A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of Acupuncture for Treating Allergic Rhinitis

Introduction: Allergic Rhinitis is a common inflammatorydisease of the nasal mucosa. It is a symptomatic disorderof the nose induced after allergen exposure due to an IgEmediated inflammation of membranes lining the nose. Usualtreatment of Allergic rhinitis includes allergen avoidance,effective symptomatic treatment, antihistamines or steroids,standardized immunotherapy, and patient health education.There are also recommended complementary and alternativemedicine (CAM) therapies including, Ayurvedic medicine,herbal medicines, Acupuncture, Homeopathy, and severalother modalities.Material and methods: This study was conducted on 80patients diagnosed positive for Allergic Rhinitis attending theOutdoor Patient Department (OPD) of Dr. D.N. Kotnis Health& Education Centre, Ludhiana, Punjab. The severity of thepatient’s problem was taken on Liker’s scale at their first visitand the last visit of the treatment. The acupuncture points werepunctured until the needling sensation/ Qi was achieved. Thepoints were connected with an electrical stimulator for 30-40 minutes followed by a moxibustion application with stickmoxa for 15-20 minutes. The collected data were subjected tomultinominal logistic regression using ROCR package of theR programming environment.Results: It is noted that, statistically after treatment, theresults for pre and post-treatment varied significantly withp=0.0039, df= 15. There was maximum improvement seen fornasal symptoms and insomnia treatment.Conclusion: Acupuncture provides an effective and safetreatment modality for allergic rhinitis. It provides a significantreduction in major symptoms of allergic rhinitis improving theQuality of life of the patient.

A Descriptive Study to Assess the Psychiatric Morbidity among Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.

Background: Symptoms of depression and anxiety are known to be associated with cardiac events. Anxiety is an independent predictor of both cardiac events and increased health care consumption and accounts for the relationship between depressive symptoms and prognosis. Psychological Symptoms need to be considered in the risk stratification and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. Materials and Method: A non experimental research design was utilized to assess the psychiatric morbidity in a sample of 60 patients with CAD, attending the outpatient clinic of the Department of Cardiology of a tertiary hospital in Punjab. Symptom checklist -80 was used to assess the psychological deficits. Analysis and interpretation of the data was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Out of 60 patients, 39.9% of patients had symptoms of moderate depression and 7.70% had severe depressive symptoms. 12.5 % patients had severe anxiety and 39.41% had moderate anxiety symptoms. Anger hostility in both moderate and severe range was observed in 10.14 % of the subjects. Moderately severe depression and anxiety was higher in males as compared to females and the difference was statistically significant. (p=0.024 & p=0.0424). Females had significantly higher anger hostility than males (p=0.0176). Mean score on additional symptoms was 2.71± 4.14 and 5.21± 4.52 among male and female patients respectively. On an average, depression and anger hostility were significantly more in patients with co morbid medical illnesses (p=0.0066), recent invasive procedure undertaken (p=0.03) and who were living alone (p=0.039). Conclusions: Our study concludes that CAD can lead to various psychiatric disorders, which further can complicate the course and outcome of the primary disease itself. Moreover the cost of treatment of CAD and its complication can further worsen the psychiatric disorder. Psychiatric disorders also lead to poor compliance and follow up in CAD patients.

Brugada syndrome in a north Indian female-a case report.

The Brugada syndrome is an autosomal dominant disease with incomplete penetrance, which may cause syncope and sudden cardiac death in young individuals with a normal heart. It is characterized by an electrocardiographic pattern of complete or incomplete right bundle branch block and ST-segment elevation in leads V1-V3. Mutations in gene encoding for cardiac sodium channel SCN5A is linked to this syndrome in 20-25% patients. Several conditions producing Brugada-like ECG patterns should be borne in mind and excluded before making a diagnosis of the Brugada syndrome. The management of this syndrome is difficult as pharmacological agents are not universally effective. The mode of treatment recommended by the majority of cardiac electro-physiologists is implantation of a cardioverter defibrillator. We report the first case of a 40-year-old Indian lady who presented with a history of aborted sudden cardiac death with recurrent ventricular arrhythmias and an electrocardiogram (ECG) pattern of type 1 Brugada syndrome, and underwent successful implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation.

Choroid plexus papilloma associated with developmental delay.

Choroid plexus papillomas are rare, benign tumors of neuroectodermal origin usually observed in the lateral ventricles of children. The usual presenting signs of choroid plexus papillomas are related to hydrocephalus and increased intracranial pressure. A child presented to us with clinical features of delayed milestones, which was later diagnosed as a case of choroid plexus papilloma with hydrocephalus. He underwent complete excision of the tumour with gradual recovery of milestones.