Purpose: Preeclampsia and eclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Visual disturbances in (pre)eclampsia seem to be frequent phenomena. Therefore, the obstetrician/gynecologist may encounter women with serious, and sometimes debilitating, pathology of the visual pathways. Methods: This is a cross sectional observational study was conducted over a period of 12 months (January 2016-December 2016) at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Patients with severe preeclampsia and eclampsia were included in the study. The association was measured with Chi-squared test and p value of 0.05 was treated as significant. Results: During this 12-month period, 100 patients with severe preeclampsia and eclampsia were studied the mean age was 26.4 ± 5.5 years. The association between retinal changes and different variables was statistically significant positive association between the presence of retinal changes and blood pressure (P= 0.0118), proteinuria (P= 0.0025). However, age (P= 0.7123), and gravida (P= 0.7998) were not associated with occurrence of retinopathy in our study. The most common retinal change was noted and narrowing of arterioles, (83%) that retinal changes were significantly more in patients with severe hypertension, exudate (12%) and haemorrhages (10%) observed in present study. The presence of macular edema (5%) and retinal detachment (2%) are the warning signs for termination of pregnancy to save the vision of the mother. Conclusion: It is called that eye is the gateway of medicine, so in pregnancy induced hypertension presence of changes in the retinal arterioles and retinal haemorrhages may indicate similar changes in the placenta. Since the well-being of the foetus depends on the placental circulation, ophthalmoscopic examination of mother’s fundus may give a clue to similar micro-circulation changes in the placenta and indirectly to the foetal wellbeing. J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 28, No.1, April, 2019, Page 94-99

We report the case of a 30-year-old normotensive, nondiabetic lady diagnosed case of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus(SLE); who came with the complaints of limb claudication. After clinical and lab evaluation she was diagnosed as a case of Takayasus Arteritis along with SLE. Though the co- existence of SLE and Takayasu’s Disease is very rare, we should search for the development of arterial occlusive diseases in SLE cases if the patient has got suspicious symptoms. J MEDICINE 2021; 22: 146-149

There are a number of gastrointestinal symptoms and complications of COVID-19. Asymptomatic increase in pancreatic enzymes and rarely symptomatic pancreatitis are observed in this disease. This article describes a 37-year-old male suffering from mildly symptomatic COVID-19 infection, who received tablet favipiravir for his management. His condition was improving, when he developed acute pancreatitis, diagnosed clinically, biochemically and also with help of abdominal ultrasound. When he developed this, all typical symptoms of COVID-19 were improved. As a result, role of favipiravir in the development of this pancreatitis was suspected. J MEDICINE JAN 2021; 22 (1) : 69-71

There is increasing evidence of the post-COVID-19 suffering and decreased quality of life in the COVID-19 patients. This study aimed to assess the quality of life and associated factors of COVID-19 patients at one month after discharge from the hospital. This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted at the post-covid clinic of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where RT–PCR-confirmed adult COVID-19 recovered patients were enrolled one month after discharge from the same hospital. They were consecutively selected from January 01 to May 30. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used for the data collection for clinical variables. The generic multi-attributable utility instrument EQ-5D-5L was used for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL). A total of 563 patients were enrolled in the study. The patients had a mean age with standard deviation (±SD) of 51.18 (±13.49) years and 55.95% were male. The mean (SD) EQ-5D-5L index score and EQ-VAS scores were 0.78 (±0.19) and 70.26 (±11.13), respectively. Overall, 45.77%, 50.99%, 52.79%, 55.14% and 62.16% had problems (slight to extreme) in the mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression dimensions, respectively. Patients aged ≥60 years had significant problem in mobility (odds ratio [OR] 3.24, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07–9.77). Female participants were 5.50 times (95% CI: 2.22–13.62) more likely to have problems in their usual activities. In comparison to urban area, living in a peri-urban setting was significantly associated with problems in mobility (OR 1.89, 95% CI: 1.13–3.20), pain/discomfort (OR 1.82, 95% CI: 1.04–3.12) and anxiety/depression (OR 2.16, 95% CI: 1.22–3.84). Comorbid patients were 1.75 times (95% CI: 1.07–2.85) more likely to report problems in the pain/discomfort dimension. Presence of symptom(s) was associated with problems in self-care (OR 3.27, 95%CI: 1.31–8.18), usual-activity (OR 3.08, 95%CI: 1.21–7.87), pain/discomfort dimensions (OR 2.75, 95%CI: 1.09–6.96) and anxiety/depression (OR 3.35, 95%CI: 1.35–8.30). Specific management strategies should be planned to address the factors associated with low health-related quality of life in post-acute care of COVID-19 patients.

