52-year-old woman becomes first to deliver twins at Kolkata hospital long after Menopause.

Sarbani Pal is the country's first woman to have successfully delivered twins at a post-menopausal 52 years of age.At a very young age,she married Sital Das about 35 years ago.Sital's sperm count was low and egg donation with intra cytoplasmic sperm injection was advised.Rohit Gutgutia IVF consultant at Genomee explained them the entire process.At 50-plus the blood vesselsbecome resistant the uterus loses its flexibility.Thus it was a difficult situation to take over said Chakraborty who oversaw the pregnancy till the delivery.All went well,but in the 32nd week,Sarbani developed pregnancy-induced hypertension and cholestate jaundice,so the doctors performed an emergency caesarean on Sarbani on April 29.The two babies developed slight respiratory distress in the first week,but theydid not need any ventilation.

Heart attack risk can be heard as well as seen

US researchers said people with a bruit from the carotid artery in the neck were twice as likely to suffer an attack and more than two and a half times as likely to die from heart disease,than those without it.A carotid bruit is heard when using a stethoscope to listen to blood flow in the artery,which brings blood to the head and neck.Scientists said nurses or physicians usually notice the sound by chance during a medical check-up of otherwise healthy people.

Indian scientists claim advance in stem cell research.

Two Indian researchers have taken regenerative medicine research several steps forward by independently establishing the presence of adult stem cells in the entire female genital tract and isolating them using non-invasive methods to develop cells of other organs.Kolhapur based gynaecologist Satish Patki and NCCS_PUNE senior scientist Ramesh Bhonde-are now planning to file a patent.Thet said Medical Hypotheses a reputed journal published in US by Elsevier,has accepted their findings for publication.Elsevier is the world's largest publisher of medical and scientific data.Patki and Bhonde told newspersons in Kolhapur that they have also demonstrated that stem cells could be obtained from the female genital tract by using non-surgical methods.

Indefinite doctors' strike hits government hospitals.

Empty wards ,dead bodies piling up for post-mortem and patients being discharged arbuptly is the scene at various civil hospitals and public health centres across Maharashtra state.Medical services have come to standstill ever since over 2500 medical officers went on indefinite strike on May2.Ofthe 40 civil hospitals,about 30 have been completely paralysed.79 public health centres which conduct at least25 post-mortems everyday have also completely stopped functioning.Doctors have been demanding regularisation of thier services.Some of them have been working on temporary appointments for 10-15 years.Many doctors have not seen any promotions or increments in last 10 years or more.They have been deprived of leave benefits and even provident fund.About 10,278 posts of medical officers were lying vacant for 10 years.

Surgery cure for OCD patient

Washing hands under a running tap was never enough for Jyoti Salunkhe,a 32-years old from a village in Jalgaon taluka. She would follow it up with an arcane ritual-filling her mouth with water,spitting it out at four distinct spots on her left hand and anotherfive on her right hand.It would take 50-at times,90-such rounds of washing hands every day to fears of contamination.Doctors from Sion Hospital's new neuropsychiatric surgery service operated on Salunkhe,free of cost,on April11.The operation was the first for a public hospital as well as in Mumbai health establishment.Neurosurgeon Alok Sharma and psychiatrist Nilesh Shah said that they are pleased with how well she has responded to surgery.

Shark skin saves man

It was shark's skin that pulled out a badly burnt 23 year old aspiring doctor from the jaws of death.While he waited seven days for it to arrive from US, his wounds were covered in pig skin. Artificial skin called Integra derived from chemicals extracted from shark skin was used to save Roshan(name changed)who sustained severe burns in an accident last month.Integra,though being labelled as one of the best innovations for burn injury,is also dreadfully expensive.InRoshan case ,grafting his two arms with the artificial skin cost Rs40 lakh.