Disease relevance of Sri Lanka

• Chronic hyperbilirubinaemia, gallstone formation, and gall bladder disease are unusually common in people with haemoglobin E beta thalassaemia in Sri Lanka. To determine whether this has a genetic basis we compared the bilirubin levels and frequency of gallstones in patients with different alleles of the UGT*1 gene [1].
• Coxsackievirus A24 and acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis in Sri Lanka [2].
• Oral squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common neoplasm in Sri Lanka, accounting for approximately 30% of all cancers in males [3].
• We investigated the relationship between inter-individual difference in CYP2A6 genotype and susceptibility to oral cancer among habitual betel quid chewers in a Sri Lanka population [4].
• Because of this background, primary resected specimens from 23 oral SCCs, 7 leukoplakias and 2 oral submucous fibrosis were collected from oral SCC patients in Sri Lanka and were used for p53 mutation analysis [3].

Psychiatry related information on Sri Lanka

• The Korean version of the Swedish Performance Evaluation System (Simple Reaction Time, Symbol Digit, and Finger Tapping Speed) and a pegboard test were administered to 537 workers who were not exposed to chemicals at work from Fareast (Korea and Chinese), Central (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), and South Asia (Sri Lanka and Indonesia) [5].

High impact information on Sri Lanka

• BACKGROUND: Severe cardiac glycoside cardiotoxicity after ingestion of yellow oleander seeds is an important problem in rural areas of Sri Lanka. Currently, patients must be transferred to the capital for temporary cardiac pacing [6].
• METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done in Sri Lanka, where prescription of mebendazole to women in the second trimester of pregnancy is recommended [7].
• A period when the acetyl cholinesterase reactivator pralidoxime chloride was not available in Sri Lanka gave us the opportunity to compare atropine alone for treatment of moderate to severe OP poisoning (21 patients) with atropine plus pralixodime (24 patients) [8].
• Intestinal lactase deficiency in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) [9].
• To test the involvement of the GHRH-R gene in this disease phenotype, we investigated one candidate Tamoulean family originating from Sri Lanka. Two brothers, with extremely short stature (< -4 SD) and no dysmorphy, were diagnosed as having complete GHD, unresponsive to exogenous GHRH and associated with PRL levels within the lower normal range [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Sri Lanka

• The intensity of rain fall played a major role in the leaching of fluoride ions from soils and it is perhaps this factor which is responsible for the occurrence of a low fluoride zone in the central part of Sri Lanka. The presence of areas containing high fluoride and hence dental fluorosis coincided with geochemical provinces [11].
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: prevalence, incidence and risk factors associated with colonization in Sri Lanka [12].
• In two trials, 68 cattle and buffalo calves, four to 10 months of age, were vaccinated with a vaccine containing a live streptomycin dependent mutant of Pasteurella multocida type B, isolated in Sri Lanka. Immunity was assessed using the passive protection test in mice with cattle and buffalo sera before and two or three weeks after vaccination [13].
• Chloroquine resistant falciparum malaria among security forces personnel in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka [14].
• Gastro-intestinal nematode infections in a goat breeding farm in north-western Sri Lanka [15].

Biological context of Sri Lanka

• Mutations in the p53 gene were frequent (10/23) in oral SCC specimens from Sri Lanka. Moreover, the mutations clustered significantly in exon 5 (7/10) of the p53 gene, and small deletions and inclusions other than point mutations were observed [3].
• Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography-based genotyping and genetic variation of FUT2 in Sri Lanka [16].
• CASE SERIES: We report seven patients with fipronil self-poisoning seen prospectively in Sri Lanka together with pharmacokinetics for four patients [17].
• The response to methylphenidate was assessed in children diagnosed as having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2000 at the Lady Ridgeway Tertiary Hospital for Children in Sri Lanka. They were managed in outpatient child psychiatry clinics [18].
• SETTING: One of the two urology units at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo (NHSL) [19].

Anatomical context of Sri Lanka

• Sera from acute primary Plasmodium falciparum patients in Sri Lanka were tested for the presence of antibodies against gamete antigens and for their functional effects of transmission blocking activity [20].
• The estimated levels of hydrogen sulfide just above the water surface were plotted for the most polluted stagnant water body in Sri Lanka for the pH range of 5-10 and temperature range of 25-35 degrees C [21].
• In all samples from Italy, Mexico and Sri Lanka, high probability of lipid lesion occurrence was found between the emergences of the intercostal arteries, next to the emergence of the celiac trunk, between the emergence of the superior and inferior lumbar arteries and between the emergence of the 1st and the 2nd mesenteric arteries [22].

Associations of Sri Lanka with chemical compounds

• A representative country-wide rural nutrition status survey determined the extent and distribution of vitamin A deficiency in Sri Lanka in children 6 through 71 months of age [23].
• Vitamin E deficiency in phrynoderma cases from Sri Lanka [24].
• Phrynoderma cases were identified in a village close to Colombo in Sri Lanka. The alpha-tocopherol level in plasma was 3.3 +/- 0.6 mumol/L among the phrynoderma patients (n = 11) and 13.0 +/- 2.3 mumol/L among the control subjects (p less than 0.002) [24].
• Salivary lithium: a trial of Selinger's method in Sri Lanka [25].
• Activated carbon is made in Sri Lanka by passing steam through charcoal made from coconut shells [26].

Gene context of Sri Lanka

• The identical nonsense mutations in the extracellular domain of the GHRHR (E72X or E50X, depending on whether the signal peptide is included in the numbering) has been independently described in three families residing on or originating from the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, the Bombay region, and Delft near Sri Lanka) [27].
• Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome type 4 in a patient from Sri Lanka with pulmonary fibrosis [28].
• CONCLUSION: These results suggest that DHPLC analysis is a useful high-throughput method for genotyping FUT2 and, further, that the genetic backgrounds of two Sri Lankan populations are quite similar, with little genetic flow from neighboring East and Southeast Asian populations to Sri Lanka [16].
• Two novel FUT3 alleles responsible for Lewis-null phenotypes in Sri Lanka [29].
• A high frequency of the G6PD deficient gene was detected in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. The frequency in the ancient villages is much higher than that of the recently colonised areas [30].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Sri Lanka

• Heen found in the People's Republic of China and other parts of Asia including Sri Lanka. These agents, which belong to the general class of perylene quinonoid pigments, have a long history of traditional medicinal agents especially in Asia. Hypocrellins are under extensive investigation as photosensitizing agents for photodynamic therapy (PDT) [31].
• A monoclonal antibody designated Gib 13-5-2 (Gib 13) and directed against the cattle parasite Onchocerca gibsoni was used in a two-site immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) for detection of circulating antigen in the sera of Wuchereria bancrofti-infected individuals from Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea [32].
• This study was conducted to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, expectations, sociocultural aspects, patient characteristics, disease characteristics, pattern of drug therapy, and outcome of patients with epilepsy in rural Sri Lanka. Data were collected from 207 patients attending an epilepsy clinic [33].
• Alcoholic extract of the stems of Coscinium fenestratum, a medicinal plant indigenous to India and Sri Lanka used in ayurveda and siddha medicine for treating diabetes, was studied for its carbohydrate metabolism effect and antioxidant status in streptozotocin-nicotinamide induced type 2 diabetic rats [34].
• The genetic variation of the human serum orosomucoid (ORM) was investigated by isoelectric focusing (IEF) followed by immunofixation in 15 different populations from East Midlands (United Kingdom), India, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia [35].

References