The flickering jaundice

Benign Recurrent Intrahepatic Cholestasis (BRIC) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by intermittent episodes of jaundice and pruritus. It is also known as Summerskill-Walshe-Tygstrup syndrome. It is a benign disease with no progression to end stage liver disease.. The first episode of cholestatic jaundice occurs early in life and there are asymptomatic periods between attacks lasting weeks to years. This case report presents a young male who presented with severe pruritus and acute onset jaundice. He had his first episode of jaundice at the age of twelve and had several intermittent episodes since then. Diagnosis was made by the unique clinical presentation with exclusion of other causes of cholestatic jaundice. This case report highlights the importance of detecting such cases of rarity and preventing unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedures on such patients.

Clinical – microbiological characterization and risk factors of mortality in infective endocarditis from a tertiary care academic hospital in Southern India

Aims To dissect the clinical-microbiological profile of Infective endocarditis (IE) population and to determine the risk factors for IE related mortality. Methods A cohort study was conducted using relevant data from clinical records of patients (≥12 years) with definite/possible IE from December 2007 to December 2013 and was analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. Results In the cohort of 139 IE patients, mean age was 47.9 ± 15.8 years, with male preponderance (68.3%). Rheumatic heart disease was the commonest (30.9%) underlying cardiac lesion followed by mitral valve prolapse with mitral regurgitation (23.7%), degenerative valvular disease (23%), congenital heart disease (15.8%) and prosthetic valves (3.6%). Vegetations were detected in 94.2% cases. Blood cultures were positive in 69.8% cases, commonest organism isolated was α – hemolytic streptococci (30.9%) followed by Enterococcus (12.9%) and methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (10.8%). Complications observed were congestive cardiac failure (31.2%), acute kidney injury (25.9%), stroke (21.6%), septic shock (16.5%), embolic phenomenon non-stroke (8.6%), atrial fibrillation (5%) and ring abscess (2.9%). Mortality rate was 17.3%. Congestive cardiac failure, increase in the peak leucocyte count and stroke were the independent predictors of mortality. Conclusions This study reiterates the persistent dominance of rheumatic heart disease in the population studied and α – hemolytic Streptococci as the commonest responsible microorganism.