Search

Sheehan’s syndrome is a life-threatening endocrine emergency seen in postpartum females secondary to ischemic pituitary necrosis. It is a frequent cause of hypopituitarism in developing countries that occurs secondary to postpartum haemorrhage (PPH). Patients with Sheehan’s syndrome often present with organ dysfunctions in critical care settings, secondary to stressors precipitating the underlying hormonal deficiencies. The initial clinical picture of Sheehan’s syndrome may mimic some other disease, leading to misdiagnosis and diagnostic delay. Strict vigilance, timely diagnosis, and appropriate management are essential to avoid diagnostic delay and to improve the patient outcome. In this case series, we describe 5 cases of previously undiagnosed Sheehan’s syndrome (including young, middle aged and postmenopausal females) that presented to critical care and emergency settings with organ failures.

Introduction: Hypertension is a global public health issue.Hypertensive heart disease is one of the top ten leading causes of death in the world.Hypertension is also a major contributor to the global disease burden of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.Poor adherence to medications is one of the major public health issue and challenge. Only one-third of the population reported successful control of blood pressure.Despite of the availability for effective treatment, over half of the patients being treated for hypertension drop out of care entirely within a year of diagnosis.Recent research suggests that poor adherence and poor compliance to antihypertensive medication (AHM) is a major hurdle in the management of hypertension and is usually associated with bad outcome of the disease and wastage of limited health care resources.Adherence to antihypertensive medication is a very effective step for controlling blood pressure and preventing complications.To prevent some of the complications of hypertension regular intake of the prescribed treatment in the form of medicines (pills) is very essential and important.The current study aimed to assess the level of compliance of hypertensive patients to their anti-hypertensive medications and to determine the socio-demographic correlates of compliance. Methods: A total of 512 patients were enrolled from the Department of Internal Medicine at King George's Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow according to the American Heart Association ( AHA ) guidelines. Both male and female patients of age between 35-75 years on anti – hypertensive medications, providing written consent were included in the study.An institutional-based descriptive crosssectional study was conducted among hypertensive patients.A simple random sampling technique was used to select the study participants from the study population. Sociodemographic data, medication adherence, factors affecting adherence were collected using a structured questionnaire and an 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale questionnaire was used to assess the level of adherence. The questionnaire had 8 questions and a score of 7 or 8 was classified as good adherence, 6 as moderate, and less than 6 as non adherence. On each visit at the OPD the questionnaire was provided to the patients. Results: A total of 62 patients were lost to follow-up, resulting in 450 patients out of 512 having hypertension further completed the study.The mean (±SD) age of the study participants was 54.5 (±10.6) years.Medication adherence was good among 115 (25.6%) patients and moderate among 165 (36.7%); 170 (37.8%) patients were nonadherent. Most patients (72.7%) had uncontrolled hypertension. Nearly half (49.6%) were unable to afford monthly medication.In bivariate analysis, nonadherence was associated with female sex (odds ratio [OR], 1.44; P = .003) and long waiting times in the health care facility (OR, 2.93; P = .005); the presence of comorbidities (OR, 0.62; P = .01) was associated with good adherence. In multivariate analysis, nonadherence was associated with unaffordability of treatment (OR, 2.25; P = .002) and uncontrolled hypertension (OR, 3.16; P < .001). Good adherence determinants included adequate counseling (OR, 0.29; P < .001) and education (OR, 0.61; P = .02).The analysis was done using proportions and Chi-square test . Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to determine covariates associated with medication adherence. Conclusion: Low level of knowledge regarding hypertension related complications or associated risk factors was also noted.Patient education, family counselling, social support networks and also the use and importance of gadgets should be strengthened in health promotion programs in order to enhance compliance of hypertensive patients with the therapeutic regimen and to improve their quality of life. The level of poor adherence to antihypertensive medications and low level of knowledge on hypertension was a point of concern.The status of blood pressure control was significantly associated with the pattern of adherence.The barriers to adherence were cost of drug and more number of pills per day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Globally, prevalence of diabetes is 10.5%, and in 2019, approximately 463 million adults were living with diabetes by 2045; this will increase to 700 million (10.9%). India is a diabetic capital of world, prevalence of diabetes in India is 8.3%. Aim: This study aimed to assess self-care practices (SCPs) among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients, its predictors, and effect of SCP on glycemic control. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional hospital-based study was conducted among 300 known T2DM patients in the age group of 18–60 years attending noncommunicable diseases clinic at Secondary and Tertiary Care Hospitals of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, selected using two-stage purposive sampling method. Data were collected using a predesigned and pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Data were collected from consenting respondents on the sociodemographic profile (about their residence, gender, marital status, type of family, educational status, family income, employment status, etc.). SCP was assessed using Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: Among 300 patients with a mean age 50 ± 8.9 years, the prevalence of good SCPs was 37%. Out of 189 T2DM patients with poor SCPs, 66.4% had uncontrolled blood sugar level (285.4 ± 67 mg/dL). Out of 73 T2DM patients with poor SCPs, 65.7% had uncontrolled glycated hemoglobin level (8.4% ± 2%), and this was statistically significant. Conclusion: The practice of self-care was found to be suboptimal among patients with T2DM in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Poisoning with Organophosphorus compounds is an important global health problem, possibly the most common acute poisoning in developing countries. This study was done to correlate the severity of acute organophosphorus poisoning with serum cholinesterase and serum creatine phosphokinase level. Materials and Methods: A Prospective observational clinical study was done on 42 patients suspected of Organophosphorus poisoning of age >15 years admitted to the emergency unit at a tertiary healthcare center in northern India. Serum cholinesterase levels and serum Creatinine phosphokinase levels were estimated at the time of admission in all patients and the severity of Organophosphorus poisoning was assessed according to Peradeniya Organophosphorous Poisoning (POP) Scale. Results: In this study, among 42 patients of acute organophosphorus poisoning 32(76.2%)were males and 10(23.8%) were females. Our study authors observed a significant correlation between the severity of poisoning categorized by the POP scale and the serum cholinesterase and Serum CPK level at the time of the patients' initial presentation. Also found that there was a significant correlation between serum cholinesterase and serum CPK with the outcome of the patients. Conclusion: In our study severity as well as outcomes of OP poisoning was directly correlated with serum cholinesterase level and serum Creatinine phosphokinase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study focused on investigating the clinical significance of serum Sfrp5/Wnt-5a levels as a risk marker in metabolic syndrome (MetS). The study involved a total of 107 treatment-naive MetS cases and 100 controls with similar age and sex belonging to northern India. The profiling of clinical, biochemical, and anthropometric variables was done. ELISA methods were employed for serum cytokine estimation. Serum Sfrp5 was inversely correlated with BMI, WC, SBP, DBP, FPG, TG, fasting insulin level, and HOMA-IR in both males and females. The best cutoff value for Sfrp5 to predict MetS in males was ≤40.48 ng/ml (sensitivity 53.70% and specificity 90.48%), while in female, it was ≤66.67 ng/ml (sensitivity 98.11% and specificity 34.48%). MetS occurrence decreased with increasing concentration of Sfrp5 with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.95 (95% CI = 0.92–0.98, P <.001) in male and 0.93 (95% CI = 0.91–0.97, P <.001) in female. Quartile analysis revealed that odds of MetS significantly decreased in quartile 4 vs. 1, 0.06 (95% CI = 0.01–0.25), P =.001 and 0.13 (95% CI = 0.04–0.44), P =.001, respectively, in male and female. The inverse association of serum concentration of Sfrp5 with MetS might have a useful addition to the available risk marker as well as a therapeutic