Chandigarh, March 19
Additional professor of the department of hepatology, Dr Virendra Singh, was conferred with the best paper award for his pioneering work entitled “Midodrine versus Albumin in the Prevention of Paracentesis Induced Circulatory Dysfunction in Cirrhotics: A Randomised Pilot Study”.

The paper was selected for the first prize in the oral plenary session at a three-day annual conference of the Indian National Association for Study of Liver (INASL) concluded on March 18 at Vellore. The study highlights the role of a new drug - midodrine in the control of ascites (free fluid in the abdomen) in patients with cirrhosis of liver.

Under the cover of midodrine, a large amount of the ascitic fluid can be taken out in patients with cirrhosis with tense ascites and the renal complications after the procedure can be prevented.

The drug, although not expensive, is not available in India. This work was a part of MD (medicine) thesis of Dr Prashant C. Dheerendra done under the guidance of Dr Virendra Singh.

Dr Virendra has decided to put in a formal request to the manufacturers of this drug for supplying it free of cost so that he can use the same for the poor patients attending his clinic in the department of hepatology at PGI.

Dr Virendra Singh is working in this area for the past five years and had earlier established the role of two more new drugs namely terlipressin and noradrenanline.

He had earlier been bestowed with the travel bursary award and the certificate of distinction for an outstanding paper presentation (2004) by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and Asian Pacific Association for the Study of Liver (terlipressin) and travel bursary award (Vienna, 2006) by the European Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (noradrenaline) for his extensive work.

Chandigarh, March 19
“For Team India, but it is still not impossible. To remain in the hunt for the World Cup is not an easy job,” said cricketer-turned-commentator Krishnamachari Srikkanth.

“India will have to put an extraordinary show in its remaining matches to be in the contention,” added Srikkanth, who was a member of World Cup winning squad in 1983.

He was in the city to unveil the Google World Cup Cricket campaign by starting a blog to provide users an opportunity to write, share, debate on the World Cup.

On the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, the former cricketer was of the view that now-a-days, international cricket carries too much pressure and stress but it should not be allowed to take its toll.

“Though we knew each other, we did not meet often. The news was shocking and sad,” said Srikkanth.

On the defeat of India at the hands of minnows Bangladesh, he said, “Greg Chappell must be under pressure. It is up to the team not to give up and show they are the best. It is not an impossible task to make it to the Super Eight”.

Though indirectly, Srikkanth also raised some doubts on the captaincy of Dravid during the match against Bangladesh. “Two main reasons for the defeat were a total collapse of the batting lineup and the very late introduction of spin attack. After seeing the success of Bangladesh left arm spinners, spinners should have been introduced earlier.” He also criticised the change in batting order for the in-form Robin Uthappa.

Chandigarh, March 19
Sabreena Gill beat Nimrit Walia 7-6 (7-2) in the girls under-12 category in the first round and Pukhraj Gill 7-0 in the second round in the ongoing third L.D. Kapoor Memorial YMCA Total Tennis Championship being played at YMCA Total Tennis Academy, here, today.

Digvijay Naruka and Nishchay Rawal stormed into the semifinal stage of boys under-12 and under-14 categories.

In the boys under-14 age category, top seed Digvijay Naruka, second seed Nishchay Rawal, Ravisher Singh and Pankaj Kumar moved to the semifinal stage by defeating their respective opponents without much difficulty.

The results:

Boys u-12 quarterfinals: Digvijay Naruka b Bhavya Jain 8-1; Utkarsh Khosla b Sarthak Dass 8-2; Jatinder Singh b Shubham Vij 8-0; Nishchay Rawal b Andrew Pradeep 8-1

Boys u-14 quarterfinals: Digvijay Naruka b Jatin Kharab 8-3; Ravisher Singh b Srijan Uppal 8-3; Pankaj Kumar b Aviraj Kamboj 8-3; Nishchay Rawal b Ranjodh Singh 8-1

Girls u-12 (first round): Sabreena Gill b Nimrit Walia 7-6 (7-2)

Girls u-12 (second round): Sabreena Gill b Pukhraj Gill 7-0; Aashima Garg b Bhavya Wadhawan 7-2

Chandigarh, March 19
The third edition of All-India Chandigarh Open Bridge championship will be held at DSOI, Sector 36, here from March 23 to 25. The tournament is being organised by the Chandigarh Bridge Association which is affiliated to the Bridge Federation of India.

As many as 35 teams comprising about 200 bridge enthusiasts from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh have confirmed their participation in the tournament.

Briefing mediapersons about the tournament, the general secretary of the association, Colonel Guriqbal Singh, said that the tournament would be played in ‘team’ and ‘pair’ categories.

“It is an open tournament so any one can participate in it. The participation fee for a team has been fixed at Rs 2500 for a team of four players for three days. Total prizes worth Rs 2 lakh would be given to position holders.”