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Introduction: Over past few decade morbidities and mortalities associated with NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases) leads to a significant loss of productive life years both in developed and developing countries. Therefore, the present study was done to determine the prevalence of common risk factors for major NCDs in a rural population of Barabanki district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in Satrikh block of Barabanki district. Multistage sampling was used for enrolment of the study subjects. A totalof 1824 participants aged ≥25 years were enrolled in the study. WHO STEPs- wise tool was used to collect information on behavioural risk factors like tobacco use, diet, alcohol useand associated anthropometric indices were measured. Results: Prevalence of tobacco smoking, smokeless tobacco products use, alcohol consumption, less than five servings of fruits/vegetables, more than five grams of salt intake and overweight/obesity was found to be 26.2%, 27.08%, 24.1%, 91.61%, 10.9% and 34.86% respectively. Individuals with age more than 35 years, male subjects, illiterates and those who belonged to scheduled castes/tribes were significantly (p<0.05) more predisposed to both smoked tobacco as well as smokeless tobacco use and alcohol consumption.Consumption of alcohol was significantly (p<0.05) higher among employed groups who belonged to upper and upper middle class while tobacco consumption was more prevalent in lower socioeconomic group. Consumption of salt more than 5 grams per day was significantly higher among individuals in elder age group (35-65 days), among females, those who were literate, those who belonged to other backward castes and among government employees. Conclusion: The study revealed high prevalence of non-communicable disease risk factors among adults. This indicates towards need of prompt community based preventive measures and control strategies to lower the forthcoming consequences of NCDs.
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Although many agents have therapeutic potentials for Central Nervous System (CNS) diseases, few of these agents have been clinically used because of the brain barriers. Physiological barriers like the blood-brain barrier and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier as well as various efflux transporter proteins make the entry of drugs into the central nervous system very difficult. Different strategies for efficient CNS delivery have been studied. This review presents the current approaches to facilitate penetration across these barriers for enhanced drug delivery to the CNS.
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Background: Drug prescription in menopause is complex as estrogen deficiency, hypertension (HT) and other risk factors, rapidly increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in post-menopausal women (PMW). Objectives: To evaluate the prescription trends of anti-hypertensive drugs in PMW. Methods: This was an observational, cross sectional study conducted over a period of 1 year, on hypertensive PMW. The prescriptions were evaluated for antihypertensive drug use patterns and also as per WHO core drug indicators. Results: 21.82% of prescriptions had monotherapy, amongst which angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) (10%) and individually, telmisartan (5.45%) were most commonly prescribed. Majority of prescriptions had two drug therapy (44.09%), among which ARB + beta-blockers (BB) (20.91%) and individually, Telmisartan + Metoprolol (13.64%) were most frequently prescribed. ARB + Diuretic (DI) (9.55%) was the most common fixed drug combination (FDC) prescribed. ARB + BB + DI (10.45%), ARB + 2DI + BB (4.09%) and ARB + 2DI + BB + Calcium channel blocker (1.82%) were most commonly prescribed three, four and ≥five drug combinations, respectively. Hypolipidemic drugs (60.45%) were maximally co-prescribed. Percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 4.63% and from essential drug list was 32.62%. Conclusions: A high trend of polypharmacy was observed in hypertensive PMW. HT, being a multifactorial disease, deserves a multidisciplinary and a comprehensive approach in the care of this population subgroup. Knowledge of prescription pattern and thus the rational utilisation of drugs will help achieve better control rates of HT and hence curb down the burden of CVDs in PMW.
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Importance of normal microbial flora in human bodies to maintain optimal health cannot be under estimated. Probiotics or live microorganisms confer health benefit in various diseases. Thus potential of probiotics to maintain health and prevent many disorders without significant adverse effects has opened new options for treating various diseases.
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Background: Ovary is one of the common sites of neoplasm in females. They manifest in wide spectrum of clinical, morphological and histological features. Ovary is the second most common site of primary malignancy in female genital tract. Objectives: To study the frequency of different histological types of ovarian tumors and to analyze age distribution of these tumors. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of all cases of ovarian tumors received at Pathology Department of Agartala Government Medical College during the period of 5 years from January 2012 to December 2016. Results: A total number of 242 cases were studied. Among these 189 cases (78.1%) were benign, 12 cases (4.96%) were borderline and 41 cases (16.94%) were malignant. Benign neoplasms were most commonly seen between 3rd and 5th decade of age whereas malignant neoplasms after 4th decade. Serous cystadenoma was the commonest benign tumor followed by mucinous cystadenoma and mature cystic teratoma. Among the malignant surface epithelial tumors, mucinous cystadenocarcinoma was most common, followed by serous cystadenocarcinoma. Conclusion: Benign ovarian neoplasms outnumber the malignant ones in all age groups. Surface epithelial tumors are the most common class of tumors and mucinous cystadenocarcinoma is the commonest malignant neoplasm.
