Placenta percreta with painless uterine rupture at the 2nd trimester

A pregnant lady at 27 weeks and 2 days gestation with a known placenta previa major and a history of previous lower segment cesarean section had a sudden severe painless vaginal bleeding. At laparotomy a uterine rupture was noted, no hemoperitoneum found and placenta percreta was diagnosed. This is the first case reported in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is rare, only 3 cases of silent or asymptomatic uterine rupture secondary to placenta percreta were reported in the literature in the last 30-years. Non-invasive methods could help in the diagnosis or increase suspicion of placenta percreta, therefore, proper management could be arranged through a multi-disciplinary team.     

Malignant hyperthermia

Malignant hyperthermia is a potentially fatal pharmacogenetic disease triggered by volatile anesthetics and/or succinylcholine. Dysregulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis is the trigger of the acute crisis. Malignant hyperthermia crisis correspond to an hypermetabolic state, which occurred acutely and interesting skeletal muscular cell. Early manifestations grouped tachycardia, tachypnea, masseter spasm, mixed acidosis and raise of the end expiratory CO2 pressure. Hyperthermia is a late sign, rhabdomyolysis is a sign of the severity of the malignant hyperthermia. The successful treatment is based on an early diagnosis, immediately interruption of triggering agents, intravenous administration of Dantrolene in sufficient dosage and starting of adequate symptomatic treatment. Prevention of this complication is based on asking the patient about genetic predisposition to malignant hyperthermia. Confirmation of the susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia can be provided by in vitro contracture test with halothane or caffeine after muscle biopsy.     

Interpretation of hypertransaminasemia

Raised serum level of transaminases aspartate (aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase) is a frequent situation in medical practice. It is considered as moderate when the level is under 10 times normal and as chronic when it lasts for more than 6 months. The most common etiologies for chronically elevated transaminases are alcohol use, viral hepatitis, liver steatosis, diabetes, obesity and medications. Many non invasive tests, including history, physical examination, blood tests (markers for hepatitis A and B, muscular enzymes), and imaging procedures (abdominal ultrasonography) are usually done and lead to a correct diagnosis in 80% of patients. When the diagnosis cannot be determined non invasively a liver biopsy is recommended in order to make diagnosis, to evaluate the prognosis and to start an adapted treatment.     

Mortality stastistics as indicators of quality of hospital care

Death rates have always been important information for hospitals to provide a solid base for the evaluation of the quality of their medical care. This study was carried out to find out the gross death rate (GDR) as well as net death rate (NDR) in King Fahad hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in the period from 1994-2000 and also to find out demographic characteristics of deaths in the year 2000 according to ICD-10 as indicators of quality of hospital care. Medical records of discharged patients including deaths during the year 2000 were reviewed (13386). Complete data about deaths were obtained. Results of the studied hospital showed gradual decrease in GDR from 5.8% to 4.5% (1994-1998) then slight increase from 4.9% to 5.0% (1999-2000) but still below the year 1994 (5.8%) and also there is gradual decrease in NDR from 4.6% to 3.6% in the studied period. GDR in different departments of the hospital during the year 2000 showed that Medical ICU was the highest (24.5%) followed by Surgical ICU (17.9%) followed by Cardiac ICU (14.3%) while GDR in the Medical department was found to be (12.9 %) of the discharged subjects. According to nationality; proportional mortality rate (PMR) of Saudis represented 62% of total deaths followed by Yemenis (8.2%) meanwhile Egyptians represented 3.7% of total deaths in the studied year. As concerned to age groups; the highest PMR was found among those aged 65-74 years (21.9%) while the lowest PMR was found among those aged 13-24 years (4.2%). The highest PMR of deaths during the studied year was reported in March (10.4%) followed by April (9.7%) then February (9.4%) which are the months of pilgrimage season while the lowest frequency was found in December (6.9%). Also PMR was found to be higher among females (57%) compared to males (43%). According to International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10); diseases of the circulatory system were found to be the commonest underlying cause of death in the studied year. It represented 35.5% of all deaths followed by neoplasms (11.2%) while the lowest cause reported was mental and behavioral disorders (0.1%). In conclusion, combination of the previous indicators and comparing the results with other hospitals in different countries indicates good quality of medical care in the studied hospital.     

A unilateral presentation of 'Satoyoshi syndrome'

Satoyoshi syndrome is a rare, slowly progressive disorder of unknown etiology with a poor long-term prognosis. The syndrome consists of the following clinical features: (1) painful, intermittent muscle spasms; (2) alopecia; (3) diarrhea; and (4) skeletal abnormalities in cases of juvenile onset. The age of onset is typically less than 20 years of age, although three adult onset cases had been reported. There had been no case report of Satoyoshi syndrome with strict unilateral presentation. We present a 25-year-old man with progressive unilateral hair loss and muscle spasms. Although previous literature had postulated malabsorption and autoimmune mechanism as pathogenic for Satoyoshi syndrome, the presence of a strictly unilateral presentation argues against those hypotheses. However, these hypotheses should still be considered, as our patient did not fit a typical Satoyoshi syndrome. Therefore, more research is needed to understand the pathophysiology and develop an effective treatment to prevent the progression of the disease.     

Diagnosis of saphenous coronary graft aneurysm by spiral computed tomography

We report two cases of coronary saphenous vein graft aneurysms diagnosed by spiral computed tomography.     

Investigation of the spread of human visceral leishmaniasis in central Tunisia

The epidemiology, clinical patterns, and spatial spread of Mediterranean visceral leishmaniasis were retrospectively studied in central Tunisia. The clinical profile of the disease was typical of the Mediterranean infantile form. Malnutrition and associated infectious diseases were observed in 62.5% and 55% of cases, respectively. The case-fatality rate was 6.2% and resistance to meglumine antimonate was observed in 1.6% of patients. The annual incidence of cases increased from approximately 10 cases per year before 1991 to approximately 50 cases per year between 1992 and 1994. The cumulative incidence was 133.7/100,000 among children aged < 15 years. This increase was preceded by 3 years of high mean annual rainfall in the region. The spatial distribution of the incidence of the infection through time showed an aggregation of cases in the northern part of the area where intensive agriculture projects took place during the last 10 years, leading to the establishment of a stable Leishmania infantum transmission cycle below the Atlas mountain chains, and an evident tendency to a progressive extension to the south.     

Enterococcus faecalis: a multicenter study on antibiotic resistance]

676 E. faecalis strains were listed over a period of 2 years from the Charles Nicolle hospital of Tunis (167 strains), the Habib Bourguiba hospital of Sfax (350 strains) and the National Centre of Bone marrow Transplantation of Tunis (159 strains). Antibiotic sensibility study was realized by the method of the antibiogram, E-test method and the search of penicillinase by cefinase. E. faecalis resulted essentially from services of onco-haematology (24%), external consultations (23%), surgery (18%) and medicine (15%). These strains were isolated especially from urines (54%), coprocultures (15%), bloodcultures (11%) and from pus (9%). Resistance acquired with these strains is raised for erythromycin, tetracyclin and chloramphenicol (81% to 86%), followed by high level resistance to gentamicine (37%). 0.1% of E. faecalis strains have a low level resistance to amoxicillin without production of penicillinase. No resistance to vancomycin was observed.