Clinical profile of patients with hypertensive emergencies in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Hypertensive emergency is defined by systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥180 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥120 mmHg with acute target organ damage. Hypertensive emergencies can be life threatening and fatal unless timely treated. In the present study we aim to study the clinical profile and outcome of patients admitted with hypertensive emergency in the medical intensive care unit in our hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study of all cases with hypertensive emergency admitted in Medical Intensive care unit (ICU) in Government General Hospital, Srikakulam during the study period was conducted. The clinical profile and outcome of the patients were assessed. Results: Out of the fifty patients in the present study, about 36 (72%) were males and 14 were females (28%) and about one third of the patients (36%) belonged to the age group of 60-69 years. Diabetes mellitus (30%) and dyslipidemia (40%) were the commonly encountered comorbidities in the study population. Most frequent presenting symptoms were neurological deficits (50%) followed by dyspnoea (32%) and chest pain (24%). Intracerebral haemorrhage was the commonest target organ damage found in 30% of the patients. Patients presenting with hypertensive emergencies with neurological target organ damage had statistically significant increased chance of mortality (p=0.007). Conclusions: As hypertension emergencies are consequence of uncontrolled hypertension, it is important to educate and bring awareness among public regarding the screening, early detection, and adherence to prescribed medication for hypertension to avoid adverse clinical outcomes

Design and Development of Embedded Based System for the Measurement of Dielectric Constant Spectroscopy for Liquids

An embedded based system for the measurement of dielectric constant spectroscopy (for frequencies 1 kHz, 10 kHz, 100 kHz, 1 MHz and 10 MHz) for liquids has been designed and developed. It is based on the principle that the change in frequency of an MAX 038 function generator, when the liquid forms the dielectric medium of the dielectric cell, is measured with a microcontroller. Atmel’s AT89LP6440 microcontroller is used in the present study. Further, an LCD module is interfaced with the microcontroller in 4-bit mode, which reduces the hardware complexity. Software is developed in C using Keil’s C-cross compiler. The instrument system covers a wide range of dielectric constants for various liquids at various frequencies and at different temperatures. The system is quite successful in the measurement of dielectric constant in liquids with an accuracy of ± 0.01 %. The dielectric constant is very dependent on the frequency of their measurement. No one-measurement technique is available, however, that will give the frequency range needed to characterize the liquid sample. The paper deals with the hardware and software details