Introduction: Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease which is also known as Mediterranean fever. It is acquired from the handling of infected animals or consuming contaminated milk or milk products. The incubation period varies from 1-3 weeks to several months before clinical disease appearance and it shows multiorgan involvement. This study focuses on the varied presentation of this disease and laboratory findings. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study, where the past 15 years data of cases diagnosed with brucellosis was studied in a tertiary care center in South India. Patient demographics, clinical presentation, duration of stay in the hospital, hematological and biochemistry profiles were collected and analyzed in SPSS. Results: More number cases were found among the male gender (70%), mostly in the 20- 40 years age group (40%). 95% of cases reported fever, 40% with arthralgia (29% generalized in nature), and 32% with a headache. A Positive Pearson correlation between CRP and NLR, and CRP and PLR were found, which was statistically significant. Mean laboratory values were documented. 37% of patients were found to have hepatosplenomegaly on ultrasound Conclusion: Most of the patients were admitted as cases with pyrexia of unknown origin. Our study focused on the different clinical presentations and laboratory findings of brucellosis and will help give a better understanding and outline during brucellosis case diagnosis and management in a cost-efficient manner.
Background: Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) is an aggressive form of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver disease (NAFLD), with liver inflammation and scarring. Due to a lack of clinical biomarkers and asymptomatic nature, NASH is often under-diagnosed. It is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the USA. Liver biopsy is the gold standard to diagnose NASH, but it is invasive and life-threatening and histologic evaluation of a liver biopsy sample is imperfect as a reference because of sampling variability due to the irregular distribution of fibrosis. Aim: Validating AST/ALT ratio as a stand-alone scoring system in NASH is scarce and so this study aims to establish a correlation between FibroScan values and AST/ALT ratio. Methodology: All NASH patients, who underwent FibroScan were included. Their demographics, FibroScan, AST, ALT values were recorded in M S Excel and Pearson correlation between FibroScan values and AST/ALT ratios of 150 NASH patients was calculated using SPSS. Results: Out of 150 NASH patients, 72% were males and 57.33% belonged to 40-50 years age group. FibroScan values and AST/ALT ratio showed positive Pearson correlation of 0.245, (p value=0.003). FibroScan values and splenic size also showed a positive Pearson correlation of 0.289 (p value<0.001). Conclusion: Males of 40-50 years age group had higher distribution of NASH, so middle aged males should be screened routinely as they are at a higher risk. FibroScan value with AST/ALT ratio and splenic size showed a positive correlation, thus showing that AST/ALT ratio and splenic size increases with increase in liver stiffness.
