Association of Epicardial Fat with Metabolic Syndrome in Indian Population

Introduction: Visceral obesity and dyslipidemia are the two most commonly occurring components of the metabolic syndrome. Epicardial fat is a true visceral adipose tissue deposited around the heart and has characteristics of a high insulin-resistant tissue. Material and methods: The study included 66 subjects (33 cases and 33 controls). Epicardial fat thickness was measured by echocardiography on the free wall of the right ventricle from both parasternal long- and short-axis views and anthropometric and biochemical parameters were recorded. Results: Range of epicardial fat thickness varied between 0.8 to 7.3 mm. The normal cutoff value is considered to be between 1 to 4 mm. The mean epicardial fat thickness was found to be 4.3 ± 1.83 mm (mean ± standard deviation) in females and 3.5 ± 1.18 mm in males amongst the cases, and 2.4 ± 1.33 mm in females and 2.2 ± 1.02 mm in males in the control group. Epicardial fat thickness was higher in the patients with metabolic syndrome as compared to controls. There was a statistical significant correlation between epicardial adipose tissue and body mass index (BMI), fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides and homeostasis model for assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA IR). Conclusion: Our data showed that epicardial adipose tissue measured by echocardiography is related to the main anthropometric and clinical parameters of metabolic syndrome which was the objective of our study. Epicardial adipose tissue measurement could be an important tool to increase the knowledge of metabolic syndrome on epidemiological basis

Bilateral sacroiliitis: a rare cause for a common presentation

Fever and osteoarticular involvement of axial skeleton are hallmark clinical manifestations of brucellosis but other diseases like ankylosing spondylitis, tuberculosis, Paget’s disease of bone, sarcoidosis should also be considered as differential diagnosis. Brucellosis is an uncommon infectious disease in India. Signs and symptoms of the disease are highly variable, with musculoskeletal complaints occurring frequently. Authors hereby reported a case of brucellosis presenting with fever, polyathralgia, bilateral sacroiliitis and enthesitis. Knowledge of geographical distribution, evidence of exposure to the cattle and a high degree of clinical suspicion of brucellosis are very important for early differentiation from other diseases to prevent lethal complications and institute early treatment and a prompt recovery

What is in Name?

abstract An interesting and rare case of name syndrome is reported here. A young patient presented with stroke (left side hemiperesis due to cardiac embolic stroke) and cutaneous lesions. Further investigations revealed that left atrial myxoma was the cause of cardioembolic stroke. skin lesions were also present which included, nevi, ephelides and neurofibroma hence diagnosis of "NAME sYNDROME" was made

A rare cause of nodular skin lesions with fever in an immunocompetent individual

Histoplasmosis is a fungal disease caused by the dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. It is endemic to many parts of the world but is rarely seen in India. The fungus usually affects the immunocompromised patients and is rarely reported in immunocompetent hosts. We hereby report a case of the nodular skin lesion with fever lesion that finally turned out to have cutaneous histoplasmosis, from a non-endemic region of northern India and that too in an immunocompetent