No abstract

A 60 year old male patient presented with hoarseness of voice lasting for 2 months. First he was examined by the otorhinolaryngologist of our hospital, who noticed absence of movements of the left vocal cord. Chest X-ray showed a large opacity in the left upper zone and the patient was referred to the pulmonologist. His general physical examination was unremarkable not having any stigmata of Marfan's or Ehler Danlos syndrome. On chest auscultation, a systolic flow murmur was audible and there was decreased breath sound in the left infraclavicular area. Bronchoscopy revealed absence of movement of left vocal cord. His trans-thoracic echocardiography revealed degenerative aortic and mitral valve disease with mild aortic regurgitation and mild mitral regurgitation with dilated aortic aneurysm. A contrast enhanced CT scan of thorax and CT Angio Aortogram revealed fusiform aneurysmal dilatation of the arch of aorta with diameter of 6.2 cm over a length of 12.3 cm showing intraluminal partial thrombus with wall calcification. The patient was advised to undergo surgery. However, after detailed discussion with him and his family, they decided for medical management in view of his advanced age.

No abstract

No abstract

Background: According to Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP), diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in India requires examination of two sputum samples collected over 2 days, that is, “spot” and next day “morning” samples. Objective: To assess the feasibility of diagnosing pulmonary TB by examining two spot sputum samples in 1 day and to compare this approach with the current RNTCP protocol. Materials and Method: A total of 375 subjects having cough >2 weeks were enrolled into the study. Three sputum samples were collected from each of the study participant; first spot (S1), second extra-spot (S2) sample 1 h after collection of the first sample, and third morning (M) sample collected next day morning. These specimens were subjected to standard sputum smear microscopy for acid-fast bacilli as per RNTCP guidelines. For 1-day protocol, results of “S1 and S2” samples and for 2-day protocol results of “S1 and M” samples were considered. Results: The number of sputum-positive pulmonary TB cases diagnosed with standard 2-day protocol was 119, whereas the experimental 1-day protocol diagnosed 120 cases ( P = 0.7). Comparing with standard 2-day protocol, this new 1-day protocol had sensitivity 98.32%, specificity 100%, positive predictive value 100%, and negative predictive value 99.17%. Conclusion: Single-day method can be adopted as the standard diagnostic approach for pulmonary TB after large-scale multicenter randomized controlled trials.