Calcutta School Research Articles

Prevalence of CKD and Its Relationship with Cardiovascular Risk: An Experience from Calcutta School Teachers' Cardiovascular Health Study Using Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Model

Prevalence of CKD and Its Relationship with Cardiovascular Risk: An Experience from Calcutta School Teachers' Cardiovascular Health Study Using Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Model

To Fill “a Gap in Indian History”

This essay examines the category of “Company” painting, shorthand for painting associated with the East India Company, which dominates the art historiography of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century South Asia. Using the archive of Mildred Archer (1911–2005), the British Library curator who formalized this approach in Western scholarship in tandem with scholarly commentaries by art enthusiasts P. C. Manuk (1873–1946) and Rai Krishnadas (1892–1980), we highlight the complexities of Company painting as both modality and practice. Providing insight into the little-recognized role of Ishwari Prasad (1870–1949), whom Archer and Manuk lauded as the last living artist of the Mughal tradition, we examine his vanguard formulation of a Kampani qalam (“Company style”), where he reframed Mughal art in the era of Company mercantilism and thriving exchange between European and Indian artists at Patna. Further, Prasad emerges as a key interlocutor between the critic and educator E. B. Havell (1861–1934) and the artist Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951), integrating Mughal and Company lineages within the growing pan-Asian sensibility at the Calcutta School of Art. Foregrounding Prasad's obscured history illuminates how ideas of Mughal, Company, and Modern art belonged to a common intellectual ferment; yet these approaches took separate paths in post-independence India. In tracing the genealogy of Archer's Company painting, we recover multiple voices and strands of artistry informing its gestation in addition to its colonial legacy, complicating Archer's focus on it as an artistic inheritance of the British Empire.

STRONGYLOIDIASIS: A DREADED YET A NEGLECTED HELMINTHIC INFECTION

Context: Distinctive characteristics of intestinal Strongyloides infection are its ability to persist within hosts for decades and its potential to cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised hosts, thereby prompting a careful analysis of such cases. Analysis of trend of Aims: Strongyloides stercoralis infection among patients in stool samples by standard protocol. Settings and Design: A hospital based retrospective crosssectional study was conducted at Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, from January 2012 to June 2022. Stool Methods and Material: samples received in the aforesaid centre were examined by standard protocol and data were analyzed. Out of 5678 samples received, Results: 151(2.66%) were found to be positive for larvae of Strongyloides, among which 57(37.7%) cases belonged to immunocompromised hosts. Conclusions: Strongyloidiasis is a major global health challenge that is underestimated in many countries. A careful analysis of such infections is needed for prevention and treatment of such.

Georges Dandoy, S.J., The Doctrine of the Unreality of the World in the Advaita (1919)

This essay focuses on a particular facet of Christian-Hindu engagement. Its context is the “Calcutta School” of twentieth-century Roman Catholic Indologists and their comparative explorations in Thomist-Vedantic theology. The history of these interactions has been written about elsewhere, and certain figures (for example, Pierre Johanns and Richard De Smet) are reasonably well known. Here, I look at one of the lesser-known members of this “school,” Georges Dandoy, S.J., and his monograph on “The Unreality of the World in Advaita.” I seek to locate Dandoy in the Thomist currents of his time and show how these currents influenced his reading of the Advaita tradition..

Rare presentations of ocular enterobiasis - Case reports.

Enterobius vermicularis, also known as pinworm or threadworm, is a large intestinal nematode which has a high prevalence among children and peripubertal age in our country. Transmission usually occurs by autoinfection like finger contamination of the embryonated eggs deposited by the gravid female worm on the perianal and perineal region. Globally, only a few reports are there regarding the isolation of the parasite from extra-intestinal sites. These are two rare case reports of ocular enterobiasis. The first case was a middle-aged female and the second one was a 14-year-old girl, both of whom were referred from other tertiary care hospitals to Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and who presented with discharge of live motile worms from their eyes (conjunctiva). In both the cases, identification was done by saline wet mount and direct microscopy of a gravid female worm. Plano-convex embryonated eggs were also observed. The oval embryonated eggs, plano-convex in shape, and the gravid female, with its cervical alae near the anterior end and straight thin pointed tail, were identified under the microscope. Although E. vermicularis is a very common large intestinal parasitic infestation of children and adolescents, it can also rarely be isolated from unusual sites, which should be taken into account for effective diagnosis and treatment.