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Background: The use of drugs and occurrence of its ADRs go hand in hand. Spontaneous reporting of ADRs is an effective method and needs to be encouraged. Objective: The study was planned to know the perception of interns towards pharmacovigilance and to make them aware of the importance of ADR reporting. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional observational questionnaire based study conducted on 100 interns to gather information about the knowledge of Pharmacovigilance, attitude towards reporting and factors in practice which could act as a deterrent to the reporting of ADRs. Results: Out of the 100 interns, 90 responded. 50 % participants knew the purpose of PV. 67% agreed that it should be mandatory. 59% and 67% said that medical students and nurses have a role to play in PV. Half of the interns had seen an ADR, only 42% knew how and where to report. Very few (9%) were aware of what happens to the information submitted by them. Conclusion: There is a huge gap between knowledge of ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance and the practical reporting of ADRs. Our health care providers need to be well equipped to detect, manage, report ADRs. For this, educational intervention, regular training programmes are the need of the hour to create awareness and take care of the factors responsible for under reporting. Pharmacovigilance programme needs to be strengthened by increasing the rate of ADR reporting by active participation of health care providers.
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Rheumatoid arthritis is a debilitating disease that has significant impact on quality of life. Biological and non biological DMARDs improved the outcome in RA patients. New agents are still required in inadequate responders or intolerant patients. FDA has recently approved a new drug Sarilumab, a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of moderate to severe form of RA which acts by binding to Interleukin receptor 6 and interrupts the resultant cytokine-mediated inflammatory signaling.
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Background: The prevalence of depression and anxiety in diabetes is considerably higher than normal population and found to have a negative impact on diabetes. Objective: The present study aimed at assessing the prevalence of anxiety and depression among outpatients receiving treatment for diabetes. Materials and Methods: Ours was a cross-sectional study where data was collected from 100 consecutive patients receiving treatment from the outpatient department of a teaching hospital for diabetes mellitus. The socio-demographic details were collected with the help of a self-structured questionnaire. Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (H.D.R.S.) and Amritsar Depressive Inventory (A.D.I.) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (H.A.R.S.) were used to assess the presence and severity of depression and anxiety. The details regarding the diabetes included the duration of the condition, family history of diabetes, if any, and Body Mass Index (BMI). Results: The study sample consisted of 34 male and 66 female patients and their average age was 54.2 years. Most of the patients had mild depression, as indicated by an A.D.I. score of 8 to 13. Significant anxiety symptoms were seen in 30% of the patients. Most of the patients were having mild to moderate anxiety. Depression and anxiety was more prevalent in Type 2 diabetic patients in comparison to Type 1 diabetic patients. Conclusion: The comorbidity of depression, anxiety and diabetes mellitus is frequent. Depression and anxiety are more commonly associated with Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus. These findings underscore the need to screen all diabetic patients for the presence of psychiatric disorders.
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The World Health Organisation estimates that one-third of the world's population are currently infected with Tuberculosis bacillus, 10% of whom will develop the disease at some point in their lifetime. Poverty-Stricken countries of Africa and Asia bear the brunt of the disease partly due to an ominous synergy between mycobacterium bacteria and HIV. The recent recognition of MDR-TB and strains with more complex resistance patterns has stimulated the development of new TB medications including fluoroquinolones, oxazolidinones, diarylquinolines, nitroimidazopyrans. Delamanid, a newer mycobacterial cell wall synthesis inhibitor, received a conditional approval from European medicines agency (EMA) for the treatment of MDR‑TB. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown that delamanid has high potency, least risk for drug‑drug interactions and better tolerability. The purpoe of this article is to bring forward, the various roles played by Delamanid in order to curb the problem of Multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis
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Designing of drugs and their development are a time and resource consuming process. There is an increasing effort to introduce the role of computational approach to chemical and biological space in order to organise the design and development of drugs and their optimisation. The role of Computer Aided Drug Designing (CADD) are nowadays expressed in Nanotechnology, Molecular biology, Biochemistry etc. It is a diverse discipline where various forms of applied and basic researches are interlinked with each other. Computer aided or in Silico drug designing is required to detect hits and leads. Optimise/ alter the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity profile and prevent safety issues. Some commonly used computational approaches include ligand-based drug design, structure-based drug design, and quantitative structure-activity and quantitative structure-property relationships. In today's world, due to an avid interest of regulatory agencies and, even pharmaceutical companies in advancing drug discovery and development process by computational means, it is expected that its power will grow as technology continues to evolve. The main purpose of this review article is to give a brief glimpse about the role Computer Aided Drug Design has played in modern medical science and the scope it carries in the near future, in the service of designing newer drugs along with lesser expenditure of time and money
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Penicillium marneffei is a dimorphic fungus causing infection mainly in immunocompromised individuals, especially those with HIV infection. Penicillium marneffei is an important opportunistic pathogen of HIV infection in South East Asia including Manipur. Common clinical manifestations are fever, cough, weight loss, generalised lymphadenopathy, and papulonodular eruptions. We report an unusual case of HIV patient with Penicillium marneffei infection presenting as hoarseness