High haemoglobin levels in dengue patients indicate
medical emergency
The deadly dengue scare is getting worst day-by-day. More than
3,791 people tested positive for dengue and 17 people reported dead in the
capital city due to this viral disease. Although high fever for
3 – 4 days and low platelet count are the key signs of dengue, doctors say that
high haemoglobin levels in the body could be a key symptom
of severe dengue infection and if neglected might lead to
medical emergency. It was believed that a dropping platelet count might
increase the risk of mortality in dengue patients. However, in 20% of cases,
the patient shows a stable platelet count even if haemoglobin level increase,
signifying that the person is suffering from severe dehydration and thus need
urgent medical attention.
Haemoglobin count – when to worry?
Haemoglobin
is a blood protein that helps in the transportation of oxygen
in the body. The normal level of haemoglobin per 100 ml of blood is 13 – 16 g
in men and 11-13 g in women. Brig (Dr) Ajay Sharma, professor and head,
department of medicine and clinical hematology at the Army (Research and
Referral) Hospital in an Interview to TOI said that a patient with 10% increase
in average haemoglobin level, even if the platelet count is within normal range
should be rushed to hospital. He further exclaimed that most doctors wait for
the platelet count to fall telling the patients not to worry, which is not
right.
Dr Anoop Misra, chairman, Fortis C-doc Center Of
Excellence for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology quoted that
people suffering from dengue tend to show low fluid intake that in turn lead to
dehydration. And when it becomes severe, the blood tissues dry up and show a
high hematocrit (packed cell volume – pcv) level with increase haemoglobin
levels. In some cases, this cal also lead to ascites – a condition in which
fluid build-up occurs in the abdomen
How can this be treated?
If the blood levels of haemoglobin are high, the first
line of treatment should be intravenous or oral administration of fluids to
prevent further dehydration. In some cases, the patient might feel better
although the temperature is within control and the platelet count might be low.
But this is not a critical sign unless there is no active bleeding, says Brig
(Dr) Sharma.
Source: www.thehealthsite.com
24.09.2015
Kids that read mind also choose
their teachers carefully!
Even young children can be selective in choosing from whom
to learn and those with a good understanding of others’ thoughts are more
selective, suggests new research. These children who can gauge what is going on
in other people’s head are also likely to select the ‘accurate’ person to learn
from, the findings showed. ‘We already know that some preschoolers are more
likely to learn from individuals with a history of making accurate claims over
individuals who have been inaccurate or ignorant,’ said the study’s senior
author Diane Poulin-Dubois, professor at Concordia University in Canada.
‘Kids have also been shown to prefer learning from nicer,
more confident or more attractive individuals — attributes that do not have
anything to do with intelligence. We speculated that certain social-cognitive
abilities might explain some of these learning differences,’ she said. To test
the hypothesis, the researchers took 65 children through a series of tasks that
tested their ability to learn new words, as well as their ‘theory of mind’
(ToM) — that is, the intuitive understanding of one’s own and other people’s
minds or mental states.
The researchers tested whether the preschool-aged
participants were more likely to learn new words from an accurate (with more
verbal accuracy) or inaccurate individual. They also examined whether the
children were more likely to learn from a physically strong individual over a
weak one. The researcher found that children who could better understand other
people’s mental states were more likely to believe the individuals with the
greatest verbal accuracy, rather than those who had demonstrated the greatest
strength. The study was published in the British Journal of
Developmental Psychology.
Source: www.thehealthsite.com
24.09.2015
Change is
innovative and perhaps inevitable, but too much change is not good
Walterrean Salley
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