A study of scrub meningoencephalitis and keeping it as a common differential diagnosis

Background: Scrub typhus is caused by the organism Orientia tsutsugamushi, transmitted by trombiculid mites. Meningoencephalitis as a cause of mortality in cases of scrub typhus is becoming a common entity now. Aims and objectives were to study the incidence of meningoencephalitis in scrub typhus cases admitted to our hospital and stress the importance of keeping it as a common differential diagnosis.Methods: A descriptive observational study of 39 diagnosed cases of scrub typhus admitted to our hospital for 6 months duration (May 2018 to October 2018) was conducted. Data concerning the cases were recorded and analyzed using appropriate statistics.Results: Out of 39 cases admitted, 8 patients were diagnosed as having meningoencephalitis. Patients with meningoencephalitis had severe thrombocytopenia when compared to those without any central nervous system (CNS) symptoms. All patients responded well to doxycycline therapy with no mortality amongst cases under study.Conclusions: There have been numerous outbreaks of scrub typhus in our state of Rajasthan, especially in the Hadoti region. And in recent years, scrub typhus has been an important contributor to the newer class of emerging infections causing mortality in India. Meningoencephalitis although rare forms a major part of the complications of scrub typhus

Correlation between thyroxin hormone level, bilirubin and uric acid in diabetic subjects

Background: Levels of thyroxin hormone along with T3, TSH and other markers such as uric acid, bilirubin and glucose are important in diagnosis and medical management of diabetes mellitus and thyroid disorder. Relationship between these parameters are important in both diabetes mellitus and Thyroid gland disease, as both disorders are increasing very fast in Indian population. Present study aimed to analyzed T3, T4, TSH, uric acid and bilirubin in Haroti Region of Jhalawar, Rajasthan in diabetic and non diabetic subjects.Methods: One hundred diabetes mellitus subjects and 100 healthy control subjects were analyzed for determination of thyroxin, T3, TSH, uric acid and bilirubin by commercial kit method.Results: One hundred subjects of diabetes mellitus between age 30-60 years male and female were analyzed. It was observed significantly T3 <0.001 T4 <0.001 TSH <0.001 bilirubin <0.01 in diabetic subjects and found to be significant when compared in both groups. However, uric acid level insignificant in both patients and control groups.Conclusions:This study demonstrated that thyroxin hormone with T3, TSH and bilirubin and uric acid, are important parameters and their values are significant when compared with healthy subjects in diabetes mellitus and thyroid disorder.