Study of drug utilization pattern for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients attending a government hospital in kerala, India.

Objective: Drug utilization studies are powerful exploratory tools to ascertain the role of drugs in society. This study was conducted to establish the drug utilization pattern and the common adverse drug reactions for the treatment of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in one of the government hospitals in Kerala, India.

Methods: This was a prospective observational study aimed at recognizing the drug utilization pattern for the treatment of acute exacerbation of COPD for 7-day under nonexperimental settings.

Severe hypoglycemia due to poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hypoglycemia is a well documented paraneoplastic syndrome of hepatoma. Hypoglycemia as sole presentation is very rare. We report a case of poorly differentiated hepatoma with multiple lung metastases presenting with recurrent hypoglycemic seizures as the only manifestation four months before the diagnosis of the tumour.

Paratesticular papillary serous cystadenocarcinoma--a case report.

A case of paratesticular papillary serous cystadenocarcinoma in a six year old child is presented. The occurrence of these epithelial tumours of the ovarian type, in the paratesticular region is extremely rare and only six cases have been reported so far. They are thought to arise from Mullerian metaplasia of the peritoneal lining of the tunica vaginalis, appendix testis or mullerian remnants between the testis and spermatic cord.

Acrokeratosis paraneoplastica.

A 60-year old man with squamous cell carcinoma of hypopharynx and acrokeratosis paraneoplastica (Bazex syndrome) is reported.

An epidemic of poliomyelitis in southern Kerala.

An epidemic of poliomyelitis was recognized in May 1987 when there was a sharp increase in the number of children with acute paralytic poliomyelitis admitted to the SAT Hospital in Trivandrum in Kerala State. From May through September, 392 cases were admitted; the total admitted cases in 1987 were 458 in contrast to 119 in 1986. Evidence for type 1 poliovirus infection was found in 33 (85%) of the 39 children in whom virological investigations were done during the epidemic.

Rhabdomyomatous dysplasia of the lung: a case report with review of the literature.

The occurrence of rhabdomyomatous dysplasia of the lung in a macerated term baby with multiple congenital anomalies is described. The hypoplastic right lung revealed abundant striated muscle in the alveolar septa and bronchial walls of the middle and lower lobes. A brief review of the literature is followed by a discussion of the pathogenesis of this rare pulmonary malformation.