Evaluation of Lipid Profile in Obese and Non-Obese Hypertensive Adult Patients Attended in Medicine Department of a Medical College Hospital of Bangladesh

Background: By the dawn of this modern era of science, the prime challenge of physician is cardiovascular disease (CVD). The most important modifiable risk factors of CVDs are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and tobacco use. The effects of unhealthy diet and physical inactivity include abnormal blood lipid, obesity and hypertension. We tried to evaluate and correlate the pattern of lipid profile in obese and non-obese hypertensive patients. Objectives: This study was conducted at medicine department of Cumilla Medical College Hospital. The principal aim was to evaluate the lipid profile in obese and non-obese adult hypertensive patients. Methodology: During this cross sectional analytical study, a total of 100 adult hypertensive patients were taken by purposive sampling. Among them 50 (group 1) patients were taken those were obese and 50 (group 2) patients taken those were non-obese according to BMI measurement on operational definition. Diagnosis of hypertension would be established with the help of ambulatory BP measurements two occasions few minutes apart. The staging of hypertension was done according to JNC7 Criteria. Morning blood samples were taken after 8 - 12 hours of fasting and lipid profiles were done on authentic laboratories. The laboratory values were interpreted according to the operational definition of dyslipidaemia. The ethical research and review committee approved the study protocol and signed informed consent was obtained from the participants. The statistics was analyzed using the IBM SPSS software of version 19.0. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: Among the two groups, there were 56 (56%) males and 44 (44%) females. The mean age of group 1 (46.10 ± 11.09) was compared to that of group 2 (45.5 ± 10.6). Lipid profile abnormalities were significantly higher in the stage 2 hypertension (59.62%) and stage 3 hypertension (66.66%), higher in class 2 obese (100%) and class 3 obese subjects (100%), female hypertensive patients had significantly higher BMI than their male counterparts (27.24 ± 3.63 kg/m2 versus 29.29 ± 3.99 kg/m2), lipid profiles were higher in the female than male hypertensive patients (63.33% vs 55.35%) but only TC was statistically significant (4.45 ± 1.19 mmol/l versus 4.86 ± 1.29 mmol/l, p < 0.05). Those who were obese had significant high TG (p < 0.001), high TC (p < 0.001) and high LDL-C (p < 0.001). 38 (76%) of the obese hypertensive patients had dyslipidaemia whereas 21 (42%) of non-obese hypertensive patients had dyslipidaemia. In multivariate regression, TG was significantly and directly associated with BMI of subjects. Dyslipidaemia was more prevalent in the age group 30 - 59 of adult hypertensive patients. It showed that obese hypertensive patients had significantly higher SBP (p < 0.001), DBP (p < 0.001) than non-obese subjects. The mean TC (4.83 ± 0.95 mmol/l versus 4.15 ± 0.57 mmol/l, t = -9.70, p < 0.001), TG (2.64 ± 0.67 mmol/l versus 2.10 ± 0.45 mmol/l, t = -5.37, p < 0.001) and LDL-C (3.00 ± 0.82 mmol/l versus 2.44 ± 0.53 mmol/l, t = -9.11, p < 0.001) were also significantly higher among the hypertensive obese subjects. The mean HDL-C was however comparable in the two groups (1.25 ± 0.27 mmol/l versus 1.24 ± 0.57 mmol/l, t = -0.25, p = 0.08)...

Structural and Functional Annotation of Hypothetical Protein of Fusobacterium nucleatum Strain MJR7757B: An in Silico Approach

Fusobacterium nucleatum is an anaerobic, commensal, gram-negative oral bacterium that is carcinogenic and causes a wide range of human diseases. The present study focused on the analysis of the hypothetical protein, HMPREF3221_01179, derived from F. nucleatum strain MJR7757B, employing various computational methods to anticipate both its structure and functional characteristics. NCBI conserved domain analysis, NCBI BLASTp and MEGA Phylogenetic tree study characterize the target protein as an outer membrane efflux protein (ToIC family) which facilitate the bacterial transmembrane transport. With a molecular weight of 52120.02 Da, an isoelectric point (pI) of 8.33, and an instability index of 29.47, the protein is anticipated to exhibit good solubility in the extracellular space and crucial stability for pharmaceutical applications. The protein’s structure meets quality standards during the construction and refinement of its 3D model. The efflux inhibitor Arginine beta-naphthylamide exhibits a significant binding affinity (-7.1 kcal/mol) to the binding site of the target protein. The in-silico analysis improves the understanding of the protein and facilitates future investigations into therapeutic medication.

