Alam Ks

A total of eighty-one consecutive cases of Kala-azar admitted in all four medicine units of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital during the period from January 2002 to mid August 2002 were included in this study. The number of the patients clearly indicates that the burden of Kala-azar in this region is significant and expanding, which constituted 1.90% of total admission in all 4 medicine units during this period. Majority of the patients were of 20-29 years of age. Male to female ratio was 1.38:1. Maximum number of the patients were of poor socio-economic group with history of housing made up of mud and having close proximity with cattle house. Fever and splenomegaly (100%) were the predominant features. Hepatomegaly was found in 91.36% of the cases. Other clinical manifestations were weight loss (79.01%), normal or increased appetite (65.43%), generalized weakness (72.84%), pallor (69.13%), cough (25.92%), jaundice (17.28%), abdominal Pain (12.34%), hyperpigmentation (9.88%), ascites (4.94%) and bleeding manifestations (4.94%). Notable concomitant illnesses were urinary tract infection (7.40%), pulmonary tuberculosis (3.70%), malaria (1.23%), scabies (4.94%), heart failure (3.70%) and chronic liver disease (2.47%). Due to wide diversity of clinical presentations, clinical features of kala-azar should be evaluated in details which will pave the hidden cases into light.

The study was carried out to see prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) specific cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular events among patients with Chronic Kidney Disease stage-V (CKD-V) before starting dialysis therapy in the department of Nephrology of National Institute of Kidney Diseases & Urology (NIKDU), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Among CKD specific cardiovascular risk factors, anemia showed the highest prevalence (96.7%) in study population. More than fifty percent of CKD-V patients had both hypocalcaemia and hyperphosphataemia. Calcium-Phosphate Product (CaXP) was elevated among 23 percent of the population. C-reactive protein, an acute phase protein was positive in 78% of CKD-V patients. Besides, among traditional risk factors, Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus were present in 83.3% and 23% of the study population respectively. The prevalence of cardiovascular events among CKD-V patients showed that 18.3% had ischemic heart disease, 38% heart failure, 4.7% arrhythmia and 9% left ventricular hypertrophy. Females were significantly prone to develop cardiovascular events than their male counterpart (p=0.028). Diabetes was significantly higher in patients with cardiovascular complications than in patients without cardiovascular complications (p=0.021).

Cardiac valve surgery is considered one of the most frequent surgical procedures in which AKI is a common & serious complication. Although serum creatinine is routinely used as a marker of renal function, it poorly reflects the immediate post operative period renal function. Within minutes to few hours after a renal insult, plasma neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (pNGAL) is released. The aim of this study was to assess the superiority of pNGAL over serum creatinine in detecting AKI in early post operative period. This prospective observational study was carried out in the Department of Nephrology of National Institute of Kidney Diseases & Urology in collaboration with National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) & Dhaka Shisu Hospital (DSH) from January 2015 to December 2016. Total 120 patients were selected from inpatient ward of cardiovascular surgery department. According to inclusion & exclusion criteria total 80 patients were included who was undergone cardiac valve surgery. Serum samples for pNGAL were collected from study population 6 hours after completion of surgery & stored at -80°C, serum samples were also collected for serum creatinine day before surgery, in 1st post operative day (POD1) & 2nd post operative day (POD2). Total 79 patients undergoing cardiac surgery, who met the inclusion & exclusion criteria, were consecutively included. There were 44 male (55.69%) and 35 female (40.31%) ranged from 15-60 years, with mean age of 36 years. pNGAL level in the blood of AKI patients (244.19±59.61ng/ml) 6 hours after completion of surgery was significantly higher from the non AKI patients (171.73±68.63ng/ml). A positive significant correlation was found between pNGAL 6 hours after completion of surgery & serum creatinine at POD1, POD2. This study demonstrated that level of pNGAL concentration 6 hours after completion of cardiac valve surgery increased before the rise of serum creatinine level & can thus AKI can be detected earlier by pNGAL.

Prevalence of organ failure is high through out the world. Organ transplantation, the definitive treatment option of organ failure keeps very low due to scarcity of organ. Most of the people are not aware about organ donation. Adolescent girls will be the mother of future nation and they can motivate family members for organ donation. This study was carried out to see attitudes towards organ donation and determine the negative factors of organ donation prevailing among school girls. One hundred sixty eight girls from class VIII to class X of a higher secondary school were participated. A structured questionnaire was filled up by the girls. The data were processed from questionnaire and analyzed. Among study population, most of them (64%) had no idea about on going organ donation and transplantation. The positive attitude of the girls towards organ donation was low when they are live (16%) and their attitudes also kept low even after their death (14%). The girls who did not agree to donate organ were further asked to mention the reasons. The reasons of negative attitude were religious belief, fear of illness and social and familial reservation. The result of this study suggests that among girls, awareness and attitudes about organ donation is poor. There were several reasons identified for low consent rates. Multidisciplinary actions should be taken to improve the awareness of the people about organ donation and motivate them for donation.