Pituitary dysfunction in survivors of Russell's viper snake bite envenomation: A prospective study.

PURPOSE: Endocrinal insufficiency caused by vasculotoxic snake envenomation is under-recognized and is mostly confined to a specific geographic area. We conducted a prospective study to determine the prevalence and pattern of pituitary-target gland insufficiencies caused by snake envenomation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The hormonal evaluation of patients who had suffered from vasculotoxic snake envenomation was done at baseline and at 6 months of follow-up. Those patients with a documented hormonal insufficiency underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the hypothalamo-pituitary area. The severity of envenomation was assessed by the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE-II) score, the sepsis-related organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, and the snake bite severity score (SBSS) for all patients. RESULTS: Seventy-six patients were seen during the study period, of which 60 were available for a repeat hormonal evaluation at 6 months, with the majority of patients belonging to the middle age group (mean age, 37.6 ± 14.9 years). The mean lag period at presentation was 32 ± 20 h. Thirty-five patients (46.1%) had coagulopathy, 20 patients (26.3%) had acute kidney injury (AKI), and 8 of 76 patients (10.5%) needed renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the form of hemodialysis. Six patients (out of 41 with vasculotoxic bites) developed chronic hypopituitarism, which was in continuation with the acute hypopituitarism that they developed. Growth hormone and glucocorticoid deficiencies were the most common endocrinopathies observed. The occurrence of hypopituitarism was observed only in patients with a vasculotoxic snake bite (due to Russell's viper); coagulopathy, renal insufficiency, or any of the scoring tools did not predict the occurrence of hypopituitarism. CONCLUSION: Acute asymptomatic and chronic symptomatic or asymptomatic hypopituitarism are important sequelae of viper bite in a small proportion of patients and can occur in the presence of normal pituitary imaging. Routine prospective pituitary hormone screening should be done in all patients within the first 6 months of envenomation by the vasculotoxic snakebite as chronic pituitary dysfunction can often occur in these patients.

High incidence of abnormal glucose metabolism in acute coronary syndrome patients at a moderate altitude: A sub-Himalayan study.

BACKGROUND: Abnormal glucose metabolic status at admission is an important marker of future cardiovascular events and long-term mortality after acute coronary syndrome (ACS), whether or not they are known diabetics. OBJECTIVE: The aims were to study the prevalence of abnormal glucose metabolism in ACS patients and to compare the different methods of diagnosing diabetes in ACS patients. METHODS: We did a prospective study. About 250 consecutive nondiabetic patients (200 men and 50 women) with ACS admitted to a tertiary care institute of Himachal Pradesh in 1 year were enrolled. Admission plasma glucose, next morning fasting plasma glucose (FPG), A1C, and a standardized 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) 72 h after admission were done. Glucose metabolism was categorized as normal glucose metabolism, impaired glucose metabolism (impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance [IGT]), and diabetes. Diabetes was arbitrarily classified further as undiagnosed (HBA1c ≥6.5%) or possibly stress diabetes (HBA1c <6.5%). A repeat OGTT after 3 months in objects with IGT and stress hyperglycemia at a time of admission was done. RESULTS: The mean age was 54 ± 12.46 years. The mean plasma glucose at admission was 124 ± 53.96 mg/dL, and the mean FPG was 102 ± 27.07 mg/dL. The mean 2-h postglucose load concentration was 159.5 ± 56.58 mg/dL. At baseline, 95 (38%) had normal glucose metabolism, 95 (38%) had impaired glucose metabolism (IGT and or IGT) and 60 (24%) had diabetes; 48 (19.2%) were undiagnosed diabetes and 12 (4.8%) had stress hyperglycemia. At follow up 58.66% and 55.55% of patients with impaired glucose tolerance and stress hyperglycemia continued to have impaired glucose tolerance respectively. About 75 gm OGTT has highest sensitivity and specificity to diagnose diabetes, whereas A1C most specific to rule out stress hyperglycemia. CONCLUSIONS: In this small hilly state of India, abnormal glucose metabolism (previously undiagnosed diabetes and IGT) is common in patients admitted with ACS. Abnormal glucometabolic status can be detected early in the postadmission period. Our results further suggest that 75-g OGTT remained the gold standard test to detect diabetes and could be used before discharge to diagnose diabetes.