Dimensions of Authenticity in Siddha Medical and Clinical Research

Abstract The article discusses three methods of combining biomedicine with traditional medicine in pre-Independence Madras State in India, with comparative examples drawn from ethnographic studies in South India in the 1990s. In the mid to late 1920s, two officers of modern medicine from the Madras presidency were delegated to be trained in the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine to investigate the properties of the indigenous drugs of India using laboratory and physiological techniques. In the 1930s, Srinivasamurti, the first principal of the Government School of Indian Medicine in Madras, trialed a collaborative approach between clinical practitioners of ayurveda, siddha, and unani, and allopathic medical registrars with the ideal of developing a universal and synthetic textbook encompassing all medical systems on an equal setting. In the 1940s, a traditional practitioner was permitted to practice bone setting in the Government Hospital of Indian Medicine in Madras. These examples illustrate various dimensions of asymmetric relations between traditional and modern medicine in twentieth- and twenty-first-century India.

Brief history of hematology care and research in West Bengal, India

The hematology care, research, and development in West Bengal had a glorious past. Dr. J.B. Chatterjea represented the pioneers in hematology practice and research from Calcutta, West Bengal. Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine (CSTM) is considered as the birthplace of Hematology not only in India but also in whole of Asia. Dr. J.B. Chatterjea single handedly took the Hematology Department to a new height and made it a center for learning and advanced research in hematology. Subsequently, many of his able disciples spread out elsewhere in the country expanding the mission of research in hematology. The tragic untimely death of Dr. Chatterjea in 1972 was an irreparable loss to the development of hematology in this country. The glory and glamor of hematology care and research in West Bengal faded way over time. In the recent years, with the establishment of new hematology care and research units at other Government Medical Colleges, private sectors and enormous contributions from the basic scientists have helped to rescue the lost glory and shaping the present day comprehensive hematology care and research in West Bengal, India. In this brief review, the present author tries to give an overview of the past and present of hematology care and research in West Bengal and the author in the present review does not claim to have described every bit of hematology development in this part of the country.

N.R. Sen: Father of Indian Applied mathematics

Nikhilranjan Sen (1894–1963), popularly known as N.R. Sen, is known as the Father of Applied Mathematics and founder of the Calcutta School of Relativity Theory. He did Ph.D. in Berlin under the Nobel Laureate Max von Laue. In Berlin he came in contact with renowned physicists like Max Planck, Albert Einstein and their contemporaries. The present article, which is based on the primary sources, discusses the lesser known facts of his life, like the beginning of scientific career, background of his D.Sc. as well as Ph.D. theses, and detailed summary of his scientific works.

Education and the Vernacular in 19th Century Bengal: Translation, Print, and Standardization

With the introduction of print modalities and the subsequent introduction of modern/western education systems, the questions of language, vernacular e ducation, book production, and translations became important in 19 th century Bengal. As the introduction of a new epistemological system in 19 th century Bengal necessitated the production of books and translations, several western knowle dge texts got translated into Bengali by the efforts of various individuals and institutions. These translations play a pivotal role in producing textbooks in Bengali and represent a site where the structure and vocabulary of the Bengali language got standardised and redefined through printed language and language of translations. This study tracks the translations produced by the collaboration of Fort William College and Serampore Missionary Press, Calcutta Sc hool Book Society and Vernacular Literature Society and argues that the translations produced by these institutions gave shape to a kind of Bengali language that represented a class and social hierarchy. This study argues that the translations produced by the aforementioned institutions and the printed textbooks paved a way for the upper-class urban elites to mould the Bengali language in their way (by excluding the colloquial register and language of the masses) to represent their ethos and class hierarchy and identity. This study argues that the translations produced by these institutions, in many ways, were the tools through which the various contesting views on the form and diction of the language of/in print got articulated.

