Ashwini Manish Jantikar

Abstract

Background: Scrub typhus is an infectious disease spreads by a bacterium called Orientiatsutsugamushi. The WHO has dubbed scrub typhus one of the world’s most under-diagnosed/underreported diseases. It’s so also in Rajasthan (India). Since antigen detection tests have low sensitivity/specificity and require biopsy specimens, in the clinical setting, serological assays are the mainstay of diagnosis.  Objectives: To study various biochemical parameters in Scrub typhus positive patients and to compare of the same with the control group (negative suspects) to elicit some specific diagnostic parameters through data mining. Materials and Methods: This retrospective observational cohort study included Fever of unknown origin (FUO) cases classified into patients with (group 1; n = 35) or without (group 2; n= 65) scrub typhus. Various biochemical parameters were correlated and compared through data mining and analyzed on Apache Hive. We used Welch test to estimate normality of data, Fligner Killeen test to estimate the homogeneity of variance and Mann Whitney U test for comparing the two data sets. Results: Both the groups were comparable with respect to age and sex. Platelet count, SGOT, SGPT and random blood sugar were significantly different in both the groups. (p0.05) Conclusions: Thrombocytopenia and deranged SGOT-SGPT were found to be prime clinico-pathological indicator of the scrub typhus. Keywords: Scrub typhus, Data mining, Acute undifferentiated fever, Thrombocytopenia.

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Abstract

Background: Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) enzyme is required for the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Any alteration in TPO results in a deranged thyroid profile. Antibodies against TPO serve as useful markers for the detection of auto-immune thyroid diseases. Thus, present study was conducted to analyse the relation of anti-TPO antibodies with thyroid dysfunction. Materials and Methods: After obtaining an ethical approval, this cross-sectional study was carried out for a period of 2 years. Adult patients (18 years old) presenting with symptoms related to thyroid dysfunction and referred for analysis of T3, T4, TSH and anti-TPO antibodies were included in the study. Over night fasting blood samples were collected, labelled and stored. Anti-TPO antibody test for human IgG was done using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS (version 26.0). Chi square test was used to compare the data and p-value statistically significant. Results: Total 100 patients were analyzed. Maximum 32 patients were found in 21-30 year age group. Mean age for females was 33.7 1.20 years. Male: female ratio was 1: 2.12. Hypothyroid was noted in maximum 73 patients with 49 females and 24 males. Positive anti-TPO antibody patients were 44 out of which 33 were females. Almost 35 out of 44 patients were anti-TPO antibody positive and hypothyroid with majority 27 females. Maximum12 out of 27 hypothyroid and anti-TPO antibody positive females belonged to 21-30 year age group. Conclusion: Anti-TPO antibodies were found to be associated with hypothyroid dysfunction. It was noted more among females of reproductive age group. Keywords: Anti-TPO antibodies, Females, Hypothyroid, Thyroid peroxidase enzyme.

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