Background & objectives: Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) or Kala-azar is a deadly disease putting 350 million people from 88 countries at risk. In Bangladesh, 45 districts are endemic. Zinc is an essential trace element and its relevance for proper functioning of the entire immune system is already well documented. Though low serum zinc levels have been reported in many parasitic diseases, limited information is available regarding zinc status in human leishmaniasis. This study was conducted to evaluate the zinc level in endemic and non-endemic population of kalaazar. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the serum zinc concentrations in kala-azar endemic and non- endemic population of 06 to 60 years of age range during the period of July 2014 to June 2015.Venous blood was collected from 92 subjects to estimate serum zinc concentrations. Results: Mean Serum zinc levels were found 63.66 microgm/dl in kala-azar patients of endemic area, 69.44 microgm/dl in kala-azar endemic populations and77.34 microgm/dl in non-endemic populations. Conclusion: The average serum zinc concentrations is lower in populations of kala-azar endemic zone compared to populations from kala-azar nonendemic zone. It was also found that kala-azar patient had lower zinc concentrations compared to non-kala-azar patients. There may have potential association of low zinc level and occurrence of kala-azar. J Dhaka Med Coll. 2021; 29(1): 111-117

Hypertension is a leading cardiovascular risk factor with significant morbidity and mortality. Sometimes it remains difficult to find out the actual cause and to manage in a large segment of population. So, the ability to identify a contributing or secondary cause that is potentially curable for all patient with hypertension is of great importance and challenging. Endocrine hypertension is one of the common forms of secondary hypertension. Primary aldosteronism, pheochromocytoma, and other causes of mineralocorticoid excess are among the common causes of endocrine hypertension. Published literature were reviewed about their prevalence, clinical presentation, screening methods and specific management. Now day by day it’s become more challenging for the clinicians to understand the pathophysiology, clinical spectrum of these diseases and improvement of the management protocol because of newer clinical, biochemical, and modern radiological approach. Cardiovasc j 2023; 15(2): 159-174

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 which has crowded out services for both covid and non-covid patients, in a country where the health care system was already under huge stress even before the pandemic. Objectives: To postpone non-urgent surgeries along with active surveillance of thyroid cancer patients to make sure the hospitals are not unnecessarily occupied. Methods: Document based categorization of thyroid cancer patients, like- low risk, high risk and clinically extremely vulnerable groups who are at greatest risk of severe illness from coronavirus are to be done accordingly. Individuals with thyroid cancer are mostly not susceptible to COVID- 19. However, patients with thyroid cancer (papillary or medullary) having lung metastases or undergoing certain types of cancer treatment might be at increased risk of viral infection or complications. Risk benefit ratio is checked and explained to the patient and their attendants. Recommendations: As COVID-19 is spreading across the Bangladesh, hospitals are being forced to reallocate resources to the care of critically ill. So it is crucial to adhere to the advice from experts to reduce the risk of infection. All non-essential surgeries and hospital admissions can be postponed to make sure that hospitals are not unnecessarily occupied. Conclusion: In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer care has had to adapt rapidly given recommendations to postpone nonurgent surgeries with active surveillance of thyroid cancer patients except thyroid tumors requiring acute airway management. J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 29, No.2, October, 2020, Page 178-181