Ionised hypocalcaemia in emergency and acute medicine.

Acute hypocalcaemia can be life-threatening and must be diagnosed promptly. The gold-standard investigation is ionised calcium, which is measured on most blood gas analysers. Total calcium measurements are inaccurate in severe depletion even if 'corrected' or 'adjusted' for albumin.

Older age and frailty are the chief predictors of mortality in COVID-19 patients admitted to an acute medical unit in a secondary care setting- a cohort study.

Background: There is a need for more observational studies across different clinical settings to better understand the epidemiology of the novel COVID-19 infection. Evidence on clinical characteristics of COVID-19 infection is scarce in secondary care settings in Western populations.

Methods: We describe the clinical characteristics of all consecutive COVID-19 positive patients (n = 215) admitted to the acute medical unit at Fairfield General Hospital (secondary care setting) between 23 March 2020 and 30 April 2020 based on the outcome at discharge (group 1: alive or group 2: deceased).

Metabolic syndrome: Performance of five different diagnostic criterias.

Background: The aim of this study is to describe the metabolic syndrome (MS) and to evaluate five diagnostic criteria of the MS with respect to their sensitivity and specificity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Materials And Methods: It is a cross-sectional case control study of T2DM patients and their first degree relatives (FDRs) recruited using convenience sampling and data collected through questionnaire administered technique. Variables of interest included anthropometric indices, blood pressure, serum lipid profile, fasting blood sugar (FBS), proteinuria, and microalbuminuria.