The application of six-minute walk test to identify 'pre-hypoxemia' phase in asymptomatic/mild disease COVID-19 patients managed in home isolation or primary health care setting.

The clinical spectrum of COVID-19 infection patients extends from being asymptomatic to mild, moderate and severe disease. This classification is largely based on oxygen saturation and respiratory rate. Asymptomatic/mild disease patients are managed in home isolation or COVID care centers. A subgroup of these patients will deteriorate and develop moderate to severe disease. Six-minute walk test is useful in identifying this group of patients by inducing hypoxia in normoxemia patients. This stage of the disease is labelled as 'pre-hypoxemia' phase in asymptomatic/mild disease. Identifying this stage in the course of illness of patients will help in intercepting further deterioration at the earliest by timely intervention.

Gastric Outlet Obstruction: Don't Miss Duodenal Tuberculosis.

We report a case of isolated duodenal tuberculosis (TB) in a patient who presented with features of gastric outlet obstruction. The diagnosis was made on repeat endoscopic duodenal biopsy after initial histopathology failed to reveal the diagnosis. The patient recovered with antitubercular therapy. The index of suspicion has to be high in TB endemic countries as clinical, radiological, and endoscopic features are nonspecific.

Snakebite profile from a tertiary care setup in a largely rural setting in the hills of North-West India.

BACKGROUND: Snakebite, a medical emergency, faced by rural populations in tropical and subtropical countries assumes special significance in hilly terrains. Therefore, the hills provide a natural setting to study the challenges in the management of snakebite cases. METHODOLOGY: A hospital record-based retrospective descriptive study was conducted. Data were collected from the Medical Records Department of the 821-bedded, tertiary care hospital catering to the rural hilly population of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. Information were recorded on details of demography, clinical profile treatment and outcome. RESULTS: A total of 252 patients were analyzed. Maximum patients were in the age-group of 21-40 (43.7%) with mean and standard deviation of 30.52 ± 5.693 and 31.81 ± 7.117 for male and female, respectively. A small minority (17.06%) of patients reported to health facility within 4-6 h of the bite. Maximum bites were on lower limb (143;56.74). Overall mortality rate in our study was 2.38%. CONCLUSION: Large-scale studies on epidemiological determinants of snakebite coupled with research in venom biochemistry and bio-pharmacology of anti-snake venom (ASV) are needed. The study also provides insights into the role of primary care practitioners in creating an ecosystem favorable for snakebite management at local level.

