Archive for category: News

Chandigarh: In a major boost to the state’s healthcare infrastructure, the Punjab Government has decided to recruit 1,000 Medical Officers (MBBS). The decision was revealed during a meeting held between Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Kumar Rahul, Director Health Services Dr. Hitinder Kaur, Director PHSC Dr. Anil Goyal, and representatives of the Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCMSA).

Also Read:Punjab to deploy security guards at all Govt Hospitals, says PCMSA

Also Read:Over 2500 Punjab Govt doctors to resume strike on January 20 over unmet demands

Bengaluru: A Bengaluru-based doctor has been booked for animal cruelty after allegedly killing a stray dog by throwing it from the third floor of his apartment building in Adugodi on April 22.  

The police have registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by Ayush Bhattacharjee, a student and resident of the apartment complex. The doctor has been charged under Section 325 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to mischief committed by killing, poisoning, or rendering an animal useless.

According to the news reports, the doctor, a neurosurgeon, is a resident of Brindavan apartment at Lakkasandra and was reportedly unhappy with the presence of a stray dog named Scooby, which had been taken in and cared for by other residents. The incident allegedly occurred in February 2025, when the doctor is accused of throwing the dog from the third floor of the building. 

The complainant noticed the dog bleeding and writhing in pain and took it to a hospital for treatment. The dog had sustained an injury to the spinal cord and was under treatment for two months. After recovery, the dog was brought back to the apartment and placed under the residents’ care.

However, on April 20, a disturbing incident occurred when the residents heard a loud sound. Upon checking, they found that the dog had fallen onto a car parked on the roadside, damaging its windshield. The car owner subsequently filed a complaint against the doctor for the damage to his property.

Also Read: Amritsar based doctor leaves pet dogs home alone for 6 months without food, booked

As per the recent media reports by The Hindu, some residents of the apartment allegedly noticed Dr. Ballal going inside his apartment and slamming the door shut. Some residents went to question him while others rushed the dog to a hospital, where the animal succumbed to its injuries.

Further investigation into the doctor’s background revealed a potentially alarming pattern. In 2022, while pursuing his PG in surgery in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the doctor was allegedly involved in the death of another stray dog. The incident occurred on August 7, 2022, and was brought to the attention of the police by an NGO, People for Animals, after CCTV footage showed Dr. Ballal grabbing a dog by the neck.

Also Read: Viral Video: Jodhpur Plastic Surgeon booked for dragging dog along road

According to TNIE, the Madhya Pradesh High Court, however, quashed the FIR against him on April 26, 2024, on the grounds that the FIR was filed only on the basis of apprehension and “not on the basis of any concrete evidence”.

The Adugodi police have registered an FIR and stated that they will summon the doctor for questioning.

A new study published in the journal of BMC Cardiovascular Diabetology showed that in patients with critically sick ischemic stroke (IS), increased triglyceride glucose-body mass index (TyG-BMI) is substantially linked to an increased risk of short-term all-cause mortality.

Focal neurological dysfunction and cerebral tissue necrosis are hallmarks of ischemic stroke, which is usually caused by insitu thrombotic events or the embolization of atherothrombos from proximal artery sources. Moreover, the most frequent causes of ischemic stroke attributable to other causes include hematological illnesses, such as essential thrombocythemia, polycythemia vera, and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, which can also present as acute ischemic stroke.

Calculated by multiplying fasting triglyceride and fasting glucose levels, the triglyceride-glucose index is a simple and accurate surrogate diagnostic for evaluating insulin resistance (IR), which is associated with IS. In order to fill up current research gaps and provide more accurate biomarker references for therapeutic applications, this study, which is based on the eICU database, examines the connection between the TyG-BMI and 28-day mortality in critically ill IS patients.

The effects of the TyG-BMI on 28-day hospital and intensive care unit mortality were examined using multivariate Cox regression models. To investigate the nonlinear association between the TyG-BMI and 28-day mortality, restricted cubic splines (RCS) were used. K-M curves were used to compare the results of the various TyG-BMI groups. Furthermore, subgroup and interaction analyses were conducted to confirm the results’ resilience.

