876 research outputs found

    A retrospective analysis of adverse drug reactions reported at a tertiary care hospital in South India

    Get PDF
    Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) have a major impact on public health. Pharmacovigilance has become an integral part of pharmacotherapy. This study has been undertaken to retrospectively analyze the various adverse drug reactions and to promote the reporting of ADRs among the healthcare providers.Methods: A retrospective analysis of the reported ADRs over a period of 3 years at a tertiary care hospital, in Chennai was done. Data related to the number of adverse drug reactions, the demographic particulars, details on the drugs administered, type of ADRs, serious events and prevention strategies undertaken was analyzed. ADRs were assessed for their causality, severity, and preventability as per the standard criteria.Results: A total of 128 suspected ADRs were found to be reported over a period of 3 years. 81.25% ADRs were found to be of mild severity using the Hartwigs scale of assessment, 71.09% were classified as possible using the NaranjoтАЩs causality assessment, the outcome of 63.28% were found to be recovering from the ADR and 41.40 % were under the probably preventable category. The most common ADRs were the skin reactions. The antimicrobial agents were found to have caused the highest number (58.59%) of ADRs followed by NSAIDs (14.84%) and the antihypertensive drugs (14.06%).Conclusions: The antimicrobial agents were associated with ADRs in majority of the patients. The commonly reported ADR s were the skin reactions

    Dynamics, control, stability, diffusion and synchronization of modified chaotic colpitts oscillator with triangular wave non-linearity

    Get PDF
    The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new chaotic oscillator. Although different chaotic systems have been formulated by earlier researchers, only a few chaotic systems exhibit chaotic behaviour. In this work, a new chaotic system with chaotic attractor is introduced for triangular wave non-linearity. It is worth noting that this striking phenomenon rarely occurs in respect of chaotic systems. The system proposed in this paper has been realized with numerical simulation. The results emanating from the numerical simulation indicate the feasibility of the proposed chaotic system. More over, chaos control, stability, diffusion and synchronization of such a system have been dealt with.Publisher's Versio

    Seasonal hand line fishery for yellowfin tuna at Colachel

    Get PDF
    In Tamil Nadu, the oceanic tunas like skipjack and yellowfin tuna are exploited mainly by multiday drift gill netters. However, in Colachel, Kanyakumari, there is a seasonal fishery targeting yellowfin tuna of medium size weighing around 30 kg, with hand lines that are operated from multiday trawlers. This is an additional income for both the fishermen and the trawl boat owners

    The Effects of Increased Provision of Thoracic Surgical Specialists on the Variation in Lung Cancer Resection Rate in England

    Get PDF
    Introduction:There is a wide variation in the lung cancer resection rate in England. We assessed the effect of the regional provision of thoracic surgery service on the variation in lung cancer resection rate.Methods:A retrospective observational study correlating National Lung Cancer Audit data with thoracic surgery workforce data was performed to review the lung cancer resection rate in England in 2008 and 2009.Results:In 2008, there was a sixfold variation in resection rate, with a higher resection rate in hospitals where surgeons were based (base hospitals) than in peripheral hospitals (20.0% versus 11.6%, p < 0.001). The resection rate was also higher in cancer networks, which were served by two or more specialist thoracic surgeons (14.6% versus 12.7%, p = 0.028), and where surgeons were present in more than two-thirds of the lung cancer multidisciplinary team meetings (14.4% versus 12.0%, p = 0.046). In 2009, the overall resection rate increased from 14.5% to 18.4%. Four units increased their number of specialist thoracic surgeons and had a significantly higher increase in resection rate than units without expansion (relative rise 66.3% versus 19.2%; p = 0.022).Conclusions:The large variation in the resection rate seems, in part, to be related to the local availability of specialist thoracic surgeons. The greatest improvement in the resection rate was in units with expansion of specialist thoracic surgeons. We suggest the expansion of specialist thoracic surgeons will improve the resection rate and thereby the overall survival of lung cancer in England. This has significant implications for the future of training in cardiothoracic surgery and organization of cancer services

