Shashikiran Umakanth

Dr TMA Pai Hospital Udupi; MMMC, Manipal Academy of Higher Education · Internal Medicine

Objective: Non-typhoidal salmonellosis is one of the leading zoonosis in the world caused by non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS). Invasive infections with NTS serovars occurs due to the presence of virulence genes like invA along with the immunosuppressive conditions of the patient. The study was conducted to isolate and identify the NTS serovars and th...

Background: Several SNPs were identified through GWAS for their association with type 2 diabetes which has implications to pancreatic β-cell physiology. Objective: We aimed to study the role of risk alleles of TCF7L2, KCNJ11, CDKN2A, CDKAL1, IGF2BP2, SLC30A8 and KCNQ1 along with pharmacokinetic variants in response to sulfonylureas. Method: We...

For the effective control of malaria, development of sensitive, accurate and rapid tool to diagnose and manage the disease is essential. In humans subjects, the severe form of malaria is caused by Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) and Plasmodium vivax (Pv) and there is need to identify these parasites in acute, chronic and latent (during and post-infectio...

Omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3 FAs) are essential fatty acids with diverse biological effects in human health and disease. Reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality is a well-established benefit of their intake. Dietary supplementation may also benefit patients with dyslipidaemia, atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndr...

Introduction: Regularity in diabetes self-management practices among people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a predictor of glycaemic control. Knowledge and attitude have linear relationships with diabetes self-management, and hence exert a positive influence on glycaemic control. Aim: The study aimed to develop and examine a structural mode...

Background: Physical activity of any amount results in substantial health benefits. However, public awareness of physical activity benefits in chronic diseases is inadequate in India. Prediabetes is a significant health issue on a global scale. Visceral fat (VF) is considered as an early predictor of prediabetes. Ethnicity and race have a substanti...

Millions of lives have been impacted by COVID-19, which has spread rapidly. Several vaccines have been developed to curb the severe prognosis induced by the virus. However, a part of the population (elderly and patients with coexisting conditions) is still at risk. It is crucial to identify these patients early since appropriate treatments can be p...

Background: This study, conducted from August 2014 to August 2015, investigated hyponatremia in 228 in-hospital patients, aiming to discern its clinical and biochemical features and compare the efficacy of vaptans against standard treatments. The null hypothesis assumed no significant disparity in outcomes, while the alternate hypothesis posited ot...

The COVID-19 pandemic erupted at the beginning of 2020 and proved fatal, causing many casualties worldwide. Immediate and precise screening of affected patients is critical for disease control. COVID-19 is often confused with various other respiratory disorders since the symptoms are similar. As of today, the reverse transcription-polymerase chain...

Objective: The persistent spread of SARS-CoV-2 makes diagnosis challenging because COVID-19 symptoms are hard to differentiate from those of other respiratory illnesses. The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test is the current golden standard for diagnosing various respiratory diseases, including COVID-19. However, this standard dia...

Background : Caring for a child with long-term functional limitations can have a negative impact on the physical and psychological well-being of the caregiver. Family-centered care (FCC) interventions have the potential to empower caregivers and contribute to their well-being. This systematic review aimed to synthesize existing evidence on the effe...

Monkeypox (Mpox) resurfaced in January 2022 as a rare zoonotic disease that spreads to many countries. Though the virus is not as dangerous as COVID-19, it has still caused many fatalities worldwide. The Mpox virus spreads when people are in close contact with infected individuals. Among many symptoms, the disease also causes skin rashes, and medic...

As we set into the second half of 2022, the world is still recovering from the two-year COVID-19 pandemic. However, over the past three months, the outbreak of the Monkeypox Virus (MPV) has led to fifty-two thousand confirmed cases and over one hundred deaths. This caused the World Health Organisation to declare the outbreak a Public Health Emergen...

The coronavirus pandemic emerged in early 2020 and turned out to be deadly, killing a vast number of people all around the world. Fortunately, vaccines have been discovered, and they seem effectual in controlling the severe prognosis induced by the virus. The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is the current golden standa...

Based on the recently added high throughput analysis data on small noncoding RNAs in modulating disease pathophysiology of malaria, we performed an integrative computational analysis for exploring the role of human-host erythrocytic microRNAs (miRNAs) and their influence on parasite survival and host homeostasis. An in silico analysis was performed...

