The enlargement of thyroid gland which is located in the human neck is known as goitre. When the supply of iodine to the thyroid gland is inadequate for the formation of sufficient quantities of thyroid hormones, goitre appears. In the present study prevalence and epidemiological risk factors of goitre in Hyderabad city and adjoining areas has been studied. The important findings of this study are summarized as follows: Females were seen to be more prone to develop goitre than males, with an overall female to male ratio of 5:1. In both sexes, the prevalence of goitre was the maximum in 15-25 year age group. Family history was positive in 22.45% cases. Of the goitre patients 77.22% belonged to Hyderabad city and 84.85% were sedentary by occupation. Goitre was more prevalent in surface water drinkers (80.75%) than in ground water consumers (19.25%), in the consumers of mine salt (67.54%) than that of sea salt (32.46%). The screening of goitre patients by blood chemistry revealed that 5.17% and 2.50% cases had hyperthyroid and hypothyroid respectively. Nodular non-toxic goitre was found in 6.71% cases, nodular toxic in 0.28% cases and solid adenoma/cyst in 24.41% cases were found. It seemed essential to examine iodine concentration in water of this area to ascertain whether the iodine deficiency is the cause of sporadic goitre. Iodine concentration in water is usually taken as an index of the iodine intake, therefore 100 water samples were collected and analyzed by ion selective electrode method. Water analysis results showed that iodine contents are within permissible limit i.e. not lower than 3µg/L. This indicates that iodine deficiency in water of study area is not an isolated epidemiological phenomenon for goitre genesis.

After cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death all around the world is cancer. Rhobdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the cancer of soft tissues and it mostly occurs in children and in adults aged between 10 and 25 years. There are several therapeutic modalities that are being used for treating cancer such as surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. But due to their side effects, these therapeutic modalities are not so effective. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new treatment modality introduced for cancer treatment. Low doses of photosensitizer (PS) and light are used in PDT. In this work, combinations of the homeo-drug Hydrastis canadensis (mother tincture, H30C and H200C) and the chemo-drugs Methotrexate (MTX), Doxorubicin (DOX) and Duticine (DTIC) along with PDT were studied by using an RD cell line. The results obtained were compared with individual therapy and the most effective therapeutic combination was selected. It was found that individual administration of PDT, chemo-therapeutic drugs and Hydrastis was not effective because less killing (about 10–15%) occurred as a result of individual therapy. Conversely, combination of chemo- and homeo-drug with PDT gave efficient results. The most suitable combination that showed effective killing (about 50% cells viable) of RD cells was the combination of MTX with Hydrastis, potency H200C, along with PDT. It was concluded that the combination therapy using homeo-drug is more effective and targeted in treating cancer than mono-therapy.