Deadly Wells in Bangladesh

This case allows instructors to lay out the challenges of providing universal access to safe drinking water in some developing and emerging countries—one of the current UN development goals. The challenge across developing countries is to find long-lasting and sustainable solutions, and to realize that present answers to the challenge may be a far cry from these criteria. The discussion aims to address the complex and multifaceted nature of water supply in developing countries, and to emphasize that many of the assumptions made in advanced economies may not apply. The aim is to search for the best (long-lasting and sustainable) solutions, admitting there is no silver bullet, even though some alternatives are clearly better than others. Excerpt UVA-GEM-0158 Oct. 1, 2019 Deadly Wells in Bangladesh In the early 1980s, K.C. Saha from the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine in India successfully related skin lesions in the Indian state of West Bengal to arsenic in groundwater. In 1992, researchers under the direction of Dipankar Chakraborti from the School of Environmental Studies at Jadavpur University came across an unusual female patient while they were active in the arsenic-affected village of Gobindapur in West Bengal. She was the only one in her West Bengali family with lesions, but she had migrated from Bangladesh after her marriage. It turned out that many of her Bangladeshi relatives had similar lesions, and she had noticed lesions in residents of neighboring Bangladesh villages as well. Soon suspicions were confirmed of arsenic contamination in Bangladesh. In 1994, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) were notified but slow to take action, as were Bangladeshi institutions. Reportedly in 1993, Bangladesh's Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) had already confirmed arsenic contamination in tube wells, which were PVC pipes with a cast-iron hand pump on top. The country and the international health community awoke to the reality and magnitude of the challenge in 1998, when an international conference was convened in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. In 2000, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization described Bangladesh's predicament in the strongest possible terms, which would resonate for many years to come: Bangladesh is grappling with the largest mass poisoning of a population in history because groundwater used for drinking has been contaminated with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic. It is estimated that of the 125million inhabitants of Bangladesh, between 35million and 77million are at risk of drinking contaminated water. The scale of this environmental disaster is greater than any seen before; it is beyond the accidents at Bhopal, India, in 1984, and Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986. . . .

A Jewel Unearthed:Bibha Chowdhuri. The Story of an Indian Woman Scientist

Rajinder Singh and S. C. Roy are both well established historians of science dealing with contributions of Indian Scientists of Calcutta School. The monograph under review is the 23rd volume in the series produced by Rajinder Singh. I was attracted by the title of this book as Bibha Chowdhuri participated in Third National SSNTD (Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors) Conference organized by me in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in March 1983. She never retired from research and was the oldest delegate at 70 to present her paper in Amritsar. I was pleased to share a group photo of this conference and her paper with the authors for inclusion in this monograph.

Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS attending antiretroviral clinic in the center of excellence in HIV care in India.

INTRODUCTION:HIV/AIDS is a serious challenge globally. A plethora of morbidities due to crippling immune system reduces quality of life (QOL). The advent of highly active antiretroviral treatment has changed this deadly disease to a chronic manageable illness with focus shifting from fighting virus to ensuring a good QOL.OBJECTIVE:To assess the QOL among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) and factors influencing, if any in Indian setting.MATERIALS AND METHODS:An institutional-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 220 PLHA (male >15 years) attending Anti-Retroviral Therapy Centre of the center of excellence in HIV care in India (Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata) from May 2012 to April 2013. QOL was assessed using WHO-QOL-BREF questionnaire from January 2013 to December 2013. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 16; multivariate logistic regression was computed with adjusted odds ratio in 95% confidence interval; P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.RESULTS:In this study, all 220 PLHA men participated (response rate 96.5%) where more than half (55.5%) participants rated their QOL as neither poor nor good; only 28.2% replied good. One-third (38.6%) were dissatisfied while only one-fifth (19.1%) satisfied and 41.4% mentioned neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their health. Mean score ± standard deviation on various domains and facets of WHOQOL-BREF were physical health score 56.2 ± 9.8, psychological health 63.1 ± 8.7, social relationship 48.9 ± 14.8, and environmental health 51.3 ± 13.7.CONCLUSION:PLHA had good QOL on psychological, physical, and environmental domain that reflects better services provided at Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine (CSTM), Kolkata, but they scored poorly in social relationship domain, which may be suggestive of ineffective social services network. This study concludes that increase existing social and emotional support with innovation should be implemented to improve their QOL.

