Cardiac tamponade: A small case series.

The term cardiac tamponade describes a condition in which the heart is compressed by an excess of fluid in the pericardial space, with resulting abnormalities of cardiac function. Cardiac tamponade is a rare cause of sudden death. It is difficult to diagnose both in living and dead. In dead diagnosis is difficult at autopsy in absences of external visible injury & in living person the symptoms of cardiac tamponade are non specific. The symptoms relate principally to the secondary circulatory embarrassment. We present the series of cases with cause of death as cardiac tamponade due to diseases & trauma. These cases demonstrate that focus should always to be given to entire vital organs like heart and possibility of tamponade should be kept in mind.

A preliminary study of glycosylation of hair in diabetes mellitus.

Glycosylation of hair was studied in 30 diabetic (15 IDDM and 15 NIDDM) patients and in 30 age and sex matched healthy non-diabetic subjects. A positive correlation occurs between glycosylation of proximal portion of hair and the simultaneously measured glycosylated haemoglobin. The hair glycosylation remains stable along the length of hair from scalp to tip in normal subjects and suggests that a sufficiently long hair sample may offer a long term record of degree of hyperglycaemia. This may be useful in the investigation of hyperglycaemia and microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus. The level of glycosylation of hair is independent of duration of the disease, age, sex and race of the patient and colour of the hair, thus providing a universal index of hyperglycaemia in the control of diabetic state. Glycosylation of hair is perhaps the most non-invasive technique readily acceptable to the patients and yet provides a fairly accurate and reliable information regarding hyperglycaemia in the preceding duration in which the hair has been grown.

Incidence of coronary artery disease in asymptomatic uncomplicated essential hypertensive patients--evaluation by treadmill exercise test.

Treadmill exercise test was performed in 100 patients, 50 were hypertensive who were not having any clinical or electrocardiographic manifestation of coronary artery disease and 50 were controls. The test was positive in 28% of hypertensive patients as compared to 6% in controls. This study therefore suggests that hypertension is frequently associated with asymptomatic coronary artery disease as compared to normotension and it is concluded that exercise electrocardiography test is a definite diagnostic tool in diagnosis of coronary artery disease not only in symptomatic but also in asymptomatic patients with one or more risk factors.