Mushrooms and poisoning

The mushrooms are probably one of the oldest consumption of mankind having mythological and spiritual significance apart from being a great delicacy. Its poisoning is a common yet poorly recognised. There are more than 2000 varieties which are edible, and nearly 80 varieties are non-edible (or poisonous) type. Not only they resemble some of the edible types, they even grow long with them. Most of the toxic events go unnoticed, yet, sometimes it may be life threatening as some mushrooms are one of the most toxic fungi known to manking. Awareness is pobably the only prevention.

Concurrent dengue and malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax

Concurrent infections of dengue and malaria are rare. We report a case of dengue fever with acute malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax in which the presence of mixed infection with P. vivax was overlooked and confirmed later on during recurrence of the fever that had initially responded to conventional antimalarial treatment and symptomatic treatment for dengue fever. We suggest that in concurrent infections of dengue and malaria, possibility of mixed infection with various Plasmodium species should be excluded to ensure a better treatment outcome.

The clinical spectrum of neurocysticercosis in the Uttaranchal region

OBJECTIVES

To study the clinical and radiological spectrum of neurocysticercosis in the Uttaranchal region.

METHODS

A total of 592 patients of neurocysticercosis attending various health camps, medical outdoor and indoor department were studied for their clinical and radiological presentation.

RESULTS

Out of the total 15,000 patients screened, 592 patients (3.94%) were found to be suffering from neurocysticercosis. Majority of them were in the age group of 21-30 years. Most of them presented with generalized seizures (62.5%), others had headache (37.5%), focal seizures (20.8%), localizing neurological signs (16.6%), meningitis (4.1%), and dementia (1.3%). Radiologically, parenchymal lesions were most prevalent (81%). However, interventricular lesions were also not very uncommon (32%). Most of them had single lesions (53.5%), 26.7% had multiple lesions and 0.7% had midline shift. Significantly, large number of patients were vegetarians (39%); only 17.6% were pork eaters while the remaining 82.4% never had pork in their meals.

CONCLUSION

We believe that such high percentage is at least a rough indicator of high incidence and prevalence of neurocysticercosis in the Uttaranchal region. They had wide range of clinical and radiological presentation. Small number of pork eaters and a significant number of vegetarians suggest other modes of transmission and needs further evaluation.