"Institutionalization of Leprosy Researches in Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine (CSTM) and other Programmes from 1920s to 1950s"

"Institutionalization of Leprosy Researches in Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine (CSTM) and other Programmes from 1920s to 1950s"

Futuristic Medicine and its Applications in the Field of Medical Science

Global Journal of Endocrinological Metabolism Futuristic Medicine and its Applications in the Field of Medical Science Open or Close Niranjan Bhattacharya and Priyodarshi Sengupta* Department of Regenerative Medicine and Translational Science, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, India *Corresponding author:Priyodarshi Sengupta, Department of Regenerative Medicine and Translational Science, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine Submission: January 25, 2018;Published: August 30, 2018 DOI: 10.31031/GJEM.2018.02.000545 ISSN 2637-8019Volume2 Issue4

Seismic amplification effects and soil-to-structure interaction study nearby a fault zone: the Tremestieri fault and Madre Teresa di Calcutta School (Catania)

Results of passive seismic surveys, in terms of both amplification and polarization effects in a section of the Tremestieri Etneo Fault (Sicily Eastern center - Catania) are discussed. For the purpose, velocimetric and accelerometric records of seismic ambient noise were analyzed. The polarization analysis of particle motion was performed and azimuthally dependent resonant frequencies were estimated. Ambient noise data were also used to assess the dynamic properties of a reinforced concrete building, located on the fault zone. The fundamental modes have been estimated through ambient noise recordings acquired by three-directional accelerometers, installed at the highest accessible floor and outside the building. The study revealed a clear oriented seismic amplification in the fault zone. This effect was observed in intensely jointed rock masses, located inside the fault area, as the result of specific geometries and significant directional impedance contrasts characterizing the area under study. The analyses show that the direction of the largest resonance motions has transversal relationship with the dominant fracture orientation. The directional amplification is inferred to be produced by stiffness anisotropy of the fault damage zone, with larger seismic motions high angle to the fractures. The results obtained are in complete agreement with those obtained by a previous study which analyzed the fault section located to the north-west. Finally, comparing the dynamic properties of the school building and the vibrational characteristics of the soil in the direction of maximum amplification, no clear resonant effect in the soil-structure interaction has been observed.

Lamivudine Plus Tenofovir versus Lamivudine Plus Adefovir for the Treatment of Hepatitis B Virus in HIV-Coinfected Patients, Starting Antiretroviral Therapy

Background: Combination of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), lamivudine (3TC) and efavirenz (EFV) is preferred in the treatment of HIV/hepatitis B virus (HBV) coinfection. We postulated that a HBV active nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitor/nucleotide RT inhibitor backbone of adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) +3TC would be as effective as TDF +3TC for the Indian population. Objective: ADV + 3TC could be an alternative option for these HIV/HBV coinfected individuals, preserving the dually active TDF + 3TC as second-line nucleoside backbone following failure of the first-line ART. Materials and Methods: This randomised control trial (CTRI/2012/03/002471) was carried out at the ART Centre of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, India. Seventy-eight (39 on each arm) treatment-naïve HIV/HBV coinfected patients were randomised to receive either the combination of lamivudine + tenofovir + EFV or lamivudine + adefovir + zidovudine + EFV and followed up for 120 weeks. Results: Median age of the study participants was 36 years (21–62), majority were male (61/78; 78.2%) and heterosexually (39/78; 50%) infected. Baseline characteristics were identical in both arms. There was no statistically significant difference in median aspartate aminotransferase (37 vs. 29.5 U/L), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (36 vs. 34.5 U/L), ALT normalisation rate (80 vs. 70%), AST to platelet ratio index (0.45 vs. 0.33), CD4 count (508 vs. 427 cells/mm3), HBV DNA suppression (81.8 vs. 70%), hepatitis B e antigen loss (9 vs. 5%), hepatitis B surface antigen seroclearance rate (6.06 vs. 18.75%) and death (3 vs. 3) at 120 weeks between TDF (n = 33) and ADV (n = 32), respectively. Conclusions: Adefovir plus lamivudine is an effective alternative of tenofovir plus lamivudine in long-term HBV treatment outcome in HIV/HBV coinfected patients.