Background: Prediabetes Risk Test (PRT) has been found valid in the Western population for screening prediabetes. However, ethnicity, race, geographical and other biological characteristics have been linked to the development of prediabetes. There is a dearth of literature on the external validity of PRT in the Indian population. So, the objective...

Purpose Metformin is widely used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) individuals. Clinically, inter-individual variability of metformin response is of significant concern and is under interrogation. In this study, a targeted exome and whole transcriptome analysis were performed to identify predictive biomarkers of metformin response in drug-na...

Traditional home remedy consumption is a typical ancient practice in India. These traditional home remedies are found to have beneficial effects on many chronic conditions. This study was designed to explore the effect of traditional home remedies on glycemic control in people with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM). In this study, 148 type-2 DM patient...

Background: Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) is one of the four critical worldwide reasons for diarrhoeal infections and causes a noted zoonotic infection termed non-typhoidal salmonellosis. Non-typhoidal salmonellosis generally causes self-limited gastroenteritis, whereas in immunocompromised conditions can result in invasive infections. Aim and Obj...

COVID-19 is an extremely deadly disease which has wreaked havoc worldwide. Initially, the first case was reported in the wet markets of Wuhan, China in the early 2020's. Though the mortality rate is low compared to other dangerous diseases, a lot of people have already succumbed to this virus. Vaccines have been successfully rolled out and it seems...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic condition that can cause complications due to poor glycaemic control. The demographic characteristics, information related to DM and management, anthropometric variables, and the body fat composition of T2DM individuals are important factors influencing glycaemic control. This study was conducted to expl...

In regions endemic to both COVID-19 and dengue, cases of coinfections are possible. Since they have similar clinical presentations, but management might be different, it is crucial to identify these cases of coinfections. We diagnosed seven cases of dengue–COVID-19 coinfections. Fever, myalgia, rash and thrombocytopenia were found to be the common...

We report the case of a 23-year-old man without any significant premorbid conditions initially presenting to a psychiatrist with suspected depression but later referred to our hospital owing to the possibility of systemic disease and subsequently diagnosed as having disseminated tuberculosis.

In early March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed the novel COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The coronavirus went on to be a life-threatening infection and is still wreaking havoc all around the globe. Though vaccines have been rolled out, a section of the population (the elderly and people with comorbidities) still succumb to this...

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) associated health disparities among different ethnicities have long been known. Ethnic variations also exist in T2D related comorbidities including insulin resistance, vascular complications and drug response. Genetic heterogeneity, dietary patterns, nutrient metabolism and gut microbiome composition attribute to ethnic dispar...

Objective: Prediabetes is a precursor to type 2 diabetes mellitus and routine screening of prediabetes is crucial. Visceral fat (VF) is associated with prediabetes and insulin resistance. Ethnic and racial differences resulting in different levels of VF in the Indian population necessitates an India-specific study. There is a dearth of literature...

Introduction: The cognitive and psychomotor abilities needed by physicians are widely addressed in the undergraduate medical curriculum; however, the attitude (affective domain) is rarely addressed. Soft skills refer to a person's ability to communicate efficiently, collaborate, and have various personality traits that define people's interactions....

Introduction: An epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India is fueling a growing demand for primary care and hospitalization services. Difficulties in coordinating inpatient and outpatient care create significant barriers to providing high-quality medical care. In this paper, we describe patient experiences, perceptions, and expectations...

Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), often known by the name COVID-19, is a type of acute respiratory syndrome that has had a significant influence on both economy and health infrastructure worldwide. This novel virus is diagnosed utilising a conventional method known as the RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) test. This approach, howev...

Biotinylated anti-NS1 antibody of dengue was conjugated on the streptavidin functionalized ZnO quantum dots (QD) by EDC-NHS chemistry. Photoluminescence spectra of the ZnO QDs showed band edge peak (∼366 nm, peak 1) and a defect related peak (∼470 nm, peak 2). The defect related peak was present only for Zn/Li ratio below 0.5. The change in the lum...

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2), colloquially known as Coronavirus surfaced in late 2019 and is an extremely dangerous disease. RT-PCR (Reverse transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests are extensively used in COVID-19 diagnosis. However, they are prone to a lot of false negatives and erroneous results. Hence, alter...

