Background & objectives: The usefulness of cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography (CE-HPLC) as a tool for detection of thalassaemia/haemoglobin variants was evaluated in a prospective study in a tertiary care centre in north India. We also tried to evaluate the effect of concurrent nutritional deficiency on the HPLC pattern in the local ethnic population. Methods: A total of 800 blood samples were analyzed on the Bio-Rad Variant HPLC system by β-thal short program. The retention times, proportion of the haemoglobin (%), and the peak characteristics for all haemoglobin fractions were recorded. Alkaline and acid haemoglobin electrophoresis was performed to document the identities of the haemoglobin variants, wherever necessary. Many cases were subjected to family studies for a definitive diagnosis. Results: Among 800 samples tested, 553 (69.1%) were found to have normal HPLC pattern. Apart from β- thalassaemia, nine additional variants were encountered; HbS (2.8%), HbE (2.5%) and HbD (1.1%) being the most common variants present. Other variants included Hb Q-India, Hb-Lepore, δβ-thalassemia/ HPFH, HbD-Iran, HbJ-Meerut and HbH disease. There was a significant decrease in the level of HbA₂ associated with iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) (P=0.004) and increase in megaloblastic anaemia (P<0.001) among subjects with normal HPLC pattern. Interpretation & conclusions: HPLC was found to be a simple, rapid and reliable method for the detection of hemoglobin variants. An accurate diagnosis can be provided in majority of cases by use of retention time, proportion of total haemoglobin, and peak characteristics of HPLC. Haemoglobin electrophoresis and family studies play a valuable role in difficult cases. Concurrent nutritional deficiency also has an effect on HbA₂ levels.

Acute Lung Injury (ALI) and its severe form Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) are the major cause of ICU death worldwide. ALI/ARDS is characterized by severe hypoxemia and inflammation that leads to poor lung compliance. Despite many advances in understanding and management, ALI/ARDS is still causing significant morbidity and mortality. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a fast-growing topic in lung inflammation and injury. lncRNA is a class of non-coding RNA having a length of more than 200 nucleotides. It has been a center of research for understanding the pathophysiology of various diseases in the past few years. Multiple studies have shown that lncRNAs are abundant in acute lung injury/injuries in mouse models and cell lines. By targeting these long non-coding RNAs, many investigators have demonstrated the alleviation of ALI in various mouse models. Therefore, lncRNAs show great promise as a therapeutic target in ALI. This review provides the current state of knowledge about the relationship between lncRNAs in various biological processes in acute lung injury and its use as a potential therapeutic target.

Background: Enhanced neutrophil CD64 (nCD64) expression is likely to be useful in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. This study evaluated the diagnostic efficacy of nCD64 expression as an early indicator of neonatal sepsis. Methods: Sixty neonates (culture positive, 24; negative, 36) with suspected sepsis and 30 controls were studied prospectively. CD64 expression was evaluated flow cytometrically on neutrophils and monocytes. Mean and median nCD64 expression, mean and median monocyte CD64/nCD64 (M/N CD64) ratios were computed. Results were correlated with blood culture and other conventional indices of sepsis. Results: The sick neonates had significantly higher mean and median nCD64 expression compared with controls. Monocyte CD64 values did not differ significantly among the groups. Both mean and median M/N CD64 ratios were significantly lower in the former group. Culture-positive neonates had significantly higher mean and median nCD64 values and significantly lower mean and median M/N CD64 ratios than clinically indistinguishable but culture-negative neonates. Both groups were significantly different with respect to these indices from normal controls. Median M/N CD64 ratio was the best discriminant by virtue of highest area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (0.903), with sensitivity and specificity of 91.7% and 88.9%, respectively. Conventional indices were inferior, both singly and in combination. Conclusions: Enhanced nCD64 reported as median M/N CD64 ratio is a highly sensitive marker of culture-positive neonatal sepsis. It additionally identifies a separate group among culture-negative sick neonates and may be useful to guide antibiotic administration especially in these neonates.