apoptotic human leukemia cell illustrating chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation. _________________________________ _________________________________ Prologue: A vast […]