target for MetS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypothyroidism are closely linked as hypothyroidism has been shown to lead to the development of OSA through multiple mechanisms. With the changing lifestyle patterns worldwide and increased prevalence of obesity, the burden of OSA has substantially increased. The association of OSA with hypothyroidism is essential to establish. If identified early, treatment of OSA and associated hypothyroidism can be done timely to minimize the potential harmful complications of OSA on all aspects of the patient's health. Aims: This study was done to find out the prevalence of OSA in hypothyroidism patients. Setting and Designs: It was a cross-sectional study, done over a period of 1 year in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 hypothyroidism patients were enrolled after taking written consent. All patients were subjected to STOP-Bang questionnaire and patient falling in intermediate-high risk (score3-8), were taken for overnight polysomnography to confirm the diagnosis of OSA (AHI ≥5). Statistical Analysis Used: The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21.0 statistical analysis software. Results: Out of 100 patients, who underwent polysomnography, 74 (74%) cases had OSA (AHI ≥5). Out of total 74 OSA cases, 29 (39.2%) cases had mild OSA (AHI 5–14), 15 (20.3%) cases had moderate OSA (AHI 15–30), and 30 (40.5%) cases had severe OSA. The age of the study population ranged between 24 and 78 years and the mean age was 58.28 ± 11.22 years. The mean age of the patients in the OSA group (59.27 ± 11.17 years) was higher than the non-OSA group (55.46 ± 11.09 years). Majority (64%) of our cases were male, and the proportion of males was found to be higher than females in both the groups (OSA/non-OSA). The body mass index (BMI) of the OSA group was found to be statistically higher as compared to that of the non-OSA group (P = 0.040). The BMI was found to be higher in severe OSA, but it was not statistically significant (P = 0.128). The mean value of FT4 was lower and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) was higher in the OSA group as compared with the non-OSA group. However, no significant association was found between FT4 and TSH values in both the groups. Out of 100 cases, 41 patients were treatment naïve with mean TSH value of 13.1 ± 7 and 59 were on treatment with mean TSH of 8.3 ± 4. Treatment-naïve patients had a statistically higher number (85.3%) of OSA cases in comparison to patients on treatment (66.1) (P = 0.030). Conclusions: Prevalence of OSA is quite high in hypothyroidism. Patients with hypothyroidism should be screened for OSA for early diagnosis, especially in individuals with higher BMI. Treatment of hypothyroidism reduces the prevalence of OSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous pneumothorax complicating pregnancy is rare. Only 55 cases have been reported till now. We describe a case of a 30-year-old Indian woman with spontaneous pneumothorax during her 28 th week of pregnancy.

Background: Hypoxemia-induced endothelial dysfunction leads to microalbuminuria. Microalbuminuria (MAB) has also been used as a parameter to assess the risk of cardiovascular events in an individual. The aim of this study was to observe the relationship of MAB in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to correlate MAB with different stages of COPD. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study included 140 patients with COPD selected according to GOLD guidelines based on COPD test assessment score and the number of exacerbations who had smoking pack years of more than 10 years. Urine albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) more than 30 mg/gm represents MAB. Results: The UACR increases as the severity of groups of COPD increases with significant differences in UACR values among different COPD groups. Significant differences were seen among various groups of COPD when compared for different clinical parameters such as SPO2, PaO2, PaCO2, pH, and C-reactive protein (CRP). Pearson correlation analysis revealed that UACR was significantly inversely related with PaO2 (r = -0.514, P < 0.001), SPO2 (r = –0.397, P < 0.001) and FEV1 (r = –0.441, P < 0.001) and it was significantly positively correlated with PaCO2 (r = 0.675, P < 0.001). Conclusion: This study indicates that there is strong relationship of MAB in patients with COPD and the levels of MAB increase as the severity of COPD increases due to hypoxia and endothelial dysfunction. As MAB is a marker for cardiovascular risk, patients with COPD can be routinely evaluated for the urine test of MAB specially who are at increased risk for cardiovascular events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]