May | 2026 | Global Treatment Services Pvt. Ltd.

Rhinosporidiosis

May 25, 2026 Posted by admin Otorhinolaryngologist. 0 comments

OVERVIEW

Rhinosporidiosis is a rare, chronic granulomatous infectious disease that primarily affects the mucosal membranes of the nose and nasopharynx. It is caused by Rhinosporidium seeberi, an aquatic eukaryote classified under the group Mesomycetozoea, which sits on the biological boundary between animals and fungi. Over 90% of cases are concentrated in the Indian subcontinent (predominantly Southern India and Sri Lanka), though it can occur sporadically worldwide. The infection typically arises from direct contact with stagnant freshwater sources, leading to the development of highly vascularized, fragile, “strawberry-like” growths. The definitive treatment is total wide surgical excision of the mass. This is frequently performed via a rigid nasal endoscope or laser-assisted approaches.

Symptoms

Nasal (common): Polypoid masses appear in the nose, and which lead to nasal obstruction, bleeding (epistaxis), and foul-smelling discharge
Ocular: Conjunctival polyps cause itching, watering eyes (epiphora), and redness.
Rare Sites: It mainly affects the throat, skin, or genitalia.

Epidemiology and Risk Factors

Primary Habitats: Highly endemic to tropical and subtropical areas of India and Sri Lanka. Central India (such as Chhattisgarh) also reports notable clusters.
Water Exposure: Frequently linked to bathing, swimming, or working in stagnant fresh water, such as ponds, reservoirs, rivers, and paddy fields.
Occupational Risks: Paddy field workers, agricultural laborers, and river-sand harvesters are at the highest risk.
Transmission: Non-contagious between humans. It infects individuals via transepithelial inoculation through broken or traumatized skin/mucosa exposed to contaminated water or soil dust. It can also infect livestock like cattle and horses.

Clinical Features and Affected Sites

The infection triggers the slow growth of painless, soft, and polypoid masses. Due to extreme vascularity, these polyps are friable and break or bleed easily upon touch.

Nasal and Nasopharyngeal (70–75% of cases): Causes nasal obstruction, nasal discharge, local irritation, and recurrent nosebleeds (epistaxis).
Ocular (15% of cases): Known as oculosporidiosis. It usually surfaces on the conjunctiva or inside the lacrimal sac, manifesting as flat or hanging growths.
Rare Sites: Can spread to or originate in the lips, palate, pharynx, larynx, trachea, genitalia, and rectum.
Systemic Dissemination: Extremely rare; can travel through blood to limbs, organs, or the brain, where it becomes life-threatening.

Diagnosis

Rhinosporidium seeberi cannot be cultured in standard artificial lab media, meaning standard microbiology cultures will not work.

Clinical Clue: A characteristic “strawberry” or “raspberry” presentation, where the reddish fleshy mass is studded with tiny white spots (which are mature sporangia visible to the naked eye).
Histopathology (Gold Standard): A definitive diagnosis relies on biopsy and structural analysis. Microscopic evaluation of excised tissue via Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining shows thick-walled, spherical structures called sporangia (up to 300 microns) packed with thousands of tiny endospores at various stages of maturity.

Treatment and Management

Surgical Excision: The definitive treatment is total wide surgical excision of the mass. This is frequently performed via a rigid nasal endoscope or laser-assisted approaches.
Base Electrocautery: It is mandatory to deeply cauterize (diathermy) the mucosal base where the polyp was attached. This destroys remaining endospores and halts local bleeding.
Medical Adjuvant: No exclusive medical cure exists. However, oral Dapsone is routinely prescribed post-surgery for several months. It interferes with spore maturation and substantially lowers the likelihood of a relapse.
Recurrence Warning: Rhinosporidiosis is notorious for its high local recurrence rate if even a few micro-spores spill during extraction. Long-term clinical follow-up is highly advised.

