ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 is a multi-system all-pervasive disease with protean manifestations, and its major signs and symptoms, such as incessant dry cough, fever, and pneumonia, are well known. Yet, its mucocutaneous manifestations, particularly those of the oral cavity, appear to be little recognized. This may be due either to the rarity of oral manifestations of COVID-19, or poor detection of such symptoms by attending physicians who may do only a cursory examination of the oral mucosa because of the overwhelming gravity of the other major systemic presentations. Nevertheless, there are now a considerable number of reports, including systematic reviews, on oral manifestations of COVID-19 in the literature. This observational study was performed to determine the oral manifestations among COVID?19 patients. Material & Methods:A cross?sectional study was carried out among COVID?19 recovered patients. 120 Covid 19 recovered patients were purposively selected as study samples. All the samples diagnosed as mild and moderate cases of COVID?19 disease were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria.Results:The study comprised the majority of males (68%) where females represent (32%) of the study population and the mean age was 39.3±12.4. Oral manifestations among study subjects during and after the disease illness including loss of taste being the commonest symptom (40%), followed by erythema and coated tongue (7.5%), mouth ulcerations (6.7%) and dry mouth (1.7%). The study revealed that the 41-60 age group subjects represented the highest (43%) oral manifestations.Conclusions:Early identification of oral symptoms in COVID?19 recovered or suspected cases can help a dentist or a general physician to diagnose high?risk groups, mitigate transmission, and promote overall health.
ABSTRACT
Background: Hypokalemia is a very common electrolyte imbalance in diabetic patients which leads to substantial morbidity and mortality. Severe hypokalemia is associated with lifethreatening arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. There are no adequate studies regarding the incidence and factors precipitating hypokalemia in Bangladeshi diabetic subjects. Objective: The objective of this study was to find out the factors precipitaing hypokalemia in diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: A total 95 admitted diabetic patients with hypokalemia were studied. Specimens were collected from all adult diabetic patients with serum potassium level <3.5 mmol/L irrespective of cause of admission. Informations were obtained in a semistructured data collection form and analyzed. Results: Most of the subjects (61.1%) belonged to the age group of 60 years and above, 31.5% to the age group 40–59 years and 7.4% belonged to the age group of 20–39 years. Sixty one (64.2%) patients were females and 34 (35.8%) were males. In 63.2% cases, vomiting was found as a factor causing hypokalemia in the diabetic patients. Other common factors precipitaing hypokalemia were diarrhea (42.1%), inadequate diet (9.5%), severe hyperglycemia (3,2%), diabetic ketoacidosis (6.3%) and drugs especially diuretics (18.9%), bronchodilators (6.3%) and steroids (5.3%). The commonest comorbidity associated with diabetes was hypertension. Conclusion: In this study the commonest precipitating factor causing hypokalemia was vomiting. Majority of hypokalemic patients were female and of older age group. When hypokalemia is identified, the underlying precipitating factor should be sought and the disorder treated. Diuretics should be used with caution in the elderly patients having hypertension, a common comorbid condition of diabetes, as these patients are susceptible to develop hypokalemia.
ABSTRACT
Aim: From time past till date, proper documentation of the use of medicinal plants are helpful in drug development and research. The objective of this study is to evaluate several plant extracts of Bangladesh for their thrombolytic activity. Study Design: There are seven different plants from unlike families were studied in this primary research work. They were collected between August-September (2012) and the thrombolytic effect of their extractions was investigated. Streptokinase was used as standard to compare with and evaluate the significance of each result. Result: Among all studied plants Gardenia coronaria showed most promising result of 49.61±0.866% of lysis, whereas streptokinase exhibited a lysis of 75.36±0.964%. The extracts of Hedychium thyrsiforme and Artocarpus chaplasha showed also promising activity with 48.39±1.813% and 43.69±0.906% of thrombolytic effect, respectively. Conclusion: All the plants used in this study showed promising thrombolytic activity compared to standard. Proper phytochemical characterization and isolation of the constituent compounds responsible for this activity may be further investigated and could be a future source of lead thrombolytic compounds.