The mean age of the 1,362 severely sick IS patients that were included was 68.41 ± 14.16 years, and 47.50% of them were male. The high TyG-BMI group had substantially greater ICU and 28-day hospital mortality, according to multivariate Cox regression analysis. The TyG-BMI and 28-day inpatient mortality had a nonlinear positive connection, according to RCS analysis.

There was a 37.3% rise in 28-day hospital mortality for every 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in TyG-BMI below the inflection point of TyG-BMI = 380.37, and an 87.9% decrease in 28-day hospital mortality for every 1 SD increase in TyG-BMI beyond 380.376. The P value for the log-likelihood ratio test is 0.004. The TyG-BMI showed a strong positive linear connection in RCS for 28-day ICU mortality. Overall, among critically sick IS patients in the US, an elevated TyG-BMI is substantially associated with a higher risk of short-term all-cause mortality. 

Reference:

Ouyang, Q., Xu, L., & Yu, M. (2025). Associations of triglyceride glucose-body mass index with short-term mortality in critically ill patients with ischemic stroke. Cardiovascular Diabetology, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-025-02583-1

The molecular mechanism behind why heart attacks can vary in severity depending on the time of day has been uncovered by researchers at UTHealth Houston, potentially paving the way for innovative treatments that align with the natural circadian rhythm.

The study’s findings were published in Nature.

Previous research has shown that the severity of heart damage after an acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack, varies depending on the time of day, with morning attacks resulting in more significant damage and worse outcomes. However, the reasons behind these variations have remained unclear.

“If you have a heart attack in the morning, you are more likely to have fatal arrhythmias, heart failure, and you’re more likely to die from it. The question we asked is ‘Why?’” said Holger Eltzschig, MD, PhD, senior author, and chair and professor of the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

Researchers identified an interaction between two proteins, BMAL1 and HIF2A, as the key factor underlying time-of-day differences in the severity of heart injury following a heart attack. BMAL1 is a core circadian rhythm protein, responsible for regulating biological processes like sleep-wake cycles, metabolism, and hormone release. HIF2A helps the body adapt to hypoxia — low oxygen levels — by stimulating red blood cell production, promoting the growth of new blood vessels, and enhancing cell survival under low-oxygen conditions.

Heart attacks occur when blood flow to the heart is blocked and the muscle begins to die from lack of oxygen. Researchers discovered this interaction between BMAL1 and HIF2A regulated how heart cells in mice responded to low oxygen levels after a heart attack, modulating the heart’s response to injury.

In the preclinical study, researchers found that heart attacks that occurred around 3 a.m. resulted in greater damage to the heart, including larger infarct size and increased risk of heart failure. Heart attacks that occurred at 3 p.m. were less severe, and the heart was better able to adapt to low oxygen levels and promote efficient healing.

The research also revealed that the proteins BMAL1 and HIF2A target a specific gene, amphiregulin (AREG), which plays a vital role in regulating the extent of heart damage throughout the day. By targeting the BMAL1 and HIF2A-AREG pathway with drugs, researchers found they could provide significant protection to the heart, especially when treatments were timed to align with the body’s circadian phase.

According to Eltzschig, future clinical trials must evaluate whether aligning treatments with the body’s internal clock can enhance patient outcomes.

“This discovery opens up new avenues for treating heart attacks by considering the timing of drug administration,” said Eltzschig, who is John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished University Chair at McGovern Medical School. “Our findings highlight the potential to use targeted drugs toward those proteins to reduce the severity of heart attacks when administered at specific times. Similarly, patients undergoing cardiac surgery may benefit from such drugs, like the hypoxia-inducible factor activator vadadustat, when given before their operation.”

The research team included Kuang-Lei Tsai, PhD, assistant professor, and Tao Li, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher and co-first author, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at McGovern Medical School. Using high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy, they were able to reveal the detailed structural interactions between BMAL1 and HIF2A to support future drug development targeting the BMAL1-HIF2A complex. This work provided the first direct molecular evidence of their complex formation and offered critical insights that could guide the development of new therapeutic strategies, Eltzschig said.

Reference:

Ruan, W., Li, T., Bang, I.H. et al. BMAL1–HIF2A heterodimer modulates circadian variations of myocardial injury. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08898-z