Above article is for information purpose only

If you’d like, we can help you:

Find a specialist abroad.
Surgical options
Prepare for your first consultation online and quick treatment plans

please feel free to email us on query@gtsmeditour.com

Capgras syndrome

May 24, 2026 Posted by admin geriatric psychiatrist, neuropsychiatrist 0 comments

Overview

Capgras syndrome or Capgras delusion is a rare psychological condition where an individual firmly believes that a close friend, family member, or even a pet has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter. You may also hear it called imposter syndrome It is considered a type of delusional misidentification syndrome. There is no cure for Capgras syndrome. it focuses entirely on managing therapy and underlying neurological or psychiatric cause, reducing anxiety, and ensuring the safety of both the patient and the perceived impostor.

Symptoms

Impostor delusion: Believing a known person is a replica or fraud.
Anxiety and paranoia: Feeling unsafe due to “strangers” in the house.
Aggression: Occasional hostility directed toward the perceived impostor.
Object replication: Believing a home or physical object is a duplicate in rare cases.
Hyper-Fixation on “Exposing” the Impostor: Spending hours days or weeks looking for physical flaws, scars, or behavioral anomalies to prove the person is a fake.

Causes

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Physical trauma from accidents can destroy the connection between the temporal cortex and the limbic system.
Strokes and Cerebrovascular Accidents: A loss of blood flow or bleeding (hemorrhage) in the brain can destroy the neural pathways needed to process familiar faces.
Brain Tumors: Growth of a tumor, specifically in the frontal or temporal lobes, presses against vital recognition networks.
Epilepsy: Seizures originating in the temporal or occipital lobes can temporarily disrupt or permanently alter how a person perceives reality.
Neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s disease, advanced Parkinson’s disease, dementia or Lewy body dementia are potential causes of it.

Diagnosis And Tests

MRI or CT Scans: These scans search for structural changes, structural damage, strokes, or tumors, particularly in the brain’s right hemisphere or frontal lobes.
EEG (Electroencephalogram): This test tracks electrical activity to rule out seizure disorders, such as temporal lobe epilepsy, which can alter perception.
PET or SPECT Scans: These functional imaging tests track blood flow and glucose metabolism to identify early patterns of neurodegenerative diseases like Lewy body dementia.
Delusion Assessment: The specialist evaluates whether the belief is fixed, how long it has lasted, and if it is part of a broader psychiatric condition like schizophrenia.
Differential Diagnosis: Doctors must rule out similar conditions, such as Fregoli syndrome (believing strangers are actually loved ones in disguise) or Prosopagnosia (the physical inability to recognize faces at all).
Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Screening: An untreated UTI in elderly patients can cause sudden, severe delirium and acute delusional episodes.
Vitamin B12 and Thyroid Panels: Severe deficiencies or thyroid dysfunctions can cause cognitive decline and paranoia.

Treatment

There is no standalone cure for Capgras syndrome. it focuses entirely on managing therapy and underlying neurological or psychiatric cause, reducing anxiety, and ensuring the safety of both the patient and the perceived impostor.

Antipsychotic Medications: If the syndrome is caused by schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or severe paranoia, low-dose atypical antipsychotics are used these help reduce the intensity and frequency of the delusional thoughts.
Dementia Medications (Cholinesterase Inhibitors): If the cause is Alzheimer’s disease or Lewy body dementia, drugs like donepezil, rivastigmine, or galantamine are used. These boost neurotransmitters in the brain, improving memory, sound judgment, and overall cognitive processing.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): For patients who still have strong insight and cognitive function (such as those with stable schizophrenia), CBT can help them identify delusional thought patterns and develop coping mechanisms so that they can de-escalate their own fear.
Step Away and Re-enter: If an acute episode occurs, the “impostor” should calmly leave the room, wait a few minutes, and re-enter. The temporary break can sometimes reset the patient’s immediate perception.
Remove Environmental Mirrors: Seeing their own reflection can sometimes trigger a delusion that they themselves have been replaced. Covering or removing large mirrors can reduce panic.

The Above article is for information purpose only, if you have any such symptom’s we would advise you to visit to your nearest healthcare provider and take the treatment or you can share the reports with us via query@gtsmeditour.com and get the medical opinion from our best available doctors from major hospitals abroad.

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)

May 17, 2026 Posted by admin Gynaecology 0 comments

Overview

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is an infection that occurs in your uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries. It causes lower abdominal pain, abnormal discharge, and fever, and requires immediate antibiotics to prevent infertility and chronic pain.

It most often happens when sexually transmitted germs spread from the vagina to the uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries.

