Health profile of security personnel in a tertiary care hospital in Odisha

Background: Security guards/protective inspectors are a group of professional gray collar workers responsible for safety and security of general public. In healthcare institutions, they play a pivotal role in streamlining the movement of patients, healthcare workers as well as other people as well as keeping a check upon the law-breaking activities within the premises. These professionals are constantly overburdened with responsibility and many of them are under the verge of physical, mental, and emotional crisis leading to various health issues. Aim and Objective: To assess the influence of changing work patterns on the overall physical health of security guards working in the hospital. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital in the Eastern part of Odisha involving all the security personnel currently working. Universal sampling was opted and 465 personnel participated in this study. Results: Of the total, 213 (45.8%) were between 30 and 40 years of age and 398 (85.5%) were male. 179 (38.4%) were overweight and 52.2% had a waist-hip ratio above normal range for their gender. Prevalence of anemia and Conjunctival xerosis was significantly higher among night shift workers with P < 0.001 whereas hypertension (P = 0.08) and rheumatoid arthritis (P = 0.006) was significantly higher among morning shift workers. Conclusion: Being a distinctive member of the hospital, it is high time that regular health check-ups and social security measures should be made available to them in order to provide quality life which will in turn ensure better hospital safety and security.

A RP-HPLC Method Development and Validation for the Estimation of Gliclazide in bulk and Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms.

A simple, selective, linear, precise and accurate RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for rapid assay of Gliclazide in pharmaceutical dosage form. Isocratic elution at a flow rate of 1.2 ml min -1 was employed on a symmetry C18 column at ambient temperature. The mobile phase consisted of methanol: phosphate buffer 50:50 (V/V). The UV detection wavelength was at 210 nm. Linearity was observed in concentration range of 1-100 μg/mL. The retention time for Gliclazide was 3.25 min. The method was validated as per the ICH guidelines. The proposed method can be successfully applied for the estimation of Gliclazide in pharmaceutical dosage forms.

Spontaneous dissection of coronary arteries.

Spontaneous dissection of coronary arteries is an uncommon entity with varied presentation. It is commoner in young patients, specially females. We present three cases encountered by us in recent past. There were two males and the only female was in her post-partum period. All the three had diverse lines of management based on the angiographic picture, clinical background and myocardium at risk.

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in association with Takayasu's arteritis.

We describe an interesting case of a patient who had Takayasu's arteritis and apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Electrocardiogram, and transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiograms showed classical features of apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which is particularly uncommon outside Japan. To the best of our knowledge, the presence of apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in patients with Takayasu's arteritis has not been reported till date.

Radiofrequency catheter ablation of common atrial flutter--acute and follow-up results.

Atrial flutter with a structurally well-defined macro-reentrant circuit in the right atrium has recently become amenable to radiofrequency ablation with the recognition of isthmus as a narrow zone of slow conduction. This study describes 20 consecutive and symptomatic patients with atrial flutter (15 males, 5 females; mean age 38.5 +/- 10.2 years) who underwent radiofrequency ablation in our institute in the last 18 months. Fourteen patients had structurally normal hearts, while the remaining six patients had specific disorders (prior surgery for closure of atrial septal defect-2, idiopathic restrictive cardiomyopathy-1, primary sinus node dysfunction-2, tachycardiomyopathy-1). The endpoints of a complete isthmus block and conversion to sinus rhythm were achieved in 19 of the 20 patients. Total number of pulses needed to attain the endpoints was a mean of 4.2 (range 1-5), each pulse being delivered for 90 seconds. At a mean follow up of 9.4 +/- 3.2 months (range 6-12 months), recurrence of atrial flutter was seen in one patient, atrial fibrillation in two and sinus node reentrant tachycardia in one. These results are comparable to those reported in the literature. Achievement of a complete isthmus block appears to be an important endpoint in obtaining optimal results. The issues of alternative sites of ablation, long-term results and advantages of an 8 mm tip catheter need to be examined further. In conclusion, radiofrequency ablation appears to be the preferred mode of treatment for patients with atrial flutter with excellent short-term and mid-term results.