ABSTRACT
Kytococcus has long been considered to be a skin commensal or environmental contaminant. However, it has emerged as an aetiological agent of prosthetic valve infective endocarditis, pneumonia, bacteremia, osteoarticular, and implant/device infections, especially in patients with immunocompromised conditions, such as haematological malignancies, febrile neutropaenia and in patients on immunosuppressant therapy. We report a case of prosthetic valve endocarditis associated with Kytococcus schroeteri in a patient with rheumatic heart disease and mitral valve replacement. Special efforts to reach correct identification have to be made as Kytococcusis, commonly resistant to penicillins and oxacillins; and often needs prolonged treatment with glycopeptides containing combination antimicrobial therapy.
ABSTRACT
Context: Increased prevalence of obesity in childhood and adolescence, defined by the use of body mass index (BMI), has drawn attention towards direct measurement of body fat Objective: To develop age-and sex-specific reference distribution of body fat in apparently healthy North-Indian children in the age group of 7-17 years and to assess agreement between obesity (defined by BMI) and excess body fat Design: Study subjects for this cross sectional study included1640 apparently healthy school children (825 boys; 815 girls) aged 7-17 years. Total body fat was measured by dual energy X-rays absorptiometry (DXA). The excess body fat by DXA was defined by two methods, prevalence matching and with the use of 85th and 95th centile cutoffs. Results: The mean ± SD, 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 97th centile values of percentage body fat (PBF) are presented. PBF was highly correlated with BMI in both boys and girls (all boys: r=0.76, P<0.0001; all girls r=0.81, P<0.0001). There was no significant difference noted in PBF between boys and girls at the age of 7-8 years. From 9 years onwards, girls had significantly higher PBF than boys. Moderate degree of agreement was observed between BMI and PBF by DXA by both methods. Conclusions: Smoothened reference distribution of PBF for North-Indian children and adolescents in Delhi are provided. Indian children accumulate more body fat during peri-pubertal years in comparison with US children.
ABSTRACT
Background & objectives: Several autoimmune disorders have been reported to be associated with autoimmune thyroiditis and may coexist with other organ-specific autoantibodies. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the presence of tissue transglutaminase (anti-TTG) and glutamic acid decarboxylase (anti-GAD) antibodies in patients suffering from autoimmune thyroiditis as diagnosed by anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies, which may indicate high risk for developing celiac disease or type 1 diabetes mellitus. Methods: Five thousand children and 2800 adults were screening as part of a general health examination done on a voluntary basis in four different parts of Delhi. A total of 577 subjects positive for anti-TPO antibody constituted the cases. Equal number of age and sex matched anti-TPO antibody negative controls were randomly selected from the same cohort to form paired case control study. The cases and controls were further divided into two groups as follows: group-1 (children and adolescent <18 yr), group-2 (adults >18 yr). Serum samples of cases and controls were analysed for thyroid function test (FT3, FT4, and TSH), anti-TTG and anti-GAD antibodies. Results: A total of 1154 subjects (577 cases and 577 controls) were included in this study. Hypothyroidism was present in 40.2 per cent (232) cases compared to only 4.7 per cent (27) in controls (P<0.001). Anti-TTG and anti-GAD antibodies were present in 6.9 and 12.5 per cent subjects among cases compared to 3.5 per cent (P=0.015) and 4.3 per cent (P=0.001) in controls, respectively. Only anti-GAD antibody were significantly positive in cases among children and adolescents (P =0.0044) and adult (P=0.001) compared to controls. Levels of anti-TTG and anti-GAD antibodies increased with increasing titre of anti-TPO antibody. Interpretation & conclusions: Our findings showed high positivity of anti-GAD and anti-TTG antibodies among subjects with thyroid autoimmunity. It is, therefore, important to have high clinical index of suspicion for celiac disease or type 1 diabetes mellitus in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis.
ABSTRACT
Pott's puffy tumor, a feature of osteomyelitis of the frontal bone, is a rare entity, especially in adults. Sir Percival Pott originally described this condition as a complication of trauma to the frontal bone. This is also a recognized complication of fronto-ethmoidal sinusitis. We present a rare case of Pott's puffy tumor caused by an insect bite presenting initially as a preseptal cellulitis and explore its pathogenesis and management.