Serial serum penicillin levels following an injection of benzathine penicillin (12 lakh units) in children of rheumatic heart disease.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Mehrotra.
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OBJECTIVE: To compare four conventional methods of diagnosing tuberculous lymphadenophathy (TL)--namely fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), Zeihl-Neelsen staining of smears for acid-fast bacilli (AFB), culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and lymph node biopsies--with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in order to assess the practicability and advantage of its use in routine diagnosis in a developing country. STUDY DESIGN: Fine needle aspirates from 142 consecutive patients presenting with lymphadenopathy (mainly cervical) without any known systemic involvement underwent cytomorphologic diagnosis, AFB smears, culture for MTB, confirmatory biopsy and PCR for MTB. The aspirates from cases other than TL served as controls for PCR. RESULTS: Correct diagnosis of tuberculosis could be made in 94.87% of cases by a combination of the four methods. PCR was done in 52 cases, 39 confirmed TL and 13 controls. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value of PCR were 94.44%, 38.23%, 44.73% and 92.85%, respectively, when culture alone was considered the gold standard. However, specificity (38.23-92.30%) and PPV (44.73-97.36%) of PCR increased remarkably when response to treatment was taken as the final arbiter. CONCLUSION: The four conventional tests were found to be the methods of choice for the diagnosis of TL in developing countries. PCR should be reserved for problem cases.
The use of adenosine has been suggested as a diagnostic tool in the evaluation of wide ORS complex tachycardia. However, adenosine shortens the antegrade refractoriness of accessory atrioventricular connections and may cause acceleration of the ventricular rate during atrial fibrillation. We observed ventricular fibrillation in 2 patients who presented to the emergency department with pre-excited atrial fibrillation and were given 12 mg of adenosine.
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