Prevalence, risk factors and predicted risk of cardiac events in chronic kidney disease of uncertain aetiology in Sri Lanka: A tubular interstitial nephropathy.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with 'traditional' chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, chronic kidney disease of uncertain aetiology (CKDu), a tubular interstitial nephropathy is typically minimally proteinuric without high rates of associated hypertension or vascular disease and it is unknown if the rates of CVD are similar. This study aimed to identify the prevalence and the risk of CVD in patients with CKDu.

Septic embolization of left and right coronary arteries resulting in sudden death: A rare complication of infective endocarditis.

Bacterial endocarditis gives rise to a variety of complications due to local tissue damage, immunological phenomena, and embolic phenomena. Only a small number of cases of coronary embolization have been reported in infective endocarditis patients. This is a case of subacute bacterial endocarditis in a postpartum mother complicated by fatal left and right coronary artery embolization.

Victims' response to snakebite and socio-epidemiological factors of 1018 snakebites in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka.

Background: Although snake bite remains a major health problem in Sri Lanka, there is a dearth of baseline information that would be useful in education about and prevention of snakebite.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe the socio-demographic characteristics, behavioral responses, treatment seeking, and prehospital interventions of snakebite victims in an area with high snakebite burden.

Methods: This prospective study was based on a cohort of snakebite victims presented to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital over a 1-year period from January 2010.

Epidemic of self-poisoning with seeds of the yellow oleander tree (Thevetia peruviana) in northern Sri Lanka.

Deliberate self-harm is an important problem in the developing world. Ingestion of yellow oleander seeds (Thevetia peruviana) has recently become a popular method of self-harm in northern Sri Lanka -- there are now thousands of cases each year. These seeds contain cardiac glycosides that cause vomiting, dizziness, and cardiac dysrhythmias such as conduction block affecting the sinus and AV nodes.