Leptospiral myocarditis and pancreatitis.

While Leptospira are known to cause multi-system dysfunction, cardiac involvement is uncommon. We present a case febrile myocarditis diagnosed to have leptospirosis. The patient also had pancreatitis, jaundice and renal failure but recovered well with timely management.

Ceftriaxone-induced encephalopathy in a patient with multicentric glioma.

Background: Ceftriaxone is a commonly used antibiotic in a wide range of local and systemic infections. Encephalopathy is a rare complication of ceftriaxone, often seen in older adults and those with renal insufficiency. Case Description: A 73-year-old lady with prior history of hypertension and dyslipidemia presented with the complaints of slurred speech, gait imbalance, nocturnal vomiting, and progressively worsening headache. A magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed two intracerebral lesions involving the right frontal and temporal lobes, suggestive of multicentric glioma. She underwent craniotomy and excision of these lesions. The biopsy was reported as intra-axial tumors with features suggestive of the WHO Grade IV glioma. Postoperatively, she did not wake up. An electroencephalogram demonstrated triphasic waves suggestive of encephalopathy. The probable diagnosis of ceftriaxone-induced encephalopathy was made after ruling out other causes of delayed awakening after surgery. Ceftriaxone was discontinued and the patient improved within 2 days of withdrawal of ceftriaxone. Conclusion: Drug-induced encephalopathy should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with delayed awakening after surgery. Discontinuation of the drug leads to the recovery of these patients.

Study of the modified magnetic, dielectric, ferroelectric and optical properties in Ni substituted GdFe1-xNixO3orthoferrites.

Polycrystalline GdFe1-xNixO3(x = 0.00, 0.02, 0.04) samples was synthesised using a glycine assisted sol-gel method to investigate the enhanced magnetic and electric properties of Ni substituted GdFeO3systems. TG-DSC analysis of prepared samples confirms that GdFe1-xNixO3have good thermal stability in high temperatures. The system has been stabilized in an orthorhombic structure with space group Pbnm.The elemental composition of GdFe1-xNixO3has been estimated from EDAX spectrum. The results showed oxygen deficiency on increasing the Ni substitution and it has been supported by Rietveld refinement. FE-SEM images and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis reveals that GdFe1-xNixO3is a highly porous material and its porosity and specific area increases with Ni substitution. Magnetic measurements indicates that the system exhibited ferrimagnetic behaviour at low temperatures and canted antiferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature. Forx = 0.04 Ni content, magnetization reversal for applied field of 25 Oe has been observed. Increased coercivity of GdFeO3with Ni substitution has been attributed to the grain size effect. From electrical point of view, dielectric permittivity of GdFeO3has been enhanced with Ni substitution. This enhancement has been attributed to the cumulative effects of hopping of Fe2+-Fe3+ions, grain-grain boundary contribution, and space charge polarization. The role of grain-grain boundary contribution is evident from electric modulus spectrum. The space charge effect has been realized in both impedance spectrum and dielectric loss. Temperature-dependent dielectric studies were conducted to understand the mechanisms and various aspects that contribute to the dielectric enhancement. A highly lossy capacitive nature in theP-Eloop also suggests space charge effects due to Ni substitution in Fe sites. Availability of free charge carrier concentration is correlated with the optical properties of GdFe1-xNixO3. The decrease of optical band gap (2.5-2.21 eV) on increasing Ni content suggests the increasing electronic contribution in the system.