Patient perspectives on hypertension management in health system of Sri Lanka: a qualitative study.

Introduction: Uncontrolled hypertension is the leading risk factor for mortality globally, including low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, pathways for seeking hypertension care and patients' experience with the utilisation of health services for hypertension in LMICs are not well understood.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore patients' perspectives on different dimensions of accessibility and availability of healthcare for the management of uncontrolled hypertension in Sri Lanka.

Prevalence and correlates of cardiometabolic multimorbidity among hypertensive individuals: a cross-sectional study in rural South Asia-Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Objective: To determinate the prevalence and correlates of cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM), and their cross-country variation among individuals with hypertension residing in rural communities in South Asia.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: Rural communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Gastric motility following ingestion of a solid meal in a cohort of adult asthmatics.

Background/aims: Asthmatics have abnormal esophageal motility and increased prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The contribution of gastric motility is less studied. We studied gastric myoelectrical activity, gastric emptying (GE) and their association with GERD symptoms and vagal function in adult asthmatics.

Response of the airways and autonomic nervous system to acid perfusion of the esophagus in patients with asthma: a laboratory study.

Background: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) predisposes to airway disease through a vagally-mediated esophago-bronchial reflex. This study investigates this vagal response to esophageal acid perfusion.

Methods: 40 asthmatics with mild stable asthma participated.

Esophageal motility, vagal function and gastroesophageal reflux in a cohort of adult asthmatics.

Background: Asthmatics are known to have esophageal hypomotility. Vagal hypofunction and prolonged intra-esophageal acidification cause esophageal hypomotility. The contribution of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) and vagal function to esophageal motility in asthmatics is unclear.

Low-dose adrenaline, promethazine, and hydrocortisone in the prevention of acute adverse reactions to antivenom following snakebite: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Envenoming from snakebites is most effectively treated by antivenom. However, the antivenom available in South Asian countries commonly causes acute allergic reactions, anaphylactic reactions being particularly serious. We investigated whether adrenaline, promethazine, and hydrocortisone prevent such reactions in secondary referral hospitals in Sri Lanka by conducting a randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

Prevalence of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease symptoms and reflux-associated respiratory symptoms in asthma.

Background: Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) symptoms are common in asthma and have been extensively studied, but less so in the Asian continent. Reflux-associated respiratory symptoms (RARS) have, in contrast, been little-studied globally. We report the prevalence of GORD symptoms and RARS in adult asthmatics, and their association with asthma severity and medication use.

Comparison of a composite symptom score assessing both symptom frequency and severity with a score that assesses frequency alone: a preliminary study to develop a practical symptom score to detect gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in a resource-poor setting.

Background: There is a need for a practical instrument to screen for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) in epidemiological studies.

Objectives: To develop a practical score to detect GORD and compare assessment of both symptom frequency and severity with frequency alone.

Methods: One hundred patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms and 150 volunteers with no such past history faced an interviewer-administered questionnaire assessing seven symptoms, graded for frequency and severity.