Background Parental views and expectations about family-centred care (FCC) needs to be understood for its successful implementation. Knowledge of caregiver’s perceptions and needs, within their social and cultural context, forms the basis for effective health care partnerships with families. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions abou...

Direct and indirect influence of pathological conditions in Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) on vasculature manifests in micro and/or macro vascular complications that act as a major source of morbidity and mortality. Although preventive therapies exist to control hyperglycemia, diabetic subjects are always at risk to accrue vascular complications. One of the...

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) known as Coronavirus surfaced in late 2019. It turned out to be a life-threatening disease and is causing chaos all around the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic in March 2020. To handle COVID-19 related problems, research in many areas of science was introdu...

A case report of a healthy, immunocompetent male,an international traveller from Germany who had visited India for a short trip,presented at our OPD with a history of loose stools, fever and abdominal pain,for two months. After thorough investigations, he was diagnosed to have an infection withGiardia lambliaacute gastroenteritis (AGE) along witheo...

Introduction: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has overloaded the healthcare system beyond its functional capacity. Late referral to higher levels of care may be one of the factors associated with higher mortality. Therefore, we aimed to find simple demographic and laboratory parameters which predict the requirement of admission to a c...

Background: The aim is to assess the prognostic value of total T3, total T4, and thyroid-stimulating hormone among critically ill patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit (ICU) in association with mortality and its correlation with the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score. Methods: : Our prospective obs...

Background Thrombocytopenia is a common haematological abnormality noted in clinical practice, however, it can be missed in cases where specific investigations are not asked for. Acute Febrile Illness with thrombocytopenia is a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge, as thrombocytopenia has an inverse relation to mortality and morbidity in various fe...

Despite the high number of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) cases from India, there are few reports from India describing the clinical epidemiology of COVID-19. This study aimed to describe the clinical/epidemiological characteristics and outcomes of asymptomatic vs. symptomatic COVID-19 patients. This was a retrospective chart review of all admit...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, novel enveloped RNA beta‑coronavirus. The clinical manifestations vary from no symptoms to fever, cough, respiratory distress, pneumonia, and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or uncommonly diarrhea. Typically, the disease has viremic phase, p...

COVID-19 was an unprecedented pandemic of our lifetime. Uncertainties were part of daily life and were the only certainty. Bracing for this pandemic at the level of a hospital was challenging. From infection control to patient management, from training healthcare workers to taking care of them, from public education to fighting fake news and misinf...

Coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is a dangerous disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has quickly spread all around the world, becoming a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Vaccines have been developed to prevent the spread of this disease and various researches are being conducted to find the cure...

Aim: The present study was conducted to decipher the inter-relationship of SNPs and miRNAs involved in pharmacogenomics of clopidogrel on predisposition to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Materials & methods: A case–control study was conducted on 410 cases and 386 controls to analyze the association of 13 mirSNPs on CVDs risk. Genotyping was perfor...

The susceptibility of children to coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) and transmission of COVID-19 from children to others is a relatively unexplored area. The aim of this study was to understand the transmission dynamics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in children. This was a retrospective observational study where a total of 19 p...

Aims Inflammatory stage in prediabetes is associated with increase in level of adipokines and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Physical activity promotion considered as a first-line therapeutic strategy to treat prediabetes. We have conducted the systematic review and meta-analysis to strengthen the evidence on the impact of physical activity promotion...

Background Diabetes is a significant public health challenge for India. Self-management, including dietary management, physical activity, stress management, and adherence to medication, is critical in glycaemic control. Though data concerning self-management, in general, are available among persons with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), exclusive re...

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic condition requires Self-management to achieve optimal glycaemic control. The utilisation of healthcare services is a critical component in diabetes self-management

Objective: To study the usefulness of glycosylated hemoglobin in early pregnancy to predict gestational diabetes mellitus. Material and Methods: We conducted this prospective hospital-based observational study over 30 months. After obtaining university ethics committee clearance, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) test was performed during the booking...

Objectives To assess the prevalence of statin usage, intensity of statin therapy, and serum LDL cholesterol levels achieved in clinical diabetes mellitus population to analyze whether the recommendations of American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association’s cholesterol guidelines 2013 (ACC/AHA cholesterol guidelines 2013) are achieved in t...

The interaction of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms is one of the underlying causes of phenotypic variability in complex diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). To explore the influence of genetic and epigenetic changes in T2D, we examined the effect of methylation of CpG-SNP sites on allele-specific expression (ASE) in one-carbon metabolism pathw...