    Defective pro-IL-1beta responses in macrophages from aged mice

    Get PDF
    BACKGROUND: Cytokines regulated by the inflammasome pathway have been extensively implicated in various age-related immune pathologies. We set out to elucidate the contribution of the nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway to the previously described deficiencies in IL-1beta production by macrophages from aged mice. We examined the production of pro-IL-1beta and its conversion into IL-1beta as two separate steps and compared these cytokine responses in bone marrow derived macrophages from young (6-8 weeks) and aged (18-24 months) C57BL/6 mice. FINDINGS: Relative to macrophages from young mice, macrophages from aged mice produced less pro-IL-1beta after TLR4 stimulation with LPS. However upon activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome with ATP, macrophages from young and aged mice were able to efficiently convert and secrete intracellular pro-cytokines as functional cytokines. CONCLUSIONS: Lower levels of IL-1beta production are a result of slower and lower overall production of pro-IL-1beta in macrophages from aged mice

    A comparative assessment of the impact of computer assisted learning of knowledge and skill based competencies among undergraduate students in a medical college in South India

    Get PDF
    Background: Pharmacology has always been one subject ultimatum and a cornerstone in building up competency, based on applied therapeutics among medical graduates in prescribing and practicing skills. A focus on an integrated strategical approach towards teaching pharmacology for better proficiency in achieving clinical skills is mandatory. Thus, this study has been done to assess the impact and retainment of overall knowledge gained on various domains, based on a revised method of teaching in pharmacology.Methods: An observational, questionnaire based comparative study was done in a medical college, in Chennai. The study included two group of students, one who have completed their pharmacology course based on the revised pattern of teaching with a comparative group of students who have not been exposed to the revised pattern of teaching. A feedback survey was also done.Results: The study results indicated that the average scoring based on the questionnaire was 84% with the students who have been exposed to revised pattern of teaching in comparison to the average scoring of 70% with the students who have not been exposed to the new pattern of teaching. The average scoring of the students who were found to agree to several questions on the new method of teaching was 74% and 22% of the students were found to disagree. 4% of students were non responders.Conclusions: The ultimate improvement in the outcome of health care education can be achieved through appropriate skill building through a simple strategical modification of the regular teaching pattern with an integrated approach involving pharmacologists and clinicians. A refresher course in pharmacology in the final year curriculum and CRRI involving pharmacologists is mandatory

    The effects of intrinsic noise on the behaviour of bistable cell regulatory systems under quasi-steady state conditions

    Full text link
    We analyse the effect of intrinsic fluctuations on the properties of bistable stochastic systems with time scale separation operating under1 quasi-steady state conditions. We first formulate a stochastic generalisation of the quasi-steady state approximation based on the semi-classical approximation of the partial differential equation for the generating function associated with the Chemical Master Equation. Such approximation proceeds by optimising an action functional whose associated set of Euler-Lagrange (Hamilton) equations provide the most likely fluctuation path. We show that, under appropriate conditions granting time scale separation, the Hamiltonian can be re-scaled so that the set of Hamilton equations splits up into slow and fast variables, whereby the quasi-steady state approximation can be applied. We analyse two particular examples of systems whose mean-field limit has been shown to exhibit bi-stability: an enzyme-catalysed system of two mutually-inhibitory proteins and a gene regulatory circuit with self-activation. Our theory establishes that the number of molecules of the conserved species are order parameters whose variation regulates bistable behaviour in the associated systems beyond the predictions of the mean-field theory. This prediction is fully confirmed by direct numerical simulations using the stochastic simulation algorithm. This result allows us to propose strategies whereby, by varying the number of molecules of the three conserved chemical species, cell properties associated to bistable behaviour (phenotype, cell-cycle status, etc.) can be controlled.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Physic
    • тАж
    corecore