A randomized open-label trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of triple therapy with aspirin, atorvastatin, and nicorandil in hospitalised patients with SARS Cov-2 infection: A structured summary of a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: The pathophysiology of SARS-Cov-2 is characterized by inflammation, immune dysregulation, coagulopathy, and endothelial dysfunction. No single therapeutic agent can target all these pathophysiologic substrates. Moreover, the current therapies are not fully effective in reducing mortality in moderate and severe disease. Hence, we aim to evaluate the combination of drugs (aspirin, atorvastatin, and nicorandil) with anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, immunomodulatory, and vasodilator properties as adjuvant therapy in covid- 19. TRIAL DESIGN: Single-centre, prospective, two-arm parallel design, open-label randomized control superiority trial. PARTICIPANTS: The study will be conducted at the covid centre of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College Tanda Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India. All SARS-CoV-2 infected patients requiring admission to the study centre will be screened for the trial. All patients >18years who are RT-PCR/RAT positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection with pneumonia but without ARDS at presentation (presence of clinical features of dyspnoea hypoxia, fever, cough, spo2 <94% on room air and respiratory rate >24/minute) requiring hospital admission and consenting to participate in the trial will be included. Patients with documented significant liver disease/dysfunction (AST/ALT > 240), myopathy and rhabdomyolysis (CPK > 5x normal), allergy or intolerance to statins, allergy or intolerance to aspirin, patients taking medications with significant interaction with statins, prior statin use (within 30 days), prior aspirin use (within 30 days), history of active GI bleeding in past three months, coagulopathy, thrombocytopenia (platelet count < 100000/ dl), pregnancy, active breastfeeding, patient unable to take oral or nasogastric medications, patients in altered mental status, shock, acute renal failure, acute coronary syndrome, sepsis and ARDS at presentation will be excluded. INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR: After randomization, participants in the intervention group will receive aspirin, atorvastatin, and nicorandil (Fig. 1). Atorvastatin will be prescribed as 40 mg starting dose followed by 40 mg oral tablets once daily for ten days or till hospital discharge whichever is later. Aspirin dose will be 325 starting dose followed by 75 mg once daily for ten days or till hospital discharge whichever is later. Nicorandil will be given as 10 mg starting dose followed by 5mg twice daily ten days or till hospital discharge whichever is later. All patients in the intervention and control group will receive a standard of care for covid management as per national guidelines. All patients will receive symptomatic treatment with antipyretics, adequate hydration, anticoagulation with low molecular weight heparin, intravenous remdesivir, corticosteroids (intravenous dexamethasone for 5 days or more duration if oxygen requirement increasing or inflammatory markers are raised), and oxygen support. Patients will receive treatment for comorbid conditions as per guidelines. Fig. 1 Schematic study design MAIN OUTCOMES: The patients will be followed up for outcomes during the hospital stay or for ten days whichever is longer. The primary outcome will be in-hospital mortality. Any progression to ARDS, shock, acute kidney injury, impaired consciousness, length of hospital stay, length of mechanical ventilation (invasive plus non-invasive) will be secondary outcomes. Changes in serum markers (CRP, D -dimer, S ferritin) will be other secondary outcomes. The safety endpoints will be hepatotoxicity (ALT/AST > 3x ULN; hyperbilirubinemia), myalgia-muscle ache, or weakness without creatine kinase (CK) elevation, myositis-muscle symptoms with increased CK levels (3-10) ULN, rhabdomyolysis-muscle symptoms with marked CK elevation (typically substantially greater than 10 times the upper limit of normal [ULN]) and with creatinine elevation (usually with brown urine and urinary myoglobin) observed during the hospital stay. RANDOMIZATION: Computer-generated block randomization will be used to randomize the participants in a 1:1 ratio to the active intervention group A (Aspirin, Atorvastatin, Nicorandil) plus conventional therapy and control group B conventional therapy only. BLINDING (MASKING): The study will be an open-label trial. NUMBERS TO BE RANDOMIZED (SAMPLE SIZE): A total of 396 patients will participate in this study, which is randomly divided with 198 participants in each group. TRIAL STATUS: The first version of the protocol was approved by the institutional ethical committee on 1st February 2021, IEC /006/2021. The recruitment started on 8/4/2021 and will continue until 08/07/2021. A total of 281 patients have been enrolled till 21/5/2021. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial has been prospectively registered in Clinical Trial Registry - India (ICMR- NIMS): CTRI/2021/04/032648 [Registered on: 8 April 2021]. FULL PROTOCOL: The full protocol is attached as an additional file, accessible from the Trials website (Additional file 1). In the interest in expediting dissemination of this material, the familiar formatting has been eliminated; this letter serves as a summary of the key elements of the full protocol. The study protocol has been reported under the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Clinical Interventional Trials (SPIRIT) guidelines.

Broad guidelines for primary care practitioners/standalone private health facilities/frontline healthcare facilities in view of COVID-19 pandemic.

In view of India unlocking, to secure a large population of this country, the healthcare facilities delivering primary care as well standalone health facilities need to be secured from impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. This document dwells on the broader guidelines for primary care practitioners/standalone private health facilities/frontline healthcare facilities to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 Pandemic. The authors understand that the situation is evolving, so the guidelines too will keep evolving.

