ABSTRACT
Background: Oesophageal carcinoma is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths worldwide and is also associated with high morbidity. Hence early diagnosis and treatment are the only effective way to improve survival and quality of life in oesophageal carcinoma patients. Early-stage oesophageal carcinoma are often asymptomatic and may also present with common upper gastrointestinal symptoms hence diagnosis of early oesophageal carcinoma is only based on detection of suspicious lesions through endoscopy and histopathological evaluation of biopsies from these suspicious lesions. The study is designed to see whether using alarming upper gastrointestinal symptoms, risk of oesophageal carcinoma in patients can be predicted.Methods: Present study comprises of 200 patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal symptoms at JSS Hospital, Chamarajanagar (both out patients and referred patients) during the period of October 2018 to December 2019, who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.Results: Out of 200 patients, 135 patients were males and 65 patients were females. According to the study, dysphagia was found to be a significant predictive factor and in contrary to the global statistics this study showed females aged more than 60 years were significantly at higher risk of developing oesophageal carcinoma.Conclusions: We recommend to do an early endoscopy for any patient presenting with upper gastrointestinal symptoms and to take multiple biopsies from any suspicious lesion especially for male gender older than 50 years and female gender older than 60 years presenting with dysphagia.
ABSTRACT
Background: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgically correctable acute abdomen presenting at emergency department worldwide. Inspite of all advances in diagnostic modalities and surgical techniques, diagnosis remains difficult sometimes as a challenge and delayed decision making complicates this surgical disease. Alvarado scoring system is one of available scoring system for diagnosis of acute appendicitis, based on history, clinical examination, lab investigations and easy to apply, helps in clinical decision regarding planning surgery and avoid negative laparotomies. The aim of the study was to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of Alvarado scoring system in preoperative diagnosis of acute appendicitis and correlating with postoperative findings.Methods: This study was conducted in 100 cases of suspected appendicitis admitted in surgery department of Rajiv Gandhi Speciality Hospital, Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, Union territory of India, from July 2015 to June 2017 adopting Alvarado scoring system. Results were analyzed.Results: Out of 100 patients admitted with suspected acute appendicitis, number of cases operated suspecting acute appendicitis were 83 of which 80 were found to have acutely inflamed appendix. Results of Alvarado score of operated patients are as follows: 80 patients had score 7-10, and 3 patients had score 5-6, patients with Alvarado score <5 (17 pts) were managed conservatively.Conclusions: The Alvarado scoring system is a simple and useful diagnostic tool for diagnosis of acute appendicitis with acceptable sensitivity and specificity and can be used with high degree of accuracy. Our findings suggest that patients presenting with abdominal pain and Alvarado scores greater than 7 are more likely to have appendicitis.