WHO recommends bacteriological confirmation of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) by the detection of acid fast bacilli (AFB) in respiratory specimens. However about 40 60% of patients with PTB suspected clinically or radiologically may fail to produce sputum, or when it is available, AFB may be negative on repeated smear examination. These sputum smear negative patients and those who fail to produce any sputum can be diagnosed by flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB). Our study was an attempt to analyze the role of FOB in sputum smear negative PTB patients with respect to their association with...

Background: Microalbuminuria (MA) is associated with increased risk for renal & cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetes mellitus, hypertension and patients with acute myocardial infarction but the significance of MA in RA and its correlation with clinical and biochemical parameters of disease activity is not well studied. The present study was therefore aimed to determine the presence of MA in RA patients and to correlate it with indicators of disease activity. Materials and methods: 100 confirmed cases of RA were taken. Those suffering from hypertension, diabetes mellitus and...

Obesity is associated with a low-grade inflammation of white adipose tissue (WAT) resulting from chronic activation of proinflammatory molecules: C-reactive Protein(CRP), TNFalpha and interleukin-6 (IL-6).These cytokines subsequently lead to insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance and even diabetes. This is a cross-sectional, open label, comparative, observational study, in a North Indian population cohort. 30 cases of obesity were evaluated, against twenty normal weight regarding metabolic and inflammatory markers in relation to cardiovascular risk factors. All patients underwent...