Insulin Sensitivity and Insulin Secretion Estimated by Homeostatic Model Assessment (HOMA) in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Progressive insulin resistance (IR) is an important pathophysiologic mechanism of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) is commonly used as a parameter of the severity of insulin resistance. Aims: To determine indices of insulin resistance (IR) and β-cell function in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted from March 2017 to September 2018 at Department of Endocrinology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study was performed with 41 GDM and equal number of pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) diagnosed on basis of WHO criterion-2013 during 24 - 40 weeks of gestation. Serum glucose was measured by glucose oxidase method and fasting serum insulin was measured by chemiluminescent immunoassay. Equations of homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) were used to calculate insulin indices like-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), β-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin sensitivity (HOMA-%S). Data were analyzed and compared by statistical tests. Results: A total of eighty-two (82) subjects [41 women with GDM (age: 28.29 ± 3.79 years, BMI: 27.16 ± 4.13 kg/m2) and 41 women with NGT (age: 26.22 ± 5.13 years, BMI: 25.27 ± 3.01 kg/m2)] were included in this study. It was observed that GDM women were significantly older (p = 0.041) and had significantly higher BMI (p = 0.020) than pregnant women with NGT. The GDM group had significantly higher IR as indicated by higher fasting insulin value [GDM vs. NGT;10.19 (7.71 - 13.34) vs. 6.88 (5.88 - 8.47) μIU/ml, median (IQR);p = 0.001] and HOMA-IR [GDM vs. NGT;2.31 (1.73 - 3.15) vs. 1.42 (1.15 - 1.76), median (IQR);p < 0.001], poor β-cell secretory capacity [GDM vs. NGT;HOMA-B: 112.63 (83.52 - 143.93) vs. 128.60 (108.77 - 157.58), median (IQR);p = 0.04] and low insulin sensitivity [GDM vs. NGT;HOMA-%S: 43.29 (31.77 - 57.98) vs. 70.42 (56.86 - 86.59), median (IQR);p < 0.001]. Conclusions: GDM is associated with both insulin resistance and inadequate insulin secretion.

A Physician Suffering from COVID-19 with Multiple Co-Morbidities Have Delayed Viral Clearance: A Case Report from Bangladesh

Background: Novel corona virus (SARS-Coronavirus-2 SARS-CoV-2) which emerged in China has spread to multiple countries rapidly. Little information is known about delayed viral clearance in mild to moderate COVID-19 pa-tients. As it is highly contagious, health care workers including physicians are high risk of being infected in hospital care. Case Report: A 37 years old Bangladeshi physician working in a paediatric unit of a medical college hos-pital with multiple co-morbidities, hypertension, diagnosed axial spondy-loarthropathy (ankylosing spondylitis) taking disease modifying anti rheu-matic drugs— DMARDs (Salfasalazine) from 2016 till now, chronic persis-tent bronchial asthma on medication developed sore throat, increasing breathlessness and cough admitted to his own hospital on 22 April, 2020. He had a history of contact with a relapse nephrotic syndrome (glomerulone-phritis) patient admitted with severe respiratory distress later confirmed as COVID-19 following RT PCR test on 14 April, 2020. After 3 days of contact with the patient, the physician also developed the symptoms mentioned above. The RT PCR test result of the physician came positive on 18 April, 2020. The physician primarily taken only azithromycin 500 mg once daily along with other regular drugs. On 5, 12 and 18 May, 2020, his sample was taken for re-test and came positive subsequently. After that he started Iver-mectin (0.15 mg/kg) once daily for 3 days and doxycycline 100 mg BD for 7 days. He gave samples again on 27 and 29 May, 2020 which were came nega-tive after 39 days. On full recovery he was discharged from hospital on day 40. We choose the patient because presence of co-morbidities may be asso-ciated with delayed viral clearance and physicians with co-morbidities working in a hospital have high risk of being infected.

