Polycythemia: a mystery solved by history

Testosterone is responsible for increased muscle mass. Leaner body mass helps control weight and increases energy. High levels of testosterone help build muscles and also stimulate growth in strength. Androgenic-anabolic steroids (AAS) are drugs that are structurally related to the cyclic steroid rings system and have similar effects to testosterone in the body. Athletes who abuse steroids do so for muscle growth and quick recovery. Testosterone - whether it's injected, applied via a patch or cream, or taken orally - allows athletes to rapidly increase muscle mass beyond their usual capacity, and also reduces their recovery time which allows them to train continuously with little need to rest their bodies in between workouts. Physiologically, erythrocytosis is defined by an erythrocyte mass that exceeds 125% of that predicted for sex and body mass. Much of the concern with the use of testosterone involves increase in blood viscosity, resulting from increased red blood cell mass causing a potential increased risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), myocardial infarction (MI), and cerebrovascular accidents (CVA). We report a case of secondary polycythemia related to testosterone therapy

A rare case of cranial metastasis from an initial presentation of hepatocellular carcinoma

Cranial metastases from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been seldom reported. Reported herein is the case of a painless parietal bone mass as an initial presentation of HCC in a 63-year-old female patient who was subsequently diagnosed to have HCV related cirrhosis. The biopsy from cranial lesion was confirmatory of HCC on immunohistochemistry. The patient had no known history of chronic liver disease. The presented diagnosis was made through detailed history, laboratory parameters and cross sectional imaging

Symptomatic improvement with gluten restriction in irritable bowel syndrome: a prospective, randomized, double blinded placebo controlled trial

Background/AimsThe existence of non-celiac gluten sensitivity has been debated. Indeed, the intestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms of many patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but without celiac disease or wheat allergy have been shown to improve on a gluten-free diet. Therefore, this study set out to evaluate the effects of gluten on IBS symptoms.MethodsWe performed a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled rechallenge trial in a tertiary care hospital with IBS patients who fulfilled the Rome III criteria. Patients with celiac disease and wheat allergy were appropriately excluded. The participants were administered a gluten-free diet for 4 weeks and were asked to complete a symptom-based questionnaire to assess their overall symptoms, abdominal pain, bloating, wind, and tiredness on the visual analog scale (0-100) at the baseline and every week thereafter. The participants who showed improvement were randomly assigned to one of two groups to receive either a placebo (gluten-free breads) or gluten (whole cereal breads) as a rechallenge for the next 4 weeks.ResultsIn line with the protocol analysis, 60 patients completed the study. The overall symptom score on the visual analog scale was significantly different between the two groups (P<0.05). Moreover, the patients in the gluten intervention group scored significantly higher in terms of abdominal pain, bloating, and tiredness (P<0.05), and their symptoms worsened within 1 week of the rechallenge.ConclusionsA gluten diet may worsen the symptoms of IBS patients. Therefore, some form of gluten sensitivity other than celiac disease exists in some of them, and patients with IBS may benefit from gluten restrictions

Band head spin for triaxial super-deformed bands in

We use VMI model for the prediction of band head spin of Triaxial Super- Deformed (TSD) rotational bands. The calculated and observed transition energies are agreed well when an accurate band head spin (I0) is predicted. The results are in good agreement with the experimentally known values of spin and transition energies. In the present paper, we have reported the band head spin of TSD bands for Lu isotope. This method brings comprehensive interpretation for spin assignment of TSD bands which could help in designing future experiments for these bands. Thus, we have reported the band head spin value of 5 TSD rotational band of Lu isotope