Aims: To investigate the impact of microRNA target SNPs (mirSNPs) and their interaction with miRNAs on important drug-metabolizing enzymes, transporters and target genes for prediction of clopidogrel drug response in cardiovascular disease individuals. Main methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 292 individuals undergoing...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and ischemic stroke are the two most predominant forms of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) caused by genetic, epigenetic and environmental risk factors. Although studies on the impact of 'epigenetics' in CVDs is not new, its effects are increasingly being realized as a key regulatory determinant that may drive predisposi...

Background: The status of obesity has attained pandemic magnitude worldwide. Maternal obesity in pregnancy is a rapidly growing concern for obstetricians. Pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity poses a risk which is shared both by the mother as well as her newborn.

Today most education institutions around the world have adopted the philosophy of outcome-based education. The emphasis in outcome-based education is achievement of outcomes; hence the curriculum should be designed in a way that it includes the components targeted specifically at achieving these outcomes. A discipline-based approach results in frag...

Dengue infection can cause various effects on the central and peripheral nervous systems. Direct neurotropism and immunological mechanisms are responsible for most such neurological manifestations. We present the case of a 64-year-old woman with rapidly progressive dementia with seizures following dengue infection.

Background and Objectives Non-typhoidal Salmonellosis, a zoonotic infection associated with acute gastroenteritis is caused by non-typhoidal salmonellae (NTS). The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of NTS serovars and their antimicrobial resistance along with the presence of the virulence gene (invA gene) in poultry samples. Materi...

Introduction: To be trained as problem-solvers, medical students need to be exposed to activities that integrate and apply knowledge. Student research projects in the medical curriculum are a means of achieving these objectives. At Melaka Manipal Medical College (MMMC), the Mentored Student Project (MSP) is a platform for research by students guide...

Background: Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) means the amount of energy utilized by body in physical and psychological resting rate, after a night sleep, awake without any previous physical activity post meal (10 h after last meal) & neutral environment. In people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) there is an increase in BMR which is said to be associ...

Background: Radical cure of Plasmodium vivax malaria requires treatment with a blood schizonticide and a hypnozoitocide (primaquine) to eradicate the dormant liver stages. There has been uncertainty about the operational effectiveness and optimum dosing of the currently recommended 14-day primaquine (PQ) course. Methods: A two centre, randomized...

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serotype Typhimurium sequence type 313 (ST313) is most commonly associated with invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella disease in Africa among patients with HIV infection and malignancy. Here, we report a draft genome sequence of S. Typhimurium ST313, isolated from an elderly immunosuppressed patient from India with no...

Introduction: Thyroid disorders are among the most common endocrine disorders affecting pregnant women. About 2 to 3% of pregnant women are affected by subclinical hypothyroidism and about 0.3%-0.5% by overt hypothyroidism. Thyroid autoantibodies are found in 5-15% of women in childbearing age and have been associated with adverse pregnancy outcome...

Thyroid disorders pregnancy

Insulin resistance by HOMA-IR and GDM

Nephrotic Syndrome (NS), a unique renal disease complex associated with heavy proteinuria (protein excretion >3.5 gm/day), hypoalbuminemia (<30 gm/L) and peripheral oedema is a rare entity in pregnancy with an incidence of about 0.012-0.025%. There have been very few reports of pregnancy with co-existing NS. We hereby report a case of steroid sensi...

Aim: Metformin, an oral hypoglycemic drug is the first line of treatment for Type 2 diabetes individuals. We studied the effect of critical gene single nucleotide polymorphisms on the glucose lowering effect of metformin. Method: We performed a prospective study on 221 newly diagnosed, treatment-naive Type 2 diabetes subjects. Individuals were s...

Acute pancreatitis is a rare, but life-threatening complication of organophosphorus (OP) compounds, and generally shows a subclinical course. In this case, acute pancreatitis and the pseudocysts were diagnosed nearly two weeks post OP ingestion. Possible etiological factors for acute pancreatitis (alcohol, biliary disease, medication, and others) w...

Introduction: Problem solving skills are of utmost importance to medical students who in the future would depend on them for diagnosing a case. However, there are very few avenues to develop problem solving skills in the preclinical years. Generally, case scenarios are used by medical schools to develop these skills during Problem Based Learning (P...