Introduction: Cysticercosis is a common tropical disease. One of the uncommon manifestations of cysticercosis is its disseminated form.

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The results show that PIM prescribing is common among hospitalized elderly Indian patients. It is feasible to reduce this practice through the provision of appropriate unbiased information to healthcare professionals.

Local glucocorticoid injection results in long-term improvement in nerve conduction parameters, symptom severity and functional scores in patients with mild CTS.

*Background: In view of the multiple co-morbidities, the elderly patients receiving drugs are prone to suffer with drug interactions since they receive a greater number of drugs. Objective: The study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of drug interactions, as well as their predictors. Method: The prescriptions of a total of 1510 inpatients were collected prospectively for 1.5 years from inpatients wards of public tertiary care teaching hospital. All the prescriptions were checked for drug interactions using the Micromedex® Drug-Reax database-2010 and Stockley's Drug Interactions. Regression analyses sought to determine predictors for the drug interaction. Results: The patients, with the average age of 67.2 ±0.2 years, were prescribed an average of 9.15 ±0.03 medications. It was found that out of 1510 prescriptions of inpatients, 126 (8.3%) prescriptions had one or more than one drug interaction. All the identified interactions were severe in nature. The top most interacting drugs were acetylsalicylic acid and anticoagulant (n=59). The second top most interacting drug combination was clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitors (n=51). The most commonly involved drugs in interactions were C (cardiovascular system) and A (alimentary tract and metabolism). Using multivariate binary logistic regression, multiple drugs (Odds Ratio=4.5; 95% Confidence Interval: -2.38 -9.47) and multiple diagnoses (Odds Ratio=2.6; were found to be significant predictors for drug interaction. Conclusion:The results of this study substantiate the occurrence of severe drug interactions among Indian elderly inpatients. In order to provide safer pharmaceutical care, the active involvement of clinical pharmacists is a potential option.

In EP without organ dysfunction, a trial of conservative management may be successful.

Remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE) syndrome is characterized by symmetrical synovitis and swelling of both the upper and lower extremities. The anatomical determinant of RS3PE is predominantly extensor tenosynovitis as revealed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Given the cost constraints, time, and expertise required in carrying out MRI and ease in diagnosing tenosynovitis by ultrasound, we utilized high-frequency ultrasonography (USG) for evidence of tenosynovitis of the distal tendons in patients with RS3PE. Diagnosis of tenosynovitis was made on the basis of anechoic or hypoechoic signals around the tendon sheaths in both transverse and longitudinal planes. Flexor and extensor tendons at the wrist and metacarpal heads and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) tendons at the ankle were evaluated with a 7.5-10-MHz linear probe. There were ten patients (seven males) with a mean age of 59.5 years (range: 52-78 years) and mean disease duration of 6.1 months (range: 1.5-12 months). Disease onset was acute in all of the cases. Pitting edema of the hands was present in all except two patients whereas four patients, in addition, had edema of the feet. Edema was symmetrical in seven patients. Inability to make a complete fist was noted in all. Tenosynovitis of extensor and flexor tendons at the wrist and the metacarpal heads was documented in all patients with edema of the hands. In seven cases extensor tendon tenosynovitis was more prominent compared to the flexor tendons. Tenosynovitis of EDL tendons was detected in six cases. Dramatic relief with low-dose prednisolone was noted in all patients within 6 weeks of therapy. At a mean follow-up of 10.1 months all patients had marked relief in edema of extremities and improvement in the grip strength. Our study confirms that tenosynovitis of both flexor and extensor tendons at the wrist and extensor tendons of the feet is the hallmark of RS3PE syndrome. USG is a reliable and cost-effective modality for evaluation of patients with suspected RS3PE.

IntroductionTo study the utility of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in the diagnosis of diabetes in patients with cirrhosis as compared to the gold standard oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and to see the effect of anemia and severity of cirrhosis on its performance.MethodsIndividuals (n = 100) with an established diagnosis of liver cirrhosis were recruited. The OGTT was performed as described by the World Health Organization (WHO). The severity of cirrhosis was calculated using the Child–Turcotte–Pugh (CTP) score. The severity of anemia was defined according to WHO criteria. The utility of HbA1c was compared against the OGTT results. Test sensitivity and specificity were used to describe the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c.ResultsA total of 100 subjects aged 46.9 ± 9.1 years (mean ± standard deviation) participated in the study, of whom 65% were recruited from out patient department of our hospital. The overall sensitivity and specificity of a HbA1c level of ≥ 6.5% for the diagnosis of diabetes in patients with cirrhosis was 77.1% (95% CI 59.9, 89.6) and 90.8% (95% CI 81.0, 96.5), respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 81.8% (95% CI 67.3, 90.8) and 88.1% (95% CI 80.0, 93.2), respectively. The area under the curve was 0.85 (95% CI 0.75–0.94). The sensitivity of HbA1c for diagnosing diabetes in outpatients was 87.0% (95% CI 66.4, 97.2) and was better than that for diagnosing diabetes in hospitalized patients (58.3%; 95% CI 27.7, 84.8). The sensitivity of HbA1c for diagnosing diabetes was poor in patients with moderate to severe anemia. The difference in sensitivity and specificity was not statistically different for CTP classes A, B and C. The prevalence of diabetes as defined by American Diabetes Association OGTT criteria was 35% (95% CI 25.7–45.2%).ConclusionsTaking OGTT as the gold standard, the sensitivity of HbA1c for diagnosing diabetes is good when used in outpatients with cirrhosis. However, the sensitivity of HbA1c decreases when it is used for hospitalized patients, suggesting that it is not a good test for diagnosis of diabetes in such cases. It also performs poorly if the patient has moderate to severe anemia.