Young patient with sub-acute bacterial endocarditis presenting with embolic phenomena

Subacute Bacterial Endocarditis presents a diagnostic challenge even in this day and age due to a variety of manifestations which can be difficult to spot in the early stages where the disease can be treated effectively. This report focuses on the neural and cutaneous manifestations of the disease in a single patient. It stresses the need to suspect endocarditis in young children who present with manifestations of stroke, transient ischemic attacks or peripheral vascular lesions. Delay in treatment is a major cause of mortality in this population and only a high index of suspicion can lead to an early life saving diagnosis and treatment

Can vascular pathology in cerebral and coronary fields predict peripheral artery disease in a cohort of diabetic patients?

Objective: To find out whether peripheral artery disease followed the same pattern, set of risk factors and indicators as macro vascular disease in the coronary arteries and cerebral arteries disease

Study design: This was a randomized cross sectional retrospective analysis

Place and duration: Study was carried out at The Diabetes Management Center at The Services Hospital Lahore, during June 1999 to June 2001

Patients and methods: A total of 580 patients were selected from the diabetic data base that had absent pulsations in the any of the four arteries of the lower limbs. Another set of 580 diabetics with presence of pulsations in all the arteries of the lower and upper limbs was randomly selected to match the cases

Results: Diabetics with peripheral vascular disease had a significant positive history of past CVA and past MI

Conclusion: Presence of peripheral vascular disease is significantly associated with presence of history of past CVA and past MI, raised systolic BP, diastolic BP, and mean BP and increased proteinurea