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MOSAIC: Parallel cinema is alive
Breathing easy THE past three decades have seen advances in the management of the respiratory distress syndrome in pre-term infants, states a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. It is now widely accepted that surfactant (fluid on the inner lining of the lungs) deficiency is the basis for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and that a combination of antenatal corticosteroids, postnatal surfactant therapy, and effective ventilatory assistance is key to successful management. Residual fetal high pressure in the lung vessels, resulting in shunting of deoxygenated blood away from the surfactant-deficient lungs, contributes to the derangement of blood gases in affected infants and could be a cause for abnormal development of the lungs, to which these infants are predisposed. Over the past six years, inhaled nitric oxide therapy has emerged as a successful treatment for respiratory failure due to lack of oxygen, in term or near-term infants. In these infants, persistent raised pressure in the lung vessels, often due to meconium aspiration or bacterial pneumonia, is relieved by the selective dilation of the vessels, induced by nitric oxide. It was also presumed that there could be a reduction in the lung’s maldevelopment with nitric oxide therapy. Nitric oxide is synthesized by various enzymes present in airway lining cells. Studies on animals have shown that inhaled nitric oxide may favourably affect the developing airway by inducing widening of the airways. The main side effect of nitric oxide can be induction of bleeding in the brain of these fragile preterm infants by decreased platelet aggregation. This new therapy should therefore be opted with care. — Fatema Jawad | ||
THERE are many reasons to applaud Doctor, a short film directed by Shandana Minhas and Maheen Zia and produced by Arif Abrar of Beanistan Films, an independent film company in Karachi. The movie addresses a tragic social wound — the targeted terror killings of doctors in Karachi over the last few years — and delivers its message like a kick in the stomach. At every level — story, screenplay, acting, sound, camera work — the film is an aesthetic success. It all speaks well of independent cinema coming alive in Karachi.|
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