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LAHORE, Jan 11: Doctors on Wednesday rolled up their sleeves to treat a peculiar medical condition among more than 30 heart patients admitted to various hospitals of Lahore over the last couple of days.
All of these patients have experienced a sudden drop in platelets and white blood cells, with some vomiting blood, hospitalsources say.
The Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) received calls from various hospitals that cardiac patients earlier treated at the PIC had been brought there in emergency with almost identical symptoms: low platelets and intensive vomiting of blood. Of them two later died one at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the other in a private clinic.
The identity of the dead patient could not be ascertained.
Some 13 patients were shifted to Services Hospital, 11 to Jinnah Hospital, five to Ganga Ram and four patients to Shalimar Hospital, sources told Dawn. This brings the total count to the patients suffering from the 'freak' illness to 35.
PIC Medical Superintendent Dr JaffarSaleem said they had seized all related drugs and record of Drug Testing Laboratory. He did not rule out the possibility that the condition could have been caused by a reaction to some drug.
Dr Saleem said some consultants suspected the patients may be suffering from 'bicytopaenia' which causes a sharp decrease in platelet counts resulting in prolonged bleeding, while others thought it might be a deteriorated or distorted form of dengue diseases. He said a number of PIC doctors also suspected the disease a 'subclinical dengue' or the result of reaction to drugs.
'We have stopped prescribing certain medicines to the patients,' he said.
A committee of PIC senior consultants will also look into the disease. The committee consists of Prof Dr Shahid Hameed (head), Dr Hamid and Pharmacist Dr Rohina, said Dr Saleem.
He said another team of consultants would visit hospitals on Thursday (today) to collect data on the patients.
Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Prof DrJaved Akram said Jinnah Hospital had received 10 such patients.
According to initial medical investigations, he said, they all were suffering from Bicytopaenia, a rare disease. He said all the patients were taking similar drugs from the PIC, including Statins (cholesterol lowering medicine), Atorvastatin (for high cholesterol and triglyceride levels), Aspirin and Nitrates (for increased blood flow to the heart).
It seemed all patients were suffering from Ischemic heart disease.
Some of them had undergone heart bypass surgeries.
A majority of them too have IGG and IGM dengue antibody positive due to the recent exposure to the dengue virus epidemic in Punjab, Dr Javed said.
'This may be due to some forms of drug reaction leading to bone-marrow suppression causing low platelet counts and low white cell counts,' he said.
He emphasised upon an emergent and extensive laboratory work, including bonemarrow examinations of all the admitted patients.
