A physician′s personal experience with breast cancer: An interview

Dr Moushumi Lodh is a physician who was diagnosed with breast cancer in the year 2009. In this interview, she speaks to childhood friend and freelance medical writer, Dr Natasha Das about her life with cancer. When she was 22, Moushumi had a fibroadenoma removed from her breast. She had noticed a small new lump in her breast 16 years later and ignored it for over a year believing that it was one of those benign lumps again. She believes an early diagnosis could have paved way for better treatment options for her. In this interview, she urges women to be better aware, to do regular self-exams and to go for screening. If diagnosed with cancer, she says, one should not lose heart but should fight it with a positive spirit. Cancer, after all, is only another chronic disease that needs lifelong treatment and care

Autoimmune Hepatitis with Anti Centromere Antibodies

We present the case report of a 49-year-old type 2 diabetes mellitus patient presenting with abdominal pain and black stool for 15 days. A proper workup of laboratory investigations helped us diagnose autoimmune hepatitis with anticentromere antibodies. The authors would like to highlight that screening AIH patients for anticentromere antibody is not mandatory but can be considered, especially in the presence of disease-related symptomatology for quicker, more accurate diagnosis and optimum management

ANTHROPOMETRIC AND BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADULT PATIENTS WITH NON-ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the distribution of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with reference to age, gender, and socioeconomic status, to look for clinical features, anthropometric measurements, and biochemical parameters in patients of NAFLD, and to analyze statistically significant differences in biochemical parameters of lean, overweight, and obese NAFLD patients, in a medical college hospital of Durgapur.Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional hospital-based study carried out over 2 months. Patients diagnosed as NAFLD based on clinical findings and ultrasonography (USG) were evaluated. Patients were classified on the basis of body mass index (BMI) and their fibrosis score calculated.Results: The authors report several interesting findings that warrant further exploration. In this study, average age was 42 years and there was a male preponderance. 31.25% among patients who had undergone USG evaluation were diagnosed as NAFLD. Glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), BMI, and lipid profile were significantly different in controls and cases. In NAFLD patient group, 48% were lean, 40% overweight, and 12% obese. Lean patients had significantly different alanine transaminase/aspartate transaminase, TSH, and fibrosis score compared to overweight and obese patients.Conclusion: Authors stress on the importance of early identification of patients and stratifying them using less invasive, highly accurate, and affordable screening tools such as USG, biochemical tests, and fibrosis scores. More large-scale prospective studies can validate our observations, help physicians in early identification of patients who may benefit from therapeutic interventions, and even help them formulate more effective treatment algorithms

A case of Griscelli syndrome

A hallmark of Griscelli syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive disorder, is hair hypopigmentation characterized by a silver-gray sheen and the presence of large clusters of pigment unevenly distributed in the hair shaft. Either a primary neurological impairment or immune abnormalities are associated with this phenotype. We report the case of a 10-year-old child of consanguineous parents. He presented with abdominal pain and fever and was noted to have silvery hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. Bone marrow studies indicated hemophagocytosis, whilst microscopic examination of the hair showed irregular agglomerations of pigment in hair shafts. The prognosis, treatment, and genetic counseling needs differ considerably among the various forms of Griscelli Syndrome

A case of Griscelli syndrome

A hallmark of Griscelli syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive disorder, is hair hypopigmentation characterized by a silver-gray sheen and the presence of large clusters of pigment unevenly distributed in the hair shaft. Either a primary neurological impairment or immune abnormalities are associated with this phenotype. We report the case of a 10-year-old child of consanguineous parents. He presented with abdominal pain and fever and was noted to have silvery hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. Bone marrow studies indicated hemophagocytosis, whilst microscopic examination of the hair showed irregular agglomerations of pigment in hair shafts. The prognosis, treatment, and genetic counseling needs differ considerably among the various forms of Griscelli Syndrome