Spontaneous Achilles tendon rupture in alkaptonuria

Spontaneous Achilles tendon ruptures are uncommon. We present a 46-year-old man with spontaneous Achilles tendon rupture due to ochronosis. To our knowledge, this has not been previously reported in Sudan literature. The tendon of the reported patient healed well after debridement and primary repairs

Frequency of Gestational diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance in urban Sudanese pregnant women in the third trimester

Background: Impaired glucose tolerance may be defined as intermediate group of individuals whose carbohydrate metabolism does not constitute diabetes but is not entirely normal. It carries a higher risk of developing microvascular disease and a significant percentage of these patientseventually become diabetics.Objective: of the study was to estimate the frequency of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in urban Sudanese pregnant women in the third trimester. The study also showed the effect of age and parity on IGT.Methodology: The study was carried out on hundred pregnant women in the third trimester.Results: The frequency of gestational diabetes was 2% and it was 6% for the IGT incidence whereas, 92% of the pregnant women revealed normal fasting plasma levels. The IGT pregnant women were older than the control pregnant women but, the age difference was not significant [28.7± 5.5 years (mean ± S.D) vs. 27.3 ± 4.8 respectively, p>0.05] . Also, the IGT pregnant women were found to have mean parity significantly greater than that of the control group [ 6.7 ± 2 (mean ± S.D.) vs. 3.9 ± 2.1 respectively , p<0.001].Conclusion: The frequency of GDM and IGT in Sudanese pregnant women is within the universal estimates and parity is an important risk factor that affects impaired glucose tolerance incidence in pregnancy.Keywords: microvascular, chemical diabetes, carbohydrate intolerance

Article Neurotransmitters – A biochemical view

The neurotransmission at most if not all synapses is chemical and is of great biochemical, physiological and pharmacological importance. Neurons communicate with each other at synapses by a process called synaptic transmission in which the release of small quantities of chemicalmessengers, called neurotransmitters that alter the electrical activity of neurons after they interact with receptors on post-synaptic cell surfaces. This review gives a biochemical view on the nature of neurotransmitters and presents the biochemical chart and the medical relevance of the mostimportant neurotransmitters. Keywords: Neurotransmitter, Synaptic vesicles, Acetylcholine (ACh), g-Aminobutyrate (GABA), Myasthenia Gravis (MG), Parkinson's disease, Opioid peptides

Role of cortisol in the deterioration of glucose tolerance in Sudanese pregnant women

Objective: To study the state of insulin resistance which occurs in pregnancy and the possible role of cortisol in augmentation of this state.Design: Case-control study.Setting: Khartoum teaching hospital, Khartoum north hospital, Soba hospital, Ibrahim Malek hospital, maternity hospital and Fath-Elbasheer referral centre from January to August 19%.Subjects: Thirty pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM) and thirty pregnant women with impaired glucose tolerance(1GT) were compared with thirty control pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance.Results: The GDM and the IGT groups were found to have significantly higher levels of serum cortisol than that of the control group (937.2±79.4 nmol/l (mean f S.E.) and 794.2±60.5 vs 597.3±30.9 respectively, p < 0.0006].Conclusion: Cortisol has a great role to play in the deterioration of glucose tolerance in pregnancy