Unilateral right pulmonary artery agenesis and congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of the right lung with Ortner's syndrome.

We report a 2.5-year-old girl who presented with hoarseness of voice since 3 months of age and failure to thrive. Chest X-ray showed cardiomegaly with a deviation of the trachea and mediastinum to the right side. Two-dimensional echocardiography showed decreased flow across the right pulmonary artery, a small atrial septal defect (ASD) with a right-to-left shunt, and a dilated right atrium and right ventricle with severe tricuspid regurgitation suggestive of severe pulmonary hypertension. A silent large patent ductus arteriosus was also seen. Multiple detector computerized tomography aortogram confirmed the findings of absent right pulmonary artery and hypoplastic right lung with small cystic lesions suggestive of congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation in the right lower lobe. Hoarseness of voice was due to the left vocal cord palsy probably secondary to severe pulmonary hypertension (Ortner's syndrome).

Patterns of prescription and drug dispensing.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the patterns of prescriptions and drug dispensing using World Health Organization core drug use indicators and some additional indices. METHODS: Data were collected prospectively by scrutinizing the prescriptions written by pediatric resident doctors and by interviewing parents of 500 outpatient children. RESULTS: The average number of drugs per encounter was 2.9 and 73.4% drugs were prescribed by generic name. Majority of drugs prescribed were in the form of syrups (60.8%). Use of antibiotics (39.6% of encounters) was frequent, but injection use (0.2% of encounters) was very low. A high number of drugs prescribed (90.3%) conformed to a model list of essential drugs and were dispensed (76.9%) by the hospital pharmacy. Certain drugs (5.7%) prescribed as syrups were not dispensed, although they were available in tablet form. Most parents (80.8%) knew the correct dosages, but only 18.5% of drugs were adequately labeled. No copy of an essential drugs list was available. The availability of key drugs was 85%. CONCLUSION: Interventions to rectify over prescription of antibiotics and syrup formulations, inadequate labeling of drugs and lack of access to an essential drugs list are necessary to further improve rational drug use in our facility.