Association of Sleep Disorders with Essential Hypertension in Subcontinental Population.

Effects of sleep disorders on different physiological functions have been studied in depth. One such association is that of insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea with hypertension. This study intended to evaluate the relationship between sleep disorders and essential hypertension. In this institution based case-control study, the study population was selected by simple random sampling among all patients attending the outpatient department of Medicine. Patients with major risk factors for essential hypertension and other causes of secondary hypertension were excluded. Patient’s meeting the eligible criteria of blood pressure equal to or greater than 140/90 (mean of 3 readings) mm of Hg were included as cases and matched controls were selected from the rest. The eligible population of 216 people (92 cases, 124 controls) was assessed using the modified SLEEP-50 questionnaire and evaluated using an original “Sleep Scale”. Significant sleep disorder (Sleep Scale score >6), had a prevalence of 13.89%. The mean sleep scores were significantly higher (p = 0.0037) in cases than controls. The association between sleep disorder and essential hypertension was significant. (Odd’s Ratio=2.270, 95% Confidence Interval 0.970-5.364, p=0.047). Sleep disorders are an unconventional risk factor for essential hypertension. Further studies are needed to validate the present observations.

Comparative randomised active drug controlled clinical trial of a herbal eye drop in computer vision syndrome.

A comparative double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial of a herbal eye drop (itone) was conducted to find out its efficacy and safety in 120 patients with computer vision syndrome. Patients using computers for more than 3 hours continuously per day having symptoms of watering, redness, asthenia, irritation, foreign body sensation and signs of conjunctival hyperaemia, corneal filaments and mucus were studied. One hundred and twenty patients were randomly given either placebo, tears substitute (tears plus) or itone in identical vials with specific code number and were instructed to put one drop four times daily for 6 weeks. Subjective and objective assessments were done at bi-weekly intervals. In computer vision syndrome both subjective and objective improvements were noticed with itone drops. Itone drop was found significantly better than placebo (p<0.01) and almost identical results were observed with tears plus (difference was not statistically significant). Itone is considered to be a useful drug in computer vision syndrome.