The symptoms of pelvic inflammatory disease may be mild. Some people have no symptoms. If you don’t have symptoms, you might not realize you have pelvic inflammatory disease until you have trouble getting pregnant or you get ongoing, called chronic, pelvic pain.

It most often happens when sexually transmitted germs spread from the vagina to the uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries.

If not treated, PID can cause scar tissue and pockets of infected fluid, called abscesses, in the reproductive tract. These can cause long-term damage.

Symptoms

Symptoms might be mild or unnoticeable. But symptoms of PID can also start suddenly. They can include:

Fever, sometimes with chills.
Urinating often. It may cause a burning feeling.
Pain or tenderness in your stomach or lower abdomen (belly), the most common symptom.
Irregular periods or having spotting or cramping throughout the month.
Nausea and vomiting.
Bleeding from the vagina between periods.
Pain during sex.

Causes

Many types of germs can cause PID. But gonorrhea and chlamydia are the most common. You may get these germs during sex if you don’t use protection, such as a condom.

Other germs also can cause pelvic inflammatory disease. These include bacteria in the vagina that are typical but out of balance. This is called bacterial vaginosis.

Rarely, germs may enter the reproductive tract when a healthcare professional puts in an intrauterine device, also called an IUD, for long-term birth control. Any medical procedure that involves putting instruments into the uterus also can cause PID.

Diagnosis and Tests

healthcare provider can diagnose PID through:

Asking about your medical history, including your general health, sexual activity and symptoms.
A pelvic exam to examine your reproductive organs and feel for tenderness or abscesses (collections of pus).
A vaginal culture to test your vaginal discharge for certain bacteria.

Blood tests.
Urine test to rule out a urinary tract infection, which causes similar pelvic pain.
Ultrasound to get clearer images of your reproductive system.
Testing for STIs.

In some cases, the consultant may recommend:

Endometrial biopsy: Your provider removes a small tissue sample from your uterine lining and tests it for diseases.
Laparoscopy: Your provider makes small incisions in your pelvis, then inserts a lighted instrument to look more closely at your reproductive organs.

Treatment

Your provider will prescribe antibiotics that you take by mouth, typically for 14 days. Make sure to take all your medicine, even if you start feeling better. Often, your symptoms improve before the infection goes away. Your provider may recommend you return a few days after starting the medicine. They can check that treatment is working.

Some people take antibiotics and still have symptoms. If that happens, you may need to go to the hospital to receive antibiotics through an IV. You may also need IV medication if you:

Are pregnant.
Have a severe infection and feel very sick.
Have an abscess (collection of pus) in your fallopian tube or ovary.

You shouldn’t have sex until you finish treatment. When you do have sex again, use condoms every time to prevent infections.

Complications

Pelvic inflammatory disease may cause scar tissue and pockets of infected fluid, called abscesses, in the reproductive tract. These can cause lasting damage to the reproductive organs.

Complications from this damage might include:

Ectopic pregnancy. PID is a major cause of ectopic pregnancy, also called tubal pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy can happen when PID causes scar tissue in one of the tubes that links the uterus to the ovaries, called the fallopian tubes. The scar tissue keeps the fertilized egg from making it through the fallopian tube to the uterus.The fertilized egg then grows in the fallopian tube. Ectopic pregnancies can cause life-threatening bleeding and need emergency medical attention.
Trouble getting pregnant. Damage to your reproductive organs can keep you from getting pregnant, called infertility. The more times you’ve had PID, the greater your risk of infertility. Delaying treatment for PID also greatly raises your risk of infertility.
Ongoing, called chronic, pelvic pain. Pelvic inflammatory disease can cause pelvic pain that might last for months or years. Scarring in the fallopian tubes and other pelvic organs can cause pain during sex and when the body releases an egg, called ovulation.
Tubo-ovarian abscess. PID might cause pus to form in the reproductive tract. This is called an abscess. Most often, abscesses affect the fallopian tubes and ovaries. But they can form in the uterus or in other pelvic organs. An abscess may turn into a life-threatening infection.

