Dyslipidemia in Diabetic Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

The present study was undertaken to check the lipid profile in patients of acute myocardial infarction withchronic diabetes and to evaluate the variations in various lipid levels in different age, gender and in patientswith different habits of diet, smoking and alcohol consumption. A total of 92 subjects aged between 40-70years were included. 5 ml of fasting blood sample was collected from antecubital vein under aseptic precautionsin a plain vacutainer and incubated at room temperature; serum was separated by centrifuge machine at 2000rpm for 5 minutes. The samples were analyzed for estimation of four biochemical parameters: total cholesterol,serum triglyceride, serum HDL and blood sugar using Abott Architect Autoanalyser. Mean levels of HDL werebelow the normal range in smokers and non-vegetarians whereas mean TG levels were elevated amongalcoholics, smokers and non-vegetarians. High TG levels and low HDL levels are the predominant lipidabnormalities in chronic diabetic patients with AMI. There is also a significant association between smokingand these parameters.

Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency in Jammu Region.

Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide health problem. This cross sectional one year study was carried among healthy subjects of both sexes without known, thyroid, renal or hepatic disease or malignancy. The 25(OH)D concentrations were measured by competitive radioimmunoassay. The subjects were classified as vitamin D-deficient, or -sufficient on the basis of 25(OH)D concentrations of <30 ng/mL, 30-100 ng/ mL respectively, according to recent consensus. Total 702 subjects participated in the study female predominated the study. Vitamin D deficiency was prevalent among 76.39% of the total population.Thus the current study sugest high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency exist in Jammu region among healthy population.

Serodiagnosis of childhood tuberculosis by ELISA.

OBJECTIVE: Diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis remains an enigma despite many recent technological developments. The present study has been taken up with the aim to assess the diagnostic potential of mycobacterium tuberculosis excretory-secretory ES-31 antigen and affinity purified anti ES-31 antibodies in the serodiagnosis of different spectrum of childhood tuberculosis. METHODS: Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra excretory-secretory antigen (ES-31) and affinity purified goat anti ES-31 antibodies were used in stick penicillinase ELISA for IgG antibody detection and stick Sandwich penicillinase ELISA for detection of circulating free and immune complexed antigen in the sera of 230 children. RESULTS: Analysis of tubercular antibody, circulating free and immune complexed antigen (CIC-Ag) was done in both pulmonary and extrapulmonary form of childhood tuberculosis and overall sensitivity of 81.4% with a specificity of 93% was achieved for detection of antitubercular IgG antibodies. Of the five cases of pulmonary tuberculosis showing absence of IgG antibody, 3 showed the presence of CIC-Ag and one was found positive for both free and CIC-Ag. Similarly out of 8 cases of extrapulmonary childhood tuberculosis missed by IgG detection 5 were found to be positive for CIC-Ag and 1 showed the positive reaction for both free and immune complexed antigens. CONCLUSION: IgG antibody to excretory-secretory antigen ES-31 is found to be having good specificity with acceptable sensitivity in detecting different forms of childhood tuberculosis. Further detection of circulating free and/or immunecomplexed antigen can be used as an adjunct tool in the diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis.

Chemotherapy trial in paucibacillary leprosy using clofazimine.

In a double blind study, 300 PB patients (smear negative, indeterminate, tuberculoid and borderline tuberculoid) were randomly allotted to two regimens, the control subjects (150 patients) receiving the standard WHO multidrug regimen of six doses of once a month rifampicin with daily dapsone therapy for six months, while the study group (150 patients) receiving 50 mg of clofazimine daily for six months in addition to the WHO regimen. After stoppage of therapy all the patients were followed up on placebo. The regimens were well tolerated. In 7.5% of patients on clofazimine containing regimen, the lesions showed persisting activity at the time of stoppage of therapy, compared with 16% on the control regimen. This activity subsided spontaneously, more rapidly, in the study group (80% compared with 30% in the control group) in six months. Two patients in the control group and one patient in the study group developed late reaction. There were no relapses in the study group, whereas, two patients have relapsed in the control group during a follow-up of 2.5 to 3.5 years.

Atypical radiological presentation of tropical pulmonary eosinophilia.

Two cases of tropical pulmonary eosinophilia presenting with rare unusual radiological appearances of consolidation with associated pleural effusion in one and lobar consolidation in another, are being reported. Both patients showed dramatic improvement to diethylcarbamazine therapy.

Treatment of paucibacillary leprosy with a regimen containing rifampicin, dapsone and prothionamide.

Ninety paucibacillary leprosy patients having indeterminate (I), tuberculoid (TT) and borderline tuberculoid (BT) type of leprosy with bacterial index (BI) of less than two on the Ridley scale were treated with rifampicin (RFM) 600 mg once a month, dapsone (DDS) 100 mg daily and prothionamide (PTH) 250 mg daily. Treatment was stopped at the end of six months. The patients tolerated the drugs fairly well and in only two patients the drugs had to be stopped (in one due to jaundice and in the other due to gastric intolerance). About 6% of patients had early reactions which subsided with additional steroid therapy. The inactivity rate was 60% at six months and this improved to 96% at 12 months. No cases of late reactions and relapses were encountered in the limited follow-up period of six months; and a longer follow-up is necessary for ascertaining the relapse rates. The preliminary results however suggest that the addition of prothionamide to the standard WHO paucibacillary regimen is well-tolerated with increased inactivity rate and fewer instances of late reactions.