BACKGROUNDAcute confusional state is a common manifestation in elderly persons. Because of its multifactorial aetiology, a wide variety of diseases present as acute confusional state in elderly. MATERIALS AND METHODSA descriptive study was conducted in Department of Medicine of SCB Medical College, Cuttack and consecutively 100 adult patients with acute confusional state were included in the study. These patients were studied for the aetiology, clinical features and outcome. Relevant investigations were done in each patient and the data was tabulated. RESULTSAmong 100 patients of acute confusional state, 58 (58%) were male and 42 (42%) were female patients. Most common aetiology was stroke (31%) followed by hyponatraemia (16%) with the predisposing factors being diabetes mellitus (37%) and hypertension (32%) in order. Most common symptom was vomiting (36%) followed by fever (28%). CONCLUSIONAcute confusional state gives physician an alert preceding the illness or events. Early diagnosis and proper management will reduce mortality in elderly. KEYWORDS

BACKGROUNDHypomagnesaemia is an emerging electrolyte disturbance in hospitalised patients, especially in critically ill ones and it has been shown to predict mortality in intensive care units (ICUs). This study was aimed to find the impact of admission serum magnesium levels and patient outcome considering mortality, need and duration of ventilator support, length of stay in ICU and APACHE II score. MATERIALS AND METHODSThe present one-year prospective study was conducted in ICU of Department of Medicine, SCB MCH, Cuttack. A total of 100 patients from December 2016 to November 2017 were included in the study. Patients were divided as hypomagnesaemics and normomagnesaemics basing on their serum magnesium values. RESULTSOn admission 68 out of 100 (i.e. 68%) had normomagnesaemia, 28 out of 100 (i.e. 28%) had hypomagnesaemia and 4 out of 100 (4%) had hypermagnesaemia. The patient with hypomagnesaemia compared with patients of normomagnesaemia had higher mortality rate (64.28% vs. 22.06%), higher APACHE II score on admission (29.6 vs. 24.3), a more frequent hypoalbuminaemia and sepsis, and also more duration of hospital stay. There was low GCS (5 -10) in 96.42% of patients with hypomagnesaemia, but only 45.58% of patients with normomagnesaemia. CONCLUSIONThe present study showed patients with hypomagnesaemia at admission are significantly at high risk of mortality, requirement of prolonged ventilator support and longer duration of ICU stay and also predict higher APACHE II score.