Self-Expanding Metallic Stents (SEMS) in Inoperable Esophageal Cancer: A Prospective Analysis of Morbidity and Survival Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Palliative treatment for inoperable esophageal cancers by self-expanding metallic stents (SEMS) overcomes disease-related symptoms, preserves the quality of life, and prolongs survival. The aim of this study was to determine dysphagia relief, complications, and patient survival after SEMS in patients with inoperable esophageal cancer. METHODS: This is a hospital-based open cohort study conducted over 9 years between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2017, from the Sub-Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent. The last patient was recruited on November 16, 2017 and the minimum of follow-up was either death or survival till December 31, 2017. All the patients attending gastroenterology clinic or admitted in medical wards and fulfilling the definition of inoperable esophageal cancer, subsequently treated with SEMS were included. Data were prospectively gathered on demography, dysphagia scores, morbidity, mortality, and survival outcomes. Follow-ups were done during hospital visits or through a telephonic conversation with the patient and/or caregiver. RESULTS: Of 239 patients, 147 (61.5%) were male and 92 (38.5%) were female. Most of the patients (60.7%) are in the age group of 51-70 years. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was diagnosed in 205 (85.7%) and adenocarcinoma (ADC) in 34 (14.2%). Lower one-third was the most common site of tumor and observed in 125 (52.3%) patients. ADC was diagnosed equally in males and females and the mean age of presentation with ADC was equal to SCC. All the patients had dysphagia score 4, which improved to score 1 after SEMS insertion. Females had better survival than that of males. The difference was found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION: SEMS effectively reduced dysphagia in inoperable esophageal cancer. Better survival rates were observed in females than males.

Guillain Barre syndrome with pulmonary tuberculosis: A case series from a tertiary care hospital.

INTRODUCTION: Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is post-infectious autoimmune polyradiculopathy which characteristically presents with a monophasic illness with CSF albumino-cytological dissociation with partial or complete recovery. The incidence of GBS is about 1 to 2/100,000 per year.[1] Subtypes are described based on electrophysiological patterns, the most common being acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP) and rarer ones being acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), and acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN). Tuberculosis is prevalent in India with various neurological manifestation including tuberculoma, brain abcess, pott's spine, and radiculomyelopathy.[2] Five cases have been published of tuberculosis and GBS.[34567] The main underlying pathophysiological mechanism is aberrant immune activation due to molecular mimicry against ganglioside in myelin. Although tuberculosis is mainly T-cell-mediated chronic disease, still there are cases reported with tuberculosis with GBS. Here we are going to present four cases of pulmonary tuberculosis presented with GBS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study describes clinical profile of four patients who presented with concomitant pulmonary tuberculosis and GBS over a period of 4 years in a tertiary hospital. Diagnosis was made according to Brighton criteria and alternative diagnosis were ruled out by clinical examination, serological markers, and MRI imaging of the spine. All patient underwent thorough investigation including HIV 1, 2, anti-CMV, anti-EBV to rule out other possible triggers of GBS, NCV, CSF study along with sputum AFB culture. ZN staining and CECT thorax were also done to support the diagnosis. RESULTS: Of total four cases, 3 were male and 1 was female who presented with weight loss, anorexia, cough with or without hemoptysis, and acute progressive LMN quadriparesis in which there was typical albumin-cytological dissociation in CSF. Nerve conduction studies were suggestive of AIDP in two patients, AMAN in one patient, and AMSAN in the fourth one. An exhaustive investigation for triggers of GBS were performed for all patients who were treated with IVIG and two of them completely recovered and rest of two did not recover completely after 6 weeks of follow-up. CONCLUSION: In pulmonary tuberculosis, patients with polyneuropathy demands urgent search for GBS as there has been case reports in literature though the association between tuberculosis and GBS is not clear.

Intravascular Hemolysis in Aluminum Phosphide Poisoning.