COVID-19 Disease Complicated with Severe Pneumonia in a Patient with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD): A Case Report from Bangladesh

Background: Since 2019, the pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread very rapidly in China and Worldwide. COVID-19 is a highly contagious, infectious and rapidly spreading viral disease with an alarming case fatality rate up to 5%. Case Report: In this article, we report a case of 60 years old non diabetic, hypertensive woman infected with COVID-19 who has end stage renal disease (ESRD) on hemodialysis for last 18 months. COVID-19 patients with ESRD need isolation dialysis but most of them cannot be handled properly due to limited hemodialysis machine. With these unavailability and risk, we continue the treatment along with hemodialysis for controlling uraemia and fluid balance. With all effort this patient ended with an uneventful course with clinical improvement, improvement of all laboratory parameters and resolution of radiological findings but follow up RT-PCR cannot done due to changing guideline of discharge criteria of COVID-19 patient in Bangladesh. He positively responded to meropenem, clarithromycin, favipiravir, thromboprophylaxis with enoxaparin along with supplemental oxygen therapy. After that she was discharged with an advice of 14 days home isolation with regular hemodialysis and a follow up visit after 14 days in the outpatient department. Conclusion: An ESRD patient on regular hemodialysis suffering from severe pneumonia has high risk of mortality. Combined effort from the health care workers are needed to decrease the mortality of COVID-19 infected ESRD patients.

A Review on D 614G Mutation with Bangladesh Scenario

With the COVID-19 pandemic, disparities between the infection rate and death rate in different countries become a major concern. In some countries, lower mortality rate compared to others can be explained by better testing capacity and intensive care facilities. Complete SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from different countries of the world are continually submitted to Global Initiative for Sharing All Influenza Data using Next Generation Sequencing method. A SARS-CoV-2 variant with a D 614G Mutation in the spike (S) protein has become the most dominant form in the global pandemic. There are a number of ongoing studies trying to relate this mutation with the infectivity, mortality, transmissibility of the virus and its impact on vaccine development. This review aims to accumulate the major findings from some of these studies and focus its future implication. Some studies suggested D 614G strain has increased binding capacity, it affects more cells at a faster rate, so has a high transmissibility. Patients infected with this strain were found with high viral load. But still now there is no such evidence that this strain produces more severe disease as well as increased mortality. The structural change of spike protein produced by D 614G mutation was minor and did not hamper the vaccine efficacy. Some studies showed antibodies produced against D614 strain can neutralize G614 strain and vice versa. Whenever a mutation occurs in spike protein there are always chances of affecting the infectivity, transmissibility, vaccine efficacy. Therefore, more studies are required to find out the overall effect of D 614G mutation.

Comparison of Serum Lipid Profile between Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Pregnant Women with Normal Glucose Tolerance

Background: Aberrant lipid metabolism presumed to have important relationship with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), though previous studies revealed inconsistent results on this area. Objectives: To identify the difference of serum lipid profile between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and pregnant woman with normal glucose tolerance (NGT). Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted from January 2017 to December 2017 at Department of Endocrinology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh with 31 GDM and equal number of NGT pregnant women diagnosed on the basis of WHO criteria-2013, during 24 - 40 weeks of gestation. Glucose was measured by glucose oxidase method and fasting serum lipid profile [Total cholesterol (TC), High Density Lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and Triglyceride (TG)] was measured by enzymatic-colorimetric method. Data were analyzed and compared by statistical tests. Results: Among total sixty-two (62) study subjects, 31 were GDM (age: 27.52 ± 4.8 years, body mass index (BMI): 27.17 ± 3.3 kg/m2) and 31 were pregnant women with NGT (age: 24.94 ± 4.2 years, BMI: 25.43 ± 6.5 kg/m2). Mean age of GDM group was significantly higher than that of NGT group (p = 0.028). Women with GDM showed relatively higher BMI than NGT women but that was not statistically significant (p = 0.194). Fasting lipid profiles between GDM and NGT (GDM vs. NGT;total cholesterol: 194.21 ± 42.18 vs. 208.52 ± 42.18 mg/dl, p = 0.187;HDL-C: 47.50 ± 16.17 vs. 47.18 ± 11.71 mg/dl, p = 0.928;LDL-C: 109.25 ± 28.80 vs. 119.30 ± 34.76 mg/dl, p = 0.220 and triglyceride 204.78 ± 58.50 vs. 202.34 ± 79.18 mg/dl, p = 0.891) were not significantly different. The variations in all lipid fraction values were not statistically significant among GDM women when analyzed between BMI groups holding BMI cut-off at 23 kg/m2. No significant differences of any values of lipid profile were found in GDM women according to various age categories (Age < 25 years vs. ≥25 years). Conclusions: Lipid profile does not differ between women with GDM and pregnant woman with NGT.