Meghnad Saha and the contemporary scene

Meghnad Saha and the contemporary scene

Transnationalism in Missionary Medicine

Kala-azar is a parasitic disease that was endemic in India, parts of Africa and China. During the first half of the twentieth century, developing means of treatment and identification of the host and transmission vectors for this deadly disease would be the subject of transnational research and controversy. In the formative period for this research, two Canadian Medical missionaries, Drs. Jean Dow and Ernest Struthers, pioneered work on Kala-azar in the North Henan Mission. The great international prestige of the London School of Tropical Medicine and the Indian Medical Service would stand against recognition of the clinical discoveries of missionary doctors in remote North Henan. It was only after Struthers forged personal relations with Dr. Lionel. E. Napier and his colleagues at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine that there was a meeting of minds to promote the hypothesis that the sand fly was the transmission vector.

Polymorphisms in Pfcrt and Pfmdr-1 genes after five years withdrawal of chloroquine for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in West Bengal, India

BackgroundThe emergence of resistant power against different antimalarial agents particularly by Plasmodium falciparum is a challenge to combat malaria. Regular monitoring is essential not only to determine the efficacy and development of resistance by the parasite but also to detect early sign of regaining sensitivity to any anti-malarial agent that has been withdrawn for a long period. Studies on molecular markers associated with antimalarial drug resistance of prevailing Plasmodium population play an important role in this aspect. The present protocol was designed to study the polymorphisms in pfcrt and pfmdr-1 gene to determine any sign of regaining sensitivity to chloroquine among P. falciparum after five years of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) implementation. MethodsClinical isolates were collected from P. falciparum positive patients attending the malaria clinic of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine during December 2014 to December 2015. Genomic parasitic DNA was extracted and subjected to sequencing of pfcrt and pfmdr-1 gene directly from purified PCR products. ResultsA total of 89 isolates were sequenced for pfcrt and 73 isolates for pfmdr-1 genes. In pfcrt gene mutant K76T was detected in all isolates and all were SVMNT haplotype. Out of three important polymorphisms in pfmdr-1 gene mutant Y184F was detected among all isolates. One synonymous G182G and one non-synonymous S232F/Y, mutation were detected in 99% isolates. ConclusionAll isolates carrying mutant K76T in pfcrt gene, considered as hall mark for CQ resistance, indicate that there is no sign of regaining CQ sensitivity among the prevailing P. falciparum population of the study area after five years of ACT implementation.

Molecular identification of an old clinical isolate of Indian Kala-azar.

Molecular characterization is an important task for species identification of the isolates belonging to different Leishmania species. Clinical symptoms, tissue tropism, vector preference, reservoir and geographical distribution may act as distinguishing parameters but not always decisive. On the other hand, modern taxonomic tools employed to divulge characteristics of the genome or protein molecules of the parasite would be convincing and for Leishmania sp., they include nuclear and kDNA buoyant density, multi locus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), RAPD, RFLP or use of monoclonal antibodies etc. In the present study, we intend to establish the identification of an old clinical isolate of Indian Kala-azar, familiarly known as 'UR6' by MLEE, RAPD, RFLP and species specific monoclonal antibodies. UR6 has been isolated from a confirmed Kala-azar patient admitted in Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata in 1978. From then it is being regularly used for various scientific studies by the Leishmania Research Group of India and abroad. The isozyme profile of UR6 showed similar electrophoretic mobility that of WHO reference strain for Leishmania tropica, K27. Similar findings were obtained in the RAPD and RFLP assays. Screening with species specific monoclonal antibodies showed its strong reactivity towards L. tropica. The Jaccard's Similarity Indices were calculated.