Hemolysis associated with aluminum phosphide poisoning is very rare. Intravascular hemolysis in presence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency has been reported rarely in literature. We are reporting a case of young male patient with history of aluminum phosphide poisoning and complicated with intravascular hemolysis without G6PD deficiency. It has been reported only once in the literature. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Malakar S, Dass B et al. Intravascular Hemolysis in Aluminum Phosphide Poisoning. Indian J of Crit Care Med 2019;23(2):106-107.

Hypertension as Determinant of Hyperuricemia: A Case Control Study from the Sub-Himalayan Region in North India.

Background: Association between hyperuricemia and hypertension has been recognized for many years. Whether hyperuricemia is the cause or the effect is debatable. Materials and methods: This case control study was conducted to assess serum uric acid (SUA) levels in fifty newly diagnosed essential hypertensive patients and fifty normotensive controls which were matched for age and sex. Detailed anthropometric characteristics including height, weight, body mass index and waist hip ratio were measured. Hypertension was classified according to Joint National Committee (JNC) 7 criteria. Hyperuricemia was defined as SUA level of 6.8mg/dl or more in both men and women. SUA was measured by uricase method. Before collecting the blood samples, patients were advised to proceed on overnight fast of minimum eight hrs. Student's t­test for mean of continuous variables and Chi­square test for proportions were used for statistical significance. Results: Present study included 50 newly diagnosed cases of essential hypertension and 50 age and sex matched normotensive healthy volunteer. Prevalence of hyperuricemia was 24% among the cases and 6% among the controls (P < 0 .05). Odds ratio was 4.9 (Cl=1.3 to 18.8). The mean SUA was significantly higher in the cases (5.5±1.7 mg/dl) than in the controls (4.9±1.1 mg/dl; P< 0.05). Odds ratio in male hyperuricemic hypertensive versus hyperuricemic normotensive was 6(CI=1.0 to 33.2) and 4.46(CI=0.4 to 42.5) among female hyperuricemic hypertensive versus hyperuricemic normotensives. Conclusion: Strong positive association was observed between hypertension and hyperuricemia in both male and female patients in this study.

Coinfections as an aetiology of acute undifferentiated febrile illness among adult patients in the sub-Himalayan region of north India.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: In India, certain geographic regions witness simultaneous outbreaks of two or more diseases like scrub typhus, dengue fever, malaria, leptospirosis and chikungunya during monsoon and post-monsoon period, sharing common indication of acute febrile illness. The objective of the present study was to assess the prevalence of coinfections among patients with acute undifferentiated fevers (AUF) admitted in a tertiary care hospital in the northern hilly state of Himachal Pradesh, India. METHODS: This was a hospital based open cohort study conducted over a period of two months (September and October) in 2016. All the patients above the age of 18 yr admitted in medical wards and fulfilling the definition of AUF were included. The patients diagnosed with dual infections were the subjects of the study. Standard guidelines were used for case definitions of scrub typhus, dengue, chikungunya, malaria and leptospirosis. RESULTS: Dual infections were noted in 16 patients admitted with AUF. The most common coinfection was scrub typhus and dengue, reported in 10 patients. Scrub typhus and leptospirosis coinfection was observed in three patients. Dengue and chikungunya was observed in one patient. Scrub typhus, dengue and vivax malaria was detected in one patient. Scrub typhus and vivax malaria was detected in one patient. Out of the 10 cases positive for both scrub and dengue, four had no history of travel outside Himachal Pradesh. All three cases positive for both scrub and leptospirosis were indigenous without any history of travel outside Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. The outcome of all the patients was with full recovery. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: The study established the presence of coinfections (mainly dengue fever and leptospirosis) as a cause of AUF in the study area, which is a nonendemic region. The role of easily available and widely performed serological tests in the aetiological diagnosis of AUF is significant. Studies are required to determine the normal titres in the local population before using the imported commercially available serological tests in the diagnosis of AUF.