If you get prompt diagnosis and treatment for an infection, antibiotics can cure PID. But treatment can’t reverse any damage that already happened to your reproductive organs. Don’t wait to get treated. See your provider right away so you can get the help you need. If you have pelvic inflammatory disease, tell your sexual partner(s). They should receive treatment. Otherwise, you may get PID again when you resume sex.

Alien hand syndrome

May 14, 2026 Posted by admin Neurology 0 comments

Overview

Alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a rare neurological disorder where a limb acts independently, performing complex, purposeful movements without conscious control. Though rare, it can sometimes also affect your legs. The condition results from damage to specific part of the brain that control movement,

This phenomenon can be a terrifying experience. You might feel like you’ve entered a horror movie and someone or something else is controlling this part of your body. Alien hand syndrome can happen with several underlying conditions or trauma, as well as after some types of brain surgery. There is no known cure available for alien hand syndrome. A Healthcare provider may recommend physical therapy, occupational therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy to manage and improve your physical and mental health.

Symptoms

Involuntary Grasping and Groping: The hand compulsively grabs nearby objects or gropes parts of the body.
Inability to Release Objects: Once the alien hand clutches an object, the patient often cannot consciously force it to let go, sometimes requiring the functional hand to pry the fingers open.
Intermanual Conflict: The affected hand actively opposes the actions of the healthy hand. For example, if the functional hand buttons a shirt or opens a drawer, the alien hand may immediately unbutton the shirt or close the drawer.
Compulsive Task Execution: The hand may independently perform complex, habitual tasks like picking up a tool, manipulating eating utensils, or tearing the clothes the patient is wearing
Self-Harm Behaviors (Rare): In extreme cases the hand may slap, scratch, or even attempt to choke the patient.

Causes

The symptoms of alien hand syndrome vary but could include the following

Corpus callosum: The middle of your brain between the right and left hemispheres.
Parietal region: The top, back part of your brain, under the crown of your skull.
Frontal region: The part of your brain behind your forehead.

Risk Factors

Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS): This atypical Parkinsonian variant carries the highest risk
Ischemic or Hemorrhagic Stroke: Stroke is the most common cause of sudden-onset AHS. Infarctions specifically involving the anterior cerebral artery or the corpus callosum carry the highest probability.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): Roughly 4% of individuals with this rapid neurodegenerative disease experience AHS.
Refractory Epilepsy Surgery: Patients who undergo a corpus callosotomy—a surgical procedure that splits the brain hemispheres to control severe seizures—are at significant risk due to the disruption of interhemispheric communication.

Diagnosis

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): The primary tool used to detect structural injuries, such as recent strokes, tumors, or localized tissue shrinkage.
Psychiatric Disorders: Conditions like schizophrenia or dissociative disorders where patients report a loss of agency over their body, though AHS has entirely structural—not psychiatric—roots.
Hemispatial Neglect: A stroke complication where a patient entirely ignores one side of their environment or body, distinct from the active, autonomous movements of AHS

Tests

There isn’t a specific test to diagnose alien hand syndrome. A healthcare provider will review your symptoms and observe your movements during a physical exam. Let them know if you had brain surgery or a head injury.

Several medical conditions can cause involuntary movements. Tests can rule out conditions with similar symptoms. Your provider may order an imaging test like an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to look for lesions in your brain.

Management and Treatment

A healthcare provider may offer treatment options to manage any underlying conditions or reduce symptoms of alien hand syndrome, like:

Medications. A provider may treat involuntary movements with antiseizure medications or neuromuscular blocking agents. Other medications may be an option depending on what symptoms you experience.
Botulinum toxin injections. Botulinum toxin can temporarily prevent muscle movement in an area of your body. This can help with involuntary movements, but repeat treatment is necessary after several months.
Mirror box therapy. A mirror can create an illusion to convince your brain to believe that one of your limbs moved voluntarily and is within your control.
Distractions. If your affected hand grasps objects often, you can place a ball or soft object within reach to distract it. You can also place this hand in a pocket to prevent any unanticipated actions.
Therapies. A provider may recommend physical therapy, occupational therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy to improve your physical and mental health.

This article is for information purpose only, further if you have any such related reports you can connect us via email – query@gtsmeditour.com and share across the latest reports to get complimentary opinion from our Doctors from major hospitals like Apollo hospitals, Manipal Hospitals etc..