Effectiveness of randomized control trial of mobile phone messages on control of fasting blood glucose in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus in a Northern State of India.

Limited availability of randomized control trial warranted the conduct of a present study to demonstrate the effectiveness of mobile phone-based short message services (SMSs) on reduction in mean fasting blood glucose (FBG) in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus. A total of 955 patients were recruited from primary and secondary health-care facilities and randomized to intervention (479) and control (476) group. Messages were delivered to patients for 12 months tailoring to their recent FBG values. SMS included information to maintain the desired FBG levels and next due date for FBG assessment. Patients were statistically similar for their age, socioeconomic status, smoking, and alcohol use. After the intervention, an average FBG declined from 163.7 to 152.8 mg/dl (P = 0.019) in intervention and from 150.5 to 149.2 mg/dl (P = 0.859) in control group. Adjusted for the baseline FBG, the intervention was found to be significantly effective (odds ratio: 1.7; 95 confidence interval: 1.2-2.6).

Game change in Indian Health Care System through reforms in medical education curriculum focusing on primary care- Recommendations of a joint working group.

Despite the stated aim of Medical Council of India (body regulating medical education in India) to produce an Indian Medical Graduate with requisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and responsiveness, so that he or she may function appropriately and effectively as a doctor of first contact of the community while being globally relevant, it appears that we failed. The joint working group extensively consisting of medical teachers have come up with suggestions which may work as the game changer in Indian Health care system. The key is to dedicate medical education towards primary care.

Smartphone-based tele-electrocardiography support for primary care physicians reduces the pain-to-treatment time in acute coronary syndrome.

Background The Himachal Pradesh state acute coronary syndrome registry recorded a median delay of 13 h between the time of onset of pain to the time of making the diagnosis and giving treatment for acute coronary syndrome. We conducted a pilot study on providing 24-h tele-electrocardiography (Tele-ECG) services in the district Kangra of Himachal Pradesh, with the aim to reduce the time taken for diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome. Methods The intervention group for the study included eight rural community health centres, each with one to three primary care physicians, who were all unskilled in electrocardiogram interpretation. We provided them with 24-h Tele-ECG support. The primary care physicians used their smartphones to transmit the electrocardiogram image to the command centre, which was then read by the skilled specialist physicians in our medical college hospital and the report sent back within five minutes of having received the electrocardiogram. Antiplatelets were given by the primary care physician to patients diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome, who was then transported to the medical college hospital. The urban sub-divisional hospitals ( n = 6) formed the control group for the study. These hospitals had five to fifteen unskilled primary care physicians and one to two skilled specialist physicians; no intervention was done in this group. A pilot was run from February 2015-January 2016. Results We received 819 Tele-ECG consultations within the intervention group; 157 cases of acute coronary syndrome were confirmed and transferred to our medical college hospital facility. Similarly, we admitted 177 cases of acute coronary syndrome at the medical college hospital, who were first attended to by the primary care physician in the control group. Aspirin was administered to 91% and 58% of patients with acute coronary syndrome in the intervention and the control groups, respectively ( p < 0.0001). The median hospital-to-aspirin time (h) in the intervention and the control groups was 0.7 ± 1.45 h and 3.5 ± 10 h, respectively ( p < 0.0001). In the intervention group, 72% of the ST elevation myocardial infarction patients were diagnosed within 12 h by the primary care physician using Tele-ECG support. Interpretation and conclusions Smartphone-based Tele-ECG support for primary care physicians reduced the hospital-to-aspirin time in acute coronary syndrome significantly ( p < 0.0001). This is an effective low cost strategy and is easily replicable anywhere in the world.

Bilateral Parotid Enlargement and Trismus: An Unexpected Clinical Finding in a Patient with Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus) bite.

We report a case of bilateral parotid enlargement and trismus due to the bite of common krait (Bungarus caeruleus). These clinical findings have not been reported in literature after the bite with this species.